The game gets more players, its token provided great returns for the early investors, and the anticipated airdrop will reward the players. Let's deal with all of that.

Grand Combat game has attracted more than 5 million registered users, while the price of its $GRAND token is much higher than it was at the launch, and the anticipated airdrop keeps the hype up. What all the fuss is about?

The game

Let's start with the game. It is played inside the Telegram messenger. If it's already installed on your phone, you don't need to install anything — just open the web-based app in the messenger. There's also a Telegram channel with the news.

The protagonist of the game is a founder of a crypto startup. After choosing the character (male or female), you get to the main screen. The first thing you can do is just tap on the screen. Each tap earns you one point.

Tapping feels like fun. But after a couple of minutes you might wonder, is that all there is? No, it's not. The points you earn can be invested in the cards that show different step in the startup life, such as "Hire staff" or "AI integration". After you buy those, you start to get "passive income": points start to appear by themselves over time. And the more you invest into the cards, the bigger the passive income becomes.

Another way of getting more points is by completing tasks such as "invite friends to the game" (it's easy to do that in Telegram). Some of those tasks are created in partnerships, like providing an address from Trust Wallet. That means that a person playing this crypto-related game can actually learn more about using crypto in the process.

There's also a leaderboard and things like that. Okay, but is there anything else that's very important?

The token and the airdrop

Yes, there is. There will be airdrops of the $GRAND token on TON blockchain. And the amount that a player can receive depends on the size of the "passive income". The points you earn in the game are worth nothing by themselves, but they will determine later who gets more of the real token. 

So that means you're not just recklessly playing — you are raising your chances to get more money. Tapping feels fun by itself, but here you can be rewarded for it. And it turns out that such mechanics make people tap a lot. Grand Combat is not the first Telegram game to use them, and they lead to great results with millions of users. There were previous Telegram-based projects like Notcoin and Hamster Kombat that also rely on the airdrops as a reward for playing.

But here's the thing that Grand Combat did differently. Unlike Notcoin and Hamster Kombat, it didn't wait for the airdrop to release the token. The first airdrop will happen in November, but the token is already available for anyone willing to invest. It rose significantly during the first week, so the early investors could already make a lot of money.

Since Telegram and TON blockchain are integrated, it's natural for Telegram-based projects to create their tokens on the TON blockchain. It's exactly what happened here. TON blockchain is not the most popular one for now, but it boasts things lile high transaction throughput and low fees, which means it's technically suitable for the mass audience.

As you might know, Telegram founder Pavel Durov was recently arrested in France, which lead to a drop in price for tokens on TON, including $GRAND. It caused a drop in price of Toncoin and the TON-based tokens (including $GRAND). But while some people thought that could be the end of TON, that event didn't lead to some irreversible crash. TON and Telegram continue to function as usual. Most people expect Durov to be released soon and not serve a prison term. And that whole hype lead to rise in Telegram downloads, making it even more popular than before. So the initial panic went away. Does it mean it's a good time to "buy low"? We're not giving financial advice, so that's up for you to decide (DYOR is a good idea, as usual).

How to get such a token if you've never used TON before? You need to get a wallet capable of holding Toncoins, to get some Toncoins, and then swap them for the token you'd like to get. The most popular wallet is Tonkeeper, and you can swap Toncoins for $GRAND on STON.fi DEX. Even more than that: once you have both Toncoins and $GRAND, you can provide liquidity for TON/GRAND pair on STON.fi DEX. There's currently a farming initiative going on with that pair, so you can get more yield than usual. 

So, good luck with both playing the game and with the token if you'll choose to invest in it.

Disclaimer: This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.