Published on: 10/12/2021

ZED RUN: Digital Horse Racing Platform

Zed Run, a digital horse racing platform, is one of the bigger NFT games out there. It’s based on a relatively simple concept – racing ponies! Users buy racehorses in the form of NFTs and then race and/or breed them for a profit. The NFTs in the form of horses have a variety of different stats – those are what make them unique and valuable.

The game requires the use of MetaMask as a wallet, where the horse NFTs are stored. To play, you need to connect your wallet with the website, so that you can use all the functionality there. Alternatively, you can also create a dedicated Zed Run wallet. That’s a different type of wallet on the Polygon network, where gas fees aren’t as much of an issue and transactions happen much quicker.

Horse NFTs

As an NFT game, Zed Run is heavily focused on, well, racehorses. These horses have different stats that affect how they act in-game. These stats are Genotype, Bloodline, Gender, Coat Colour, as well as the actual racing statistics.

There are for example four bloodlines with different qualities that affect a newly bred horses stats. It’s the most deciding factor when it comes to determining both stats and breeding price – but not the only one Genotype also features. The lower, the better chances the new horse has a strong ability. The value is determined by adding both parents values (for example, 15+30=45).

Other aspects such as coat colour don’t impact stats but do impact rarity and of course player preferences, so that too is a consideration. Ability score, distance preference and fatigue factor are all directly affecting how a horse performs in races – and all the different aspects including coat colour are also differently affected by the two parents, with some being more influenced by the sire, and some more influenced by the mare.

The NFTs, which are the basis of Zed Run, are quite detailed and correctly and effectively breeding them is a bit of a chore – one that has great potential for earnings though, if the player makes good breeding decisions.

Zed Run Gameplay

In order to race you need to own horses. When you have horses in your wallet, you can go to the website and, in the Racing tab, select an event you want to join. There, you find a list of events with different distances and participation fees. You can select your race, your gate and your horse and when a race is filled up, it will go ahead and commence – you can either watch it live in 3D, 2D or after it’s finished in Replay mode.

The results depend on the stats of the horse and the races selected. Some horses do better in shorter races, some in longer ones. You’ll have to try it out in order to find what works!

Beyond the immediate gameplay of the races, Zed Run does have other aspects to it, for example, an HQ in Decentraland that players can visit for free. Of course, you can also buy and sell your horses on the OpenSea market, and there is breeding as well – in order to breed, you only need one horse, since you can breed with other people’s horses as well as your own.

Breeding

Since the game differentiates between fillies and stallions, you’ll have to keep that in mind when selecting which horses to cross – two females won’t work! When selecting breeding partners, you’ll need to think carefully to produce the best possible horses – and increase your legacy and championship stats.