I reached level 76 in [Seraph ](https://www.seraph.game/#/main) with a Whirlwind Barbarian. This is my second serious play test of the game (previously reached 79 with a Bowazon).

There is a lot to like about the game itself (I mean come on - it's a Diable 2 clone!). However, the team has changed a lot about the economy, and in my opinion all for the worse.

# The Good

The core game loop is fun.

1. Kill Mobs
2. Get Better Loot
3. Kill Harder Mobs

It's a simple formula, but it works:

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://3speak.tv/embed?v=kstreet/ysygqxjt" frameborder="0"  allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>

My Guy:

Respectable stats for someone not dropping ETH into his character. Can clear T8 fairly safely and in a reasonable amount of time.

![image.png](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/kstreet/23tRxsvUvGRS1gDhWArHpqd9UnMzyFrQfRNH51Ndb18hipaH367HeZ4CrbrZSyu24VQDF.png)

My Weapon:

For physical damage builds, so much comes down to the weapon. Here's what I was running. (The Diamond inlay does extra damage to undead, which there are a lot of. Plus it's cheap.)

![image.png](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/kstreet/23t77FNx62yUmB3MzBGtdfUPAHGvNjxg47MepnfHuYkLCT5BHiZS3R3QSW31Y8on6chy2.png)

# The Bad

The game always allowed people to buy raw power with $$, so it was always pay to win. However, in previous play tests, you could do quite well as a free player, and in fact, one of the top earners in the game was a F2P farmer selling crafting materials to whales. Great!

Well, they threw all that out the window.

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A lot's changed, but let's start with the most fundamental one: there is no free-to-play earning anymore! At a minimum, I had to buy a $50 market stall to sell gear for spars (the premium currency).

In previous play tests, everyone could slowly earn spars by grinding. They fell as loot from mobs. Rarely, of course, but enough to buy something decent from the market after a bit of grinding. No more! Now spars only drop from mobs if you own an NFT, which will run you a cool .4 - .6 ETH!

That's insane. Full stop.

I might do a full post at some point outlining why high game NFT prices are a huge red flag. In short, it is my firm belief that this is a clear sign that incentives are misaligned and people are going to get rugged.

So naturally, I didn't buy an NFT. However, I wanted to be competitive and play with my friends, so I did drop $50 for the market stall.

The team immediately changed the game so that 90% of items dropped from mobs were bound to the character and untradeable. WTH?! Why you ask? The stated reason was that farmers were undermining the token value, which would undermine NFT prices (remember what I said about high NFT prices?). Oh but if you had an NFT? Your drop rates remained unchanged. Lucky you!

Imagine effectively removing trading from your Diablo 2 clone to keep your token and NFT prices inflated. Shit like this is why web3 gaming deserves its bad reputation. NFTs introduce a competing set of incentives. Even the best of intentions can get eroded over time by this. And these guys clearly don't have the best of intentions. (If they did, that was a long time ago.)

Did you know the dev team is also renting NFTs to players? So many red flags.

Surely they couldn't do anything else to screw over their F2P community, right? Wrong. They also changed it so that one of the major sources of experience is locked behind NFT ownership. After running a set number of maps, you can "Berserk" a map. This changes all the mobs to elites and gives a lot more experience. In previous play tests, this was available to all. Now? Only NFT owners.

# The End Result

So what is the effect of all these changes?

NFT owners can outpace $50-2-Earn players and then sell high-level gear to them. Each reset (new playtest or new season after full release) will restart the cycle.

Many players like me are reaching the mid 70s and then giving up. Truly F2P players probably give up before that.

# Conclusion

Playing through the story is fun enough. You'll finish the story around level 60, and you can find enough gear from quests to keep progressing. You'll enjoy doing a bit of mapping, but the same 6 levels will eventually get repetitive. If they can hook you into chasing power, then the temptation to part with your ETH will be enormous.

If you have $1000s to blow on a game, you can become insanely powerful. If you are considering dropping $50-$100, just save your money.