Millions of gamers have been tapping into Elon Musk’s face in recent weeks, thanks to the new hit Telegram game, X Empire—or Musk Empire, as it was originally called.
Looking for a way to differentiate X Empire from the mountain of tap-to-earn games on Telegram like Hamster Kombat and Catizen, the development team swapped out the adorable mascots for a cartoon image of Elon Musk that you must tap to rack up stacks of in-game currency.
The player numbers suggest this approach is working, with millions of players eager to join in on anything Musk-related, even if the game doesn’t have his official backing. And given the recent name change, we suspect there was some fear of legal action, as the game suddenly attracted a huge audience.
But the promise of an airdrop down the road means there could be a chance to earn some coins if you play for a while. Here’s a look at X Empire, how to play it, and what we know so far about the airdrop plans.
What is X Empire?
X Empire is a tap-to-earn game on Telegram that is essentially a clone of the hugely popular Hamster Kombat, as for the most part, the mechanics are exactly the same. You tap on an image to earn in-game coins, and then spend them to earn passive income when you’re not playing.
There’s no evidence to suggest Musk himself is in any way involved, or even endorses it, so it’s safe to assume it’s a fan project. As a result, there’s a chance it could be shut down at any time if Elon’s legal team gets wind of it, though the recent departure from the “Musk Empire” suggests the developers are trying to mitigate that possibility.
But that hasn’t stopped millions of gamers from signing up via Telegram in hopes of eventually securing some tokens on The Open Network (TON)—the same network that hosts Notcoin’s NOT token, and which will be used by games like Hamster Kombat and Yescoin.
How to play X Empire
X Empire is very simple to play. Along with the name change, the interface has been updated to offer other types of avatars and potentially minimize the reliance on Musk’s cartoon likeness, though he’s still present, too. You can tap on your avatar to reveal a button at the bottom of the screen, which lets you choose from multiple versions of Musk and other avatars, including optional premium avatars based on figures like Kim Kardashian… and a muscle-bound Doge.
Image: Decrypt
Clicking the Mining button takes you back to the tap-to-earn experience, where you’ll need to start accumulating cash to spend on other parts of the game. Simply tap on your avatar and collect in-game currency until your energy runs out. Then you wait for your energy to recharge and do the exact same thing again.
Once you have some in-game coins, you can spend them on upgrades for both Elon and his workforce via the “Upgrade” button to earn passive income when you’re not playing or even logged into the game. Upgrades for Elon include attributes like ethics and leadership, while upgrades for the workforce include staff members and office upgrades. All of these will provide you with extra currency that builds up gradually.
These upgrades will continue to earn you coins even when the game is closed, but only for a maximum of three hours, so you will need to log back in and claim your passive income before you start earning again.
Image: Decrypt
The only difference X Empire has compared to other similar games is the “City” tab, where you can battle other players in what is essentially Rock, Paper, Scissors, and invest in different stocks each day in the hopes of picking some winners and making some money back.
None of these activities are particularly robust, but the fact that you have to put some (in-game) money at stake in the hope of getting bigger returns adds at least a little more excitement than is usually found in these games.
There is a daily trio of winning stock picks that will earn you lots of extra in-game cash, plus a simple daily puzzle that can boost your stock market.
When will the airdrop be launched?
According to an update shared with players on the official Telegram community on August 4, the X Empire token is expected to launch sometime in late September or early October. The developers emphasized that the timeframe depends in part on “exchange approval and a large number of technical integrations on their end.”
We don’t know what the token will be called, but we do know that it will launch on TON, which is increasingly becoming the network of choice for the biggest Telegram-based games.
In the game’s airdrop section, the team states that X Empire is the first step towards an “extensive ecosystem” and that the airdrop will be the next step in this. The developers also say that they are “committed to maximizing your earnings” and that they will “distribute almost all of our tokens to our community.”
How can you earn tokens? According to the airdrop section, the following metrics will determine the size of your airdrop: how much in-game profit you earn per hour through upgrades, the total amount of money you have earned while playing the game, and how many friends you invite to X Empire through your referral link.
X Empire says the mining phase of the game will end on September 30th before the airdrop. It’s unclear if the token itself will be released on the 30th, though it seems the developers might wait, noting that “gameplay will pause as we move towards token distribution, and the X Empire app will introduce a new product that is here to stay, evolving and growing alongside all of us.”
The move is reminiscent of Notcoin, which ended its mining phase on April 1 but then took several weeks to prepare for the airdrop in May. Ahead of the airdrop, X Empire has also said it will burn (i.e. remove) in-game coins earned by inactive players, removing 5% of their coins after 30 days of inactivity. It’s currently unclear whether that will be a daily 5% or just a one-time penalty.
Edited by Andrew Hayward
Editor’s note: This story was originally published on July 21, 2024, and updated with new details on September 3.
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