Axie Infinity is a blockchain game from the studio Sky Mavis. Players collect, breed and battle creatures called Axies, which are NFTs held in their own wallets. In 2026 the game was rebuilt around a new reward token. Since January 2026, season rewards have been paid in bAXS, a non-transferable token backed 1:1 by AXS. In June 2026 the land game Homeland was shut down and replaced by Terrariums, a passive staking system. In August 2026 Sky Mavis said it would stop active development of Axie Classic and hand the game to its community. All of this runs on Ronin, which became an Ethereum Layer 2 in May 2026.
What changed in 2026
| Date | Development | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 21 Jan 2026 | Origins Season 16 starts, and all season rewards are paid in bAXS | Axie blog |
| 26 Feb 2026 | bAXS goes live, and the team says ecosystem rewards will "soon shift to bAXS" | Axie blog |
| 13 May 2026 | Ronin says its migration to Ethereum is complete. It now runs as an OP Stack Layer 2 | Ronin blog |
| 17 Jun 2026 | Terrariums V1 launches and Homeland is "fully sunset" | Axie blog |
| 12 Aug 2026 | Axie Classic Season 16 is the last under the current structure. Development pauses after it | Axie blog |
bAXS replaced AXS as the reward token
Sky Mavis describes bAXS ("Bonded AXS") as an ERC20-C token worth 1 AXS per 1 bAXS. It can only be spent inside Axie, so it cannot be traded or transferred (Axie blog, 26 February 2026). You can use it to:
- stake it to earn AXS
- pay breeding fees
- pay for ascensions and evolutions
- forge items
- mint Runes and Charms
- buy a Codex Pass
When the post was published, bAXS could not buy Axies. You convert bAXS back to AXS at a rate set by your Axie Score, and part of the amount goes to the Axie Treasury. The team's example: a player at the Mythkeeper level who converts 100 bAXS receives 82.5 AXS, and the other 17.5 AXS goes to the Treasury.
In practice, rewards you earn through play now come with an exit fee. The fee is smaller for players with a higher reputation score. BlockchainGamer.biz reported on 19 January 2026 that co-founder Jeff Zirlin announced the design to limit selling and keep value inside the ecosystem.
Ronin is now an Ethereum Layer 2
Ronin was built by Sky Mavis as a gaming sidechain. On 13 May 2026, its newsletter said the migration to Ethereum was complete and the network now runs on the OP Stack. The same post says yearly RON emissions fell from 45 million to 5 million. It also says AXS and SLP are unchanged by the migration. The Block had reported that the hard fork was scheduled for 12 May 2026 with about 10 hours of downtime.
How the game works
Axies
Each Axie has body parts generated from a genetic code. In Classic, an Axie's battle cards come from its body parts (Axie whitepaper). Axies are NFTs, so players can trade them or keep them in a Ronin wallet. The whitepaper was last fully updated in November 2021, so some mechanics may have changed since.
Breeding
Two Axies can be bred into a new one. According to the whitepaper, each Axie can breed up to 7 times before it becomes sterile, and every breed costs AXS plus SLP. The whitepaper's SLP cost per parent rises with each breed:
| Breed number | SLP per parent |
|---|---|
| 1 | 900 |
| 2 | 1,350 |
| 3 | 2,250 |
| 4 | 3,600 |
| 5 | 5,850 |
| 6 | 9,450 |
| 7 | 15,300 |
Since February 2026, breeding fees can also be paid in bAXS. Check current fees in the app before breeding, because the whitepaper table may be out of date.
Scholarships
Under the scholarship model, owners lend their Axies to players who cannot afford them, and the two split the rewards. It spread widely during the 2021 boom. Revenue splits were set privately between the two sides and were never fixed by the game.
The games in 2026
Axie Infinity: Origins
Origins is the main card battler. Energy and cards reset each turn, which rewards aggressive play. New players get 3 free starter Axies (whitepaper). Reports from Origins' 2022 early access said starter Axies are not NFTs and cannot earn SLP. Origins Season 16 (21 January to 18 March 2026) had an 80,000 bAXS pool for the top 2,000 players. The Rare Era added another 20,000 bAXS.
Axie Classic
Classic is the original battle system. Competitive Season 16 runs from 12 August to 2 September 2026 with more than 36,000 bAXS in prizes. After Season 16 and its Mini Tournaments end, Sky Mavis said it will pause regular seasons and active development. Classic quests leave the Bounty Board on 10 September. The team says it is working toward a community handover but that "the details aren't settled yet." No governance structure, team or funding plan had been announced.
Axie Infinity: Terrariums (replaced Homeland)
Terrariums V1 launched on 17 June 2026, and the team calls it gamified staking. Homeland progress does not carry over. Delegations were revoked automatically when Homeland was shut down. The steps:
- Activate a land plot.
- Assign Axies to Atia's Shrine. An owned plot holds 30 Axies and a free trial plot holds 10.
- Each hourly tick consumes Lunium, an off-chain resource that cannot be traded.
Axies in the Shrine generate Atia's Flame, and each plot type's bAXS pool is split by Flame share. Axies outside the Shrine earn AXP instead. Local Lunium is free but capped and takes about five days to recharge. Global Lunium is bought, in packs from $0.99 for 25,000 to $99.99 for 3,375,000. BlockchainGamer.biz reported that Sky Mavis took in $95,753 from Lunium sales in the first week. In that week 52.8% of the 16,886 land plots were activated.
Atia's Legacy
Atia's Legacy is a combat-focused MMO in development, built around squad-based real-time battles. In March 2025 it was described as expected in 2026. A third playtest, focused on PvP, opened on 1 July 2026 (BlockchainGamer.biz). No full release date had been confirmed.
What your bAXS is worth after the conversion fee
Enter how much bAXS you hold and your conversion rate to see how much AXS you would receive after the Treasury's share.
| bAXS you convert | Your conversion rate (set by your Axie Score) | AXS you receive |
|---|---|---|
| 100 bAXS | 82.5 % | 82.5 AXS |
| 100 bAXS | 100 % | 100 AXS |
| 20,000 bAXS | 82.5 % | 16,500 AXS |
- Both inputs are your own values; the only rate the team published is the Mythkeeper example of 82.5 AXS received per 100 bAXS.
- The difference between bAXS converted and AXS received is the part that goes to the Axie Treasury.
This is arithmetic on your inputs only: it does not give the rate for your Axie Score, the AXS price, any rule changes Sky Mavis may make, or what the AXS is worth in money.
AXS and SLP
- AXS (Axie Infinity Shards): the governance and staking token. Holders can stake for rewards and vote in governance, and the AXS part of breeding fees goes to the Community Treasury (whitepaper). The maximum supply is 270,000,000 AXS (Etherscan, CoinGecko). CoinGecko lists an all-time high of $164.90. At the time of writing it showed the price below $1.
- SLP (Smooth Love Potion): earned through play and used for breeding. Sky Mavis does not sell SLP directly (whitepaper).
- bAXS: the in-ecosystem reward form of AXS described above.
Can you still earn?
Rewards exist, but they are smaller and harder to cash out than in 2021:
- Season prizes are paid in bAXS, which carries a conversion fee.
- Terrariums pays bAXS but needs land plus purchased Global Lunium to earn at full speed.
- Classic prizes stop after Season 16 unless the community restarts them.
Token prices move a lot, so what an hour of play is worth can change quickly. Treat the game as entertainment rather than income.
Risks
The Ronin bridge hack
On 23 March 2022 an attacker obtained 5 of the 9 Ronin validator keys: 4 run by Sky Mavis and 1 run by Axie DAO. With them, the attacker forged withdrawals of about 173,600 ETH and 25.5 million USDC, worth roughly $624 million at the time (Ronin postmortem). The theft was found on 29 March, after a user could not withdraw 5,000 ETH. On 14 April 2022 the US Treasury's OFAC added an Ethereum address to the Lazarus Group's sanctions entry; the FBI had linked that group to the attack. The FBI seized about $30 million in September 2022. Norway's Økokrim later seized 60 million kroner (about $5.8 million), as reported by BleepingComputer in February 2023.
Other risks
- Rule changes: the 2026 switch to bAXS, the Homeland shutdown and the pause on Classic show that Sky Mavis can change how rewards are earned and cashed out.
- Balance and meta shifts: game updates can make an Axie much less useful in battle and lower its value.
- Wallet security: keep your Ronin wallet seed phrase offline. If you lose it, you lose access to your assets.
FAQ
Is Axie Infinity free to play?
Yes, at the entry level. Origins gives new players 3 free starter Axies. Earning token rewards has generally required owned NFT Axies.
What is bAXS?
bAXS is a non-transferable token backed 1:1 by AXS that has paid season rewards since January 2026. You can spend or stake it inside Axie. Converting it to AXS costs a fee, and the fee depends on your Axie Score.
What happened to Axie Homeland?
Sky Mavis shut it down on 17 June 2026 and replaced it with Terrariums.
Is Axie Classic shutting down?
Not according to Sky Mavis. Active development pauses after Season 16 (ending 2 September 2026), with a community handover planned whose details are not settled.
Limitations: game mechanics come from Sky Mavis's own posts and a whitepaper last fully updated in 2021, and some 2026 figures come from a single outlet.
