The goal of this guide is to onboard players with the best possible start ahead of the FIFA World Cup coming to the Uplandme metaverse. I’m Andia2, and you can see more of my content on Twitter (@Andia2Upland) or Youtube (RealDealUpland — YouTube). You can join Upland with this code for a potential bonus: https://r.upland.me/vvRg. Learn what is Uplandme? Why join now? What should I do with Rio expansion coming on November 15 (and another city coming December 18)? What mistakes did I make at the beginning? What is a good strategy to start? What should I expect for the FIFA 2022 World Cup? What should I know about the future of Uplandme? and more below.
NB: If you join before the 18th of November (2023), both of us have a small chance of winning a Block Explorer. If you purchase UPX (the game token) at any time, both of us earn a 50% bonus. More about the strategic value of that UPX Bonus later in this post. https://www.upland.me/events/brings-friends-win-big-fifa-world-cup-qatar-2022tm-referral-challenge
What is Uplandme?
Uplandme is a metaverse based on the real-world geography. There are currently 23 cities released (21 in the US and 2 international — Rio and Porto). Each of these cities functions like a competitive Monopoly board, as 1/4 million active players and over 3 million players aim for collections and other valuable properties in the metaverse (what makes a property valuable?). Current US cities are generally designed to serve a NFLPA partnership, whereas Porto supports the partnership with FC Porto (soccer). Rio and Lusail (coming soon) are part of a larger initiative related to the World Cup 2022 in Qatar.
Upland’s motto is Play — Earn — Connect. Aside from property collections, players can buy-sell-trade authentic digital collectibles. Examples are game day Mementos for football and NFL and the artwork of accomplished international artist Jacky Chai. Players can also do some good whilst playing by supporting international charities like the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation.
Players can use either the web or their mobiles, but most USD purchases are limited to the web version to avoid fees.
Why join now?
The best time to join Uplandme (in terms of potential benefits) is a new city release. The Rio expansion is coming November 15, 2022. Even if you miss by a few days, I recommend starting in Rio because you can buy properties FSA (Fair Start Act) properties for cheap. Normally a property earns a 14.7% annual return in UPX (the game token) on the mint price (the initial price of the property when 1st bought). If you buy in collection neighborhoods (Andarai and Barra Da Tijuca), then you will earn a modifier of 1.36x (20% annually) or 1.73x (c. 25.4% annually).
Aside from the chance to mint Rio (November 15), Uplandme is starting to evolve beyond its roots with lots of new player-led content and Layer 2.0 experiences (Unity experiences accessed from inside Upland). Monopoly-style collections are here for European Football (starting with FC Porto), and the NFL Players Association. NB: The exact reward mechanism is not yet revealed.
What mistakes did I make at the beginning?
All players start as Visitors, though full functionality is unlocked at the level of Uplander (10,000 UPX). Players can keep leveling up with Pro (100k), Director (1M), Executive (10M), and Chief Executive (100M). There is a nice bonus at Director, where you get your own customized Block Explorer (your game piece) from Uplandme. Every time you level up during Spark Week, you will also get Spark, a token used for building in Upland.
I made two big mistakes. I paid real money (USD) for the game token without using a referral code for the game so I missed out on the 50% bonus. Missed out on free 25k UPX. I also upgraded my level to Uplander and Pro outside Spark Week (announced once a month), so I missed out on some free Spark.
Some smaller mistakes include not knowing if I was paying too much. Before you buy from the secondary, look up the player and/or property on upxland.me or uplandoptimizer.com to learn more about pricing. After that, click on the property title to learn what collections the property belongs to.
Getting attached to your portfolio:
I try not to get too attached to my properties. This is particularly important in new city releases, as you often have to mint one week before you know if your property will be in a collection. There will be a lot of hype around certain famous locations in any city. If there is a lot of hype around my minted properties, I tend to sell before the collection reveal unless I have enough for a collection (typically 3). Why? If you are right, there is no upside as your property will hold its value but you still don’t have a collection. If you are wrong, you will never get the FOMO price ever again. Rio expansion is different as we know Barra da Tijuca and Andarai are collections ahead of time, so focus on other types of value (see below).
NB: Analytic Assassins (AA) and Upland Discord are good places to track the hype, but no one knows for sure what will be a collection until the actual reveal.
Analytic Assassins (AA): https://discord.gg/eGeJ3brF.
Upland’s official discord: (1478) Discord | Home — Upland
What advantages do new players get?
New Players with under 100k UPX can buy FSA properties that are much cheaper than regular properties. FSA properties also mint slower than normal properties, as experienced players quickly snap up hot neighborhoods but they literally cannot mint FSA. That means if you are following the hype, you know where other players want to buy and you have the best chance to buy them. Because these properties are cheap, you can mark up your properties much more (250 or 300% is normal) and still sell just above the floor (the price of the cheapest property on that street or in that neighborhood. The disadvantage is that you can only sell two FSA a week, so don’t go exclusively for these properties.
Compounding your gains:
Let’s imagine you start with 4k free UPX. That should buy you two FSA properties which you can sell the same week for maybe 10k UPX. However, there is a catch. At 4k, you are still a Visitor under 10k and you can’t sell until you are an Uplander.
Now imagine you join Upland without a referral code. You get 4k free and put in $5 for 5k UPX (the conversion rate is stable at 1 USD for 1k UPX). You are still short at 9k. With a referral code, you would have 4k + 5k (your purchase) + 2.5k (your bonus) for 11.5k. That’s why it is often good to put in $5 if you want to try out the game. Any referral code will work. Mine is: https://r.upland.me/vvRg.
Being an Uplander with 11.5k, you can buy 6 properties and flip them over three weeks to get yourself to about 30k. You still have room to buy FSA but you will have to wait until December 18 for another chance to mint properties.
You only get the UPX bonus once, so if you really want a fast start, then putting in $20 or $50 will give you the most benefit. What to do with that UPX?
Rio has two collections available for minting on the 15th of November. You will need 6 properties to fill your neighborhood collections, and you have the potential to fill three more starter collections on top of that.
Newbie (1 property anywhere)
King of the Street (3 properties on the Same Street)
City Pro (5 properties in the same city)
On top of your 6 properties in neighborhood collections, you can add another 9 to these starter collections to get one-off free UPX plus an interest multiplier. City Pro (1.5x) and Andarai in Rio (1.73x) will have the biggest bonuses, so put your most expensive properties in these collections. Barra da Tijuca has a decent multiplier (1.36x), similar to Newbie and King of the Street.
Let’s assume you buy 18 properties in Rio on the 15th — 10 FSA and 8 non-FSA. The cheap ones (mostly FSA) can go into the standard collections and the expensive ones (8 non-FSA properties) can go into the City Pro and Andarai. You sell off the 10 FSA at the floor (solid 250% gains) twice a week earning roughly 35–40k from 20k worth of property. You can sell or hold the other properties in your Limited collections (City Pro and Andarai), as you wish but the markup will probably be less.
$20 UPX purchase with referral code = 34k starting UPX. Focusing on FSA properties, you should have c. 65k after five weeks of playing (i.e. for the next city release).
$50 UPX purchase with referral code = 79k starting UPX. Buying at least a few non-FSA for your collections, and flipping the rest over time, you should have over 100k after 5 weeks.
Tip: Try not to go over 100k until after the next city release on December 18, so that you can also mint FSA properties there.
What is a property worth?
To state the obvious, properties are worth whatever someone will pay for them. Less obvious, what do players value the most?
- Properties at an interesting location like water-front
- Properties in proximity to train stations, airports, and football stadiums
- Named properties like a Mcdonald’s location.
- Properties belonging to nodes (neighborhoods where players have agreed to cooperate to build up the metaverse together). My node is in Morningside Park (LA / Inglewood): https://discord.gg/dDUY4tvxuk
You can learn about other Upland nodes on Discord or Youtube (e.g. Portage Park, one of the largest — https://youtu.be/lC32_WgM7lM). - Properties near additional functionality like racetracks.
- Large properties may have additional functionality in the future as they are needed for large showrooms, large factories, and potentially farms (prediction: June 2023 release). Large properties are however expensive.
That is why it always pays to check the market prices in the game and the database of listed properties on upxland.me or uplandoptimizer.com before buying and selling.
FIFA 2022 World Cup in Upland:
FIFA has made a multi-year partnership with Upland that will drive a lot of new functionality and collection opportunities. Unlike other cities, you will not be able to mint Lusail (home to the World Cup final) but you will have to win it by getting involved in activities in Upland. The winning national team will have their capital city released on or after December 18.
There will be several places to buy FIFA collectibles in the Upland metaverse — Lusail (Qatar), Rio, LA, Detroit, and Queens (NYC). You can buy Essentials (player cards), Mementos (unique player cards from a game in the World Cup), and Passes (that give potential access to Mementos and Spotlights, official FIFA video collectibles from the games).
If you participate in the various contests by collecting or performing other in-game activities, you will have the chance to win a Block Explorer (BE) for each of the 32 national teams.
More information about World Cup related events at: Upland — Rebuild the World.
Why get verified?
KYC (Know Your Customer) is valuable to Upland, and it is also valuable to you. The following are some of the ways it is valuable:
- Verified players qualify for the Spark log-in bonus so you can get roughly 0.5–0.75 Spark free each year. Valuable for supercharging your building projects without putting in extra money. NB: You need 0.1 Spark to start building.
- Verified players can vote. If you want to help shape the metaverse, you will probably want this capability.
- Verified players can take money out of the game. If you have a valuable property, you may sell it for USD rather than UPX. However, you can only withdraw the money, if your account is verified.
- If you reach Uplander status before November 18th, and you are verified, you will get 0.02 Spark free.
To get the most out of Upland, you will benefit from being verified. Click on your profile (icon in the top left) to start the process.
The Future of Upland:
There are some big recent releases with more coming soon. First, multi-player racing is available with lots of speculation around cars (Player run car dealerships — Upland — Rebuild the World.; multiplayer racing —Upland — Rebuild the World. ). Secondly, World of Football (WoF) will release in Upland on November 28th (https://discord.gg/BJMDCRvR). Gala Games is coming soon (Upland — Rebuild the World.). FIFA World Cup is introducing new functionality like video spotlights. It will soon be possible to earn from Football collections (both soccer and NFL Players Association). Player governance mechanisms are emerging so that verified players can make real decisions that affect gameplay (www.upland.me). Carnival should bring Samba to the metaverse in February. And lots more that will be created by the players themselves in so-called Layer 2.0 applications that can be accessed from inside the game. If you want to ask me any questions, reach out in Discord to Andia2 #6510 or DM me on Twitter (@Andia2Upland).
Good luck on your Upland journey!
Important Tips for the UI/UX in Upland:
Tip #1 — At the bottom of your screen in both Web and mobile is three dots. Click on that to access your menu which includes more details about your Collections.
Tip #2 — On the side are three buttons. The top one will show the neighborhood boundaries. The next one will show the prices of properties for sale in your view. The bottom one will help you look up a particular address.
Tip #3 — Clicking on your Block Explorer or on Profile will bring up your stats including how many Spark you have. Clicking on the three dots and then Properties will show you your property earnings.
Tip #4 — Click on the Yellow Plane icon to travel internationally, and the White Plane icon to travel domestically.
Disclaimer (Link):
This post does not constitute financial advice. I highly recommend doing your own research before making your decisions. For the full disclaimer, click Disclaimer — Andia2 — Medium
