Rarities of First Edition cards (Non-SEs)
There are a lot of different types and rarities of Parallel cards. They all have their own functions and benefits within the Parallel ecosystem, which we will break down in this article.
Disclaimer: Please note that Parallel is in active development and that all aspects related to "Prime", "Renown", or the game itself are subject to change.
A card’s general rarity is determined by the colored line, which can be found on any card below the artwork.
First Editions (Non-SEs)
The so called “First Editions” (Non-SEs) are divided into commons, uncommons, rares and legendaries. The higher a rarity of a specific card, the lower is the associated edition size.
You will be able to spawn new Cards called Echoes with your FEs. These “second edition” cards will be further explained in another paragraph of this article.
Additionally, you will be able to redeem a non-holo physical card for every first edition card you own.
Rarities of First Edition cards (Non-SEs)
Special Editions (SEs) & Perfect Loops (PLs)
These two categories can be seen as even rarer collectibles than the first editions. They do not differ from their base version in terms of in-game function, but they do have a different visual appearance as well as other features.
Every playable base card has a special edition. These SEs have a much smaller edition size, will have a different appearance in-game and will earn you more “Renown”than the FE cards. “Renown” is an ingame currency similar to XP, which you will need to spawn new cards. In addition to that physical holo-foil cards will be redeemable for every SE that you hold.
The “Perfect Loops” are animated cards that seamlessly repeat the animation sequence. Not all cards have a PL edition. Like SE cards PLs will also earn more Renown than other versions of the card.
Masterpieces
Every playable card has a corresponding 1/1 “Masterpiece” card. The masterpiece isn’t playable. A masterpiece card entitles the owner to a one percent (1%) royalty of all secondary sales of its represented card. If the masterpiece is sold, the right to secondary royalties is transferred with ownership of the masterpiece starting at the time of transfer completion.
The masterpiece will also earn a percentage of Prime generated through the replication of Echo cards that are represented by the masterpiece of the same name. A masterpiece entitles the owner to one free pack mint at each “pack drop” during the initial release of the Parallel Base Set.
Masterpieces can be “cached” with the Echelon Foundation caching system to earn a share of emissions of Prime tokens.
Some playable cards have two artworks and are commonly known as “day” and “night” editions. There are also other cards with two variants like e.g. “Memento of the Fallen” which has one version with the knife in orange and another one displaying a blue knife. For simplicity’s sake however we are going to stick to the original term day and night cards.
Day and night editions of cards do not affect gameplay in any manner whatsoever.
The total supply of a card with Day and night variants is evenly split amongst the two. In the example below you can see a “night” card called “Tree of Nehemiah [SE]”. Displayed on the botton left of the card it shows an edition size of 1000, while OpenSea only reports a total of 500 cards. This is because the other 500 editions were minted as the day version.
Example of a card with a day/night version
Spawned Cards (“Echoes”)
To understand “Echoes” a player must first understand the Parallel “Base Set.” The base set is comprised of all originally minted First Edition, Special Edition, and Perfect Loop cards. The base set has a fixed total card supply. This means Parallel Studios will not mint any further base set cards in the future. (Parallel Studios may still choose to provide “expansion” sets of completely new cards to the game in the future.)
Because the number of players that desire any given NFT card can exceed the total supply of any card, players can spawn a card called an “Echo.” This mechanic was named the “Lineage System”.
When a player wins a match with NFT cards in the deck, that player earns both Prime tokens and renown. Renown is experience points for the cards used ranked gameplay. When the player has collected a certain amount of Prime and renown, the player can choose to pay a predetermined cost of Prime and renown to “replicate” a card. Only First Edition, Special Edition, and Perfect Loop cards can be replicated. The act of replication means to mint a new copy of the NFT base set card that a player owns. The resulting card from replication is called an “Echo.”
Echoes can be bought, sold, traded, and played in game the same as base set cards. Echo cards are NFTs and therefore earn significantly more Prime for a match win.
Echo cards do not have the ability to replicate further echoes.
Apparitions
Apparitions are playable versions of Parallel cards that are NOT Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) and don’t exist on the Ethereum network. They offer the user a low cost way to play the game of Parallel without requiring them to buy any NFT cards.
Apparitions and NFT cards can co-exist within the same deck. However, the more apparition cards a player has in his deck, the less Prime will he earn by winning a match.
Apparitions do not have the ability to “replicate” Echo cards.
Key Framing
Before we go into more detail regarding the different assets, it is important to understand what „Key Framing“ is. Key framing is an in-game system that modifies the outcomes of a game match, typically modifying the rewards of the match winner in various ways. Key framing utilizes the keys rewarded from paraset collections.
Prior to a match, if either player owns keys, the players can elect to utilize them to modify the outcome of match rewards.
Prime Key
Prime Keys are the first asset class card issued in the Parallel ecosystem. A Prime Key, also called “PK” grants one (1) additional key slot in the Key Framing System for each PK owned. PKs grant one (1) pack reservation during Parallel Base Set “pack drops” for each PK owned. In the future, PKs may also grant access to special events, pack drops, NFTs, and more.
Prime Keys can be “cached” with the Echelon Foundation caching system to earn a share of emissions of Prime tokens.
Overclock Key
The Overclock Key rewards win streaks during ranked gameplay with additional Prime tokens. The Overclock Key also grants one (1) reservation to purchase a future physical collectible item.
Galaxy Key
The Galaxy Key increases in-game emissions of Prime tokens by a randomly determined amount. The Galaxy Key also grants access to the Galaxy Faucet, a periodically opened website interface where Galaxy Key owners gain access to exclusive Parallel cards.
Multifold Key
The Multifold Key allows all copies of “Apparition” cards in a player’s deck to be treated as full NFT cards for the purposes of determining Prime rewards and entering ranked gameplay. The Multifold Key also grants one (1) reservation to purchase a future Parallel comic book.
Surge Key
The Surge Key significantly boosts Renown earnged from winning games in ranked gameplay and entitles the owner to three (3) player pack reservations. “Player Packs” mostly contain common and uncommen first editions and will be released in a future drop.
Prismatic Key
Every day the Prismatic Key selects and displays one of the five Parallels. Players who win matches with the selected faction within that 24h window will get increased PRIME emissions.
Catalyst Drive
A Catalyst Drive is a non-playable card that can be combined with a Prime Key to create a so called “Prime Drive.” Once created, a “Prime Drive” entitles the holder to a percentage share of all in-game “Prime sink” revenue in the Parallel ecosystem. 3% of “Prime sink” revenue is split evenly among all Prime Drive holders.
Core
The Core is a non-playable card that earns a percentage of secondary sales revenue from all Assets, Art Cards, Card Backs, and Masterpieces. The Core additionally earns a percentage ofall Prime generated by the use of keys in the Key Framing System.
Cores can be “cached” with the Echelon Foundation caching system to earn a share of emissions of Prime tokens.
There are only two playable cards released that fall into the Prime category. Those two are “The First Son of Mars” (1/5) and “The Priming” (1/1), which were sold in an auction in the first presale. These cards however will not be allowed in competitive play.
Cardbacks are an additional cosmetic option for players. In the game you will be able to apply these to the back of your cards. The standard edition size for a Cardback is 1/100, but there are also some SE Cardbacks, which have a even lower edition size.
