We began our journey trudging through the poo-stained sewers in Dookey Dash. Then we followed along for a trippy acid-fueled adventure with Lick The Toad. Now after countless hours of valiantly dashing and dodging refrigerators and Christmas trees, we arrived at an all-important checkpoint, The Summoning. If this is all nothing but mumbo jumbo to you then welcome to your introductory course in Yuga’s wackiest new ecosystem expansion, HV-MTL 101. 

 

To give you the Sparknotes on the story so far for those just joining us, any BAYC and MAYC holders who claimed their Sewer Passes and took at least one trip through the sewers in Dookey Dash were finally able to burn their passes for a Power Source in an event called The Summoning. In the lore Yuga has established so far these Power Sources are known as HV-MTL, pronounced Heavy Metal. 

 

These HV-MTL NFTs are broken down into distinct tiers based on scores from the first round of Dookey Dash. The tiers from least to most rare are Glitch, Dynamic, Bio, Knight, Celestial, Reaver, Holo, and finally a Legendary HV-MTL for the lucky owner of the 1/1 Golden Key with the single highest rank. 

 

Yuga very recently released a full-fledged website at hv-mtl.com giving sneak peeks into what some revealed HV-MTLs could potentially look like. It should come as no surprise that these cute little mechs come in a variety of styles. 

 

The lower tiers resemble junky, nigh-broken mechs with a very tongue-in-cheek style, attributable to Yuga’s near-iconic brand of humor. Well, iconic at least in Web3 where arguably the most iconic notion is people getting rugged and BAYC owners getting scammed out of their Apes, but I digress.  

These lower tiers feature mechs with jumper cables flailing about, cracked faceplates, and even toasters as their destructive weapon of choice. And yet, there is still a subtle charm to them. Almost a unique characterization of sorts befitting the bottom-of-the-barrel finishers of Dookey Dash. These crummy-looking HV-MTLs are definitely the kids sleeping in the back of the class of this whole group. 

 

The middle tiers from Dynamic through Knight all sport fun designs with intricacies easily glossed over with only a single viewing. Any Dookey Dasher who didn’t spend multiple ETH and received a HV-MTL in these tiers can surely be proud of what theirs reveals come April. And if you did pony up for a so-called “pro-gamer” only to receive one of these - well get in line because we’re all ready to complain. 

 

The juice really starts to be worth the squeeze once you reach the more rare tiers like Celestial, Reaver and Holo. Not only do the designs become more grandiose, but they also take on an unquestionably “cool” demeanor as purposeful work seems to have been taken when developing traits for the higher strata of HV-MTLs. 

 

Celestials look otherworldly in the best way possible combining cosmic colors with something you’d expect to see from a line of chibi-Neon Genesis Evangelion figures. 

 

Reavers take the unapologetic cool look and ratchet it up not one, but several notches. These little guys and gals look like they’d be right at home at a Slipknot concert with their primarily black and red color palettes and a brutal assortment of weapons from laser-scythes to flails. 

 

Finally, you have the Holos. 

 

Holos are by far the rarest, excluding the 1/1 Legendary HV-MTL, at only a 250 max supply. Holos look like what you might expect if Tron had a baby with a Gundam. Sleek, edgy, and stylish are all perfect words to describe both Holo HV-MTLs and my nana Edith.  

 

Now pay attention because this part will be on the quiz. The supply of each tier of HV-MTL also decreases as you ascend in rarity as Glitch-trait HV-MTLs total nearly 6500 all the way down to Holos only equating to an iota of the entire collection supply at 250. This has quite obviously played into the pricing dynamics and secondary price action thus far. 

 

Still nothing is known about the utility of differing rarities, or if there will be any added benefits at all for that matter. But when has that stopped degens from speculating? 

 

For anyone dozing off in the back of the class, this is where we talk price action. Dollars. Scrilla. Cheddar. Do I have your attention again? Good.

 

The stratification of tiers has clearly had an impact on floor prices across the collection. Glitch HV-MTLs started at a floor close to 2.5E before settling closer to a 2E floor. Similar price action can be seen across all HV-MTLs with Celestials starting out at around 4E and even hitting as high as 4.7E before coming back down to earth at 3.5E. 

 

Reavers and Holos were clearly the play for those more profit-oriented folks. Holos saw an incredible floor out of the gate around 19E, rising as high as 25E before calling the 23E range its home in the long term. Reavers enjoyed very similar action albeit not nearly hitting the highs of the rarest Holos. 

 

Following the aforementioned reveal of the HV-MTL website which offers scant details, but is admittedly better than nothing, we all await the next major milestone, the full reveal of everyone’s HV-MTL NFTs. 

 

Until then we continue to hang onto Yuga’s every tweet as they hone their mastery of drip-feeding lore and managing expectations. So whether it's the next iteration of gameplay or a wholly unexpected left turn, the professors over at MVHQ will be ready to give you the lessons necessary to succeed.