'Shrapnel' Adds In-Game Marketplace on Epic Games Store as $80,000 Event Begins

By Andrew Hayward

Shrapnel, the anticipated first-person shooter being built on Avalanche, has unveiled a string of new updates for players participating in its early access experience on PC via the Epic Games Store, including the launch of a marketplace for purchasing premium cosmetic items.

Neon Machine launched the Shrapnel Training Exercise 2 (STX2) version of the early access game on Wednesday, which introduces equipable in-game cosmetics like premium weapon skins that players can purchase using the game's SHRAP token.

"The debut of our marketplace and premium cosmetics marks a pivotal milestone in our journey towards a unique Shrapnel economy that rewards creators and players in new ways," said Shrapnel CEO Mark Long, in a statement.

In addition, STX2 adds a new sub-machine gun weapon, a suppressor attachment for quiet firing, and new environment art. While players can't loot cosmetics from others yet, that ability is planned for future releases along with options to sell, trade, and create user-generated content.

Skins range in price between 5 SHRAP (about $1.40) for “common” skins and 30 SHRAP ($8.25) for “legendary” skins. A Shrapnel representative confirmed to Decrypt's GG that the skins are indeed tokenized as NFTs, but that the ability to trade them within the game will simply be added at a later date.

Shrapnel also noted that people who own the game’s Operator Collection NFTs, Extraction Packs, and Partner NFT or tokens will be “rewarded with various cosmetics and loot.” Furthermore, ecosystem partners like Superverse, BoDoggos, Alchemy, and NeoTokyo will airdrop weapon cosmetics to their respective communities.

The "Cosmic War" pistol skin. Image: Shrapnel

Shrapnel’s STX2 early access release corresponds with the latest in-game competition to score some bags of SHRAP, with 298,971 total tokens being given out to players based on their leaderboard placement between Wednesday and Saturday. That’s over $82,000 worth as of this writing, with the amount split evenly across the four days of competition.

According to Neon Machine, Shrapnel has racked up over 100,000 active player accounts to date. The early access version requires an Extraction Pack key, which starts at $20 at present. The studio raised a $20 million Series A funding round late last year.

Decrypt’s GG went hands-on with the original version of Shrapnel’s early access game last month and found it to be an impressive first taste of the extraction shooter, even though it’s clearly unfinished and lacking plenty of visual details. We’ll be following the continued rollout of this promising crypto game closely as it nears a full free-to-play launch in 2025.

Editor’s note: This article was written with the assistance of AI. Edited and fact-checked by Andrew Hayward. This story was updated after publication with clarification from Shrapnel re: weapon skins being NFTs.