XCPETSRules: how every burn works
XCPETS is a Counterparty token on Bitcoin. You play by burning (destroying) XCPETS with a short text tag. Every burn is a normal Bitcoin transaction: you review and sign it in your own wallet (XCP Wallet), and you also pay a small Bitcoin network fee each time. Burned tokens are gone for good. The game state is rebuilt by anyone from the public chain: same burns, same result, no server.
Burn tags
| Button | Tag | Burn (XCPETS) | What it does |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hatch | pet:hatch | 69 | Hatches a new pet owned by your address. Its species, rarity and look come from the hash of the block your burn lands in plus your transaction id, so nobody (not even you) knows it in advance. Burning less than 69 hatches nothing (the burn counts as community food); burning more still hatches, but the pet gets only 69 care. The extra is just burned and counts for the community pet, so you can't skip feeding. |
| Dozen egg pack | pet:hatch12 | 690 | ONE burn hatches 12 pets (one signature, one Bitcoin fee; 138 cheaper than 12 singles). Egg i (0-11) is seeded by the block hash + <tx id>:i. Each egg starts like a single hatch (care 69). Below 690 hatches nothing (community food); extra above 690 adds no care. Like every burn, the full amount burned (690) counts toward the community pet, so a pack credits the community the same XCPETS it cost, not 12 × 69. |
| Case egg pack | pet:hatch144 | 6,900 | ONE burn hatches 144 pets (saves 3,036 vs 144 singles), seeded the same way with i = 0-143. Same rules as the dozen. |
| Feed | pet:feed:ID | one meal: 4,140 / 6,900 / 9,660 / 9,200 by stage (Hatchling / Juvenile / Adult / Elder); the last meal of a stage is trimmed to what is left | Feeds pet #ID one meal. Once per pet per "day" (a day is 144 Bitcoin blocks, about 24 hours). A 2nd meal in the same day, or a burn smaller than the meal, does not feed the pet; it still counts as community food. A meal adds at most this stage's meal size; any overpay is just burned (community). Only the pet's owner can feed it. A feed burn from another address doesn't feed the pet, doesn't use its one meal for the day or touch its streak, and counts as community food. Feeding a released or dead pet is also just community food. |
| Bundled feed | pet:fm:START:MASK | the exact total of the bundled pets' meals | ONE burn covers a window of about 105-125 consecutive pet numbers, so pets spread far apart need extra burns (as many as fit in the 34-byte tag; MASK marks which pets from #START on). Pay the exact total of their meals. Pets are fed in ID order, each taking its own meal from the burn; a pet that can't be fed (not yours, dead, already fed this day, fully fed) or that the rest of the burn is too short to pay for is skipped and not fed. Same once-per-day rule as a single feed. The play page now uses pet:fl (below) instead. |
| Feed several pets | pet:fl:ID.ID… | the exact total of the listed pets' meals | You can feed several of your pets in one burn, even when their numbers are far apart. Same once-per-day rule as a single feed. The play page builds these for you (Feed all hungry / Feed selected). |
| Gear roll | pet:roll:ID | 345 | Owner only. Rolls one gear item into a random open slot. New gear goes to your bag; with Auto-equip new gear on (saved in this browser) it is worn right away, never swapping in a weaker piece (the piece it replaces goes to your bag). Equipping is free and only saved in this browser. Other people see your pet's gear as it was rolled (newest roll per slot), not your changes. |
| Lucky drop | (none) | No burn | No transaction. Every time a pet moves up a stage (hatching counts, including each egg of a dozen or a case) it has a 25% chance of a lucky drop, and every meal without a stage-up a 2% chance (each pet fed by a bundled feed gets its own chance; at most one drop per pet per burn). The drop is one free gear piece, given right away, with no burn: it is rolled exactly like a paid gear roll, into a random open slot, from the block hash and transaction of the burn that earned it plus the pet's id, so everyone replaying the chain gets the same item. Like any new gear it goes to your bag, or is worn with Auto-equip new gear on (never a weaker piece), and it shows in the pet's history; the bag counts the lucky drops your pets found. |
| Discard a pet (any rarity) | none | free | No burn, no wallet. The pet is only hidden in your browser (stored per network and address), and you can restore it from Show discarded in My Pets. It stays on chain and still counts in the ranking for everyone else; gear it wears shows as unavailable in your bag. |
| Release a pet | pet:rel:ID | 0.00000001 | Owner only. Gives the pet up for good, on chain, for everyone: it leaves the ranking and can't be fed, battle or breed again. Its gear goes back to your bag. Can't be undone. The 🔥 Release button builds the burn. |
| Feed community | pet:feed | 69, 690 or 6,900 | Feeds the shared community pet, the Bitcoin Wizard, and puts you on the feeder board. Any amount of 69 or more counts; the Play page offers 69, 690 or 6,900. |
| Community gear roll | pet:c:roll or pet:c:roll:SLOT | 690 | Anyone can burn for the community pet's gear. The community pet gets one random gear item right away in a random slot, or the slot you name (HEADWEAR, GRIP, OUTFITS, DRIP, GUISE or FOOTWEAR). The item comes from the block hash and transaction of the burn, like a token roll, so everyone replaying the chain sees the same piece. The Bitcoin Wizard, the community pet, always wears it right away: the newest piece replaces that slot. Below 690 the burn only counts as community food. |
| Founder reward | pet:fr:ID | 1 sat of XCPETS | The two wallets that made the early 25,000 community gear rolls (bc1qs88…j6n: 6 rolls, bc1pvnxv…crnsm: 1 roll) get, per community gear roll, one gold kit (Royal gold crown, Golden sword, Gold armor, Golden cape, Gold aviators) in their inventory plus 36 free gear rolls. A free roll is a pet:fr:ID burn of any amount for one of your own pets: it rolls exactly like a paid gear roll and uses one free roll. With none left (or from any other wallet) the burn only counts as community food. |
| Plain burn | (no tag) | any | Feeds the community pet and counts on the burner board. |
Gear slots
Stats keep their rarity bonus (Common +0, Uncommon +3, Rare +6, Legendary +10) and are set at birth. Six slots, opened in this order: Headwear, Grip, Outfits, Drip, Guise, Footwear. Capacity: 1 slot, +1 at age 2, 5 and 10 days, +1 at 50% and +1 at 80% of days fed (with at least 3 fed days for the last one). Rarity doesn't change how many slots open, but it caps how rare the gear a pet rolls can be. Each species has up to 7 ★ signature pieces (6 for Dodo and Nakamoto); every species except Nakamoto has a ★ signature hat, and hybrids can wear their parents' ★ pieces except the hat. Crowns are shared gear any pet can wear. Gear can be won or lost in battles; only ★ signature pieces are never taken. A pet in the Pet Cemetery can't wear gear; its gear went back to its owner's bag.
Fewer duplicates: each copy you already own makes that item 10% less likely to roll again (two copies: 81%, three: 73%, and so on), counted for your whole wallet at every roll, including rolls and roll tokens in the same burn. Rarity odds unchanged.
Stages
Egg → Hatchling (69, i.e. hatching) → Juvenile (8,349) → Adult (22,149) → Elder (41,469) → Mythic (69,069 care, reached automatically by feeding; there is no Evolve burn): a 69 hatch plus 9 meals (2 / 2 / 2 / 3 per stage), one meal a day: Juvenile day 2, Adult day 4, Elder day 6, Mythic day 9. Mythic discount: once you own a Mythic pet, Mythic for all your pets needs only 21,000 care. Pets already at 21,000 or more become Mythic right away, even before Elder. Care you've already burned is kept as it is, and each of those pets gets 1 free overflow roll for every full 1,000 care above 21,000 (a 1-sat pet:of:ID burn per roll, from the pet's page).
Community pet: every burn counts toward it. It hatches at 69,000 XCPETS and grows 100× slower than a regular pet (Mythic at 6,906,900).
Looks
Eye types include Sunglasses (formerly Beady). Cheeks: Blush, None, Freckles or Tear tracks. Blush 35% / None 45% / Freckles 10% / Tear tracks 10%.
Fair play
- Randomness comes only from Bitcoin block hashes and transaction ids.
- Burns count in chain order. A burn that breaks a rule is never refunded, but it still feeds the community pet.
- Burns count once they are confirmed in a block and the Counterparty node has read them.
- Every Bitcoin transaction pays a network fee (often a few cents, more when the network is busy), so every meal costs BTC too.
Rule history
(when each rule switched on, by Bitcoin block)
The pages above describe the game as it works now. This is the one place that lists when each rule switched on. Every burn replays under the rule that was live at its block.
- 971,040: one meal a day. Feeds before it followed the earlier rule (up to 3 meals a day of 1,380 / 2,300 / 3,220 / 3,450) and keep all their care. Freckles and Tear tracks cheeks roll for pets hatched from here on; older pets keep their look.
- 971,500 / 971,501: the cutoff (every burn at or before 971,500 replays exactly like the original game). New from 971,501: battles (
pet:fight:A:B690 +pet:accept:N690), breeding (pet:breed:A:B690; with two owners the partner's owner accepts within 144 blocks for 690 and the egg goes to the requester) and release (pet:rel:ID/pet:rel:START:MASK, up to 120 pets per burn). Community feed: any amount of 69 or more counts (the Play page offers 69, 690 or 6,900). Every XCPETS burn by anyone counts toward the community pet. Gear: one universal pool, capacity 1-6 slots from age and care, slots Headwear, Grip, Outfits, Drip, Guise, Footwear. - 971,515: bundled feeding (
pet:fm:START:MASK, a window of about 105-125 consecutive pet numbers). - 971,519: community gear roll (
pet:c:roll, 690). 971,773: pick the slot with:HEADWEAR…:FOOTWEAR. - 971,525: lucky drops (25% per stage-up, 2% per meal).
- 971,526: founder reward (gold kit plus 36 free rolls per early community gear roll, spent with
pet:fr:ID). - 971,588: fewer duplicates (each copy you own makes that piece 10% less likely).
- 971,632: The Return (1,111,111 burned): Nakamoto went to Cold Storage and the Bitcoin Wizard became the community pet.
- 971,650: breed carry: the accepting pet carries the requester pet's best stat into its own future children.
- 971,659: Nakamoto becomes a hatchable 13th species that grows and breeds like the others. 971,665: a hatch is Nakamoto exactly 1 in 777, always Legendary.
- 971,669: each species gets a lowest tier. Pets hatched before it that were below their species' lowest tier kept their looks, moved up to that tier and gained the difference in stat bonus (for example, an Uncommon Dodo became a Legendary Dodo with +7 to every stat).
- 971,674: two different species (Nakamoto included) give a hybrid 68.4773435% of the time; the same species gives a bred-true bonus (+3 to one stat, or a rarer pattern or eye trait).
- 971,720: rarity no longer caps how many gear slots open.
- 971,771: KEVIN, Sarutobi and Lenny boosted inside the Legendary tier (about 1 in 676 each, from 1 in 861).
- 971,789: no limit on how many times a pet can breed (1,008-block wait between breeds), and hybrid parents always give a hybrid (including three-way mixes).
- 971,806: Mythic discount (21,000 care once you own a Mythic) and overflow rolls (
pet:of:ID). - 972,132: list feeding (
pet:fl:ID.ID…): one burn feeds several pets, however far apart their numbers are.
Try it all on Play.
⚠️ This is experimental software. Token burns are irreversible. You can lose XCPETS and Bitcoin transaction fees. No one guarantees this game will work as expected or that the token will retain any value. Use at your own risk.