StepN is probably the most talked-about project at the beginning of this year. Released in January, the app is getting a lot of buzz. Supported by Binance, its goal is now to democratize itself to reach non-cryptocurrency users. Whatever your situation, this guide is intended to give you the necessary advice to start your adventure in this famous “Move to earn”. Not sure which sneaker to start with? That will no longer be the case by the end of this guide!
StepN, move to earn success
StepN is a Move to earn web3 mobile application. We have already introduced the concept of this type of game in this article, so I invite you to read it to learn more.
In short, the app takes the concept of play to earn, but this time integrating physical exercise into real life. The goal is to create an engaging and fun game that encourages you to exercise. You will earn tokens (cryptocurrencies) by walking, jogging or running. You can then use these tokens to progress in the game, or sell them for other cryptocurrencies.
Of course, the app is decentralized. It is currently available on the Solana and BNB Chain blockchains. Note that it is not possible to transfer its NFTs from one blockchain to another, as bridges are too risky from a security point of view for the team that manages StepN.
A true flagship project of the beginning of this year in the crypto ecosystem, StepN and its 500,000 daily users caught the attention of Binance. The exchange platform has therefore invested in the company that runs the app (Find Satoshi Lab) through its Binance Labs fund.
If you want to get started, from discovering the different elements of the app to your first mints to buying your first sneaker, this guide is for you. I personally used StepN for the last two months, so this tutorial is a condensed version of what I learned during this period. If you want to avoid buying the wrong kind of sneaker (like I did), you’ve come to the right place.
As always, before you invest, do your own research. StepN is still in beta, many changes are happening and no one is able to predict its future. Only invest what you can afford to lose. This is the case on all crypto projects, it must be the case with StepN, whose long-term sustainability is anything but guaranteed.
As the game is only available in English, I will use English terms when talking about the elements of the game.
StepN, NFTs, cryptocurrencies and sweat
The-tokens
There are two tokens in StepN. Both have different uses: the GST is the utility token and the GMT is the governance token. One of the key aspects of these tokens their maximum emission level. The GST has no limit to its creation, while the GMT is limited to 6 billion tokens.
Green Satoshi Token (GST)
The Green Satoshi Token is the token utility of StepN. That is, you can (and should) use it within the game to progress. Its generation is potentially unlimited, and its emission takes place during your walking/footing sessions. Currently (because uses are changing fast), you can use the GST to:
- Increase your sneakers by levels
- Repair your sneakers
- Open mystery boxes
- Create new NFT sneakers via spawning
- Upgrade your gems
When you use them for an action, the GSTs are destroyed. Obviously, since it’s a cryptocurrency, you can also exchange it for SOLs, USDCs, or the latest fad token.
Green Metaverse Token (GMT)
The GMT token is the governance token of StepN. Unlike the GST, no more than 6 billion GMTs can exist. Initially, it was only meant to be used to hold voting power on certain decisions, but the team recently decided to give it an in-game use as well. Currently, GMT is used to:
- Pass certain key levels on your sneakers (5, 10, 20, 29, and 30).
- Interact new pairs through spawning.
The team is still thinking about its integration into the game, but it seems acted that the GMT will have 12 use cases. These will be revealed gradually over the next few weeks.
Where to get GST or GMT?
To buy or sell GST or GMT (for example to progress faster in the game, or create new sneakers via the mint), several options are currently available to you:
- On centralized platforms such as Binance, Kucoin, etc…
- From the “Wallet” part of the application, you will be able to exchange them for SOL, USDC and GMT
- From a decentralized exchanger, such as Orca or Jupiter.
With regards to GMT, these are even your only options, as you can’t earn any yet in the game.
Sneakers
Sneaker-type NFTs are the basic building block of the game: if you don’t own one, you can’t play and therefore won’t be able to win GST. The type of sneaker is the most important element: it determines how fast you should walk to maximize your GST gains.
The types
There are 4 different types of sneakers, each suited to a certain type of use. Determining your walking profile is important so you don’t get the wrong type of sneaker. If you’re not sure, you can run the app without a sneaker to see how fast you walk.
Walker : the walking sneakers in the game. You have to move between 1 and 6 km/h.
Jogger: The most versatile sneakers. They allow you to move between 4 and 10 km/h, which in practice leaves room for walking (with a good stride) or jogging.
Runner : For the more athletic among us, Runners will be the most interesting sneakers. Not only do they have the best earning potential (with the exception of trainers but which are slightly different and most importantly much more expensive), but they allow you to run between 8 and 20km/h.
Trainers: definitely the best sneakers in the game. You can use them from 1 to 20km/h, so it’s a real comfort to use. And not only do they offer peace of mind, they provide the best payoff in the game. Obviously, the price of trainers is a bit higher than other types.
Sneakers also have a basic GST gain that depends on their type. Keep in mind that this is only the base gain. The higher you turn up your efficiency, the more you will multiply your GST gain.
| Type | Optimum speed | Basic GST gain |
| Walker | 1 – 6 km/h | 4 GST / energy |
| Jogger | 4 – 10 km/h | 5 GST / energy |
| Runner | 8 – 20 km/h | 6 GST / energy |
| Trainer | 1 – 20 km/h | 4 to 6,25 / energy |
So your first decision will be what type of sneaker to use. Be aware that a few things are not mentioned in the whitepaper but may affect your choice. First of all, be aware that the GPS of the application tends to estimate you slower if you are in a dense urban area. On the other hand, if you are walking in an open area, you will gain a few miles per hour. If you’re not sure, you can do a run without a sneaker to see how fast you walk on average.
The statistics
- Efficiency (GST Gain): This is the feature that determines your GST gain per minute when using the sneaker.
- Luck (Best Drops): determines the mystery boxes (see below) that you will earn from your sessions.
- Comfort (GMT Gain): It is similar to efficiency, but determines the GMT gain (the other token in the game). Since this one is not yet winnable, the feature does not matter at the moment. But its time will probably come.
- Resilience (Loss of Durability): It decreases the wear and tear on your sneakers after each run. Less wear means less GST needed to repair your sneakers.
The sneakers also have a durability bar, which represents the endurance of it. When you run, the sneaker loses durability points. You will then need to spend GST to repair the sneakers, bringing up their durability level. If you don’t do this, you will earn less GST from the following thresholds:
- 10% less earnings from 50 durability
- 90% less earnings from 20 durability
So it’s essential to think carefully about repairing your pairs after a session. Some decide to repair all the time, others from 70 points. It’s up to you to find the strategy that works best for you!
As far as features go, they are all important, but not at the same point in the game. So, when you start you will want to prioritize efficiency and resilience with the goal of maximizing your GST gains.
Luck only starts to count when the 4 energy points are reached. Before that, you can earn mystery boxes (see below). Only then does the luck come into play. Depending on your goals, you can already decide to give up luck, or not!
The comfort is only useful if you want to prepare for the future, since you can’t win GMT yet. My advice is to totally ignore this feature when choosing your first pair, since you will focus on winning GST first.
The quality (rarity) of sneakers
At the beginning of the game, almost everyone starts with a basic sneaker, which is a common (common).
Sneakers come in different levels of rarity: common, uncommon, rare, epic, and legendary. The higher the rarity, the more base stats and number of points to distribute when leveling will bes.
| Sneaker type | Basic features | Feature gain when passing a level | Bonus to total energy |
| Common | 1 to 10 | 4 | |
| Uncommon | 8 to 18 | 6 | +1 |
| Rare | 15 to 35 | 8 | +2 |
| Epic | 28 to 63 | 10 | +3 |
| Legendary | 50 to 112 | 12 | +4 |
The Levels
You can make your sneaker pass levels. To do this, you will need to destroy (burn) GST, see GMT for some important levels. When you decide to improve your sneaker, you will have to wait a certain time before it reaches it. This time increases with the level of your basket (1 hour to pass level 1, 15 hours to pass level 15, etc…). Once the leveling is completed, you will be able to spend the received characteristic points.
Keep in mind that during a leveling process, it is impossible to interact with the sneaker: no mint, no repair, impossible to put on or remove a gem, etc.
When your sneaker reaches certain key levels, special events come into play. The most important of these is (for now) the ability to mint to level 5.
| Level | Event |
| 5 | Unlock first gem slot |
| 5 | Unlocks the ability to reproduce (mint) |
| 10 | Unlocks the location (not yet implemented) |
| 10 | Unlocks second gem location |
| 15 | Unlocks third gem location |
| 20 | Unlocks the fourth gem slot |
Reproduction
Yes, sneakers can reproduce! It’s even a big part of the fun of the game, and an essential mechanism if you want to grow your sneaker count. In practice, it’s simply a matter of using two ” parents ” sneakers to create a new one.
To make a mint, you need:
- 2 level 5 sneakers minimum
- GSTs and GMTs (see table below)
- that both sneakers have been in your inventory for at least 48h
- that both sneakers have not been used for mint for 48h
Each pair can make up to 7 mints. And most importantly (and you will see this in the table below) the first two mints have the same cost (100 GST + 10 GMT for 2 commons for example). Once these two mints are done, it becomes more expensive to do reproduction. That’s why there are a huge number of 2 mint sneakers on the marketplace.
Beware, since the beginning of May, StepN to implement a dynamic mint cost. The share of GST and GMT needed changes depending on the GST rate. Below is the cost for two pairs without reproductions.
When you open a Shoebox, you’re more likely to get a shoe of a similar type to the parents. Similarly, the kids’ gem sockets are more likely to be the same as the parents’. If you want to access the detailed genetics numbers in StepN, you can find all the details here.
During mints, the most interesting events that can occur are:
- Mint of an uncommon shoe (3% chance). Or rare if you open a Shoebox uncommon, etc…
- Mint of a trainer (3% chance if neither parent is a trainer)
- And having two Shoebox (or ” twins “)
The shoe stats contained in the Shoeboxes are completely random, and do not depend on the parents’ stats. Similarly, having a lot of ” luck ” on parents does not influence special events during a mint.
The mystery boxes (MBs or mystery boxes)
At the end of a walk/run session, you will have a chance to receive a mystery box. They contain the famous gems that enhance the sneakers.
In practice, mystery boxes are available from 4 energy points. To increase your chances of getting them, two parameters come into play:
- the total energy you spent in the session
- the ” luck ” attribute of the sneaker you used
Like sneakers, MBs come in several levels of rarity. Obviously, the rarer the box, the more interesting the content may be (but that’s not always the case, trust me!).
As far as their content is concerned, it is always the same: gems. What differs is their number and level. A level 1 box will most often contain a single level 1 gem, when the rarer ones sometimes contain 4 gems that can be level 3.
It is important to note that opening MBs costs GSTs. Even if you wait until the end of the count, there is a floor cost that differs depending on the level of the box (the rarer it is, the higher the GST cost). It is also possible to spend extra GST to open it faster.
The Gems
From level 5, you’ll be able to equip gems on your sneaker. To do this, you will need to spend GST to “open” the gem slot. Then, if you have a gem, you can insert it into the slot to upgrade a sneaker.
There are 4 types of gems, one per feature.
- Yellow ones improve efficiency
- Light blue ones improve luck
- Dark blue ones improve resilience
- Red ones improve comfort
Like sneakers, gems have levels. The higher this one is, the greater the bonus provided by the gem.
You can also try to combine 3 identical gems to get a higher level one. To perform the operation, go to the “Upgrade” tab of your gem inventory. The operation will cost you GST (50 to upgrade gems from level 1 to 2) and is not certain to succeed, so think carefully!
The gem slots also have levels. It is the little ” ears ” around the slot that indicate this. The rarer the sneaker, the more likely it is to have upgraded slots.
The Financial Elements
Who says “Move to earn”, “Play to earn” or “GameFi” necessarily says that financial elements are present in the application. In StepN, these are implemented as mechanisms that limit your daily earnings. Unfortunately, you won’t be able to run all day to generate GST!
The Energy Bar
The energy bar determines how long you can run while earning GST. When you start a run, you will lose 0.2 energy points per minute. So one energy point is equivalent to 5 minutes of running. Once you run out of energy, you’ll have to wait for a recharge to earn GST again.
The energy recharge is 25% of its total every 6 hours. So if you have 2 energy points, you will receive 0.5 energy at each recharge.
To know: when you buy your first sneaker, you won’t get two energy points directly. You’ll have to wait at least a few hours for a recharge to take place.
If you want to increase your energy total, you’re going to need to acquire more sneakers (see infographic below). Note that it’s impossible to exceed 20 energy points total.
Having quality sneakers other than ” common ” in your inventory also increases your energy:
- +1 energy for an uncommon
- +2 for a rare
- +3 for an epic
- +4 for a legendary
The GST gain limit
In StepN, you can’t run all day because of the energy limit just mentioned. But even if that were the case, there is a maximum amount of GST you can earn in a day. Once that limit is reached, you will have to wait until the next day to continue generating GST. A day runs from 3pm to 2:59pm UK time.
To increase your maximum daily gain, you will need to upgrade your sneaker. The higher level it is, the more GSTs you can earn. The maximum, for a level 30 basketball is 300 GST per day. On the other hand, you don’t necessarily need to use your higher level sneaker during your sessions.
At the beginning of your adventure, you won’t really feel the daily earning limit. Rather, it is for those who accumulate a certain number of sneakers. Once you reach that limit, it’s probably time to upgrade your main sneaker.
Download app
The app is available for Android and IOS. You can download it directly from the play/app store. Once that is done, you will need to register. The procedure is meant to be as simple as possible in order to be accessible to everyone.
When you register, you will have to provide a ” Activation code” . The mechanism is recent and was implemented to regulate the (massive) influx of new users. To get a code, allowing you to join the application, several ways are available:
- go to this address, or StepN provides new codes every day.
- go to the official StepN discord, in the #-activation-code channel. Players post new codes there regularly.
- ask another runner to give you a code. Indeed, when a player spends 10 energy points, it generates a code. This one is in the ” Account ” part of the application.
Home screen
Once registration is complete, the serious business begins. The home screen is actually the screen that starts a race. It includes the following:
- access to the ” My Account “
- your token balance (GST, GMT and SOL) and access to the wallet
- the sneaker you will be using
- the sneaker durability
- the sneaker level
- the mystery box locations
- the daily earnings bar
- your energy level, and the time until the next 25% reload
- the button ” Start “, which allows you to start a session
- access to other sections :
- Your NFT inventory (sneakers, gems)
- the marketplace, to buy your NFTs (sales are done from the inventory).
- The ” Trophies ” section is not yet available.
When you first use it, access your wallet by clicking on the Solana icon at the top right of the screen. You will then be offered:
- import an existing wallet, to be used if you are comfortable with Solana
- create a new wallet
If you use the second option, choose a wallet access code that only you know and be sure to note your 12-word recovery phrase. These are the 12 words that will allow you to access your funds in case of a problem (change of phone, forget the code, etc …). I insist on it, write down your 12 words and keep them safe.
Once your wallet is created, you will need to deposit Solana (SOL) on it in order to buy sneakers. To do this, send it from a centralized exchange (Binance, FTX) or another wallet to the address under your SOL total. Once completed, use the “Transfer” button and then “To spending” to be able to use them in the app.
When studying the characteristics of a pair, consider using the ” Base ” button to see the statistics at level 0, without the points spent to improve it.
Concerning the most important stats in choosing one’s first sneaker, prioritize:
- The efficiency, to maximize GST gain.
- The resilience, to avoid spending too much GST on repair.
- Luck, only if you want to have at least 4 energy points, to drop mystery boxes.
My personal advice is to look for a sneaker with a cumulative efficiency and resilience of at least 15. If you have to choose between the two stats, go for efficiency. Don’t rush to buy, good opportunities appear regularly.
Luck will not be useful until you have 4 energy points (that is, 3 sneakers). If this is not your case, you can totally ignore it. Otherwise, I refer you to Krit’s excellent mystery box drop chart to determine your need for luck.
The first run
Once you’ve acquired your first sneaker, you’re going to have to wait 24 hours before your energy bar is full. When it is, you will be able to perform your first session. To do this, select the sneaker you want to use on the home screen and press “Start”. The GPS will then record the distances you walk, and the step counter will make sure you are walking. Once your energy is spent, use the “Pause” button and then end the run by pressing and holding the red button. You will then receive your GST, your possible mystery box and your sneaker will lose durability. Remember to fix it, and see you the next day for a new session!
Between now and then, it’s up to you:
- improve your main sneaker
- improve other sneakers dedicated to reproduction
- do some buying/reselling on the marketplace
My personal advice will be to improve your main sneaker at least in the first few days, and put the points in efficiency. This is the statistic that will allow you to gain more GST, and thus further accelerate your progress. After that, use the tools I detail at the end of the article to determine what efficiency/resilience ratio is optimal for your situation.
2 pairs the real game
Let’s be honest: part of StepN’s success, comes from its mint mechanics. It is through the latter that you progress in the game (by increasing your energy total). But it is especially the opportunity to acquire a quality uncommon sneaker of significant value, a trainer or twins. Free to you then to use it, or resell it, or even use it to mint again.
If you want to follow this path, you will need not one but two pairs, if possible with 0 mints. You will then need to jog sessions to acquire a sufficient amount of GST and GMT (100 GST + 100 GMT at least). Since GMT is not yet earnable in the game, you will actually have to convert GST to get it.
For most players, it’s actually about acquiring the number of sneakers that correspond to their weekly release.
Convert your GSTs
To make conversions from one cryptocurrency to another, press the Solana icon at the top right of the home screen. This will take you to your wallet, from which you can directly make trades. So you can turn GST into GMT on this space (for mint, for example), or into USDC to cash out gains.
If you are comfortable with decentralized exchanges, you can also convert GST on most Solana DEX including Orca.
The game is still in beta
Although StepN is already popular in the crypto ecosystem, keep in mind that the game is still in beta. As such, many changes can still take place. For example, the team changed the cost of the mint a few days ago from 120 GST + 80 GMT to 100 GST + 100 GMT. Obviously, this has an impact on token prices.
The features to be
When you say game in beta, that means new features to come. I won’t go into too much detail on the subject, but here’s a (non-exhaustive) list of features that should appear in the coming months:
- sneaker rental, to get more users on board
- marathon mode (10 to 20 km) for the most enduring
- a weekly competition system
- quests and badges system
- the possibility to buy sneakers directly with your bank card
- multi-chain deployment (already done on the NBB Chain)
To find answers
This guide should get you started on the StepN adventure: from starting the app to your first mints, to the dreaded purchase of your first sneaker. Nevertheless, since the game is primarily based on optimization, the more you progress, the more you will need to refine your strategy.
For this, you will be able to find help through:
Finally, I also refer you to the StepN Discord server. The community is very welcoming, so you will find answers (and activation codes) there. You can also follow the main Twitter accounts dedicated to the app. They regularly share interesting content about what’s new, the cost of mints vs. reselling GSTs, or tips (did you know you can open your mystery boxes during your sessions?).
You now have all the keys to get started on StepN. Choose the right type of sneaker for your use, aim for a total efficiency and resilience of at least 15, and if possible sneakers that have never been used for mint. Thereafter, the possible strategies vary according to the goals and desires, but tools have already been developed by the community to accompany you. As for the team, they claim to have learned the lessons that prevented Axie Infinity from lasting despite a similar craze. The appointment is made.
