What Is Hamster Kombat? The Telegram Crypto Game and Airdrop

Are hamsters fighting now? Not exactly—but while Hamster Kombat’s title might be a little misleading, this Telegram-based clicker game has quickly become a dominant leader in the play-to-earn space by expanding upon Notcoin’s winning model.

With some 300 million players, the Hamster Kombat team plans to launch its token on The Open Network (TON) and offer an airdrop claim, rewarding players for racking up in-game coins by eventually dropping them real, tradable crypto tokens.

That’s driven many more people towards the game, but as of this writing, new players can still dive in and rack up coins ahead of the airdrop. Here’s what you need to know about Hamster Kombat, how to play it, and what we know about the token and airdrop so far.

What is Hamster Kombat?

Similar to Notcoin, Hamster Kombat has players tapping away to earn coins in a Telegram-native application (or “mini app”)—which means to play the game, you just open a chat on Telegram.

The game developers claim that they’ve amassed some 300 million users, all eagerly tapping away in-game in order to earn coins that will presumably be used to determine how many tokens players receive in the upcoming Hamster Kombat airdrop.

While Hamster Kombat has been around since March, the game picked up serious steam after the Notcoin airdrop concluded in May—perhaps due to tap-addicted gamers migrating to a new game with an upcoming token and airdrop in the works.

Hamster Kombat’s core concept is similar to Notcoin, with some slightly richer game mechanics layered on top of it. In short: It’s a tap-to-earn game mixed with a crypto exchange simulator.

In Hamster Kombat, you’re the CEO of an up-and-coming crypto exchange, and it’s your job to grow the exchange to new heights never before seen… in the world of hamsters. In order to do so, players tap an image of a cartoon hamster to earn coins, and then use those coins to buy upgrades for their exchange.

How to play Hamster Kombat

Hamster Kombat starts off in a manner familiar to Notcoin users, with players tapping away at a golden coin in the Telegram app. With Hamster Kombat however, the first step is—for some reason—shaving your hamster so he or she can become the CEO of a crypto exchange. 

Similar to Notcoin, players can use their in-game points to purchase “Boosts” that increase stats, such as how many points are earned per tap, or how long you can tap before having to take a break and wait for your energy bar to refill. There are also free daily boosters that players can claim six times per day.

Once players have earned some points, they can start using them to upgrade their exchange in the “Mine” tab of the game. This tab shows all kinds of upgrades that players can purchase (purely with in-game coins) for their exchange, and include things such as adding coins like Bitcoin to be traded at your exchange, setting up a KYC process, or even going on the Joe Rogan podcast.

Every upgrade you purchase for your exchange earns you more coins passively. For example, adding the BTC pair to your exchange costs 250 points, but then earns you 40 points per hour. In other words, these additions quickly pay off and help propel your exchange further along.

There’s also also a daily combo of upgrades that’ll earn you 5 million free coins, plus a daily cipher that you can enter in morse code for another free 1 million in-game coins. Be sure to read our Daily Combo and Daily Cipher guides for details on both.

‘Wen airdrop?’

What’s the point to earning in-game coins? Similarly to Notcoin, Hamster Kombat has also announced an upcoming airdrop, though the has been much more transparent about it than Notcoin was at first.

The HMSTR token was originally targeted for July, but ultimately missed that ETA. As of this writing, we don’t have a clearer estimate in view, and the team attributed the delay to the challenge of dropping a token to such a huge player base.

How will the airdrop work? We don’t have full details yet, but the team has already clarified that unlike Notcoin, it won’t be a straight conversion from in-game coins to on-chain tokens.

“Airdrop will depend on the profit per hour and some other [activity] parameters that we will reveal later, NOT the coin balance,” the team tweeted on June 6, further advising players to “play wisely.”

Hamster Kombat has since tweeted “profit per hour over coin balance,” only emphasizing that detail. So don’t just focus on stacking coins—invest in upgrades and keep growing your virtual exchange ahead of the drop.

And while the game continues to add features, the developers say there’s no one way to boost your allocation. “Participation in various activities will impact the amount of tokens received in the upcoming airdrop, not the fact of distribution itself—all players (but not bots) will receive the tokens,” they wrote in late July, adding that “no section of the game is mandatory to play.”

Also, after the initial airdrop, Hamster Kombat plans to launch a second in-game season with further rewards. So the fun and earnings won’t stop when the token drops.

Edited by Andrew Hayward

Editor’s note: This story was originally published on June 2, 2024 and last updated with new details on August 5.