A Complete Newbie Takes Part in an NFT Easter Egg Hunt

If, like me, you grew up somewhere in the western world, Easter time probably conjures up fond memories of hunting for chocolate eggs in the back garden.

As you scrambled under bushes and peeked into knotholes, hoping for a glimpse of that shiny silver wrapping, your parents watched on with smug, knowing smiles, almost as excited as you in their own way. I was convinced those days of childlike glee were behind me, forever lost in the sands of time, to be relived only through the looking glass of nostalgia.

I was wrong.

This Easter, I was delighted to find those hours of egg hunting were back, only this time the eggs would be NFTs, and my smug parents would be the AtomicHub community managers and collection creators. Throughout the weekend, a bunch of clues and riddles would be posted, and if I was smart enough (or lucky enough) to be in the first ten players to crack them, I’d be in the running for a massive WAXP prize pool. Each clue would lead to a well-known WAX collection and their specially made Easter NFT that, along with the potential for the competition prizes, would announce to the world that I was a smart little cookie.

As a lover of puzzles and of other people’s validation, I was all-in from the moment I heard about it.

When the event launch came around, the AtomicHub Discord server burst into life as the community readied themselves for an intense weekend of hunting, and I was ecstatic to be a part of it.

AH community managers Nuno and z3us—two of the aforementioned smug parents—teased out the treasure hunt details, and when the first clue was suddenly posted, I felt the collective pulse of the community race as we scrambled en masse to claim the first NFT.

An extensive crossword puzzle from Waxel World—a P2E game featuring generative ninja NFTs and in-game asset crafting—would lead us to those ten coveted prizes.

With a flurry of frantic searching and scribbling, I felt I was well on my way to victory, but before long I looked up from my crossword to find that the NFT prizes had already been claimed by ten other smart little cookies!?

This was already far more exhilarating than any childhood Easter egg hunt—I’d had my first taste of the competition, and I was hooked. What was immediately apparent was that the weekend would be a fun and intense one.

The next challenge flew by in a flurry of schema-searching and NFT-hunting and within eight short minutes, ten lucky players had claimed the next prize from Corporate World (Hell on Earth) – a series of collectible trading cards in comic-book style.

The prize NFT was a Hard-Boiled Egg, dressed in 1940s detective garb and my heart leapt to find that I had answered the riddle correctly! For a moment my adrenaline subsided and was replaced by the sweet endorphins of victory!

No childhood Easter egg hunt that I know of requires its participants to stay up around the clock. This, however, was no ordinary Easter egg hunt, and as the weekend continued, it became clear that sleep was to take a back seat.

The server stayed active with eager players and periodic giveaways, until the wee hours of the morning and, at 4am, my brain whirred into life as the latest riddle was dropped:

“From the depths of the grave,
You will find the crown.
The holder of bros will seek to be found.”

While a horde of players bombarded the Hasbro website, others of us had stumbled upon an NFT called Broholder Holder from Floyd Jenkins’ Deck of Mythical Varmints—a DnD-inspired collection powered by fantasy trading cards.

I mustered all my cunning to get through the RPG taking place in Floyd’s server, but my hopes of winning were dashed as I drank a poisonous red potion.

By far the most difficult challenge thus far, it took a solid eleven hours for all ten NFTs to be claimed.

Saturday morning started with an eagerness that cut through my mounting exhaustion. While the holder of bros continued to allude many, the fourth challenge had been posted and I awoke only to find I had missed out on the excitement!

As I rubbed my bleary eyes, I saw that the server had been alive with activity as those with more stamina than I vied to solve a series of picture clues.

Sadly, though, the claim had been botted and NFT Storycards – a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure card collection – was taken out of the running as a result. I felt the collective disappointment, but rather than succumb to despair, the game continued with a renewed sense of urgency.

I was ecstatic to find that I immediately knew the answer to the next riddle, and frantically jumped into Costume Clash, the P2E racer and platform game that first tempted me into blockchain gaming.

After a solid two hours of breaking an in-game egg, losing it to attackers, and accidentally dropping it in a river, I finally transported my treasure towards the mouth of a secret cave, where I was ambushed mere seconds before reaching my destination. Those seconds apparently made all the difference as the announcement rang out in the AtomicHub server that all ten NFTs had been claimed.

There was a buzz in the space as players recounted their own Costume Clash gameplay—many of us had come so close, and yet we were so far.

The next one, I determined, wouldn’t pass me by.

Oh, how wrong I was—I had failed to take into account the mad genius that is MikeeMyk, and I wasn’t the only one.

We started by piecing together the literal puzzle that revealed the Red Panda Adventures and Waxy collections – two endearing collectible art projects that have captured the hearts of the WAX community.

In that puzzle was a code, and I went to Mikee’s server to see what I could do with it.

I arrived to find the server had already devolved into chaos as the horde of players scrambled to decipher the challenge.

Finally, after a veritable eternity of random and desperate attempts to crack the code, all ten NFTs were miraculously claimed, and Mikee revealed the method to his madness. I wasn’t quite sure whether to laugh or cry—it was an emotional rollercoaster, to say the least.

What I did know, was that, against all odds, this rollercoaster had brought the community closer together in a shared sense of confusion. With a broken brain (but a smile on my lips) I went reluctantly to bed and dreamed of hunting NFTs.

When I awoke on Sunday morning, I found I’d missed yet another clue.

In the middle of the night, a riddle had been posted, which led players to two almost identical NFTs from Glummy Bears—a collection of irreverent bears who, according to the collection description, “don’t give a sh** about you.”

I kicked myself for missing out on another of these remarkably diverse challenges – this one involved spotting the difference between two spinning eggs inscribed with letters, then crafting a code word out of the missing letters.

I logged in to find a server full of dizzy but excited players who seemed to be enjoying the hunt just as much as I was.

I didn’t have to wait long to jump back into the game—at 9 a.m., we were presented with another riddle, and this time I went way off in the wrong direction at first. The mention of a stream in the clue led me first to NeonSpace—well-known streamers and NFT creators in the WAX community.

After an embarrassing amount of time digging around their website and server, I realized I should have been taking that clue much more literally. When I finally redirected to Crypto Moonies—a collection of 3D space explorer figurines by the artist CREEK—I found myself frantic at the thought of being left behind.

Thankfully, I wasn’t too late.

I joined the hustle and bustle in the Moonies server, where players cryptically swapped notes on the in-depth questionnaire which promised to lead ten of us to glory.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t one of them, despite my best efforts. The ten winners rejoiced while the rest of us showered them with proverbial pats on the back.

Though I was disappointed I’d missed out on another NFT, I was genuine in my congratulations, and I was pleasantly surprised to find the general sentiment echoed my own. The WAX community, once again, far exceeded my expectations and reminded me just how lucky I am to be in this space.

By the time the next clue rolled around seven hours later, I was in good spirits.

It’s a good thing I was because it featured one of my favorite collections. Cat Stickers—that is, the cutest little cat stickers on WAX—provided another multi-level challenge involving a mind-bending hidden cat photo that led to a word cipher, that led to a puzzle, that led to a claim link.

I heard some people later remark that “Cat Stickers fans are hardcore,” and they’re not wrong.

After some frantic clicking, puzzling, and transcribing, I was in! And I’d finally made it before all ten were gone!

Another round of congratulations and a flurry of cat memes was sufficient to tide us over until the next clue.

When, at 1 a.m., I read the first line of the last riddle, I immediately knew I should be looking at The Adventurer’s Guild—the Discord-based role-playing game that I was already hooked on. Once again, however, I had fallen prey to misdirection. After guilelessly playing a few rounds of the game itself and getting nowhere, I realized I must be in the wrong place. Finally, I went searching through the TAG wiki page where, with that longed-for childlike glee, I cracked the riddle in a matter of seconds. I could barely believe it when I discovered I was one of the lucky ten!

As I had congratulated others, the community turned to congratulate me and I felt my heart fill with pride and gratitude. To me, that sense of belonging and community was worth more than any prize. With a mixture of warmth, gratitude, and exhaustion, I closed my laptop for the last time that weekend.

During those sleepless nights, I’d made new friends, learned more about the WAX space, discovered some great collections, and had an enormous amount of fun.

I had belonged to something greater than myself. As I closed my eyes that night, I drifted into sweet dreams of rummaging under blockchain bushes and in crypto knotholes, pulling out a glittering Hard-Boiled Egg, and, with a huge smile plastered across my face, sharing it with my friends.

Disclaimer: As a member of the NFT Insider team, I didn’t claim any NFT prizes, and competed only for fun (and, of course, validation from strangers).