Here’s what you need to get started:

• A computer or laptop running the desktop version of Chrome or Firefox
• MetaMask, a digital wallet used specifically with web apps
• Ether, a form of digital payment that powers CryptoPuppies

To use CryptoPuppies, you will need to install MetaMask, a digital wallet. You will need to put money in it to make your first purchase.

Note: A digital wallet like MetaMask acts like a bank account—treat it with respect and make sure you don’t forget your password or the seed words.

Some users need to uninstall and reinstall MetaMask because they’ve experienced a bug. If you kept your seed words, this is very easy! Just delete the extension, reinstall it, and import your twelve seed words. Then you’ll set the password you want to use (this can be the same one you used before or a whole new password), and confirm your email address and username again on the CryptoPuppies website.

For U.S. citizens only: you can buy ether (ETH) in MetaMask. ETH is a digital currency that enables our game to run.

For everyone else: you will need to purchase ETH from an exchange, and then transfer the ETH from your exchange wallet to your MetaMask wallet. Unfortunately, you cannot play CryptoPuppies with only an exchange account.

For U.S. citizens only: you are able to purchase ETH directly from the MetaMask wallet using the Coinbase widget. This is more convenient and doesn’t require you to create two accounts.

For everyone else: you need to buy ETH from an exchange using normal fiat currency. Copy your MetaMask address by clicking on the large ‘…’ next to your account, then select ‘Copy Address to clipboard’. Go to your exchange, click ‘Accounts’, and select your ETH Wallet and click ‘send’. Paste the MetaMask address in the box with the amount you’d like to transfer.

CryptoPuppies is a game centered around breedable, collectible, competable and oh-so-adorable creatures we call CryptoPuppies – A Man’s best friend! Each puppy is one-of-a-kind and 100% owned by you; it cannot be replicated, taken away, or destroyed.

CryptoPuppies is one of the games built on blockchain technology—the same breakthrough that makes things like Bitcoin and Ethereum possible. Bitcoin and ether are cryptocurrencies, but CryptoPuppies are cryptocollectibles with competitive mini-games. You can buy, sell, or trade your CryptoPuppies like a traditional collectible, secure in the knowledge that blockchain will track ownership securely.

But, unlike traditional collectables, you can breed two CryptoPuppies to create a brand-new, genetically unique offspring. It results in something special—just like you! This puppies may be used in crypto games to get profit and fun!

Think breedable Beanie Babies with competitive mini-games.

A toy built with emerging technology, the groundbreaking concept of digital scarcity, and a genetic algorithm, but sure—let’s summarize them with a crude acronym.

Unless someone gives you a CryptoPuppies as a gift, or you win one in a contest, yes.

Go to the “Marketplace” and look at the CryptoPuppies for sale, or breed two CryptoPuppies together.

Your CryptoPuppies profile page has two buttons near its name for selling and breeding.

There’s no standard price for CryptoPuppies. Users set their own starting price when they sell their Puppy, and the price goes down until the Puppy is purchased or auction minimum is reached.

The CryptoPuppies team releases a new “Gen 0” CryptoPuppy every 45 minutes. After that, there will be no new Gen 0 CryptoPuppies! The starting price of “Gen 0” CryptoPuppies is determined by the average price of the last five CryptoPuppies that were sold, plus 50%.

Note that you need to use ether to purchase CryptoPuppies.

Just one! However, we recommend starting with two so that you can start breeding them together.

CryptoPuppies is built on blockchain technology, which is relatively new stuff. It’s safe and secure, but it’s going to be a little complicated until the rest of the world catches up.

Ether powers the Ethereum network, which is what CryptoPuppies is built on. Ether acts like any other currency; the value fluctuates with the market.

You need to convert your currency (e.g. USD, CAD, GBP, etc.) into ether to pay for things on our network.

Puppy auctions can go up or down in price, and when time expires, the price simply stops moving. The puppy is only returned to you if you cancel the sale or siring, or if your puppy is sired with. Putting a Puppy up for sale or siring is a transaction on the blockchain, so you must pay gas.

Not exactly. Blockchain technology prevents us from tampering with the ecosystem we built, which protects your CryptoPuppies from artificial inflation or the digital collectible equivalent of insider trading.

Once all the “Gen 0” CryptoPuppies are gone, there’s no way for us to add more.

There are two parts to the cost of breeding new puppies: a transaction fee and a birthing fee. Every transaction sent to the Ethereum network requires ‘gas’; the gas fee is given to Ethereum miners. The birthing fee is paid to the programmer who calls the function to give birth once the dame is due.

The cost varies, but an average price will be around 0.008 Ether.

It’s the 21st century; let’s ease up on the labels.

Every CryptoPuppy can play the role of Dame (i.e. mother) or Sire (i.e. father). However, a CryptoPuppy can only be one at a time. For example, your Dame can’t Sire while they’re expecting—and vice versa.

Start by choosing one of your CryptoPuppies to be the Sire (i.e. the dad). Then you can choose one of your other CryptoPuppies to be the mom.

• Go to “My Puppies
• Select the Puppy who will be the Sire
• Press the breeding button
• Choose one of your other Puppies to be the mom
• Approve the ether transaction

You can expect a new Puppy to appear in “My Puppies soon!

Start by finding the CryptoPuppy you want to act as the Sire (i.e. the dad) and make sure you have the ether to pay their siring fee. Then choose one of your Puppies to act as the mom.

• Go to “Marketplace”
• Select “Siring”
• Select the Puppy who will be the Sire
• Click “Breed now”
• Select one of your Puppies to be the mom
• Click “Okay, give them some privacy”
• Approve the ether transaction

You can expect a new Puppy to appear in “My Puppies soon!

A CryptoPuppy can’t breed while it’s expecting offspring or recovering from siring. Each time a CryptoPuppy breeds, its cooldown period will increase. Later generation offspring will also have a naturally longer cooldown period.

Each CryptoPuppie’s cooldown period is displayed on their bio page.

‘Gas’ is a shorthand used to describe the cost of powering a transaction or contract in Ethereum, which is the blockchain network that CryptoPuppies is built on.

Because blockchain is decentralized, every transaction is distributed through multiple computers, not a central server. This ensures each token—in this case, each CryptoPuppy-is secure and one-of-a-kind. However, it also takes more computational power, which is covered by the cost of gas. Ethereum typically communicates this cost in gwei (1 million gwei = 1 ether/ETH).

We released hundreds of CryptoPuppies when we launched. New CryptoPuppy is released approximately every 45 minutes—we call these parentless Puppies “Gen 0” CryptoPuppies. Once all the “Gen 0” Puppies are gone, the only way to get a new CryptoPuppy is to breed two together or to buy one from another user on the marketplace.

Each CryptoPuppy has a probabilistically unique genetic combination that affects not only what it looks like, but what its offspring look like.

Basically, each CryptoPuppy isn’t just composed of what you can see, but also a variety of traits that can only be found through breeding. Certain genetic combinations can unlock an ‘ascension’—a whole new characteristic!

For example, a green eyed puppy and a blue eyed puppy might unlock a purple eyed puppy (NOTE: This example isn’t true, but the concept is).

Attributes are sometimes changed as the result of a mistake, like a feature rendering incorrectly when it was initially released. These minor errors are usually caught before the attribute is discovered, but in rare cases, a user breeds a pupppy with them before we implement a fix. As a result, these beautiful abominations are some of the rarest CryptoPuppies in the game!

Fancy Puppies are a super special kind of CryptoPuppy with custom art. Fancy Puppies aren’t unique, but they are much rarer than other puppies. New Fancy Puppies are released almost every week, but they can take awhile to unlock through the right breeding combinations!

Combining the right combination of attributes into a single puppy is how Fancy Puppies are born. However, just because you figure out the characteristics that need to be bred together to result in a Fancy Puppy does not mean one will be guaranteed to be born. It may take a few tries to get the offspring you’re after!

Payments for sales and auctions are called “internal transactions” in Etherscan. They have their own tab.

No, this isn’t a scam.

CryptoPuppies are NOT a cryptocurrency. They’re more like a cryptocollectible. The real-world analogy for a cryptocurrency is dollars or pounds; a cryptocollectible’s real world analogy is closer to assets like baseball cards or fine art.

As dictated by the smart contract, any CryptoPuppy you own belongs to you. Like any product or property you can own, the market price is determined by demand, scarcity, and your asking price.

Not directly; the technology simply isn’t there yet. As soon as it is, we plan to support it.

However, most exchanges do let you buy ether with a credit card.

Not yet. CryptoPuppies relies on technologies that simply don’t function on mobile devices, like MetaMask.

We are developing a mobile app that offers some fun features, but you will need a laptop, desktop, or tablet browser to complete transactions for the foreseeable future.

When you buy a Gen 0 puppy—which are released every 45 minutes—we get that income. Otherwise, we take 3.75% from each transaction on our marketplace.

Note that we made the marketplace to make our game as easy as possible to use. It’s possible to do whatever you want with your puppies outside of our marketplace without paying us a cent.