My First Day in the Upland Metaverse

Yes, I dared to dive headfirst into one of the big blockchain metaverses without any prior knowledge. My first day in Upland was then primarily one thing: terribly confusing.

A warning beforehand: this won’t be a guide on how you should best play Upland, as I don’t know anything about it myself yet. Instead, I’m just documenting my journey of discovery from day one. So join me on my journey into the unknown and experience all the breakthroughs and mistakes I will make.

I am also not explaining what Upland is, what a Metaverse is, or how the blockchain works. Anyone reading this article will have heard of Upland and looked at the basics elsewhere.

Now that that’s cleared up let’s get the journey started.

I used @Dulleo referral link because I plan to follow his step by step guide for beginners, which you can read here:

After clicking on the link, I was taken to a simple login page. There I had to enter my desired username, an email address, and a password. After that, I got a verification email to click on another link to verify my email address.

However, the page I ended up on told me that something had gone wrong and that I should try again. So I did, but it didn’t work again.

At this point, I thought my Upland adventure was over before it started. But then another mail came confirming that I now had an account. The link in this mail took me to a short tutorial explaining the basics of the Upland game. After watching the presentation, I was finally able to log into the game with my chosen username.

The first thing you have to do in this game is to select your so-called Explorer. The Explorer is, so to speak, the character with whom you roam the territory of Upland. You can choose from six rather simple-looking explorers. In addition, the Explorer’s color can be customized. I chose an explorer in the shape of a flashlight with a purple background color.

The Explorer can be changed at any time later, so I didn’t worry too much about my choice.

After the Explorer is chosen and saved, things get interesting. I immediately received 6000 UPX. UPX is the game currency of Upland. It can be used to purchase land, use transportation, and probably a few more things I have no idea about yet.

As soon as you start the game, helpful short instructions are displayed again and again for me as a beginner.

Nevertheless, I was at a loss at first. As described in the tutorial above, I could select that I wanted to go to Fresno, but I couldn’t figure out how to take the train there to Bakersfield. So I first clicked on a couple of properties that said FSA. These are supposed to be reserved for new players.

But at first, I only found FSA properties that already belonged to someone. I had to figure out how to find free properties. Anyway, the navigation is not very intuitive for non-gamers like me. To move my Explorer specifically, I needed additional knowledge. So I took a trip to Youtube to look for tutorials.

Unfortunately, I didn’t find anything there either. But then I luckily discovered the tutorials provided by the development team directly in the game. To access these tutorials, click on the three dots at the bottom of the screen and select Resources and then Tutorials.

The tutorial “Navigating Upland” seemed promising to me.

The first thing I learned was that my Explorer is constantly roaming around on its own, looking for attractive properties. I, as the player, cannot influence this random movement.

Sends are another way to move around the Upland. With them, you can send the Explorer to other properties that are already owned by other players. Why I would want to do that is not clear to me yet. I want to find free properties that either don’t belong to anyone yet or that I can create ( mint ) myself first.

When you visit a property that belongs to another player, you pay a visit fee. that is something like in Monopoly. As I said, I don’t know why I should do this yet, but I’m just starting out and still have a lot to learn.

With nothing else to do, I clicked on an FSA plot near my Explorer and used one of 11 sends my Explorer had available. Within moments my Explorer traveled there, and I was poorer by 5 UPX.

Nowhere was a vacant property to be seen. Slowly, I grew impatient. The Explorer moves at the speed of a snail, and you can’t really do much except clicking through tutorials.

According to the article linked above, a site called UPX World is supposed to help you find vacant lots in Upland. Unfortunately, though, this site is apparently being relaunched at the moment, so that it won’t be available again until 2022. So I’ll have to keep an eye out for vacant lots myself.

So I was wondering if I might be better off in a different city. Fresno was touted as an ideal starting point for beginners, but apparently, that information is outdated. The only problem was that I had no idea how to switch back to the view where I could select a city.

Then I found out that you can zoom out so far on the map that you can see the whole city first and then other cities. On that occasion, I discovered the Fresno train station. I remembered the tip to take the train to Bakersfield because there are supposed to be many free properties for beginners there.

So I clicked on the station, and to my boundless delight, I was offered to be sent there for 5 UPX. Once there, I could then pick a terminal and travel from there to Bakersfield. This trip cost me another 45 of my initial 6000 UPX. The journey on the train was then in real-time and took thirteen minutes.

When I arrived, I zoomed out again to get an overview. I actually discovered an area where there appeared to be some vacant properties. I then clicked on a property that belonged to another player and was near the vacant properties.

In Upland, you can only send to plots that already belong to someone. So the reason to enter other people’s properties is to move long distances in Upland and reach areas that interest you.

The property I picked out has a specific address. To get there, you have to go back to your Explorer and click on your sends, which are symbolized by a small paper airplane. There you can enter the destination address.

I reached the teammate’s property and was now close enough to the vacant lot to purchase it.

Moments later, the time had come. I bought my first virtual property in Upland. After that, it took a few more minutes for the transaction to be entered into the blockchain. Since then, I have been the actual owner of this plot of land and received a bonus of 100 UPX from Upland for my first transaction.

I paid 4185 UPX for the property. So if I want to buy another plot of land, I will have to put real money in my hand and buy UPX. So, of course, I did that immediately and invested $20, buying 20,000 UPX. This gave me enough in-game currency to buy a second plot and gave me a new status. With a net worth of over 10,000 UPX, I am now no longer a visitor but an official uplander.

There was a lovely little ceremony and a certificate.

The advantage of being an Uplander instead of a visitor is that I no longer have to log in at least once every seven days to keep my Upland visa. If you don’t do that as a visitor, you lose all the properties you have acquired up to that point. As an Uplander, I own my land forever, no matter what I do. However, I can sell them at any time.

Ah, and one more thing: I am now eligible for the referral program as an official uplander.

So if you want to dive into the Upland, you can use my referral link. We both get something out of it because we both get a bonus.

Here is my link:

Hi! Check out Upland, a virtual property trading game. If you use this link, Upland will award you with a bonus for your first purchase

That’s the end of my first day in Upland. I have managed to go from being a Visitor to an Uplander and have purchased two properties. After some initial difficulties, I am beginning to understand how things work in Upland.

I will continue to report how I am doing there.

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