Millions of players have tapped on Elon Musk’s face over the past few weeks, thanks to the new hit Telegram game, X Empire—or Musk Empire, as it was originally called.

Looking for a way to differentiate X Empire from the mountain of tap-to-earn games on Telegram such as Hamster Kombat and Catizen, the development team swapped out cute pet visuals for a cartoon image of Elon Musk that you need to tap to rack up piles of in-game cash.

The number of players suggests that this approach is working, with millions of players keen to jump on anything related to Musk, even if the game isn't officially endorsed by him. And given the recent name change, we suspect there was some fear of legal action as the game suddenly pulled in a huge audience.

But the promise of a crypto token airdrop further down the line means there could be a chance to earn some coin if you play for a while. Here’s a look at X Empire, how to play it, and what we know so far about the airdrop plans.

What is X Empire?

X Empire is a tap-to-earn game on Telegram that is essentially a clone of the wildly popular Hamster Kombat, as—for the most part—the mechanics are exactly the same. You tap on an image to earn in-game currency, and then spend it to earn passive income when not playing.

There’s no evidence to suggest that the man himself is involved with this in any way, or even endorses it, so it’s safe to assume it’s a fan project. As a result, there’s a chance that it could be shut down at any point if Elon’s legal team gets wind of it—though the recent shift away from "Musk Empire" suggests the developers are trying to mitigate that possibility.

But that hasn’t stopped millions of players from signing up through Telegram in the hopes of eventually securing some tokens on The Open Network (TON)—the same network that hosts Notcoin’s NOT token, and will be used by games like Hamster Kombat and Yescoin.

How to play X Empire 

X Empire is very simple to play. Along with the new name change, the interface has been upgraded to offer other types of avatars and potentially minimize the reliance on Musk's cartoon likeness, though he's still in the mix too. You can tap your avatar to reveal a button at the bottom of the screen, which lets you choose between multiple versions of Musk and other avatars, including optional premium avatars based on the likes of Kim Kardashian... and a muscle-bound Doge.

Hitting the Mining button returns you to the tap-to-earn experience, which is where you'll need to start to begin racking up cash to spend elsewhere in the game. Simply tap on your avatar and get in-game currency until your energy runs out. Then you wait for your energy to refill and do exactly the same thing again. 

Once you have some in-game coins, you can spend them on upgrades to both Elon and his workforce via the "Improve" button to earn passive income when you’re not tapping or even logged into the game. Upgrades for Elon include attributes such as ethics and leadership, while workforce upgrades include staff members and office improvements. All of this will provide you with extra currency that gradually accumulates.

These upgrades will continue earning you coins even when the game is closed, but only for up to three hours—so you’ll need to log back in and claim your passive income before you start earning again.

The one difference that Musk Empire has compared to other similar games is the “City” tab, where you can battle against other players in what is essentially Rock Paper Scissors, and invest in different stocks each day in the hope you pick some winners and make some cash back.

Neither activity is particularly robust, but the fact you have to put some (in-game) money on the line in the hopes of making bigger returns adds at least a little more drama than is usually found in these games.

There's a daily trio of winning stock picks that will earn you loads of extra in-game cash, along with a simple daily riddle that can boost your bag, as well.

When is the airdrop?

According to an update shared with players in the official Telegram community on August 4, the X Empire token is expected to launch sometime around the end of September or early October. The developers stressed that the timeframe depends in part on "the approval of exchanges and a large number of technical integrations on their side."

We don’t know what the token will be called—but we know that the token will launch on TON, which is increasingly the network of choice for the biggest Telegram-based games.

In the airdrop section of the game, the team claims that X Empire is the first step towards an “extensive ecosystem” and that the airdrop will be the next step of this. The developers also say they are “committed to maximizing your earnings,” and that they will “distribute almost all our tokens to our community.”

How can you earn the tokens? According to an announcement on September 4, the following criteria will determine whether you get a share of the airdrop, and how much: connecting a wallet, how much in-game profit you earn per hour through upgrades, and how many "quality" friends you invited into X Empire via your referral link. How "quality" is defined has yet to be revealed.

And it sounds like you'll need to have played more than just a tiny bit of the game. On September 6, the game shared via its official Telegram channel, "If you're hoping for a drop, I suggest leveling up your character to at least level 4."

X Empire says that the gaming's mining phase will end on September 30 ahead of the airdrop. It's not clear whether the token itself will launch on the 30th, though it sounds like the developers might wait, writing that the "gameplay will pause as we move on to token distribution, and the X Empire app will introduce a new product that’s here to stay, evolving and growing alongside all of us."

The move echoes that of Notcoin, which ended its mining phase on April 1 but then took several weeks to prepare for the eventual airdrop in May. Ahead of the airdrop, X Empire has also said that it will burn (aka remove) the in-game coins earned by inactive players, purging 5% of their coins after 30 days of inactivity. It's currently unclear whether that will be 5% daily or simply a one-time penalty.

Edited by Andrew Hayward

Editor's note: This story was originally published on July 21, 2024 and last updated with new details on September 6.