Did you enjoy playing Monopoly when you were a kid? Heck maybe you still do today. Then I'd like to welcome you to Upland. It's Monopoly on steroids, using the real world as a board piece. For months I've heard of Upland and always it was positive reviews, yet I just didn't think this would be a game for me, boy was I wrong. If you're on the edge about whether you want to try this game out or not, let me tell you, try it out. Don't make the mistake I made of starting months later than I feel I should have.
The basics of Upland is simple enough. You select an image for your blockchain explorer, then select a starting city and viola, your explorer begins randomly roaming around the city looking for properties you can buy. You can also select already bought properties from other players and visit them, but this cost precious UPX, and until you get your feet underneath you, this is a bad idea. Your first goal will be to achieve Uplander status, which is to say, have a total value of 15,000 UPX from property and coin combined, so lets get you started down that road.
There is many ways to earn UPX in Upland and below I'll list a few of those ways that I have used and a few ways I have learned of from talking to Upland players on Discord. By the way, joining an Upland Discord channel is an almost absolute must. Everyone is rather friendly and will freely give out advice on how to better yourself within the game.
1. Buy property: This one is a no brainer. The name of the game is to buy property so that you can either sell it for a profit or just use it to collect fees and visits from other players. The fees are rather minimal, however, so don't expect to rake in the dough for that until you have amassed quite a large number of properties.
2. Visits: This is where discord comes in handy. You can set a fee for your property where everytime someone sends their blockchain explorer to it, you collect some UPX. Until you have reached Uplander status, 25UPX per visit is pretty common to see. So get on discord and post your property asking for visitors, many will happily visit you.
3. Collections: Completiing collections will reward you with various amounts of UPX. Research collections, don't rush in, and find some properties that fit into a collection that you can buy for relatively cheap. Some collections are easy, such as 5 properties in Detroit, or 3 properties on the same street and can be easily obtained as a player just starting out. Once you have completed the collection and collected your rewards, you can even sell the property and make even more UPX from it.
4. Be an FSA broker: Starting out, you'll have the opportunity to buy FSA properties, which are basically properties guaranteed to only be bought by beginners. After achieving 100,000UPX, FSA properties will no longer be available to you. Take advantage of this while you can. Buy FSA properties that are in highly sought after, as in part of a collection, and turn around and sell them for a profit to all those who can no longer buy FSA properties. Once an FSA property is bought, it no longer is an FSA property, and can be freely sold to whomever you wish. You can double or even triple your profit if you choose the right properties.
5. Treasures: Occasionally, your blockchain explorer may run across treasures or pinatas. If you're lucky enough to do so, collecting them will result in UPX for you. The game gives you hints via arrows and a flashing circle to let you know the direction and whether its close or far, and you could spend UPX traversing the city in the direction it points to, but I'd advise against that when just starting out. You want to earn UPX to become an Uplander, not spend it looking for a treasure that in all likelihood will have less UPX than what you spent. So for now, get aquainted with the process, but avoid actually spending UPX until you are on more solid ground and just hope lady luck shines down on you.
6. Buy UPX: The easy way out. You can always spend real money and just buy UPX that way. I like free though, and I am hard pressed to part with my money. I recently created a PayPal account and using the Upside app (formerly GetUpside) can fund it with cash back from local gas stations and then in turn buy UPX via PayPal. I was fortunate that my local gas station is part of the Upside program, so while I'm getting the gas I always get, why not get some free cash back from it right?
Anyway, this is a few of the methods of earning UPX in Upland and hopefully if you do decide to try the game out, it will give you a sense of how you can go about achieving the Upland status in the game. Hope to see you in the game!
