Alienworlds built me. I started back in March 2021 which, compared to a lot of people around these days, meant I got in 'pretty early'. Of course I was too late for pack sales and the such but I think I can still consider myself to have gotten in decently early. Starting from a standard shovel, I worked my way up. Standard Capacitator. Standard Drill. 3x Standard Drills (This was wayyy too overpowered back in the day lol). Then a Power Saw. 3x Power Saws. Processing Ring. Causian Attractor. And finally I peaked at an Exlian Staff. A legendary. It was amazing to see the growth I had made in just a couple of months. But while I was making good use of the TLM I mined up to improve my tools, I was also mining up NFTs along the way. Ah the thrill to refresh your wallet and see something new just appear... Alienworlds NFT Mining was amazing.

Then it disappeared.

'Paused'.

"Ok... Ok that's fine" I thought. "Just a little pause I'm sure they're just dealing with a little bot problem, we'll be back in no time."

Days passed.

Then weeks.

Then months.

It had been almost a year. But then, then I saw a message on discord. NFT mining was back! But was it? Was it really?

To be honest I was thrilled. By this time I had lost my faith and sold my Exlian Staff to go fuel a Warsaken addiction but I was still excited to hear of its return. I looked at my wax balance. Hmm there was enough spare to grab some tools...

And so I hopped straight back in. I wanted some of those NFTs. Pouring over 1000 wax on AtomicHub, I got back in with a freshly bought Exlian Staff and Causian Attractor.

For the first time in months, I mined and...

It...

It was pathetic. 0.0434 TLM. 0.0623 TLM. 0.0311 TLM. 0.1132 TLM...

But that's ok. I wasn't expecting much in terms of TLM. The mining rates for TLM haven't been good in months... many many months. I can live with the low TLM rates. But what absolutely blew my mind into an eternal state of pain was seeing the new NFT mining system. Essentially (for anyone who doesn't know), the new system has you earning points with each mine. The amount of points per mine is based on your tools and the land you mine on and it is a constant value each time. The points you earn then go towards two things:

1. Ranks. Your rank is based on your total amount of points. Upon reaching certain amounts you can redeem a NFT unique to that rank (you keep the points). The NFT rewards for this are currently useless. Literally zero purpose. Supposedly they will have utility in the future but who knows how long that will take...

2. Redeeming NFTs. Of the current selection, the only option of value is a Basic Explosive which is currently (at the time of writing) valued at around 225wax/$25. The amount of points needed to redeem a Basic Explosive is 19091. With my setup of an Exlian Staff and Causian Attractor on Sandy Coastlines, I get exactly 28.8 points each mine with a cooldown of 1575s (26mins 15s). This means that it will take 559 mines and I'm not bothered to do the maths for how long that is ... Oh fine ok let me see... Ok so assuming my sleepy brain can still handle the maths (lol it probably can't), it would take over 10 days of constant mining without sleep. Someone feel free to check my math on that idk if it's right or not.

To be honest 10 days doesn't feel like that long of a time for 225 wax but realistically, I (and I'm assuming most of you), have better things to do with your time than wait or set alarms to click the mine, claim, and confirm buttons. Whether it be sleep, work or even just do something with family or friends, there's so many better ways to spend your time. Furthermore, there are also just better, easier and frankly more enjoyable ways to earn on the Wax blockchain.

Overall I personally would strongly advise against buying high rank tools like me as, in my experience, it really hasn't been worthwhile in the TLM or NFT mining side of things. Of course this is all just my opinion and I don't expect you to just believe me, a random guy on the internet (lol don't trust me with your financial decisions) but I hope you got something out of this. Our lives are very different so if my perspective doesn't relate to yours then you do you and I wish you luck. As always, DYOR.

Anyway, thanks for reading and putting up with my rant lol

Laters :)