What Is ‘X Empire’? The Telegram Tap-to-Earn Elon Musk Game and Airdrop Details

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 minimize the reliance on Elon’s image and better showcase the various play modes, though the core experience remains the same.

With the new interface, your avatar appears on the main screen surrounded by icons that point to various play modes. 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 brings 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 “Incomes” 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?

There is no date for the X Empire airdrop, and we don’t even know what the token will be called—but we do know that one is coming, and that the token will launch on TON.

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 the airdrop section, the following metrics will determine the size of your airdrop: how much in-game profit you earn per hour through upgrades, the total amount of cash you’ve earned while playing, and how many friends you invite into X Empire via your referral link.

Recently, X Empire announced a collaboration with the aforementioned Notcoin, the influential Telegram game that spawned the current craze. Notcoin players will get special missions within X Empire, particularly players who have secured one of the higher player levels in Notcoin, plus the game was temporarily rebranded as “NOT Empire.”

Edited by Andrew Hayward

Editor’s note: This story was originally published on July 21, 2024 and last updated with new details on August 3.