Onchain Heroes brings Greed back in weekly Maze of Gains patch

In Brief:

• Onchain Heroes shipped a Maze of Gains patch this week covering mobile performance, a return of the Greed mechanic and changes to the Stash and earnings systems.
• The studio posted the changes alongside its weekly stats, describing it as “A big patch this week!”
• Maze of Gains runs on Abstract and has been in open playtest since July, with a full release still ahead.

Onchain Heroes rebuilt mobile performance in Maze of Gains and restored the game’s Greed mechanic in a patch released this week.

The studio bundled the work into its weekly stats post and listed three items: a “Mobile performance overhaul,” “Gameplay changes – Greed is back!” and “Stash & earnings improvements.” It said details would follow in the thread.

Mobile first

The mobile work matters more than it sounds for a game of this shape. Maze of Gains runs in the browser on desktop and mobile, and its runs are long, input-heavy sessions where a player pushes deeper into a maze and decides when to leave with the loot. Frame drops and stutters in that loop don’t just annoy. They cost runs.

Onchain Heroes has been moving toward that kind of tuning for a while. The team shifted to a hybrid architecture in which payments settle on Abstract and gameplay logic runs off it, a setup meant to allow faster iteration and smoother sessions. The in-game marketplace was rebuilt on a custom orderbook using the same split, with payments onchain and item settlement off it.

Greed returns

Greed is the mechanic closest to the core tension of the game. Maze of Gains sends players into mazes to fight, collect upgrades and judge the moment to walk out. Push further and the payoff grows. Stay too long and you leave with nothing.

The studio didn’t say in the headline post why Greed came out or what form it takes now. It framed the reinstatement as a gameplay change rather than a new feature.

The Stash and earnings adjustments land in the same patch. Both sit on the reward side of the loop, which has been the subject of steady rebalancing since the studio confirmed that Season 2 was the last time $HERO would be straightforward to earn.

Where the game stands

Maze of Gains 2.0 has been in testing since July 1, when Onchain Heroes opened an incentivized playtest with a prize pool of 250 Arcade Keys. Entry required a Ringbearer NFT or an Expedition Pass.

That gate came down for the second round. The studio opened the playtest to everyone, dropping the NFT requirement and letting players earn keys by playing and submitting feedback ahead of full release.

The 2.0 build introduced persistent upgrades that carry across a run and a redesigned battle system built around learning enemy patterns instead of leaning on chance. It also added new biomes, one-off rooms and in-game items that raise the stakes the deeper a player goes.

Token and economy

$HERO handles in-game transactions, but its role is changing. Onchain Heroes launched Valor, a U.S. dollar-pegged stablecoin, along with a custom marketplace on Abstract ahead of OCH World, its persistent-world project. Valor is meant to replace volatile in-game currencies and carries no gas fees, while $HERO moves toward being a premium currency for exclusive features.

Season 2 $HERO reward balances are set to transfer automatically when OCH World launches. The team pushed that launch from the fourth quarter of 2025 to early in the first quarter of 2026, citing quality and stability. Primora is the first playable zone, with mining, forging and cooking available from day one.

Background

Maze of Gains sits alongside the main Onchain Heroes idle RPG, which is built around Genesis Hero NFTs and $HERO rewards and uses Proof of Play’s VRF for randomness. Skarly, a former lead developer at Wolf Game, created it.

Abstract’s Chinese-language account picked up this week’s patch for regional players. Onchain Heroes already runs a pipeline into those markets: a scholarship program with Abstract Asia hands out 300 keys a month to players in Korea, China and Thailand.