Upland (official site), the location-based metaverse game where players buy, sell and trade virtual properties mapped to real-world addresses, launches Troves on Thursday, October 22, 2026. The update adds three connected systems: collecting, Trove Banking and a new Progression System. Troves launch in beta and will stay in beta for the full rollout. Phase One has 189 unique Troves to collect.
Upland has also put out a video overview of the update, covering collecting, banking, progression and what comes after launch.
What Troves are and where they come from
Troves are the game layer that ties player actions to real-world locations in Upland. Almost everything on the map can produce them: properties, structures, map assets, Block Explorers, vehicles, plants, neighborhoods and service structures.
There are five categories:
- Care Troves come from looking after plants and animals.
- Resource Troves are raw materials, often from STEM-bearing plants.
- Social Troves come from interacting with the community.
- Utility Troves are tools and components used in other recipes.
- Valuables are rarer items, and some of them can be traded.
Most Troves are bound to a player’s account. You gather them from service structures such as cafés, fire stations and supermarkets, from plants, and by petting plants in neighbors’ gardens. Fishing, farming, animals and trade routes are part of the wider Troves design, and racing and treasure hunting are planned for later. A Block Explorer’s stamina caps how many Troves it can collect.
All Troves from Genesis Week will be removed at launch. Genome Troves are the one exception and will stay in players’ inventories.
Trove Banking is permanent
Trove Banking lets players add Troves to their collection for good and display those achievements in the Trove Vault. Once you bank, there’s no going back. In Upland’s words, “banked Troves cannot be withdrawn or used elsewhere.”
Each Trove has its own tiers: Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, Diamond and beyond. Only Bronze and Silver are available at launch, and higher tiers open in later phases. You don’t have to unlock tiers in order. If you hold enough of a Trove, you can go straight to a higher tier.
A numbered level on your profile
The Progression System puts a numerical level on each player’s profile. It tracks Troves collected and banked, properties developed and milestones completed. It sits alongside Upland’s existing status ranks (Uplander, Pro, Executive, Director) and does not replace them. Milestones can pay out Map Assets, UPX and collectibles. Upland said beta progression rewards may change and may differ from the onboarding rewards planned for new players later this year.
Recipes, competitions and farming come later
Launch day has no crafting recipes. New recipes, Troves and banking tiers will arrive at regular intervals over the following weeks. Recipes let players combine Troves at service structures: a Wheat Trove and a Milk Trove, for example, become a Bread Trove at a Bakery. Outputs can include rare Troves, Uppies, SPARKLET, UPX, STEM and yield. Bulk recipes are planned for turning large stockpiles into other Troves.
Troves competitions will run during the rollout, though details haven’t been announced. Farming is planned as a way to collect Troves in much larger amounts, and automation is on the roadmap, with Uppies stationed on properties to make large-scale collecting practical. Farming, automation and bulk recipes are longer-term goals and are not part of the launch.
New structures and an optional sale
On October 15, Upland added three public service structures to its store: the STEM Foundry, the UPX Mint and the Sparklet Refinery. Each will exchange Troves for one of the game’s currencies once its Troves functionality goes live. They cost 9.99 USD for the first 24 hours and 14.99 USD after that.
There’s also an optional Troves After Dark 2026 commemorative sale. Registration opened October 20, and the sale runs from October 21 until Sunday, October 25. Each bundle costs 20 USD and includes 20,000 UPX plus one Block Explorer with 150 stamina. There are six Explorer designs (Rattlebag, Patchwick, Gribbin, Jinx, Flit and Spindle), each limited to 70 mints, and no more designs are planned. Upland said this is the last commemorative sale with this stamina boost at this price and mint tier. You don’t need a bundle to collect, bank or progress with Troves.
How Troves got here
Upland first introduced Troves in May 2026, and an alpha version ran during Genesis Week 2026. The original plan was to launch Troves, Trove Banking and the Progression System before Harvest Season began on October 1.
Ahead of launch, Upland released phase one of its visual upgrade early, on October 2, saying it was “released early for Troves.” The opt-in upgrade changes how properties look on the map: owned properties now get a blue outline instead of a solid fill.
Upland launched in December 2019 and has more than three million users. Properties become registered NFTs once a player reaches Uplander status, and UPX is the in-game currency. The game has grown from property trading into a wider world with structures, Block Explorers, vehicles, plants and Uppies, the collectible characters players can befriend, mint and merge to level up. From August 1 to September 15, players could assign Level 3 and higher Uppies to their properties to tend plants. Upland’s future plans include 3D movement for Uppies and automated Trove collection, where Level 5 Uppies gather Troves from plants on their own.
