Chicken Derby Buying Guide for Hawku

Presented by Prof. G. Allus Eggsquire (written by Chicken Derby team)

Welcome to Chicken Derby

In Chicken Derby you get to own your very own racing chickens, and race them against other people’s chickens. When your chicken wins, you win!

This is our buying guide to guide you in buying your first chicken. If you’re brand new to Chicken Derby, don’t fret as you’ll find all the basics right here. We’ll cover the basics of the chickens, what the different traits mean and what you should be looking for, as well as a few little secrets along the way.

If you’re brand new to Hawku, we recommend first checking out the Getting Started section, to learn how to get setup on Hawku. You’ll need some Polygon ETH (also known as WETH) and some MATIC, to be able to trade and play Chicken Derby. All you need to know about that you’ll find there.

But if you're ready, let’s dive into the world of Chicken Derby.

Racing Format
Before we go into the details of the chickens, you should know about the gameplay first. In Chicken Derby you can enter your chicken into races against other chickens. Races have different terrains (such as Grass, Snow, Track), distances (from 100m to 200m) and Pecking Orders (our ranking system for how strong different chickens are).

Races can be free or paid entry, and typically have 12 chickens each. Once a race is full, it’ll run, and the top 3 chickens at the end of the race share the prize pool. How big the prize pool is depends on the entry fee for the race. Usually 1st place gets 5.5x their entry fee, 2nd place 3x and 3rd place 1.5x.

There are also tournaments with different rules that run alongside the normal racing. Check our website for details on the current live tournament. These have extra prizes to be won, including large pools of WETH, limited wearables for your chickens and other NFTs up for grabs.

The Chickens

Lets look at the chickens. You can find them here.

You’ll be shown all of the chickens that are available on Hawku, and there are a lot. Each chicken also has a lot of data displayed with them.

As an example, this is a chicken named Chompy. When considering a chicken to buy, there are two things to consider., the chicken’s racing history and the chicken’s traits. Let’s start by looking at the traits.

What determines how each chicken does in a race is their traits, which can be broken into these groups:

• Key Traits - There are things like the chicken’s Heritage, Perfection, Stock and some others, which come into effect every race.
• Preferences - Each chicken has a hidden Terrain Preference and a Distance Preference, and will perform better in races which match with their preferences.
• Talent - Each chicken has a talent that may activate during a race. This could be strapping on a Jetpack, firing a gun or riding in a horse drawn carriage.
  

Key Traits

Chickens have many traits, but there are three big ones that you should first consider when buying. These aren’t the only traits that affect how well your chicken will race, but they are a good place to start, especially if the chicken you’re considering has little or no racing history.

Heritage - There are four heritages of chickens, Serama, Sultan, Lakenvelder and Dorking.

Perfection - This ranges from 90 to 100, though lower perfections will come later with breeding.

Stock - There are 6 Stocks of chickens, Spicy, Robust, Fresh, Crisp, Tender and Bland.

Higher performance traits lead to a higher performing chicken. Given that all other traits are equal, a Serama will usually beat a Sultan, and a Robust will usually beat a Fresh.

So you may be thinking that the best chicken to get is a 100 Spicy Serama, as it is the strongest, which is typically true. However you should also consider Pecking Orders (PO) and Minimum Pecking Order (MPO) too.

Pecking Order is how chickens are ranked in Chicken Derby. S is the highest and for the greatest chickens, and E is the lowest. When you race your chicken, if it keeps winning and performing well it’ll get promoted. If it keeps losing it’ll get demoted. This is to ensure that similarly capable chickens are always racing against each other. So a chicken’s Pecking Order can change.

Minimum Pecking Order is set and calculated based on the chicken’s traits. Heritage, Perfection, Stock are among the biggest factors here, but other traits such as Talent, and some hidden traits effect it too. A chicken cannot be demoted below its MPO. This is to ensure that strong chickens can’t bully the weaker chickens.

So let us consider these two chickens.

They are both the same Heritage, Stock and have the same race history. The main differences are one is a 95% with an MPO of D and the other is a 94% with an MPO of E. Should these two race together, the 95% chicken should beat the 94% most of the time. But, it can never get demoted down to E due to its MPO, meaning it’ll always have to race against the stronger chickens in D. The 94% chicken, could be a top performer in its league of E, and may do very well there. But can be easily promoted to D where it’ll face tougher competition.

A chicken that has a good combination traits for its MPO is something to lookout for.

Preferences

Each chicken has a hidden Terrain Preference and a hidden Distance Preference. When you race a chicken, if it is running at its preferred terrain or distance, it’ll perform better. If not, it’ll perform worse. Discovering your chickens preferences is essential if you want to win more often.

Talents

Every chicken in Chicken Derby has a Talent and during a race, a chicken may use their Talent. This could give them a boost forward, such as being launched from a catapult or having a can of energy drink. Or they could attack other chickens, sending them backwards, such as freezing them with an ice spell or crushing one with an anvil.

Your chicken’s talent won’t trigger every race, but when it does it will give your chicken an advantage, so a chicken’s talent should certainly be considered. The general rule is the rarer the talent, the stronger it is.

If you want more details on all the talents, see here.

Racing History

If you’re considering a chicken that has a long racing history, you have more information to go on. Let’s go back and look at Chompy’s racing results.

Races in Chicken Derby have 12 chickens, and this is how many times Chompy has finished in each of those positions. They’ve come first 43 times out of 351 races, which is an above average result. However they have also come last 51 times. Some players like this type of chicken though, they call it a U shape, where it does either very well or very poorly. This data could indicate that if the chicken gets promoted to a higher Pecking Order, it may be easy to downclass to get away from the stronger chickens quickly.

There are 7 terrain types for races in Chicken Derby, and each chicken has a hidden Terrain Preference. This table shows what percentage of their races they have finished 1st in for each terrain. So Chompy has ran 45 Rock races and came first in 4% of them. Not great. But you can use this table to see on which terrain the chicken does best. Clearly Chompy has a preference towards either Snow or Grass races.

Each chicken also has a distance preference for two of the six different distances. This chicken is doing well on 140m and 160m, so likely has a Medium distance preference.

Using this data, you can help narrow down where the chicken is performing best. Racing him in Medium distance and Snow or Grass races, gives your best chance of a win.

Overview

Buying your first chicken can feel daunting, with so many traits and things to consider. But keep in mind these few points above, and you’ll be on solid ground when getting your first chook.

Happy Racing 🏁

Further Reading

Here are some useful places to get some extra information.

Chicken Derby Website - Our website! Come see races and tournaments in action.

Chicken Derby Whitepaper - More details about the chickens, as well as information on Chicken Fusion.

Chicken Derby Discord - We have a great community who are ready to answer your questions and help introduce you to the game.

d3gaming - Community made site that has race history for all chickens.