The Dark Forest: The Three-Body Game Played by V God and Paradigm Co-founders
I have a dream that perhaps one day, the brilliant sunlight can shine into the dark forest. — Luo JiAuthor: 0x13, 0x26, Rhythm BlockBeats
In 1950, physicist Enrico Fermi posed a question that has baffled countless people: given the astonishing age of the universe and the vast number of celestial bodies, extraterrestrial life should be widespread, but why have we found nothing?
This question later became known as the "Fermi Paradox," which highlights the contradiction between the high estimation of extraterrestrial civilizations' existence and the lack of related evidence. Countless scientists and researchers have attempted to explain the Fermi Paradox, among which the most famous is Liu Cixin's "Dark Forest Theory" mentioned in "The Three-Body Problem."
Dark Forest Theory
"Exterminate them all; this is the highest regard for a civilization." ------ "The Three-Body Problem II: The Dark Forest"
In "The Three-Body Problem," Liu Cixin compares the entire universe to a dark forest, where each civilization is likened to a gun-wielding hunter stealthily moving through the forest, needing to ensure they are not discovered while trying to find and eliminate other hunters, as you cannot tell if the other is an angel or a devil.
Civilizations in the universe cannot determine whether others are friendly or hostile, and due to the chain of suspicion and the impact of technological explosions, they default to mutual hostility. Therefore, upon discovering another civilization, they will immediately destroy it (as the cost is low). Thus, in the universe, once a civilization's coordinates are exposed, it equates to its destruction; the destroyer and the destroyed may be entirely unrelated and have never had contact; destruction occurs simply because of "discovery."
As stated in the book: "Destroying you has nothing to do with me."
This is the Dark Forest Theory, which describes the severe consequences of easily exposing one's coordinates in the universe, explains the reasons behind it, and clarifies why there is a "lack of related evidence" in the Fermi Paradox. The Dark Forest Theory has become widely known with the global popularity of "The Three-Body Problem." Have you ever thought about turning the Dark Forest Theory into a game?
On August 14, 2020, Vitalik Buterin tweeted about a game he found very interesting.
This was the first time the game called "Dark Forest" entered the public eye. The name "Dark Forest," combined with Vitalik's strong promotion, made people curious: what kind of game is this? Is it related to "The Three-Body Problem"? How can I join this game?
The development team stated in a blog post that Liu Cixin's "The Three-Body Problem" was the inspiration for this game, and it is not hard to see that the basic principle of the game is the "Dark Forest Theory."
Dark Forest Game Introduction
"Dark Forest" is an MMO (Massively Multiplayer Online) space conquest game, where all planets and player spawn locations in the universe are random. Players start with a small planet of their own, with low energy and visibility. Players can conquer other planets to gain higher energy and larger visibility. Each version of the game serves as a test match, and the winners of each round will receive a prize.
zkSNARK-Based Fog of War
The key to the "Dark Forest" game lies in "imperfect information games."
For example, when you play the card game "Dou Di Zhu" with two other players, you can only see your own cards but do not know what cards the other two players hold. Therefore, when making decisions, you can only estimate the other players' hands without obtaining exact information. This is called an "imperfect information game." In contrast, games like chess and Go, where both players can see the pieces on the board and predict possible moves, are considered "perfect information games."
"Dark Forest" applies imperfect information games to the "fog." The so-called fog refers to the player's visibility range. This setting is actually common in the gaming field; classic real-time strategy games like "Warcraft," "Red Alert," and "StarCraft" have used "fog" to conceal player information. In "Dark Forest," you do not know how other players in the fog are developing, whether they are on their way to invade your planet, or how far they are from you.
However, most decentralized applications currently have completely open and transparent data layers. For example, in Axie Infinity, every player can check the owner, attributes, and skills of Axies, which eliminates the concept of "privacy" and makes it impossible to introduce the concept of "imperfect information games."
To address this issue, "Dark Forest" employs "succinct zero-knowledge proofs (zkSNARK)," allowing players to publicly submit verifiable valid actions while maintaining privacy. In the game, players do not need to submit their planet's coordinates and the coordinates of conquered planets to the core smart contract; they only need to submit a commitment to their planet's location (i.e., the hashed coordinates) and a zero-knowledge proof that can verify the hash is valid, ensuring the secrecy of the planet's location. 
On-Chain Operation Proof Based on xDai
One major challenge hindering the continuous development of Ethereum network games is Gas fees. If a game directly interacts with the Ethereum mainnet, the Gas fees could reach tens or even hundreds of dollars during network congestion, making it difficult for ordinary users to participate.
OKLink Data: On January 4, 2021, the suggested Ethereum Gas fee was 294.31 Gwei.
"Dark Forest" chooses the xDai Layer 2 solution to significantly reduce the on-chain transaction fees for each operation.
xDai is a chain with a stable reserve currency, where transactions and fees are conducted using XDAI. xDai is created by locking DAI on Ethereum and bridging it to xDai. The value of xDai is essentially pegged to the US dollar, meaning transaction costs are predictable and not affected by market fluctuations.
The actual cost of a transaction on Ethereum can vary greatly due to on-chain congestion and the price of Ethereum, while on xDai, the same transaction cost is about $0.01.
Development History and Current Status
The initial version of Dark Forest was launched in August 2020 as v0.3 and has now evolved to v0.5. This upgrade not only optimizes the system but also includes an experimental PLUGIN system and adds special Dark Forest NFTs that can be found through exploring the universe. Each version is launched as a wipe test, and the top 15 winners will receive 1024 DAI as a reward.
Every new version of Dark Forest sparks a wave of discussion in the Ethereum community. Reflecting on the ongoing v0.5 version, Paradigm co-founder Matt Huang stated that this is the best crypto game and shared a screenshot of the game ranking where it placed second.
Influential users such as Figma CEO Dylan Field, Grammy Award winner RAC, Ethereum Foundation members, ENS founder Nick Johnson, and cryptocurrency investment firm Maple Leaf Capital have expressed their love and appreciation for Dark Forest.
Strategy Guide
(1) Obtain an Invitation Code
New players need to enter an invitation code to join the game. The invitation code can be obtained by registering an email on the official website or following the Twitter account. Registered emails will receive the private key for the game address, which is used for cross-browser login.
After obtaining the invitation code and logging in, the account will have 0.5 xDAI airdropped by the development team. Each transaction in the game costs 0.002 xDAI. After using the airdropped xDAI, users can continue to recharge xDAI to that Ethereum address. However, since the game is currently in a wipe test phase, users are advised not to spend excessively. (Note: The v0.5 version ranking event ended on January 8, and Dark Forest has now opened a free game mode, entering the cosmic expansion phase, where users can still participate in the game.)
Each operation requires approval, and players can also choose the 24-hour auto-confirm option at the bottom.
Below is the cross-account recharge guide from the xDAI official documentation, where users can recharge DAI from address A to address B in the form of xDAI. This means users can use a commonly used address to recharge the Dark Forest address without needing to transfer DAI to the Dark Forest game address and repeat the L2 recharge operation.
- Log in to https://bridge.xdaichain.com/ and connect your Ethereum wallet Metamask.
Choose Single Tx Unlock (single unlock) or Infinite Tx Unlock (unlimited unlock).
Click "Advanced," add the address to receive xDAI and the amount to convert from Dai to xDai. Press Unlock.
- Confirm the unlock transaction in MetaMask.
- Click transfer and confirm the transaction.
- Once the transfer is successful, the user will receive a series of notifications, with the final step being "Transfer Complete." After completing these steps, the user has successfully recharged the Dark Forest address.
(2) Game Start
After logging in, new users will have a small planet with 100 energy. Next, players will use this as a base to embark on a grand journey in the boundless universe.
Interface Introduction:
1: Player information interface, showing the user's Resources, Silver, Score, and Rank. Players can also bind their Twitter accounts, which may lead to developing deep friendships with other players they "encounter" in the vast galaxy.
2: Plant List, an overview of the planets the user has occupied, allowing for quick management of their planets.
3: Similar to the game's settings backend, players can find game rankings, manage Artifacts, and account private keys.
4: Information on each occupied planet, with different planets having different basic attributes, resource caps, and production rates. Most importantly, Resources are produced by each planet, and depending on the planet's attributes, energy caps and production efficiency vary. Sending Resources is the only way to occupy planets.
5: Represents the range of energy transmission. The energy sent will dissipate over distance, as shown in the diagram indicating the ranges for sending 25%, 50%, and 100%.
6: The player's own planet's energy is displayed in white, while other players are represented by different colors. The orange upper part of the left corner represents Silver, and the lower part represents Resources. The blue part in the upper right represents another player.
7: The gray area represents the fog, where players can choose to explore.
8: Since operations are performed on Ethereum using xDAI, each completed operation will display a gray Ethereum logo, indicating that the operation has been on-chain. An exclamation mark indicates the discovery of Silver production or that a planet has reached upgrade conditions. The pink Ethereum logo represents a failed on-chain transaction that needs to be redone.
9: Deep Space. The game area is divided into Nebula, Space, and Deep Space, represented by deep blue, light blue, and black colors, respectively. All players spawn in the Nebula, which is the safest place in the universe. Deep Space contains rarer and more powerful planets but is more susceptible to attacks from other players.
10: On-chain operations.
3. Planet Upgrade (Silver)
The types and initial levels of planets vary, leading to differences in energy caps, production speeds, whether they have silver mines (for silver production), resource transfer speeds, and defense parameters.
To enhance various parameters of a planet, upgrading is the most common and effective method, in addition to collecting Artifacts. Silver is a necessity, second only to Resources. It is worth noting that unlike Resources, not every planet can produce Silver, making it crucial to find planets that can produce Silver in the Dark Forest.
Planet upgrade interface:
Three upgrade options: Defense, Energy Sending Range, Speed.
4. Artifacts
During your exploration of the universe, you may occasionally discover planets that contain artifacts. When you zoom in on a planet with artifacts, a small gift box icon will pop up in the upper left corner of the planet. Click on the planet, open the planet details page, and click the artifact button below to claim the artifact.
I understand that artifacts are similar to equipment that provides bonuses; placing them on a planet can affect the planet's original attributes.
My artifact increases energy caps and production speed while reducing transmission distance, speed, and defense.
Artifacts are also categorized by various types and rarities, and artifacts obtained on one planet can be transferred to other planets for placement.
5. Plugins
"A good game is incomplete without plugins." To enhance the playability and diversity of the game, Dark Forest allows players to use and create plugins. Users can choose from official plugins or write their own. The specific usage is to click the plug icon in the upper left corner and click Add Plugin to add a plugin (initial use may require multiple clicks to confirm the plugin feature).
After clicking Add Plugin, users can fill in the plugin name and code in the newly appeared window to complete the plugin setup.
Currently, there are various multifunctional plugins available, such as gifting planets, repeated attacks, rapid upgrades, and map exploration.
6. Death
When all of a player's planets are occupied, it means that the Ethereum address belonging to that player becomes inoperable, approaching a state of death.
Player's "death" countdown
However, other players can use the previously mentioned gifting planet plugin to give their planets to any player, including those who no longer own planets. By gifting planets, players located in different star systems can come together, and players without planets can "be reborn" and regain their gaming experience.
The above is an introduction to the gameplay of Dark Forest; a broader and deeper realm awaits users to explore on their own.
"No, don't say where! Once you know where it is, the world becomes as small as a map. Not knowing where it is makes the world feel vast."
"Alright, let's try to get lost."
------ "The Three-Body Problem II: The Dark Forest"
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