Season 2 of Hamster Kombat is on the horizon following last month's HMSTR token launch and airdrop, and the next big in-game phase will come with its own future airdrop next summer.

But until the next season starts later this month, there’s a simplified “interlude” season available right now that shakes up some familiar aspects of the tap-to-earn experience.

You can only earn new in-game diamonds in this latest experience, and the developers told Decrypt that users who play the interlude season can expect a "significant boost" going into the next full season.

Here’s a quick look at how to stack the most diamonds in Hamster Kombat before Season 2 starts.

Spend diamonds to make diamonds

Remember all that time you spent buying and upgrading features for your crypto exchange? Well, all of that is gone—at least for now. That progress was tallied up for the airdrop and either dumped or hidden away in favor of the interlude season, but there’s a similar feature in the mix. It’s just not as easy to find now.

Hit the “Playground” button at the bottom of the screen and then tap the “Mine cards” tab near the top, and you’ll find the familiar slate of upgrade cards. Now they broadly have more of a startup vibe than a crypto-specific one, though as before, some of them seem totally random (see: “Visiting a zoo”).

In any case, each time you spend diamonds to upgrade a card’s level, it’ll earn you more diamonds per hour while you’re offline, boosting your passive earning rate. Just be sure to check in regularly, as the earnings stop accumulating after three hours of being offline.

Time to play

While the Playground section is where the upgrade cards reside now, it’s also still a repository for finding other games to play—which now earn you diamonds instead of keys or coins.

Most of the games come from partners and nod towards what the developers have said is the future of Hamster Kombat, as a hub for various experiences. In this case, you’ll download the other game from the iOS App Store or Android Play Store, look for the in-game hamster icon, complete the stated task, and then take the displayed code and paste it back into Hamster Kombat. Boom, you’ve got a diamond.

Also, under the “Minigames" tab, you can play the built-in Hexa Puzzle game—a chill, easygoing puzzler that’ll earn you diamonds more gradually, but with much less hassle.

Friends and more

As before, Hamster Kombat is happy to pay you in-game currency to invite friends using your referral code. The reward is tiny, however, so we wouldn’t recommend annoying all of your pals (again) for a pittance of digital diamonds.

Better yet, tap the “Earn” button to complete simple tasks. For example, there’s a daily YouTube video from Hamster Kombat—watch that, and an hour later (for some reason), you can claim a diamond. You’ll also get a diamond each for following a number of the game’s social accounts. And they’ll give you bonus diamonds based on how many friends you already invited.

That’s free money… well, imaginary diamonds. But you might as well claim it. We’ll see whether these diamonds end up having much value once the next Hamster Kombat season starts, but if you’re killing time waiting for the next wave of Telegram tap-to-earn games to emerge, then you might as well keep playing.

Editor's note: This story was originally published on September 25, 2024 and last updated on October 15.