To build an Ethernal Cub you open an Orb, fill eight slots from your pack and Awaken it. Every step, fee and lock, checked in the code on 24 October 2026.
By Proud Lion Studios · 24 October 2026 · 7 min read
You build an Ethernal Cub in three moves: open a revealed Orb to get its parts, fill the Cub's eight slots from your pack in the Builder, then Awaken it so the Cub appears on the token. Each move is one transaction you sign, and none of them is permanent, because a Cub can be taken apart again with Rest and rebuilt as often as you like.
This guide walks through the whole path, from the sealed Orb you mint on 29 October to a finished, named Cub on OpenSea. Every step, fee and limit below was read from the app and the game contract on 24 October 2026. If you want to know what is inside an Orb first, read Ethernal Cubs Orb tiers explained, and for the parts themselves, every part slot, explained.
The most useful thing to understand is that you never swap one NFT for another. The Orb you mint is the same token for its whole life. What changes is its stage, and OpenSea shows whichever stage it is in.
A Cub can go back to being a Cradle with Rest, which costs gas only and returns all eight parts to your pack. So the loop is Cradle, Cub, Cradle, Cub, for as long as you want to keep rebuilding.
The mint opens on Thursday 29 October 2026 at 14:00 UTC and runs to Thursday 5 November. Every Orb is free, you pay only Robinhood Chain gas, and the whitelist board closes the night before, on Wednesday 28 October at 23:59 UTC. Our mint day checklist has the wallet steps.
Every Orb mints sealed, so nobody knows which tier they hold during the mint. The reveal comes after the mint closes, and that is when each Orb shows its tier. We will announce the exact reveal and opening days on the site, on X and in Discord. Until opening day, there is nothing to do with a revealed Orb except hold it, or trade it on OpenSea if you prefer to.
Opening happens in the app at ethernalcubs.ai. You connect your wallet, sign one free message to prove the wallet is yours, pick the Orbs you want to open and confirm one transaction. You can open up to ten Orbs in a single transaction.
A Bronze or Silver Orb opens into seven parts, and a Gold, Diamond or Sapphire Orb into eight. The app plays the opening once for each Orb, shows you what dropped, and marks the new parts in your pack. The token itself becomes a Cradle, which is the empty frame a Cub will live in.
Two details are worth knowing before you click. First, an Orb listed for sale on OpenSea cannot be opened from the site: the button refuses until you cancel the listing, because a listing signed for one stage would otherwise sell whatever the token becomes. Second, the token locks for a short while after every move. More on that below.
Go to the Builder and pick a Cradle. A Cub needs exactly one part in each of eight slots: background, body, equipped, eyes, face, inventory, mane and tail. The Builder works one slot at a time and only offers parts that belong to that slot, so a Cub with two manes and no tail cannot be put together by mistake.
Your pack is shared across all your Orbs. The parts from three opened Orbs sit in one pool, and you can build in any Cradle using any free part. That matters, because one Orb almost never covers all eight slots on its own: a seven-part Orb cannot, and an eight-part Orb usually lands two parts in one slot and none in another.
As you hover over a part, the Builder previews what it does to the Cub before you commit: the picture, and the six combat stats (intelligence, attack, defense, agility, endurance and luck). Rarer parts carry more power, so this is where you decide between the look you love and the numbers you want, or find a part that gives you both.
Once all eight slots are filled, the Builder saves your draft by itself, and keeps saving on every change after that. Saving reserves those eight parts, so they cannot be used in another Cub or offered in a swap while the draft is waiting.
You have two options. Open another Orb, which gives you more parts and another Cradle to build in. Or swap: the marketplace on the site lets you find a free part another holder has, choose what to give for it, and send an offer, part for part. The other holder accepts or declines on the same page. Parts that are inside a Cub, saved in a draft or already in another offer never show up there.
Note that every Cub needs its own Cradle, which means one opened Orb per Cub. If you open three Orbs, you can hold up to three Cubs at once, as long as your pack has enough parts to fill them.
Give your Cub a name, then press Awaken. This is the one paid step in the whole flow. The game contract charges 0.005 ETH the first time a token is awakened and 0.0025 ETH for every Awaken after a Rest, plus gas, and the fee goes straight to the project treasury (both figures read from the contract source on 24 October 2026). The fees can be changed by the contract owner, so the Awaken button always shows the exact amount before you sign.
Once the transaction confirms, your Cub is drawn from its eight parts and the token's picture and traits on OpenSea change from Cradle to Cub. The app shows the Cub straight away; OpenSea usually catches up within a few minutes.
After an Open, an Awaken or a Rest, the token cannot be transferred or sold until OpenSea shows its new stage. Our server asks OpenSea to re-read the token, checks every minute, and releases the lock the moment the new picture is live. In practice that is usually a few minutes, and there is a one-day cap if anything gets stuck.
The reason is buyer protection. Without the lock, someone could list a Cub, Rest it, and sell an empty Cradle to a buyer who was looking at the old picture. With the lock, nobody can buy a picture the chain has already moved past.
A Cub is never stuck with its first build. Rest takes it apart: all eight parts go back to your pack, free to use again, and the token becomes a Cradle. Rest costs gas only. Awakening the same token again costs the lower 0.0025 ETH fee. You can rebuild with a new mane, a rarer weapon or a completely different look, as many times as you like, and you can also cancel a saved draft before you Awaken to free its parts.
The same rule as opening applies here: a Cub listed on OpenSea has to be delisted before it can Rest. Later on, your Cub's parts will also shape it as an AI companion, which is coming soon. The full game loop, battles included, is on the how to play page.
Very rarely. A Bronze or Silver Orb gives seven parts, one short of the eight slots a Cub needs. A Gold, Diamond or Sapphire Orb gives eight, but each part lands in a random slot, so a full set from one Orb happens only about one time in 400. Most players open a few Orbs or swap for the missing slot.
Minting and opening cost gas only. Awakening a Cub costs 0.005 ETH the first time on a token and 0.0025 ETH after a Rest, plus gas, as written in the game contract on 24 October 2026. Resting a Cub costs gas only.
Yes. A Cub is the same token as the Orb it came from, so it lists and sells on OpenSea like any other, once its lock has cleared. The only real collection is opensea.io/collection/ethernal-cubs-orbs.
After the reveal, which follows the close of the mint on Thursday 5 November 2026. The exact opening day will be announced on the site, on X and in Discord.
One Orb, eight slots, and a Cub you can take apart and rebuild whenever you like. The mint opens Thursday 29 October at 14:00 UTC. Start at ethernalcubs.ai.
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