Kabu's Sunset City: How Shards, XP and Season 1 Rewards Work

Kabu opened Sunset City on Oct. 14, 2026, and on Oct. 15 published the terms of Season 1: players accumulate Shards, and the 50 profiles with the most Shards when the season ends on Nov. 23 share a rewards pool. This guide covers how the system works as Kabu has described it.

What Sunset City is

Kabu's Oct. 14 post announced "Sunset City is LIVE" and pointed to kabu.xyz. Kabu says it partnered with the animation studio Otsu to create the world of Sunset City from the creative vision of its NFT collection, and that the interactive map, trailer and locations were hand animated over 10 months. In a post Kabu retweeted on Oct. 13, solsweb3 wrote that the project "migrated off of Abstract to ETH months ago"; our coverage of that is in the migration report and the migration guide.

Owning a Kabu NFT is not required to take part. Kabu wrote on Oct. 13 that Sunset City "is for Everyone" and that those who do not hold Kabu will still get value.

How Shards are earned

Kabu's Oct. 15 explainer thread names two ways to earn Shards:

1. Daily claims in the Laboratory. The Laboratory page shows a "Daily claim ready" status with a countdown to the next claim, and the FAQ says Shards can be claimed daily from different locations in Sunset City.
2. Weekly airdrops by profile rank. Shards are airdropped automatically to a Kabu profile each week, in an amount that depends on rank.

Claiming is free; Kabu documents no purchase path for Shards.

How rank works: XP, Pins and Badges

Kabu says rank rises with XP earned from Pins and Badges. The higher the rank, the larger the daily Laboratory claim and the larger the weekly airdrop. Per the FAQ, XP is the progression system, and ranks are tiers reached through XP from activities and eligible NFT ownership.

• Badges are earned by owning Kabu NFT traits and trait combinations. The Badges page sorts them by rarity tier, from common to superior, and shows one superior badge worth "+500 XP", reserved for holders of a hand-crafted one-of-one Kabu.
• Pins are earned by participating in Kabu Klubs, completing tasks at interactive locations, and holding Community Partner NFTs, per Kabu's thread. The Pins page says "Anyone can earn these trinkets."
• Hot Streak. Kabu says it is implementing a "Hot Streak" feature for players who claim their daily Shard on multiple days in a row. The thread does not give the size of the bonus.

The practical effect follows directly from these rules: because Badges come from owning Kabu NFT traits, holding Kabu NFTs raises a profile's XP and therefore its daily and weekly Shard rate. Non-holders can still join, claim daily, and earn Pins. Kabu says Hot Streak and Kabu Klubs, which it said were launching Oct. 16, give players with few or no Kabu NFTs a chance to still reach the top ranks. The FAQ adds that if a holder sells an NFT, associated Badges may be removed, which can change XP and rank, while Shards already collected are unaffected.

The Season 1 rewards pool

Kabu's season announcement says players accumulate Shards to take part in a "constantly growing" Season 1 rewards pool, and that Season 1 ends Nov. 23. A second post lists the pool as:

• $1,000+ USDC
• 50 Kabu NFTs
• 50% of Kabu NFT royalties
• External revenue

These accrue from the announcement until Nov. 23 and are distributed across the top 50 profiles on the Sunset City leaderboard by Shards accumulated at the deadline. Kabu does not say how the pool is split among the 50 profiles.

Rewards are calculated on total accrued Shards. Shards spent in the Arcade or Shard Store do not affect leaderboard ranking. Rewards are sent to the wallet linked to the player's account on kabu.xyz.

What is not documented

• The Arcade and Shard Store. Kabu's thread says there are "other ways to spend your shards, coming soon to the arcade room." The Arcade Room page reads "Spend your Shards. Win exclusive rewards" and currently lists 0 items. At the time of writing, no items, prizes or odds are published, and this guide does not describe them.
• Kabu Klubs. Kabu announced Klubs as a source of Pins. As of Oct. 15, Kabu had not published how they work. They are announced, not yet documented.
• Pool split and Hot Streak size. Neither the per-rank division of the pool nor the Hot Streak bonus has been published.
• Bugs. Kabu said bugs are expected at a launch this large and opened a bug and suggestions channel on Discord.

Sources

• Kabu Oct. 15 explainer thread: Shard earning, rank, Pins, Badges, Hot Streak, Arcade.
• Kabu season announcement and rewards pool post: Nov. 23 end date, pool contents, top 50, total-Shards rule.
• kabu.xyz FAQ, Laboratory, Badges, Pins, Arcade Room: Kabu's own pages.