The Cookout Manual

The Cookout is a live multiplayer trading arena. Every match on the calendar is a brand-new token created for that match by a community creator. It opens through a fair batch auction, trades live for a few minutes in front of a crowd, and then ends — by graduation, by timer, or by getting rugged.

It is not a simulated casino chart. Every candle you see is made of real trades by real players against a real market. During the paper beta all balances are simulated (pETH), so the competition is real and the risk is zero.

Your wallet is your whole identity — no emails, no passwords, no deposits. Signing a message proves the wallet is yours; that's it.

1. Scheduled — the match is on the calendar. You see the theme; the token stays a teaser until the lobby opens.
2. Lobby — token revealed. Check the tokenomics panel, the crowd size, and make your Moon-or-Rug call.
3. Queue open — submit buy intents into the batch auction. The live bid board shows everyone entering with you.
4. Settling — the queue closes at a fixed time and every fill settles at one clearing price, in one shot.
5. Live — continuous trading until the round ends. Watch the graduation bars and the kill feed.
6. Results — winners, superlatives, XP, achievements, leaderboard moves.

On every other launchpad, the open is won by whoever has the fastest bot. Here, speed buys nothing:

• Buy intents queue until a fixed close time. Arrival order is irrelevant.
• Everyone settles at one uniform clearing price — first bid and last bid pay exactly the same.
• If the round is oversubscribed, every intent is filled pro-rata — never by price priority, never first-come-first-served.
• You can set a max price; if the clearing price lands above it, you're fully refunded.
• Every settlement publishes an audit hash you can recompute yourself from the public intents and our open-source clearing math.

Once the auction settles, it's a real market: your buys push price up, sells push it down, 1-second candles, everything visible to the crowd. The chart defaults to market-cap view (switch to price top-right). Big buys and sells pop tagged bubbles right on the chart. A 🔥 Cooking tag means volume is running hot.

Fees are flat and published: 1% per trade, 0.5% on auction fills. That fee stream is the only thing the house ever earns — player losses always go to other players, never to us.

A round ends the moment any of these fire:

• 🎓 Graduation — market cap, volume, and holder targets all met (watch the bonding bars above the chart). The token becomes an Arena Alumni; holders keep their position.
• ⏱ Timer / low volume — the round hits its max length or goes quiet. Every remaining holder exits automatically at one uniform redemption price — the same rate for everyone, no exit-order games, always liquid.
• 🔥 Rug — the pool drains hard or the developer dumps. The kill feed calls it Burnt. Rugging tanks the creator's reputation and flags their wallet. Note: creator sells are time-locked after the open on lower tiers — check the round's tokenomics panel.

Rounds last minutes, exposure is capped on lower tiers, and there is no such thing as being stuck holding an unsellable token here.

Deep liquidity means gentle moves; thin liquidity means violence. Degen Arena is earned, not given.

You earn XP every round regardless of profit — participation, first buys, diamond hands, perfect exits, rug survival, and more. Levels never reset and gate the risk tiers. The ladder:

Rookie → Ape → Sniper → Degen → Whale → Market Maker → Legend → Robinhood King

Badges, titles, chat colors, and frames unlock from levels, achievements, and season placements. Everything cosmetic is earned; nothing is for sale that affects play.

Daily missions and weekly challenges (profile page) award bonus XP for playing — rounds, trades, profitable finishes, predictions, auction entries.

Moon or Rug: before each open, call the outcome. Correct calls earn XP only — it's bragging rights, not a bet.

1. Submit a concept on the Launchpad: name, symbol, theme, art, and your own total supply. Tokens deploy from the platform template only — you never supply code, and no mint/pause/blacklist functions exist.
2. The community votes. 10 upvotes auto-shortlists you; the window closes after 24 hours.
3. The committee schedules shortlisted concepts into match slots.
4. Your round runs. You earn 30% of the round's trading fees, reputation for clean launches (double for graduations), and a permanent "Launched by" credit. Rugging your own round tanks your reputation and flags your wallet.

Is this real money?

Not in the paper beta — everyone starts with 10 pETH of simulated balance. The format, the market, and the leaderboards are fully real.

Can the platform rug me?

No. The house has no withdraw rights over round liquidity, every settlement is auditable, and our only revenue is the published fee stream. If you lose, a player won — not us.

What happens to my tokens when a round ends without graduating?

Automatic uniform redemption: every remaining holder exits at the same price, pro-rata against the pool. You always get out; the only question is the price.

Why did my limit intent get refunded?

The clearing price landed above your max. That's the limit doing its job — full refund, no fill.

How do I get whitelisted for the beta?

Drop your wallet on the landing page. Beta windows are announced on X.