Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) have exploded in popularity recently as a way to represent ownership of unique digital assets. For an NFT collection of 10,000 items, a key consideration is determining how many distinct traits to include. This affects the rarity distribution and valuation of items in the collection.
In the opening section of this article, we’ll provide quick answers to some key questions about trait counts for a 10,000 NFT collection:
Quick Answers
What’s a typical trait count? Most 10,000 NFT projects have between 5-15 traits. Popular collections like CryptoPunks and Bored Ape Yacht Club have around 10-12 traits.
How many trait options should each trait have? There’s no set rule, but between 5-10 options per trait is common. Having more options increases rarity.
How many rare/legendary traits to include? Most collections have between 1-3 ultra rare traits. Too many reduces their value.
Should traits be tiered by rarity? Tiering traits based on assigned rarity percentages allows precise control over distribution.
How to calculate max combinations? Number of options per trait multiplied together gives the max combinations. E.g. 10 traits of 5 options each gives 510 = 9,765,625 combinations.
Number of Traits
When designing a 10,000 NFT collection, one of the most important choices is determining how many distinct traits to include. The number of traits has a big impact on the rarity distribution and value perception of the NFTs.
Most 10,000 NFT projects have between 5-15 traits. Having fewer than 5 makes combinations start feeling repetitive. More than 15 makes managing rarity and standout traits difficult. Here are some examples:
- CryptoPunks – 10 traits (face, hair, accessories, etc)
- Bored Ape Yacht Club – 12 traits (fur, clothes, expression, etc)
- Cool Cats – 5 traits (eyes, headgear, clothes, etc)
- Mutant Ape Yacht Club – 15 traits (fur, clothes, skin, etc)
Based on these popular collections, 10-12 seems to be the sweet spot for most 10,000 NFT projects. This provides enough design variety to keep items differentiated, while still being manageable to process for buyers.
More Traits Increases Combinations
The main reason to add more traits is to exponentially increase the number of visual combinations possible. Each new trait doubles the potential number of combinations.
For example, with 5 traits of 5 options each, there are 55 = 3,125 potential combinations. Adding one more 5-option trait doubles the combinations to 56 = 15,625. So increasing unique trait counts quickly diversifies the look of the NFTs.
However, too many traits also makes the collection feel disjointed, with no cohesive style across the NFTs. And the rarity math becomes overly complex.
Fewer Traits Streamlines Look
On the other hand, having fewer traits, like 3-5, creates a more uniform appearance across the collection. Even with very different visual designs, a consistent trait structure helps identify the NFTs as part of the same set.
But with 10,000 NFTs, keeping the trait count under 5 risks many items looking nearly identical. Duplicate combinations become almost unavoidable without other rare distinguishing features.
So for 10,000 NFTs, start with 5 traits as the bare minimum, and increase up to 10-15 if pursuing maximum variety.
Number of Options Per Trait
In addition to the number of traits, the number of options within each trait also affects rarity distribution.
Most 10,000 NFT collections have between 5-10 options per trait. A few examples:
- Bored Ape Yacht Club – 6-10 options per trait
- CryptoPunks – 5-8 options per trait
- Cool Cats – 5-7 options per trait
Having fewer than 5 options per trait risks duplicate combinations. More than 10 options makes managing rarity tricky and diluted.
More Options Increases Rarity
The main advantage of more options per trait is it exponentially increases the total number of combinations, creating rarer items.
For example, with 10 traits that each have 5 options, there are 510 = 9,765,625 possible combinations. But increase to 10 options per trait, and it jumps to 1010 = 10 billion combinations!
More total combinations allows having items with traits that only appear once or twice in the collection. This makes those items seem highly rare and valuable to collectors.
Fewer Options Eases Process
However, there are downsides to having too many trait options:
- Difficult to manage trait rarity curves with dozens of options per trait across 10,000 NFTs.
- Buyers have a hard time reasoning about relative rarity with so many trait permutations.
- Collection loses cohesive identity with too much internal variety.
So while 5 trait options doesn’t provide much variety, sticking between 5-10 options per trait smooths the rarity management and mental modeling for buyers.
Rare & Legendary Traits
Most 10,000 NFT collections also include some very rare or unique traits that distinguish certain items and make them more valuable as “legendary” NFTs.
Some examples of rare traits:
- Solid gold or diamond styles
- Rare colors like black
- Unusual accessories like a top hat
- Mythical creatures like apes or aliens
These traits only appear on a handful of NFTs in the collection. Having 1-3 of these distinguishable rare traits is recommended.
Sparingly Distribute Rare Traits
The key is to sprinkle these rare traits across a few NFTs, not overload the collection with too many.
For example, Bored Ape Yacht Club has just 12 NFTs with gold fur, while CryptoPunks has only 24 alien punks. This scarcity assigns prestige to those traits.
If too many NFTs shared the same “rare” traits, they would no longer seem that rare or special.
Avoid Too Many Rare Options
Additionally, avoid having too many different rare traits. Ideally identify 1-3 standout traits to represent prestige items.
For example, do solid gold and diamond finishes instead of 100 different gemstones. Or make dark fur the rare trait instead of 40 colors.
With many rare traits, buyers have trouble determining relative scarcity. But a few keyultra rare traits creates clear tiers of value.
Tiered Trait Rarity
Tiering traits based on assigned rarity percentages gives precise control over the distribution.
For example, traits can be split into:
- Common – 50% frequency
- Uncommon – 30% frequency
- Rare – 15% frequency
- Legendary – 5% frequency
Minting logic can then follow these rates, ensuring the expected rarity curves hold, like having 50% of NFTs with common eyes, 15% with rare eyes, etc.
Other tiering structures are possible, but grouping traits into segmented rarity buckets allows methodical issuance.
Benefits of Structured Rarity
The main benefits of structured rarity tiers are:
- Predictable distribution of trait frequencies
- Can mint in waves (e.g. legendary, then rare, etc)
- Buyers can estimate rankings before reveal
This approach helps avoid situations where a supposedly “rare” trait ends up appearing too commonly.
Risk of Diluting Rarity
The risk with too many tiers is diluting the meaning of “rare.” For example, having tiers like Common, Uncommon, Rare, Epic, Legendary, Mythic with only minor visual differences weakens the value of a Legendary item.
So while structured rarity helps distribution, keep the top tier selection exclusive and distinguishable.
Calculating Max Combinations
Lastly, the total number of max combinations can be quickly calculated based on number of traits and options as:
Max Combinations = (Number of options for trait 1) x (Number of options for trait 2) x …
For example, say there are:
- 10 traits
- 5 options per trait
Then there would be 510 = 9,765,625 possible combinations. This provides a sense of the breadth of variety that can be achieved.
As the number of options increases, the potential combinations grow exponentially.
Here is an example table showing max combinations for different option sizes:
| Number of Traits | Options Per Trait | Max Combinations |
| 10 | 5 | 9,765,625 |
| 10 | 10 | 10,000,000,000 |
| 15 | 5 | 305,175,781,250 |
This quick calculation helps estimate the breadth of variety that can be generated for trait configuration options under consideration.
Conclusion
When designing a 10,000 NFT collection, carefully considering the number of traits and options per trait is key to maximizing rarity variety.
For most projects, 10-12 traits with 5-10 options per trait, plus 1-3 ultra rare standout traits, provides the ideal balance of diversity while maintaining a consistent identity across the collection.
Going outside those ranges risks decreasing cohesion, diluting rarity, and making the issuance overly complex.
With thoughtful trait planning, you can create a vibrant collection of 10,000 NFTs that delights collectors with its richness, visual appeal, and valuation structure.
