Nanogotchi: Virtual Pets, Broccoli Farming, and a Murder Mystery on Nano
Nanogotchi is an online game where you take care of a virtual pet and earn or spend Nano while you do it. The game has existed for a while, but it found its current shape after Forest Horsman, its developer, restarted work on it in early 2026. Three announcements later, it has become one of the more active community projects on Nano: more than 800 pets hatched by the end of February, a monthly rewards program, and, most recently, a murder mystery that had not been announced publicly when Horsman shared it on April 10.
The earning loop
The core of the game is a simple daily routine with several ways to come out ahead in XNO:
The earning loop
- 01
Feed and level up
Feed your Nanogotchi daily to gain levels. Certain levels pay out a little free Nano as a reward.
- 02
Harvest and sell
Water your garden, grow broccoli, and sell the harvest for real XNO. Horsman calls it "actual yield farming," and the joke lands because it is technically true.
- 03
Collect loyalty rewards
Reach level 10 with at least 7 fed days in a month and you qualify for the monthly Loyalty Rewards, a payout that scales with how much you engaged with the game.
Players can also sell items to each other for Nano, send Nano gifts, enter a weekly giveaway, and donate to charity. The game even integrates the NaNFTs from Nanswap.
More than a pet
The February revival added a social layer on top of the pet care: global chat with level tiers, real-time multiplayer, emotes, and online status indicators. The account is free, and Nanogotchi now functions as a Nano wallet too. That combination makes it one of the easier on-ramps for introducing family or friends to their first Nano transaction, which is exactly how Horsman frames it.
The numbers so far
Nanogotchis hatched
800+
Daily active players
60+
Loyalty Rewards
Monthly, engagement-scaled
February numbers, not April ones
Both player figures come from the February update post and predate the mystery launch. Nanogotchi has not published newer numbers, so treat them as a snapshot of momentum rather than current usage.
DEAD AIR: the murder mystery
The newest announcement, shared on April 10, is a game within the game: DEAD AIR, a pay-to-play "Nano noir mystery." You deposit 2 XNO, get 15 minutes to solve the case, and the faster you finish, the more of your deposit comes back. The briefing screen promises three pieces of evidence, from a 4-digit locker code to the killer's name, plus a bribe option that costs 10% of your refund for clearer clues. Horsman says each playthrough is different.
Early days, honest assessment
Nothing about Nanogotchi is huge yet, and the numbers should be read that way. It is a solo developer project with modest engagement, and the Nano payouts are small by design: enough to feel like a reward, not enough to quit a job over. The encouraging part is the direction. A free account that doubles as a wallet, a play loop that teaches sending and receiving XNO, and a steady stream of updates is a reasonable template for introducing people to Nano without a lecture.
The February update on r/nanocurrency has the full feature list, the Loyalty Rewards announcement on X covers the monthly payouts, and the games are live at nanogotchi.com and nanogotchi.com/mystery. Worth a visit, especially if you have never made a Nano transaction before.