The Grid gave. The Runners dug. Here's what happened when 336,706 Node Runners went prospecting.
Five weeks ago, the Hexgrid opened for business. Node Rush — Season 2 of Node Runners — introduced a new mechanic: Cache Strikes. Random jackpots buried in the network fabric, waiting for Node Runners willing to show up, stay online, and keep digging.
They showed up.
By the numbers
Cache Strikes earned: 89,465
Cache Strikes claimed: 43,274
Struck Twice badge holders: 7,414
NR2 NFTs minted: 234,040
New questing accounts: 13,234
Total Node Runners (both seasons): 336,706
The Cache Strike mechanic was the defining feature of Node Rush, and runners engaged with it seriously. Of the 89,465 Cache Strikes earned across the season — 80,099 via the CLI and 9,366 via the web — nearly half were actively claimed. The runners who found their stride early hit the jackpot more than once: 7,414 Node Runners earned the Struck Twice badge, proof that consistent uptime and daily participation paid off.
Glyphs: a season in five chapters
Node Rush ran for five weeks, and each week brought a new Strike Glyph collection — trophies that could only be claimed in-window or lost forever. Across all five drops, 234,040 glyphs were minted.
Week 2 saw the strongest single-week engagement, driven in part by the Welcome Glyph — the most-minted item of the entire season at 22,204 mints. It honored runners returning to active questing and set the tone: Node Rush was a moment worth showing up for.
Week 3 was the standout for variety. Four glyphs dropped — compass, tracks, map, and horseshoe — each earning between 12,000 and 15,000 mints. The top minted glyph of the week, True North (the compass), pulled 14,807 mints, the highest of any non-welcome glyph across the season.
Week 4 held strong, with the cowboy Hat Tip collection leading at 12,305 mints. Week 5 saw a natural tapering as the season wound down, though the coins, gold bars, nugget, and moneybag collections still collectively drew nearly 24,000 mints — a meaningful close from a community that stayed in it.
Strike material breakdown
Every glyph in Node Rush was forged in one of four materials: Wood, Silver, Gold, or Bronze. Across the season, the breakdown was remarkably even — a sign that runners weren't just chasing prestige tiers, but engaging with the full collection.
Wood: 54,999 mints — Top mint: Your Motive is Loco
Silver: 53,323 mints — Top mint: True North
Gold: 53,172 mints — Top mint: X Marks the Spot
Bronze: 50,342 mints — Top mint: Hat Tip
Wood led the season, but the spread across all four materials was less than 10% — a remarkably flat distribution for a tiered system. Runners weren't just collecting; they were completing.
End of an era
The last Cache Strike drops April 3, 2026.
Node Rush is done — but the network you helped build is still running, and what comes next is already in motion.
Over the past weeks, Nexus has continued to expand across infrastructure partnerships, global industry engagement, educational initiatives, and community-led creativity.
