Before the Steem Monsters game was released, the only way to get cards and packs for free was to take part in contests and giveaways hosted by some generous users from the community, and this was how I got most of my cards. But now, for those who have purchased the starter pack and can participate in the actual game, there are two new and interesting ways to get packs for free:
Image source: screenshot from Steemmonsters.com
1. Season rewards
Players get awarded with a certain number of booster packs depending on the highest rating they achieved during a ranked battle season. From what I understand, what counts towards the packs is your highest record during that season, and it doesn't matter if you begin losing and your rating drops. So for example if the highest rating you got was 800 and then you lose a lot and your rating drops to 300, at the end of the season you'll still get the amount of packs corresponding to your record of 800 rating. If I understood it right, then this is very cool, and getting a few packs this way shouldn't be that hard!
To check the list of all possible rewards, go to the Steemmonsters.com website, click on "Leaderboard" on the menu, then click on "LEAGUE OVERVIEW" on the page that opens.
2. Daily quests
These were introduced at the end of October, and let players win one booster pack for completing a daily mission. So far the goal has been to win ten ranked battles using cards of a certain element (randomly chosen for each player). This is probably the easiest way to get booster packs for free, and is more doable now that each league only allows cards up to a certain level. The announcement post for these level adjustments lists all the level limits for each league.
For example, if you get a quest where you need to use fire monsters but your fire monster cards are still level 1, the easiest way would be to remain at the Novice league (0 to 99 rating) where the maximum level allowed is 1 (even if your opponent's cards have higher levels, their cards will automatically be set to level 1). This evens the playing field and avoids those situations where you have to face someone with levels way higher than yours, and makes the fights more fair and manageable for your level 1 cards.
I had attempted the daily quests when they began last week, but didn't have much luck, with low-level cards and much higher-level opponents. Now that the new season started and the level caps came into play, I decided to try again, and so far haven't run into any opponent with much higher levels. I only couldn't stay at the 0 to 99 rating range because my rating was already higher thanks to the points carried over from last season, but my cards are low-level too, and I still managed to complete two quests. So, I believe anyone can complete these quests without many problems.
So far, excluding the starter pack required to play the game, I've never bought any booster pack. The few booster packs I got came from giveaways. But I've managed to get five booster packs thanks to the above methods. Three packs for reaching 700 points last season, and two for completing the daily quests.
Booster packs cost $2 USD if we choose to buy them, and I think it's nice that the developers have implemented ways to get these packs for free, for us who don't want to or can't spend money on packs. With patience and persistence, it should even be possible to get one booster pack every day!
Let's see how much my patience and persistence will hold...