The BTC price dropping so low many assume this is the end of Blockchain gaming & crypto in general. I would be lying to say this isn't a factor to consider BTC price having such an impact on the industry is unmistakably a cause / effect situation.
I will contest that Blockchain has grown far more complex then simply PoW Blockchains like BTC. Splinterlands a HIVE P2E finds its assets on many Blockchain ledgers giving the project greater stability & access.
For instance the biggest critiques with Blockchain games are the complexity & Gas Fees.
Splinterlands has no noticeable gas fees being effectively free to users once you buy a $10 Spell book. As for ease of access while HIVE leaves much to be desired in this area WAX is very easy to use & Splinterlands NFTs can be easily claimed by non WAX wallet users.
Bitcoin While important isn't all blockchain has to offer So today ill explore how Splinterlands uses HIVE, WAX, & BSC to make something greater then the sum of its parts.
Most importantly how Splinterlands puts the Earn back into Play 2 Earn.
Of course as always I include a NFT giveaway chaser.
By the Numbers Proof of Profit
Proof is in the profit margin & over the last 2 months I have earned the following rewards, keep in mind I spend around $5-$7 a Season on rentals so I have expenses to consider.
This was when I was still recording daily rewards 2 months ago so while I average similar payout I dont really record every reward earned daily.
@chubb149/splinterlands-2nd-season-new-rewards
After this first month I just have Seasonal rewards keep in mind ill be deducting rental costs.
This was just season 1 rewards having spent $6.27 on rentals clearing at the time 30,000 DEC around $19 I earn roughly $12.70 on crypto alone making the packs & NFTs extra profit.
Each season lasting between 17 - 13 days & I try to stay at diamond rank 3 requiring between $5-$7.50 in rentals. Season 2 of the last 2 months.
@chubb149/splinterlands-is-just-getting-started
You will note rewards will change as the seasons progress implementing multiple potions, Merits, & eventually replacing DEC with SPS.
Not bad season 2 rewards alone between packs & DEC pay for the expenses $7.13 with $9.15 at the time. This gives me all daily rewards for free & still profited a few dollars.
Here's my 3rd season in 2months the beginning of last month, you will begin noticing Merits & other rewards updates.
@chubb149/splinterlands-new-market-info-and
206400 DEC in 1 chest!!!
206400 DEC is over $140 USD in 1 Seasonal rewards chest at Diamond rank 3.
At a rental cost of $6.89 I more then profited this season meaning in 3 seasons so far we are up to around $150 - $200 depending upon weather I count NFT value or daily rewards.
Either way seasonal rewards more then cover my expenses, yes its not simple but doable earning real profit playing a game.
Now I'm far from perfect & I began stumbling a little here due to work IRL hours being increased due to the season I ended up with less free time to play.
Having spent $6.96 I'm hardly able to say this season broke even however with a profit of $150 previously I can go into the red.
@chubb149/splinterlands-season-rewards-nft-giveaway
Now I had not recorded my last season as I did poorly so much so I lost rank & now need to hit diamond 2 seasons in a row to get better payouts.
28 chests which where counted as Diamond rank chests as its determined by the prior season end rank.
This means the next seasonal rewards will be Gold instead of Diamond which drastically changes payout.
Above is the odds difference of receiving a chaos legion pack.
You see I believe the SPS rewards payout still have a multiplier like DEC use to just not as powerful.
Note how diamond had a 16x DEC multiplier previously, well based on my observations higher rank rewards chests containing SPS rewards contain more then lower rank chests.
67.26 SPS + 3 packs
So even on a bad season I profited roughly $3 as I spent $7.31 on rentals roughly $2 a pack for resale & $3.73 in SPS.
Now what do we learn from these 2 months of Playing Splinterlands?
My belief is the takeaway should be 2 fold first being you have to spend money to make money, secondly when you rent your investing in your potential as a player.
I came out ahead nearly $180 However nothing is a guarantee you can & do loose money but try to be certain when renting you will get far enough to need those rentals.
Potions
In Splinterlands we have potions that actually improve odds when opening a pack.
Anyone still lost?
Well alow me to break it down for you.
Splinterlands is a HIVE P2E TCG (HIVE Play 2 Earn Trading Card Game) The Cards (NFTs) can be bought individually, rented, Earned for playing Splinterlands Ranked Matches, & obtained by opening packs.
Potions come into the picture when players open packs like Chaos Legion Packs or Rift Watchers Packs for example.
Now when opening a non gladius case pack in game when you own 5 Gold & 5 Legendary potions you actually increase the odds of getting a legendary or gold NFT in that pack.
Above are the Chaos Legion Cards which have been added to the Chaos Legion Packs since launch. A pack bought at launch could still possibly contain one of the 10 cards added since then.
What does this have to do with potions?
Its the manner in which the packs operate on Splinterlands that is the key to understanding potions.
Splinterlands NFT packs are far from typical, where as usually contents are determined while minting & are unchanging, Splinterlands determines NFT pack contents at the moment of execution.
This means you can change results of opening a pack by applying potions.
You may be inclined to doublecheck my assessment of the potions importance, I respect healthy skepticism. Having opened thousands of Splinterlands packs I personally believe they have a significant effect.
Rift Watchers & SPS
The Splinterlands Rift watchers pack presale will soon begin, how does this info help you?
Personally I find it advantageous to know that Rift watchers packs will be bought at first with vouchers & SPS during presale. Once their actual sale begins you will then need to purchase rift watchers packs with SPS.
What This means is we have a warning of market demand before it occurs. While most P2E investors look to trading indicators which are indeed a good place to start.
I personally have such a focused view on a project in this case Splinterlands I can use their schedule & press releases to asses my investment window.
Cause = Effect
Demand for SPS increases one can postulate so to does its price, nothing in life is certain but this is a solid bet.
Now I have cleared tens of thousands of dollars playing Splinterlands having started flat broke a few years back. Will this mean I can say for certain SPS or rift watchers packs can guarantee I profit? No!
I'm not a financial advisor nor is anything I write intended as investment advice, outside of a cautionary tale most would be hard pressed to learn anything at all from my life story.
My writing style is to invite others to learn from my experience, I can & do make mistakes, nothing is ever a certainty.
Splinterlands has been the NFT colection & P2E game which hasn't let me down as I try to mitigate risky behavior.
So my experience with Splinterlands tells me that I should be holding SPS & Rift watchers packs.
Game tactics
Since Splinterlands is a TCG at heart lets talk strategy for playing a match In this HIVE P2E game.
https://support.splinterlands.com/hc/en-us/categories/6237452583572-Game-Play
I cant recommend their new tutorial page 👆 enough wish I had it this good when I first started on the how to play you will get everything you need to know to play.
Now if you have the brushstrokes down lets talk my personal strategies for rentals builds & matches.
Abilities are the defining factor sometimes more important then base card stats.
There are 64 Card abilities in Splinterlands from buffs to stats effects & everything in between.
When playing a TCG its much akin to hacking you look for & exploit a systems vulnerability, one such vulnerability in Splinterlands involves builds using Amplify ability.
When using a build with amplify you use other cards summoners included with the following abilities.
Since the Splinterlands colection is ever-growing & the game ever changing abilities like the newer ability (amplify) can be to overpowered.
As a counter they introduced Reflection Shield relatively recently to counteract the amplify exploit.
Well if its countered why bother right?
Wrong!
Just because there is a solution to the problem not every players build will account for that exploit.
Knowing what to use on each match is the key so understanding what is effective is paramount to success.
Yes card stats & their levels matter immensely, however the likelihood of success increases with the proper team for that match.
Many tend to use healing abilities, Affliction 👆 will fix their red wagon.
That being said i would be lying to state Healers dont play an important part.
A quote from Paracelsus an alchemist that lived in the 1400 / 1500s-
“What is there that is not poison? All things are poison and nothing is without poison. Solely the dose determines that a thing is not a poison,”
The key takeaway the difference between Poison or medication is the dosage, I thought it would be a perfect quote to Segway from healing to hindering with this next ability poison.
Personally I play like the match is a war of attrition not so much overpower but outlasting ones opponent.
Magic attack type bypasses most shields with usually 100% accuracy, as such many rely upon it exclusively.
The abilities above turn that strength against them in some cases costing them the match.
Non typical attack types with certain abilities or rulesets have the creature attack something other then your front card usually called a Tank.
While your In these instances camouflage can make or break your match.
I'm not going to go over every ability as they all are actually quite useful, however a few personal faves are shown below.
Nothing is a perfect answer for playing a match of Splinterlands, for a TCG it is quite balanced, surprisingly so.
Renting
A corner stone of ATV sales & playing Splinterlands, Rentals can make or break your experience.
You may think its better to limp through matches playing Splinterlands with what you have but much like that Camping vacation Renting the right equipment (ATV) makes it so much better.
Meaning simply you may not need to rent anything but those seeking to give it their all playing Splinterlands Rentals can be essential.
I average $5-$7.50 in a seasons rentals to maintain diamond ranking which my rewards typically pay for.
This is almost exclusively due to their new improved rewards system which began being implemented a few months ago.
Weather your an investor looking to make the most off their Splinterlands assets, or a player trying to increase their earnings potential rentals make or break this game.
I rent cards not only to strengthen the cards in my deck IE better abilities higher levels ect, but to raise my account power which is very important.
Again I'm going to strongly suggest you check out the new tutorial its got everything I love it.
https://support.splinterlands.com/hc/en-us/categories/6237452583572-Game-Play
Part of the trepidation involved with the newest cards where their decreased account power value or burn value.
Suffice it to say as account power is required to advance ones Rank / tier calling account power important is an understatement.
Way back at the beginning of this write up I explained how rewards from daily challenges or seasonal rewards are tied to the players rank or tier.
Like the possibility of receiving a pack in a rewards chest 👆
Or just the average value of each reward in my experience increases with the league tier.
Now I have established how fundamental account power is lets look at my renting tricks to minimize expense.
I aim for cards that are very prevalent in the market so mostly rewards cards no one wants to build my account power. After I have the power I need I rent cards that are necessary like high level summoners (most of my expenses) & killer cards with awesome abilities or stats.
Those looking to run the economic boots to individuals like yours truly by renting out cards what you need to focus on is this....
High level Summoners!
You level up a card by combining multiple cards of the same type in their burn blend use case. The number of cards needed to level up each card varies but renting or selling each card is worthless by comparison so its the only real choice.
BTC Pessimism
Those that like myself see the current crypto market conditions as foreboding, I suggest you try & keep in mind all the stellar projects besides the big 2 ETH / BTC that now exist.
DPoS models like HIVE WAX & EOS I believe are the only real option for gaming, games which become all the more powerful when backed with the right PoS blockchain like BSC.
The Gaming industry has proven they are incapable of giving consumers agency their customers sorely need / deserve. In recent times the sales of games have significantly lowered on average, the worlds in a tough spot right now & ditching all blockchain projects will make things worse.
BTC & ETH are fine for a place to start from, they lead to innovations which have lowered power costs significantly.
WAX is carbon neutral meanwhile ETH uses the power required by a city the size of New York every day on average.
Looking forward we need to keep things in perspective Blockchain would have never come to be without BTC. Learning from our past can lead to a brighter future ignoring what we have learned from BTC could mean the end of society as we know it.
Yes I'm pessimistic about an industry I owe everything to, what gives me hope is most crypto advocates capacity for collaboration & cooperation.
Splinterlands what every new player needs
Lets get the rough news out of the way first shall we, while you can play Splinterlands for free to profit from playing Splinterlands as I outlined above it will cost you some money.
For $10 you can purchase a Spell book (accepting most forms crypto or Pay Pal), I strongly recommend getting a few cards either by rental (much cheaper) or buying a few.
I personally give away NFTs on every HIVE write up I post so you can likely claim a few by keeping an eye out for them.
Not without perks I truly believe my Splinterlands spell book purchase was the best money I have ever spent in my life.
Once you get started or preferably before you will need to get a HIVE account set up, for those unaware HIVE is a blockchain your HIVE account is a wallet of sorts.
HIVE accounts are a bit difficult to quantify but it functions like a web wallet with conformations of aforementioned wallet are handled via site Hive Signer on Mobile or Via the browser plugin Hive Keychain on Desktop.
Splinterlands is 1 of a myriad of HIVE Dapps including Tribes (Blogs), of course trading Dexs, & other HIVE P2E games.
One tribe on the HIVE blockchain I have a referral to is ecency the referral link below allowing any new users to easily get started on HIVE.
https://ecency.com/signup?referral=chubb149
Now this sounds like I'm over reacting but I'm not, be certain that you safely copy your Posting Key, Active Key, Owner Key, & Memo Key.
All are needed for various HIVE functionality & loosing these would mean you lost all access to your HIVE assets, they are important beyond measure.
Once you have your HIVE info securely created & your keys safely backed up you can start playing Splinterlands via my referral link below.
https://splinterlands.com?ref=chubb149
At this point you will be needing a spell book sorry #ADD so my instructions are not exactly in order.
HIVE acount made book purchased all good time to play yeah your good to play, of course I strongly advise a WAX wallet.
While true following the steps outlined above you can already play Splinterlands provided you bought the spell book & hit bronze 2 or higher even make money doing so.
The reason I advise a WAX wallet is I do airdrops to WAX wallet users WAX wallet can also be paired to your Splinterlands game account.
Besides HIVE is a difficult wallet to set up WAX has a simple web wallet where you can just sign in with many forms of social media in a few seconds.
https://all-access.wax.io/
Simply sign in with twitter, discord, Facebook, twitch, ect to the WAX cloud wallet found via the link above.
WAX is another Web wallet allowing you to setup Splinterlands with no download necessary.
Link your new wallets in game HIVE / WAX once done you can now use atomic hub a WAX NFT market with their own Splinterlands tools.
This is where you can send the Splinterlands NFTs I Airdrop to lucky readers back to your Splinterlands account.
https://splinterlands.atomichub.io/tools/overview/splinterlands
You can find the Splinterlands WAX tools via the link above, & rest assured I dont simply ask you to use WAX to make your life harder.
On WAX I can produce a Airdrop URL allowing me to give away 1 larger prize containing 5 NFTs (sometimes packs) which is claimed by the first reader to click the WAX NFT airdrop link.
The large WAX NFT airdrop will look similar to the example above simply be the first lucky reader to click it & no gas no nonsense you claim the airdrop its that simple.
Links
Join HIVE
https://ecency.com/signup?referral=chubb149
Join Splinterlands
https://splinterlands.com/?ref=chubb149
Join WAX
https://all-access.wax.io/
WAX Splinterlands tools
https://splinterlands.atomichub.io/tools/overview/splinterlands
WAX NFT Giveaways Tutorial
Every time I post on HIVE I do a few NFT giveaways, the first & larger 5 count WAX NFT airdrop URL which goes to the first user to click the link.
The next 5 WAX NFTs are given away to the first 5 users to comment their WAX wallet address, once I see the comment Ill send you a single WAX NFT followed by a reply stating I have done so. This is for the first 5 users only to leave their WAX address in the comments.
WAX NFT Airdrop URL & Giveaway instructions
https://wax.atomichub.io/trading/link/1517122?key=5Ka2BGTr3zCnWXfqaJLTjzhRkrAcvSqdSihogzzs2fof9NeDxRy
Todays lucky reader gets to up their Splinterlands game, by adding a little bling to their colection in the form of some gold cards.
Another 5 lucky readers can participate in my secondary giveaway by commenting their WAX address, first 5 HIVE users to do so get a standard Splinterlands card sent to their WAX wallet.
All the NFTs from todays WAX NFT giveaways are used in the HIVE P2E Splinterlands, still not playing? Please consider joining via my referral link below.
https://splinterlands.com?ref=chubb149
Stash Pass Weedcash NFT giveaway
Every time I post anything on HIVE I do several NFT giveaways, one such giveaway is my #stashpass NFT giveaway.
How you participate in a #stashpass NFT giveaway is be one of the first 5 HIVE users to comment #stashpass on this post & then Re-blog, gets a #stashpass Weedcash NFT sent to their HIVE wallet.
My #stashpass Weedcash NFTs are part of a monthly NFT raffle taking place on the 20th with the #stashpass NFT ownership being used to determine who wins the raffle.
Full Instructions on #stashpass raffles can be found via the URL below
@chubb149/stash-pass-nft-airdrops-tutorial
You can view, buy, or sell Weedcash NFTs like #stashpass here
https://www.weedcash.network/nfts/
So the first 5 HIVE users to comment #stashpass & then re-blog this post gets an exclusive limited #stashpass NFT sent to their HIVE wallet.
Conclusion
I'm not a financial expert what I am is a gamer & construction worker. When market conditions are far from favorable BTC crashing things seeming this uncertain I look to projects I believe work.
HIVE, WAX, & Splinterlands chief among these Blockchain project I believe in. Splinterlands in particular has added recent changes that truly help their loyal Players & fans.
For this reason I believe Splinterlands puts the Earn back into P2E gaming.
