I have seen many newer players saying they have had trouble finding a guild that will accept them. Sometimes they complain that guilds are "too greedy" and require too much from prospective members. In this article, I want to reveal to those players just how much it costs to run a guild, and therefore why these requirements exist.

Startup Costs

You may have clicked the "CREATE GUILD" button before and seen the following message:

That's right, it costs 10,000 DEC just to start a new guild. While the value of DEC is constantly changing, it has recently been in the area of 1 cent per DEC, so 10,000 DEC would be about a $100 investment. What can you expect to get from your newly founded guild in return? Space for 14 additional members and a 1% bonus on DEC earned from battles. That's it.

I would consider that DEC bonus fairly negligible since (ignoring any other bonuses) you would need to earn one million DEC from battles before it paid for the cost of the guild. That leaves you with 14 member slots that cost over 700 DEC each. So if I had just created a guild, I would want to get at least that much value out of each member.

Growing Pains

Of course, you'll likely want to grow your guild as well. After all, having more members means that each one won't need to contribute quite so much, right? Well, not exactly. To add a 16th member to your guild, you will need a level 2 Guild Hall, which costs an additional 10,000 DEC. A 17th member will cost another 20,000 on top of that. Here are all the costs associated with adding new member slots:

That DEC has to come from somewhere, so some of those costs will again fall upon the members. In return, they will all get the following DEC bonuses and shop discounts at each corresponding level:

Again, these bonuses are fairly low compared to the cost involved. You would need to be earning large quantities of DEC in battle to get much benefit from the DEC bonus, and you would need to be buying a lot of potions from the shop in order to get much out of the discount. In either case, you would probably be in a position to contribute DEC to a guild before you had any real need for these bonuses.

Enter The Arena

To my mind, arena brawls are the real benefit of belonging to a guild. Brawls, which allow your guild to fight against others, provide additional gameplay and the chance to earn merits, a currency used to buy Gladius cases. Gladius cases are packs that contain cards that can only be used in brawls. However, those cards also add to your collection power, which is something that all newer players are looking for.

In order to participate in brawls, your guild will need to build a level 1 Arena for 10,000 DEC. To buy Gladius cases, you will need a level 2 Store, costing 30,000 DEC. Of course, these buildings can also be leveled further, providing additional benefits at an additional cost, and there is yet another building, the Barracks, to level for further brawl bonuses. The DEC cost is nearly never-ending, so it is essential that a guild be full of members who are willing and able to contribute.

Alternative Payment Methods

It is also in brawls that we finally find a way for members to contribute that does not directly involve DEC. Since brawls are a team effort, guilds will want plenty of quality players who can beat the opposition. Therefore, having a great win-rate, doing well in tournaments, climbing to the top of the leaderboards, etc., can all be great ways of getting into a guild.

Additionally, to fully participate in brawls, guilds need players with broad collections.

For example, in order to participate in the battles above, a player can only use gold foil cards. So it benefits a guild to have members with a large gold foil collection, even if they cannot contribute as much DEC. There are also battles that require players to use only Alpha and Beta cards, or only Untamed cards, so players whose collections are strong in those areas will also be valuable.

The Friends We Made Along The Way

Finally, the one benefit of guilds that I haven't mentioned is the community aspect. This is because it can vary wildly from guild to guild, depending on the dispositions of their members. At its best though, a guild can be full of members that are always looking out for each other and willing to help however they can.

Community can also be one more way of getting into a guild if you can't contribute DEC and don't have the ability to help out much in brawls. If you make connections in the Splinterlands community, whether here on Hive, on Discord, in Twitch chat, etc., that may be yet another route into a guild. However, if I got into a guild in this way, I would work hard to be able to start contributing as much as the other members ASAP. Otherwise I might be low man on the totem pole when somebody better comes along.

Final Thoughts

If you've read this far, hopefully you now understand what it costs to grow a guild and why they have requirements for their members. If you are just starting out and can't afford to contribute, I wouldn't worry too much. The current benefits of guild membership are nothing life-changing, and you would be better off using your DEC to develop your own account. Come back stronger and earn your place when you are ready, or save up and start your own guild. Either way, take your time and enjoy the game. Your opportunity to join a guild will come eventually.

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