Up until two months ago I knew nothing about Splinterlands, blockchain gaming and the P2E market. Of course now I wish I'd been there when it started. Not only is it a great game but the ability to earn money is real!
Once you have purchased the Summoner's Spellbook you've entered yourself into the market to earn. When you win a match, you earn the in game currency DEC. There were recently some changes made so you can only earn credits in the Novice and Bronze leagues for quests and end of season rewards, but these can still be used to make purchases so, no great issue. You start earning decent amounts of DEC when you hit Silver league, including in quest chests and end of season rewards. Silver league requires 15,000 card power to get in, which sounds considerable, but is manageable through renting.
But you're here because you want to grab a few tips to help you get started and settled in the game, so let's get down to it.
1) Speculate to Accumulate
Yes, you can play Splinterlands without any investment but you're here to make some money while you're having fun aren't you? Maybe don't buy that next game you've been looking at on the PS/XBox/PC, or skip that takeaway, or politely pass on the next night out - then you can put a little bit of money into this game, it's an investment after all.
A small amount of funds converted into DEC is all you need to rent some cards, win some matches and get you into Silver league where you can earn more DEC to expand those rentals. Together with the free starter cards they offer you, this is completely viable. Which brings me on to renting...
2) Peakmonsters
Peakmonsters is epic! In fact it's so good, it's even better than the in-game market...I'll pause there to let you take that in for a moment. You can buy cards, place bids on cards, rent cards, auto-rent cards, and that's just the beginning - the more you use it the more you'll learn about how it isn't just a useful accessary, it's something you simply can't do without. It links to your SL account and this is where you want to do most of your shopping.
3) Splintercards
Splintercards is another site that compliments SL. Here you can find out what all those ability symbols on the cards mean along with a wealth of other things, like rulesets for each map that really take effect from Silver league and upwards (really study the rulesets as they can have a massive impact upon the match, I'll mention this in a later post).
There really is too much for me to go into now but take a look for yourself and you'll see what I mean. Of particular note are the 'low prices gap' and 'list price analysis' under the tools menu, really useful for examining the price trends on cards and spotting some potential good deals on the market.
4) The Splinter Elements
There are six splinters to choose from when you play with a seventh neutral splinter which you can add into your lineups. They are Fire, Water, Earth, Life, Death and Dragon. When you play with the Dragon splinter you can also choose another splinter as well and effectively mix the two into that particular match.
Starting out I found it easier to focus on two splinters to build upon initially. My choice was water and earth but I advise you to play a few games with all of them and see what you like. This way you'll understand what works best with your style of play before you start committing any money to game.
5) Grab/Rent Some Cards
I previously mentioned, I decided upon the water and earth splinters, and it didn't take me long to realise what I wanted when it came to cards. For me, the summoner Mylor Crowling, was a no brainer. He gives your whole team roots which deals damage to the enemy cards every time they melee attack you. Also, Djinn Oshannus,, from the water splinter was an absolute must and is just such a powerful card. So I bought them both, I paid about $35 for Mylor who as I write this is worth $58 on the market, and about $22 for Oshannus who is currently worth $50 (I so wish I'd bought some more of him which illustrates my first tip beautifully, speculate to accumulate).
Just these two purchases took me straight into the silver league in terms of my rating, so study your battles and the market to see who works best for you.
6) Power
This is the frustrating bit - trying to increase your power so that you can actually match your rating and climb into those higher leagues. This is, 'the total DEC value of all playable cards in your collection that are owned by you or rented to you'. The key word here is, 'rented'. Unless you have some serious money to invest, you're going to be renting those cards that give you enough power to climb the leagues initially.
Take a look at the chart above and use this to help you gauge what cards might be useful to achieve this. You can also search under the rent menu on Peakmonsters and toggle the 'level/CP' column to search via CP (card power). It might seem like a lot of DEC to rent these cards but once you get into silver you can earn it back through winning matches.
7) Quests and Season End Rewards
The above were my rewards for last season in Silver III. Not too bad considering and a good illustration of what you can expect to get. In terms of quest rewards in Silver III, I can get two chests a day. Sometimes they're good (two days ago I got 77 DEC), sometimes they're not quite average (yesterday I got 10 DEC). You can also drop cards as well through quests, so they're worth doing.
It's worth bearing in mind as well that if you don't like the look of a quest you can ditch it for another one. You can do this once each day. I personally wouldn't worry too much about the quests until you're into Silver league, and concentrate more on winning matches and increasing your rating to get you promoted (presuming your power is high enough to let you into Silver).
Summary
So in summary, will Splinterlands make you a millionaire tomorrow? Probably not, unless you managed to buy in on some of the land they sold!
Can it make you any money? Absolutely! You can rent out your cards; you earn DEC just for winning a match; you can earn chests daily and at season end; they are currently air dropping their crypto, SPS, daily and you can get it for free just for playing; you can sell your cards if you don't want them or just want to cash in on their value. Have I missed anything else, probably, but that's enough to be getting on with.
Is it fun to play? Each to their own, but I've been a gamer for decades and can safely say I really enjoy this one. The art work is great, the battles are quick and fun with no need to be spend hours deck building, and the community is friendly and helpful (check out their discord channel).
Either way, take a look for yourself, it won't cost you a penny to try it. Oh and if you do decide to give it a go, use my referral link to sign up (https://splinterlands.com?ref=kaljerico) and purchase the Summoner's Spellbook and I'll gift you a free card to use!
