If you have invested in a Splinterlands account and like the idea of gaining more rewards from your cards then SplinterForge offers that opportunity. Anyone with a Splinterlands account can go to https://splinterforge.io and create a SplinterForge account and the process is really quick and self-explanatory. SplinterForge is a relatively new game still in the Alpha phase of development and with a development team actively working on game expansion now is a good time to get involved with this project. You can check this out for yourself on the Splinterforge discord channel.
A few helpful tips for new users can go a long way to getting the most rewards possible in the game from the start. The Concept of the game is that you use a hero and up to six Splinterlands cards to deal damage to a Boss. The more damage you deal to the boss the greater reward you will gain each time you engage with it. If Hero Cards are not equipped to the Hero or not enough cards are equipped then no rewards or reduced rewards from damage dealt will result. So here lies the first real problem for new users – you need to spend some Forgium before you can earn it. This can be discouraging to new users who would not realize at this stage that the game is very much self-sustaining once they gain the ability to earn Forgium for themselves.
There are 3 possible ways to gain the hero equipment cards needed. The first option is to buy Crates and Bags in the store and transferal of DEC or Forgium tokens into the game is needed for this and it’s done easily enough if you have some Tokens on the Hive Engine DEX. It costs 3000 DEC or 3000 Forgium to buy Crates and 4000 to buy Bags. My advice for users is not to use DEC to buy Crates and Bags because converting DEC to Forgium on the exchange will yield about 4x buying power at current market prices. Buying Crates and bags will generate random Hero cards and more than one Crate would be needed to fully equip the hero.
The second way to obtain Hero cards and not the most obvious method for new players is to buy them from the Splex.GG market place. The cards get transferred to your account immediately once you make the purchase. This is a good option when you need a card and don’t want to rely on a random drop. You will need to equip enough cards to give you 20 equipment stat points if you want to gain full earning from damage done against the bronze level boss. Equipping the hands, feet, legs, chest and a weapon are a good start and upgrading them with sockets will enable gems and runes to be inserted which will also help get to the 20 points. It is important to note that the same equipment piece for hands, feet, legs and chest can be equipped on all 3 heroes at the same time.
The third way to gain hero equipment is to get someone who already plays to lend you some cards to get started. There is no rental market established in the game yet but cards can be transferred between accounts. Finding someone willing to help out could be problematic but maybe you could get lucky visiting the Splinterforge disord https://discord.com/invite/umMfWvu2v7 where is it possible to pick up a giveaway. Equipping just a few Hero Cards would at least allow you to earn some Forgium if only very slowly.
Oh there is a forth way to gain Hero Cards that I have yet to mention and that is by inflicting the killer blow to a Boss. The reward for this is quite substantial and requires some luck but is not impossible. More about how to maximize the chances of inflicting the killer blow and a deep dive into what Splinterlands cards and strategies to use to get high on the leader boards to follow in Part 2 and beyond.