In my previous Splinterlands article, I was writing about taking a full break from the game, mainly because playing in the Wild League wasn't profitable any more: the season pass costs more in SPS than I was making from battles.
After exploring a bit more of the vast Splinterlands realm, I've found out that even though the Wild and Modern league doors are closed for me now, it doesn't mean I should sell my cards and stop playing. There are other options thanks to new game formats.
In this post, I'm sharing my plans to continue with this great game. Let's have a look!
Survival Mode
In this relatively new format, you can use all of your cards, no matter how old they are. Survival Mode is great for old, casual players like myself who have stuck around year after year, holding on to their cards. So no restrictions, no passes.
But there is a catch.
In Survival, if you lose, all of your cards (including the summoner) will experience a cooldown of about 12 days, and during that period, these cards can't be used with the format. Also, even if you win but lose a card, it's the same thing, a cooldown process for the lost card, so plan your strategies carefully.
I've just started my Survival journey, but already liking the format very much. You really need to focus and put some thought into it before rushing onto the battlefield. There's no going back. Mistakes and defeats sting, but victories feel awesome. We lived to see another day, another battle.
I'm currently in the Bronze League and can't say much about the rewards other than they are still quite low, but I expect them to rise once I reach the higher leagues.
All in all, Survival is a format that favours players with huge card decks and especially those who haven't merged all of them but kept them as single copies. They now have the advantage of "sacrificing" units while continuing to push again and again.
Guild Brawls
Currently, my main source of SPS income is Guild Brawls. Just yesterday, our guild managed to win our Brawl session after many painful defeats in the past. The rewards were 5,190 Merits and 94 SPS for each participant.
Even though Brawls are something we don't get to play often, they are definitely something not to miss because if you manage to find an active, competitive guild to join, the rewards can be quite substantial. Even outnumbering the league earnings.
Brawls are also very fun as they offer tactical variety since the Gladiator cards are now in use. You can upgrade these super units by using Merits earned for brawls.
Campaign
If you are just starting your Splinterlands journey, the Campaign mode is for you. It consists of books that have chapters you need to complete before proceeding to the next one. In each chapter, you learn new things: how to choose the best summoner, positioning units, and how to use melee, ranged, and magic attacks. You'll also learn about abilities and rulesets, and how to take advantage of them.
As a reward, you earn Foundation cards that can now be combined and sold just like any other regular cards. These cards are then playable in every format except Survival.
Frontier
After the Campaign mode, you can test your cards and skills in the latest format - Frontier. Here, you don't earn Glint or SPS, but Foundation cards and packs instead. It's a good place to start refining your strategies and slowly stacking up cards and combining them to create more powerful ones. They may come in handy when you are ready with your collection to take on the Modern League.
Advancing through tiers and leagues brings you even more rewards, so if you are on a tight budget, Frontier is a good league to level up your collection.
Conclusion
Perhaps the days of excessive earnings are over on Splinterlands, but there are still many ways to keep on earning while building your decks. When I started playing, there was just a short tutorial for newbies, and after that, it was game on. Nowadays, the game feels more newbie-friendly than ever, and especially the opportunity to earn your very first cards by playing is just great!
Even from an older player's perspective, the game now seems more balanced and, with the Survival mode, a bit more rewarding for cardholders. Together with Brawls, it still makes sense for a player like me to keep on going, even with Modern and Wild now out of my reach.
Hopefully, in the future, some of the restrictions will magically go away, and we will get to play on the Wild again. This would, in my opinion, increase the demand for cards from all sets and revive the market again. In other words, we need to bring more value to older cards.
Thank you for reading, and see you on the battlefield!
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