Introduction: Stepping Outside the Splinterlands Bubble

Hi dungeon crawlers

This week I have another slightly different post for you. I am stepping outside my usual Splinterlands bubble which already feels adventurous enough, the real outside world is way too scary 🤣

I have been playing Dungeon Cities for a few weeks now and the game still has me hooked which is always a good sign. There is clearly a lot of potential here. Sure there are plenty of things that could be improved but for now I actually enjoy the simplicity of the game and the relaxed grind it offers.

Well relaxed might not be the perfect word because finding the right resources and keeping enough DR (Drupple) in your pocket can definitely be challenging at times. Still that is part of the charm for me.

After a few weeks of playing I managed to put together a rough plan on how I want to approach the game going forward. Nothing set in stone but a direction I feel comfortable with. I wanted to share that with you all and at the same time I am very curious how others are playing the game and what your plans are.

And if you have not checked out the game yet you can use my referral link below. Feel free to jump in and start your dungeon crawling adventure and let me know what you think of the game.

https://play.dungeoncities.com/login?ref=beaker007

The Gamer Loop

Like with many games you can always speed things up by spending money. That is nothing new. From what I have experienced so far the backpack is by far the most important item in the game. A bigger backpack simply makes everything smoother and more efficient so that is my long term goal.

That said I want to approach this in a gamer way. I do not want to just throw fiat at the problem and be done with it. I want to see how far I can get by actually playing the loop and letting the game sustain itself as much as possible.

Funny enough my game loop does not even start with the backpack itself but I will get to that part later.

The basic loop I am aiming for looks like this. I earn DR inside the game. I transfer that DR to Hive Engine where I swap it for HIVE. From there I swap HIVE into HBD and finally load that HBD back into the game as DCD.

That is the play to earn loop I want to build around.

I am very realistic about this though. This will not make me rich and the price of DR can literally go anywhere. Because of that I set myself a very small and achievable first goal which is trying to make around 3 dollars per week.

Spending a week of time for 3 dollars is probably not worth it if money is the only motivation and that is completely fair. For me the goal is not really the money. I enjoy the gameplay and if some value comes out of it over time that is just a nice bonus.

Breaking Down the Numbers

At the moment you can transfer 500 DR per day out of the game which adds up to 3500 DR per week. At current prices that would give me roughly 1.5 dollars but that number can easily go up or down depending on the market so time will tell.

On top of that I plan to write posts about the game which should generate some extra HBD. That HBD goes straight into the same bucket and helps push things closer to the weekly goal.

If the first week does not hit the 3 dollar mark then maybe the second week will. Or the third. That is perfectly fine for me because this is clearly a slow grind and I am not in a rush.

What To Do With The 3 Dollars

So let’s assume I manage to reach that 3 dollars per week. What do I do with it.

The first priority is the weekly pass. The pass gives you 1000 DR but more importantly it gives you a 100 percent stamina item. That free dungeon run helps a lot when it comes to consistently reaching the 3500 DR per week target again.

I do expect to earn more DR inside the game itself but a lot of that gets burned through crafting keys and progressing dungeon floors. At its core the gameplay loop is still very straightforward. You crawl dungeons find resources and spend those resources on crafting keys to unlock higher floors. Simple but honestly quite fun for me.

Now the weekly pass only costs 2 dollars and that leaves 1 dollar unspent. That remaining dollar goes straight into saving up for a new backpack. Depending on how patient I am and how well these posts do it will either be a smaller or a bigger bag. Either way it will take many weeks and I am completely fine with that pace.

Backpack range from 2$ up to 745$

Fun Factor and The DR Reality Check

Based on where I am at the moment in the game which is Brighthollow floor 11 I got curious how much DR I actually need to reach the very end. Not a guess feeling but some real numbers behind it.

So for fun and a bit of reality checking I let ChatGPT calculate the DR requirements for me. This actually made the grind feel more interesting instead of just blindly crafting keys and hoping for the best.

Below is the exact prompt I used followed by the results and my thoughts on it.

The Prompt

Can you calculate the min max and average DR Drupple that I need to craft all the keys.
Currently I’m crafting the key for floor 12 that is costing 1100 DR.
There are 21 floors and each floor there is a plus 100 DR crafting cost.
Then there is a 20 percent chance that the craft succeeds and with 5 consecutive fails the 6th will always succeed.

The Results

From floor 12 up to floor 21 there are 10 key crafts needed in total.
The DR cost starts at 1100 and increases by 100 DR per floor ending at 2000 DR for the final key.

If every craft would succeed on the first try the total minimum DR needed would be around 15500 DR. That is the absolute best case scenario and let’s be honest very unlikely.

In the worst case scenario every key would fail five times and only succeed on the guaranteed sixth attempt. That would push the total DR cost all the way up to roughly 93000 DR which definitely hurts.

Taking the 20 percent success chance and the guaranteed success on the sixth attempt into account the average number of attempts per key comes out at about 3.7 tries. Based on that the average DR needed to finish all remaining floors is roughly 57000 DR.

Why This Is Actually Fun

Seeing these numbers actually increased the fun factor for me. Instead of just grinding blindly I now have a rough target in my head and a better understanding of what I am working towards.

It also makes every successful craft feel more rewarding because you know it saved you a decent chunk of DR. At the same time bad streaks hurt a bit less because you know the system will eventually guarantee a success.

This also fits nicely with my slow and steady approach to the game. No rushing. No panic. Just dungeon crawling and watching the numbers slowly move in the right direction. Or is it.... there is a new city comming i want there to be first (just kidding)

Things That Would Improve The Game For Me

There are a few things that I think would really improve the overall experience.

First of all better resource discovery. I would love to see where certain resources can be found without having to click through every single monster. Even something simple like showing which dungeon floor or monster type drops specific resources would already save a lot of time.

Second and probably the biggest one for me would be a real dungeon map. Right now the left right straight choices feel very random. Imagine having to draw a dungeon map like in old school games where the system slowly reveals what you have already explored.

Each player could have their own dungeon layout so there would be no sharing optimal paths. You would need to discover your own routes. Certain spots on the map could always contain specific monsters plants or items which would make exploration more meaningful.

Higher level dungeons could even require a minimum amount of stamina to reach certain areas. With low stamina you might rush straight to the boss while with higher stamina you could afford to explore side paths and pick up extra loot. I think something like that could really level up the gameplay experience.

PvE Over PvP

One thing I really like so far is that the game feels mostly focused on PvE. PvP can definitely be fun and it often attracts players who like to spend to dominate leaderboards but personally I hope Dungeon Cities keeps its main focus on PvE. That is just my personal preference.

Closing Thoughts

So there you have it. That is my current approach to Dungeon Cities. Nothing final just the way I am playing the game at this point in time.

If you found this interesting feel free to leave a comment and an upvote is always appreciated now you know why 🤣
If you have any questions about the game I will happily try to answer them. Also make sure to check out the Discord because there are always people around who are happy to help with unclear things.

See you in the dungeons
Beaker signing off