Recap of my account from last week
At the end of my first week in Splinterlands, I had earned about 50 DEC, a few common reward cards, and a minimal amount of SPS (about .07), and I had climbed to high bronze 3 (about 400 trophies).
Where am I Now after Week 2?
My account now has 1081 DEC, a few more rare reward cards as well as an epic monster, and 5 staked sps. I am now sitting in bronze 1 (about 700 trophies).
In this post I will explain how I got to this point, and what I learned this past week.
Week 2- Daily Rewards
This week I made sure to do my daily quest every day to maximize the amount of reward chests I received. From these daily chests I got my fair share of potions (which are worthless to me right now as I am not opening any packs), a disappointing reward of 1 DEC from a chest, and a few cards.
This was the first time that I had received a card of a rare or epic rarity from a daily chest. From one chest I was lucky and pulled a Venari Wavesmith which is a popular reward card right now. I was also super excited to pull an epic Djinn Chwala.
With these awesome pulls, I received about $4 of rewards with the current market prices, which is almost halfway to my initial investment of $10 for the Summoner's Spellbook.
Take away tip: Always do your daily quest as it allows you to earn awesome rewards to recoup your investment, or increase your profits.
Week 2- DEC
You might be wondering how I got 1000+ DEC in one week, but I will get to that in the SPS section.
I naturally earned about 50 DEC this week from playing everyday and keeping my Energy Capture Rate in the optimal 75 - 99%. In this lower bronze 1 league, I have found I earn about 0.5 to 0.8 DEC per win depending on ECR and win streak. I have hit over 1 DEC per win while at around 900 trophies, however I suffered a losing streak since then and dropped to a lower payout.
It is interesting to see that I earned about the same DEC in this second week as the first (50 vs. 30), despite being at a higher league. I think that this as you move up in the leagues you will begin to earn more DEC per win, and thus more per week.
Take away tip: Keep your ECR at the optimal levels 75% - 99%. Make sure you battle everyday to avoid your energy capture rate sitting at 100% for too long. Also, it is probably best to avoid the temptation to play for hours and burn it to a lower percentage (although no shame if you do, this game is very fun and addicting).
Week 3 SPS
Now the big change in this weeks gameplay and progression is, SPS. For those who don't know, SPS is the governance token in Splinterlands. It can be bought just like other tokens, but it can also be earned through daily airdrops just for holding game assets such as cards, DEC, and more.
--What is it used for?
Up until this week, SPS has just been used as another token to trade and earn with no special uses. However, with the recent Chaos Legion announcement this week, we have found out that SPS will be playing a crucial role in the release of the new card packs.
First, in order to buy these packs, you must have a good amount of SPS staked, and a voucher. Vouchers are a new thing coming to Splinterlands, and will be paid out to those with staked SPS in a similar way to SPS airdrops from what I understand.
--My SPS experience with SPS:
Now that you see how important SPS will be going forward, it's time to explain how I got my new SPS, and what you should do to get some.
Earning SPS passively is extremely slow for new players, so how did I end up with so much after a week? The answer to that, is a giveaway. This week I was blessed to win a 25 SPS giveaway from the awesome user 
--What I did with this SPS:
There are a few things to do with the SPS you earn; hold it liquid, sell it, stake it, or exchange it. I decided to stake a little bit (5 SPS) to prepare in a small way for these upcoming vouchers. I then took the remaining 20 and converted it to about 1000 DEC.
Now you may be asking, "If SPS is so important, why did you trade it for DEC," and that's a good question. The answer is, so I can earn more SPS. Holding DEC equates to more SPS airdrop points, which in the long run should return more SPS than the 20 I exchanged. Before you go and do this however, this may not be the best and most efficient use of your SPS, it is simply what worked best for me.
Take away tip: Enter giveaways! They are an amazing opportunity to grow your account when starting out, and one of the best things about this community.
Conclusion
This has been a longer post than I expected, so to those of you still reading, a big thank you. In an effort to keep this article from becoming even wordier, I will not be addressing my first experience with renting cards here, but will instead post another article about it in the near future.
Goals:
I hope to continue to climb the leagues and hopefully be close to silver next week. As always, I plan to continue learning and growing my knowledge about this game.
If you are interested in signing up and starting your journey in the world of Splinterlands, I would appreciate if you used my affiliate link as it cost you nothing extra and helps support me in making this content. https://splinterlands.com?ref=blueleader03
If you have any questions or comments for me in regards learning more about the game, please leave a comment below. I would appreciate any advice you have for me about progressing more in the game.
I look forward to discussing this again next week.
Best Wishes,
I am not a financial advisor, do not take any of this as investing advice.