Splinterlands has been around for a long time now and a lot of us already got used to how things work. Before, you just pick your cards that you want, build your deck and go into battle as you watch the battle unfold. Sometimes, it feels like the player is a separate entity. They are just there sitting behind the screen and not really part of the world. The players are still that, a player.
That’s why this new update caught my attention. Avatars are supposed to be your representation of to the game you play but with Exemplars, it's not just about looking cool or adding more stuff to collect. It feels like Splinterlands is slowly pushing players into the game itself, instead of just controlling cards and honestly, that’s a pretty big change.
Your Avatar Is Now Your Identity
With the new Avatars and Exemplars, your profile picture in game is more than just an image. You now get a fully customizable character that can represent you across the whole Splinterlands. You can also choose your race, adjust how you look, wear different clothes and even add backgrounds or avatar frames. It feels more personalized like this character is actually who you want to be in the game.
What I like here is that most customization can be changed anytime you like. Clothes, accessories, frames, and backgrounds can be different as much as you want. You can switch styles whenever you want. If you want to change your race or main physical traits, you can do it once but for the second time and more, you’ll need a special consumable item. This makes those choices feel more thought out but also not permanent. As long as you have the resources, you can change everything and spam change every day.
Over time, more races and more styles are also planned to be added too. Right now, we start with Humans, Elves, Orcs and Dwarves. This may be limited but remember that this is clearly just the beginning. This makes me curious how wild and different the Avatars will be a year from now.
Avatar Shop and Seasonal Events
To support all this customization, Splinterlands is adding a brand-new Avatar Shop. This shop lets players get new looks, outfits and cosmetic upgrades for their Avatars. For now, this only have the Winterfest clothing and potions but it would have more options in the future. This would eventually give players something extra to collect that doesn’t affect the gameplay.
The first big event tied to this system is Winterfest. It introduces limited-time cosmetic items like festive sweaters, special hats and holiday-themed outfits. These items are only available for a short time which makes them feel special. If you see someone wearing them later, you’ll know they were introduced around during this event.
I like the idea of seasonal cosmetics because it gives the opportunity to get themed items. I really hoped they did this during Halloween as I'd love a pumpkin hat for my avatar. For now, Winterfest feels like a test run for future events and if done right, this can become a fun tradition in Splinterlands especially since there's a lot of seasonal events we can look forward to (I wonder what they would do during April Fools next year).
Exemplars and Player Progression
Exemplars are where things get really interesting. Every player starts with a Level 1 Exemplar, and it grows over time when you level up with Glint. As you level up, you gain extra points that can be spent on stats like health, speed, armor and attacks. Increasing stats will also affect the mana cost so be aware with that.
What’s nice is that Exemplars are flexible. If you mess up your build or want to try something new, there are consumable items like Capacity Flux that let you reset your stats. This means you’re not punished forever for bad choices. If there are changes in the future like new abilities that you want to add, you can have more.
Exemplars won’t be used in ranked battles which is actually a good thing for now. Instead, they are planned for tournaments, challenges, guild brawls and future single-player content. I think the reason for this is to give space for creativity and testing without breaking the main game balance. It feels like Exemplars are made for the long term, not just a quick feature and will be in the ranked mode in the future, just not now.
Things I Want to See in the Future Updates
This is more like a feedback or a simple request for the devs. I really feel like we're continually adding more terms each set to the game which I feel like making the game more complicated than needed.
For example, we now have "Exemplars" and these are supposed to be our avatars, our representative for the game. Aren't the same thing called "Battle Mages" and before we are called "Players" or are Battle Mages and Exemplars different? I understand the want to be a unique game but it feels like each rotation, which happens more than once a year, something else is called differently but with the same concept and meaning.
That's just something I discovered. Oh, and I hope we have a patch notes on the website like a tab so we would also know what name change happened in the abilities and modifiers. I swear that in the start, it wasn't called "Death Has No Power" but I might be mistaken.
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