Many ways of interacting with the Splinterlands Ecosystem
There are many ways to play Splinterlands. Mine is simply one among others. If our goal is to attract new players, I believe we should try to present as many alternatives as we possibly can to help them choose their own paths.
This post was inspired by the recent guide written by 
New player guide! How to spend your first $1,000 In Splinterlands -
The whole post was great, especially the part where he explained why renting Summoners can be a judicious choice as I do the same thing. However, by renting we might also take the risk that our costs go up going forward if we expect an increase in the player base.
Understanding that a budget of $1,000 to start a game we don't even know might not be realistic for a lot of people, I wanted to give another perspective on how to approach Splinterlands with a more limited budget.
I like the point of view, Gank, a well-known player, gave a few months ago when he said that a player should start with whatever he or she has and then, go up from there. We are all on our own journey. To me, grabbing wins with a not even maxed-out Bronze deck in Gold leagues is what I like to do.
Timestamp: 5:35 --> "Start your journey in a responsible way that makes sense in your situation." -
Building and playing with a deck we can afford is part of the fun. It's not all about the Win Rate. Otherwise, it would not be a Play-to-Earn but more, a Pay-to-Earn, which also has its place. Today, I have over $2,000 worth of Splinterlands assets, but I didn't start there.
First and foremost, I should also say that those $2,000 are split into two categories:
- a Play Budget, which is the one that went from $40 to $400
-and, an Investment Budget that is mainly in SPS (No Financial Advice).
Build your confidence in the project first
I first started the game six months ago when everything was not only sky-high but also after Bronze leagues got nerfed. Even at that time, you were able to find cheap rentals to climb up the leagues.
By comparing the rental market to the card market, it is true that some ROIs don't make sense at all (over 13 years for some cards).
However, this is only the case if everything stays that low, which hopefully won't be the case for the next coming months or years. On the flip side, the current time represents a wonderful opportunity to start the game for cheap in my opinion.
I began with the $10 spellbook and to this day, I haven't put more than $42 of my own money to slowly grow my deck value to roughly $400 depending on the value of the cards at a given point in time.
Bring value in other ways (if you can't put more money in!)
You can bring value in other ways than by simply putting your hard-earned money into the game.
Once I got enough confidence in the team behind the project, I started to dollar-cost average into SPS, the governance token of Splinterlands. This is where most of my own money went into.
To me, this is a totally separate play that still helped me in my Splinterlands journey but is definitely not imperative if you can't afford to do so.
By having most of my budget in SPS (and, one hundred Chaos Legion packs I haven't opened sitting on the side), I had to find other ways to keep growing my little Play Budget.
Document your journey
I discovered blogging on Splintertalk only after two months of playing Splinterlands. But, for new players, I would highly encourage them to start from the beginning.
As a small player, this method will earn you much more than simply playing the game. This is when I saw my first big jump.
After the purchase of the spellbook, I spent another $30 on Chaos Legion Epic cards in order to get the edge over other players relying solely on the starter deck (the Pay-to-Earn aspect).
The additional $2 from my $42 Play Budget was injected at the beginning to help me rent a few cards over the course of a few weeks, which once more, helped me test the water beforehand.
But after that, everything I've put into cards came from the ecosystem itself.
My deck value went from $30 to $230 after three months or so of blogging about my own journey. The key, I believe, is to keep reinvesting your earnings into the game.
Information is Power
By religiously listening to the Town Halls every single week, you'll be able to have a good understanding of what is coming to the game.
I don't recommend trading tokens, as I am not (1) a financial advisor, and (2) a good trader. However, with information about Vouchers on my side and a bit of luck, I was able to make an additional $100+ by putting my Investment Budget to work.
This went on to increase my deck value as well. And, here was my second big jump from $230 to $350.
The remaining $40+ to $50 of my $400 Deck Value came from the rewards I got from playing the last few months.
Of course, this trade might not be replicable as it is. Nonetheless, the overall idea is that by being attentive to what is happening, a player will be able to find opportunities to grow their assets in this game.
In a nutshell
I hope the account of my first six months in Splinterlands will inspire a few people in some ways. You won't get rich overnight, but hey, being able to earn on average about $60 per month by playing a game is not too bad after all!
Cheers!
Thomas
For new players interested in joining this amazing game, you can support me by using the following referral link (at no extra cost to you!):
https://splinterlands.com?ref=tt88
Thank you.