To start off, I want to say a big thanks to the Pubish0x community for the massive response to my January Earnings Report playing Splinterlands! That post got around ~3000 views causing 50+ new sign-ups with 11 of those who are still playing the game this season!
I learned a thing or 2 during a busy couple of days where many signed up trying out the game using the promo offer and I was barely able to keep up with the card delegations (I currently have 1000+ Cards Leased out). In order to improve the onboarding process, I made a guide on how everyone can earn from the game along with an improved offer for all that wants to try out the game itself for free to see if it's something they will enjoy playing...
HOW EARNING WORKS IN SPLINTERLANDS
The idea of being able to earn money by playing a game is a massive selling point, but also a point of suspicion for many. In the end, the money has to come from somewhere and somebody has to lose.
In the case of Splinterlands, the best comparison is a game like Hearthstone (Which I played and enjoyed in the past). In that game, you can play-for-free completing daily quests to get card packs to grow your collection while trying to climb in the rankings. If you want to be slightly competitive being able to play with the fun cards, it quickly becomes extremely expensive. The only ones that can earn from their collection are the esports players and in a lesser way the streamers. Everyone that stops playing at some point pretty much loses all the money they put into cards.
The reason Splinterlands which uses blockchain technology is a gamechanger, is that it gives players ownership of their digital cards. This means they are free to sell the cards they bought or earned at any given point possibly making a profit in the process.
This creates an interesting dynamic where the developers basically earn less because cards can be bought from other players while at the same time they earn more because there is a financial incentive for everyone to play which gives them a much bigger player base compared to if it was just a regular card game.
Splinterlands Player Rewards Model
The game gives out different rewards to active players in the form of Reward Cards and Dark Energy Crystals (DEC) which can be seen as the native in-game currency. The higher rank you manage to reach, the more rewards you will be receiving. Getting a higher ranking comes down to a combination of having a bigger card collection and your personal skills playing the game. Improving both overtime for me has been a very enjoyable experience.
Reward Cards
Every card in the game has a limited supply that will ever be printed which means the only way to get cards that are fully printed is to buy them from others on the market. The devs stated multiple times that they give high priority to making sure cards retain their value over time. Reward cards can be acquired by playing in the season ranked games and completing the daily quests. You can find a list of the reward cards that are currently been given out on Github (Link) Some of the ones that have been fully printed have become very valuable and are only available in limited quantity (Lord Arianthus 7.5$ | Ruler Of The Seas 4.929$ | ... ). If the game grows more popular during the next crypto boom, basic supply and demand can make the prices increase on many of these cards.
Dark Energy Crystals (DEC)
Every ranked game you win earns DEC Tokens (the higher your ranking the more you earn). DEC can be sold on steem-engine and also on trontrade or be used to buy cards on the market, packs in the shop, Potions, skins for the game, entries for tournaments, ...
If the price of DEC on the market goes down, it is cheaper for players to buy it up and use that to get packs which creates some price stability.
Daily Quests & Reward Chests
Every day, players get a daily quest to complete (usually win 5 games with a certain class). Once this is done they get a certain amount of Loot Chests depending on your ranking. There are also Loot Chest rewarded at the end of each season based on the highest rank you reached. These chests can have in them:
Each reward card also has a certain chance of being a legendary, epic, golden,... so at any given time you could get lucky receiving something really rare and valuable. If you play the game for a longer period of time completing the quests daily it's only a matter of time before getting something fancy.
EARNINGS EXPECTATION
Often times, new players come in with high expectations of instantly being able to earn a lot of money to end up being quite disappointed. If this was possible, the entire reward earnings model would not be very sustainable. The most healthy way to look at it is from a Return On Investment (ROI) point of view and the game certainly allows anyone to get a great ROI. (I plan on making a post on how to get a good ROI in the near future)
Before you can start sharing in the rewards, you will need a 10$ Starter Set. This will make you get a daily quest which gives Loot Chests, allows you to earn DEC from Every Single game you win and makes it possible to join tournaments.
Using your daily rewards to buy more cards (I use monstermarket.io) to grow your collection while learning the game will get you higher up in the rankings which give you more rewards increasing your progress pace and your overall earnings while your total collection value grows.
You can check your collection value on the Splinterlands Discord in the #sm-voters_hut channel with the command $stats username
GETTING A FREE ACCOUNT
To anyone that is interested, I would say the best way to go about it is to test out the game for free yourself . See if you actually enjoy playing it (aside from the rewards) and if you think it has potential to become way more popular during the next crypto bull run before actually getting in on the rewards trying to earn from it.
In order to be able to play the game you need to make a Steem account and have some Steem Power in order to transact with the STEEM blockchain. Around 50% of those that signed up last time did not get to play a game since they were not able to do so right away because their account didn't have the Resource Credits. I have leased all of them some SP so they are able to and will do the same for anyone that signs up using my affiliate link within 24h so it can be tested out for free. Everyone gets the untamed starter cards leased to them by default and I will lease some extra cards on top of that to give you a slight advantage early in the game while learning.
GAMEPLAY BASICS
Once you have an account with some delegated Steem Power for the needed Resource Credits you will be able to play the game. At the start, it might be a bit confusing but once you get going you will see it's all very intuitive. The entire game is explained in on the Game Rules Page on the website.
The general rule is that you want to put a high mana tank (^^ Goblin Mech | Sea Monster) in the first position and ranged cards in the back since they can't attack from the first position. The best way is to learn as you play and you can't lose anything when you join a ranked game.
Joining Ranked Game
When you click on Battle and join a ranked game you will see a window with all the needed information of that specific match.
- Top Left: Your opponent and the last 5 decks he played (in more advanced play you can look to counter that)
- Top Right: Time you have to make your cards
- Rules of Combat: Restrictions of this specific match
- Mana Cap: The maximum total card mana you can use
- Playable Splinters: the classes that are available.
The reason these rules are in place is to reward players who have a diverse set of cards and summoners and to keep everything interesting.
Everyone that is able to win 1 ranked game while playing at least 5 will get extra cards delegated to them! (within 24 hours)
GETTING A STARTER SET
Everyone that ends up liking the game after testing it out for free and gets the starter pack to unlock reward earning will get leased more cards to them which should help give them a head start in early stages. Some that signed up last week managed to reach rank 1600+ (Silver 1) just with the basic untamed set along with the cards I leased out to them so it certainly will make a difference!
I have a bunch of more spare cards that I will randomly lease out, in case I get overwhelmed again and run out of cards to delegate I will see if I can buy extra or replace some of them by other cards. Anyone who wants to try the game out for free right away without having to wait for the needed steem power to be leased to them can always give me a shout on Discord (SBC Discord username is costanza#2335). Also, feel free to contact me if I made a mistake somewhere not delegating SP or Cards to you. Everyone who signed up before with my Link but hasn't played yet because they were unable to should have the needed SP leased to them by now and will get cards delegated to them if they still decide to test the game out properly.
To see how much playing the game potentially earns check out my Splinterlands | January Results & Earnings Report or the post I will make on my overall February earnings...
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