"Steem Monsters" + "Drug Wars" - Power Strategy Tips #15

As I have now been playing Steem Monsters and Drug Wars for several months now, I have wanted to contribute something of ACTIONABLE value to my fellow players (and FUTURE players) - but NOT just fill my Steemit feed with daily images of quest reward - or battle - SPAM, (no offense to those doing so). Ultimately, Steemit is about ADDING VALUE to the social experience - that is the magic of blockchain technology. So, after some serious pondering, I decided that a weekly "Steem Monster + Drugs Wars player strategy diary" type series, with CONCISE and ACTIONABLE tips, would be of most value to my audience. Please let me know your thoughts (good and/or bad), and I hope that readers (now and into the future) will benefit from this series. If you gain a better understanding of blockchain, gaming, "blockchain gaming", marketing, and/or any other area of knowledge I end up exploring as this series naturally progresses, then I will have done my "good deed" (of providing value) for the week. Also, feel free to hit me up on the battlefield...

@transcript-junky

[**DISCLAIMER: I've put this weeklly series post out a few days late, due to being SUPER busy, and I also wanted to wait for the recent Steem Monsters season results (which I got last night). I will make this update as concise as possible.]

1 ) Last week's new stragety of using the new "Dark Energy Crystals" which I earn from winning battles (during quests or NOT) to purchase upgrades of + 2 and/or +5 reward cards INDEED proved to be effective in enabling me to earn MORE reward cards over the season, as a result of my limited active playing of the game. Since my time/energy is so limited, having those extra five reward cards on the completion of the first daily quest of the season MOTIVATES me to play more. I will be using this new feature into the future to enhance my results on Steem Monsters, to BOTH "stay in the game" and earn HIGHER rewards to remain motivated.

2 ) Steem Monsters also announced their new "bid-bot" system, by which we can now invest Dark Energy Crystals in return for upvotes. I tried the first one (on my previous post), and got a JUICY $0.82 (USD) upvote from @steemmonsters. This is another EXCELLENT feature introduced to the game which incentivizes active play, as we can now turn the Dark Energy Token earned from won battles into Steem (via upvoting). I will continue taking advantage of this. The nicest thing is that I can play battles WITHIN or OUTSIDE of the daily quests to earn DEC, and that means I can play random battles when I have time, and accumulate DEC at my leisure, instead of being forced into time parameters (which tends to lead me into getting "stuck" and spending more time on the game than I should - since I have a LOT of other work to do.

3 ) Steem Monsters has also enabled the ability to delegate, and so I have delegated 100 SP to @steemmonsters. They are SUPPOSED to make payouts in DEC, but I have not yet seen such payout in my account. I assume they will do this weekly, like other dApps (like @steem-hunt) do. I will update you on this in the next post of this series.

4 ) My strategy of "reading on #drugwars and one #steemmonsters post per day has indeed been paying off, as I have learned about SEVERAL new features (including : the Steem Monsters "bid not" and delegation opportunities, and numerous new features of Drug Wars (specifically some important strategy tips (more below) which are helping me make continuous progress.

5 ) I was suprised to find that I was NOT being attacked (and wiped out) by any other Drug Wars players, and since I had set out my new strategy of gradually building up my army, with the lowest level (cheaper) recruits (at a faster pace), first, I found that IN COMBINATION with upgrading my training units (which CANNOT be wiped out) AND all of my production inuts (which allow FASTER recruitment of the army) that this has made me somewhat IMMUNE to being attacked and totally wiped out. I then read a daily post on #steemmonsters which explained how the larger your army is the more risk your attacker takes, and so they are DISINCENTIVED from doing that. Therefore, since the larger my army is, the more booty I can grab, and then re-invest in increasing production and army size, I will simply CONTINUE building all of these and see how far I can make it. once you upgrade your assets, storage, training, etc. those are PERMANENT, and so the main issue you need to watch out for is that your army is as large as possible, and that your production is high enough to replenish last offenders/defenders IF/WHEN you are attacked. I will update on mmy progress with this next week.

6 ) My overall production level of assets on Drug Wars is now enabling me to earn decent (and increasing) daily amount of FUTURE, which I can then convert into Steem. I usually do a heist with my remaining "Drugs" (over storage capacity, of course) an hour or two before the daily payout. This tends to earn me 15 - 20 FUTURE per day right now, and I plan to withdraw FUTURE (converted into Steem) in batches of 500 into the future. I think this is a good way to REGAIN the daily Steem income from the gain which was lost when they made the transition to the FUTURE token.

Overall, I am PLEASED with the progress I see on BOTH games - in terms of gaming, marketing, etc. Great job @drugwars and @steemmonsters teams! It's nice to see things evolving.

I hope you find some/any of these tips useful in increasing your understanding and/or skill level in the Steem Monsters (Splinterland) and/or Drug Wars game(s). More JUICY tips to come with each weekly update, as I become more experienced and successful in the game.

See you on the battlefield...

@transcript-junky