Splinterlands Noob Guide (for noobs by a noob)

Are you new to Splinterlands or thinking about giving it a try for the first time? Well I was in your shoes about two months ago. In this post I will reflect on my investment of both time and money and hope that gives you a better sense of if Splinterlands is right for you!

Rather than a wall of text, here is a Pros/Cons list to get us started:

This list is not exhaustive but hits my main praises and complaints for the game.

Now the big question that most people ask and I myself have been trying to answer for the past 2 months: What is the best way to get started?

Step 1: Sign up

There is no referral program that benefits anyone for signing up, that said there is benefit to someone using YOUR referral. If you use mine (https://splinterlands.com?ref=potatofinne code: potatofinne) then I would get 5% credits for any purchase you make with credits. To incentivize people to actually use my code I offer 1 random free card + half of any credit kickbacks I get. Let me know if you use it so I can be sure I send you a card and the credits!

Step 2: Spellbook

If you want to own any cards and actually earn DEC or Credits for playing the game, you will want to buy a spellbook. Consider this the upfront cost required to play the game. It is $10 and can be paid via Paypal, or with crypto.

Step 3: Understand the Play to Earn system

You rewards for playing Splinterlands are gated by two things: your CP (collection power) and your rating (+- points you get for winning or losing ranked games).

In Splinterlands ranked (where you earn quest rewards and season rewards) your prizes depend on what league you are in. You get a daily quest (1 every 24 hours) which rewards chests (the # of which and rewards inside are dependent on your league). You can see the different chest contents, chances, and average values on this great site here: https://www.splintercards.com/tool-lootchest.html?tier=1

Bronze 3 (the lowest league) get your 1 chest/day for questing + 5 chests at the end of the season (seasons are two weeks long) and you can expect each chest to be worth about $0.05 based on todays market.

Sliver 3 (the league considered to be the point at which Splinterlands is worth your time) gets you 2 chests/day for question + 12 chests at the end of the season and you can expect each chest to be worth about $0.14 based on todays market.

Once you are Bronze 2 or above you start getting DEC (Dark Energy Crystals) for each win. You can expect a couple pennies per win for this, and as you increase rank the rewards increase.

As stated above, the leagues are gated not just by how much you win but also how much collection power you have. Collection Power is an arbitrary value assigned to each card based on its rarity/foil/set. Each card you current own (rented, delegated, or outright) counts towards your collection power. You can rent cards to temporarily increase this and as soon as the rental period is over your league will decrease appropriately based on your new CP.

So.. this leaves us with a decision to make. Do you....

1. Rent cards to increase your CP and league thus increasing rewards at the cost of DEC or Credits per day?
2. Buy cards to increase your CP and league thus increasing rewards for an upfront cost?
3. Buy cards to increase your chances of winning and CP thus increasing your rewards for a bigger upfront cost?
4. Decide this is all too difficult and find a new game to invest in

What I did - All 4

What I should have done - Mostly 3 with a little 2

Step 4: Decide your Investment

The best way I have found to efficiently buy cards to increase your CP is on Peakmonsters using their CP/$ compare feature. Peakmonsters is a third party marketplace that uses the Splinterlands API. From what I can tell the prices are exactly the same and you arent losing any money for buying through Peakmonsters.

Here you can see $1 gets you about 100 CP. If you followed step 2 above to hit Silver 3 (which I recommend getting to if you are going to play the game) then the cost to start earning is 15,000/100 or $150 + $10 for the spellbook.

But.. you also have to win! The most surefire way to win through Bronze is buying or rents a few really good cards that most of the bots dont own. My favorite combo is Djinn Oshanus and the Summoner card Alric

Buying these two cards is quite expensive (Alric is about $150 himself) but they can be rented to get you into Silver League, then once you are there you can decide if you need to buy them to win in Silver (I have found Silver is easier to win in than Bronze because there are less bots)

Step 5: Decide your Investment

1. SPS
2. DEC
3. Cards
4. Land
5. HIVE

These are you possible investments (I am leaving credits out as they are pegged to a static USD value)

SPS is the governance token, it can be staked to earn about 40% APR and qualify you for voucher airdrops (vouchers are required for buying packs during presales, worth about $3/each currently).

DEC is the currency you earn for winning and can be used for buying cards that has a fluctuating market value. Your DEC amount also qualifies you for airdrops of SPS each day. See SPS airdrop table below

Cards increase you collection power and powerful or desirable cards will (probably) appreciate as time passes. They also help you win!

Land does something in the future but right now is just a speculative asset.

HIVE is the native token of the HIVE blockchain which Splinterlands operates on. I recommend buying some of this and setting up your Hive Keychain. This will help you with transacting on the site.

Step 6: Play the game and Accumulate Assets!

Have fun! Collect cards and enjoy your time with Splinterlands

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The intent of this is to be a useful resource for noobs. As someone who just had to learn all this on their own over the past few months it seemed like a good idea to put it all in one place. There is much more to Splinterlands than what is above (leveling cards, HIVE Power, Land, Potions, Pack Opening, etc. etc.) but those are good to learn about as you go.