Energy Capture Rate (ECR) is the rate at which a player earns Dark Energy Crystals for winning ranked matches. The ECR percentage shows you what amount of the total possible DEC you will receive for winning a ranked match. A player's ECR decreases by 1% when they play a ranked match, whether the result is a win, loss, or draw. An accounts ECR increases at a rate of 1.04% per hour, for a total of 25% per day.
To put it simply: the lower your ECR is, the lower your rewards will be for winning.
You can easily see your capture rate by hovering over your DEC balance, or can simply guesstimate the amount by looking at the light blue bar beneath your balance.
In order to maximize your total DEC earned you want to find the right balance of play. If you play an extreme amount it’s possible to get your ECR into the single digits, and once it's that low it takes literal days to regenerate. When you allow your ECR to sit at 100% potential DEC earnings are wasted, in a sense. The official Splinterlands site recommends playing no more than 25 ranked matches a day, but I disagree with that. I believe you should play as much as you are content, but try to avoid lowering it below 50% if possible. I try to keep it below 100% by playing a couple of games before going to sleep, if possible. The mobile app makes this very convenient, although it is a bit less user friendly in my opinion.
I have heard of people lowering their ECR to 50% and playing every other day while letting their two dailies accumulate in order to get the most out of rental cards. Personally, I try to keep my ECR rate around 85%, but I play multiple accounts and would not be able to maintain a reasonable ECR if not.
If you are very confident that you will be able to climb leagues I would advise you to do so, regardless of your ECR. This is because the DEC earned increases greatly as you progress up the ladder. Even if you have to wait a day or so to let your ECR build back up, it's worth it when one win is upto 10x the DEC or more.
While it can be a little disheartening to not be able to play to your heart’s content due to greatly reduced earnings, ECR is present for the players benefit. Without ECR bots would be able to play literally 24/7 and reap even more rewards than they currently do. If you frequently find yourself wanting to play more, but hesitant due to ECR, it may be time to purchase a second Summoner’s Spellbook and start playing an alternative account. Not only will you be able to get more DEC drops for the additional wins, but also a second daily quest to do if interested.
For those interested, here were my daily rewards. Definitely can’t complain when a Wavesmith is present.
@jim-crypto
@doomz
@oneup
@ultm8x
@failingforwards
@psyberx