Splinterlands is an online collectible card game using the blockchain technology. Every user will need cards to play the game, these cards or assets are NFTs (Non-Fungible Token) which can be traded. These cards is used to play against other players. Now every card will have the unique ability and they are divided between Common, Rare, Epic and Legendary. The more the ability, the more it can help you to win the games and the more expensive it becomes. Splinterlands in a real play to earn game where you can win real money in the form of Crypto.
So as a beginner if you are getting started, then first thing you need is the Summoner's Spellbook. There is also an option of Free to Play, but that is only if you want to learn about the basics of the game and how the game works. Using free to play, you cannot earn any rewards also the game-play is limited. To earn rewards and get full access you have to upgrade your account by buying the Summoner's Spellbook. The price of the Summoner's Spellbook is $10, which can give you a lot of benefits including earning rewards from the game.
Now once you buy the Summoner's Spellbook, you can start playing the game. You have to click on the Battle item from the menu and you will be able to see 2 formats. These are battle formats, WILD and MODERN. As a newbie, you don't have to worry much about the format, you can start playing with the MODERN format. The format is nothing but where you want to play the battle, in the WILD format you can use any cards you own whereas in MODERN format you have limited number of cards to play from which you own. If you are a newbie you will get a deck of Started cards which you can use to play the game.
To play with another player, you have to click BATTLE button and you will be given a popup where you get some knowledge about the player by looking at his recent played games. You can see what all good cards he have and based on that you can use your strategy.
Next you will get the information about the Rules of Combat, Mana Cap, Active Elements and the Countdown time.
Rules of Combat - This is the rule of the game, as a beginner you will not get any rule, but when you progress in the game and become better there will be certain rules and you have to abide by that rule while selecting your team.
Mana - Every card has its mana level, so you can select any number of cards, but the total sum of mana of all cards should be less than the Mana Cap. We will get to it when we will be selecting the team.
Active Elements - Splinterlands cards are divided into 6 elements and all the cards are divided across them. There are some neutral cards which can be played in any elements. Again once we select the team we will revisit the elements.
Countdown - You get 3 minutes time to select your team and start the game, failing to do in that time makes the other player winner.
Now once you know the rules, you can click on Create Team and start creating your winning team. Now you have an option to select the element. Every element will have their summoner. Summoner is like the team leader which gives some ability to all the eligible players. For example, Tarsa which is a Summoner and having 4 Mana will give +1 Melee to all the Melee Cards and +1 Life to all the cards. Once you select the summoner, your Mana Cap gets reduced by the Mana of your summoner.
Now since you have selected the Summoner, it's time to select the team. In the current game I have 10 Mana remaining, so I have to select one or more cards whose Mana remains less than or equal to 10.
Every card has some ability, like It can have a Melee Attack, it Can have speed, it can have a life, it can have a Armour etc. I know knowing about all the abilities is a daunting task. So when you are getting started, your task is to create a team so that your team has the maximum ability of anything. As you spend more time in the game, you will get to know about the basics too. It took me 3-4 days of play to know all the abilities and their functions.
Once you are done, you can click on Battle which will start the battle between 2 players. And when you click on Rumble you can actually see how the cards attack each other. Watching a game is the best way to learn the game to be honest because you will know about all the ability and how the cards attack each other.
And once it is over, you will get the result. I am lost but I have learned from the opponent.
You will see all your battles in the Battle Log, you can also watch some of the top battles and understand about the game from it. The game also have the Leaderboard, where you can see your rank against other players.
To get started with the game, you need to know the basics. I wanted to cover as much as possible but the thing is you have to play more and more to know more about the game.
