The theme for the Social Media Challenge in Splinterlands this week is to give Tips for Beginners. These are the best that I have...
I've been playing Splinterlands now for 5 years after being a Hearthstone Player for many years before that. I can still recommend the game to anyone who enjoys Collectible Card Games even though I do not consider Splinterlands a Play2earn game anymore since it has shown that giving out real rewards simply isn't sustainable due to the mass botting that is going on in the ecosystem. These are some realistic tips without wanting to sell anything to anyone...
Tip 1: Set Proper Expectations !
If you are coming into Splinterlands to make money, you probably will be left disappointed. That is unless there is some crazy adoption with prices temporarily going totally irrational again. The reality is that the main advantage over web2 games is that you own your assets and the moment you want to leave the ecosystem, you are able to sell them and most likely get just part of what you paid for them back.
This doesn't mean it's not possible to make money with the game. There are multiple ways to earn and if you make use of all of them while managing to buy low and sell high, you should be able to come out on top. The main dynamic is that everything depends on more new players coming in and the moment this no longer is the case, the law of supply and demand is quite harsh.
The ever-increasing card supply as new sets come out each year with older cards using most of their use case has made it so that cards are not an investment right now unless some major changes are made.
So if you are a Collectible Card Game Player looking for fun game and ecosystem where you own your assets, Splinterlands could be a game just for you.
Tip 2: Steep Learning Curve !
So in Splinterlands you have the card game which requires some time to properly learn and master, but there also is the economic side of the game which you will need to learn and understand. If you are someone who likes to learn how things work and are willing to put the time into it, this aspect provides a lot of the fun that comes with the game. If not, it will mostly leave you frustrated and confused. Here are some Basics you should know on the different assets in the game:
SPS: This is the reward token that is created out of thin air. There is a max supply of 3 Billion, once that is distributed, the DAO will have to provide rewards. SPS needs to be staked in order to get better rewards and it can be burned for DEC (Dark Energy Crystals) which makes the total supply deflationary. One of the reasons why the chart looks like a race to the bottom is because it started out with a very low supply and high staking earnings. One of the main use cases of SPS of burning it to create DEC also only kicked in recently.
DEC: This is a token that for a long time was created out of thin air that can be used in the Splinterlands store at a fixed value of 1000 DEC = 1$. This means that if it trades below that value, it's possible to get a discount in the store. DEC can be created by burning SPS based on the current SPS price. For a long time, there was an oversupply that made it trade at half the price but this has been worked away mostly so it's trading close to it's peg at the moment. There are many mechanics in the game where DEC needs to be staked or burned which reduces the supply. Everything in the game works also with DEC in the background.
Vouchers: This is another in-game currency that is created out of thin air at a pace of 40k vouchers a day. It is given to those who stake SPS and Validator Nodes and they act as some kind of access token to also give discounts on promos or pack sales and such. They make things extra complicated and there also is an oversupply which makes them trade at just 0.034$. Each time when there is something new released that requires vouchers, the price pumps to afterward dump back down.
Hive: This is the blockchain the game runs on with it's own cryptocurrency. New Players don't really have to worry about this but if you really want to own your assets you will need to request your private keys and setup keychain possibly also staking some hive in your account especially when you want rent out cards. You can also connect your hive account to hive-engine which is the 2nd layer where the different splinterlands assets live on.
These are just the basic currencies in the game, you will also have to learn about the system how to combine cards to make them stronger, different card sets, Modern & Wild, Daily focus, Brawls, Tournaments, Land, Liquidity Pools, Potions, Reward Shares, Leagues, collection Power, Soulbound Cards, Splintertalk SPT, 3rd Party Websites, Rentals, Titles, Totems, .......
If you are willing to put in the time to learn how everything works it will all actually make sense but it will require some time and energy.
Tip 3: Expect Changes !
A lot of changes are constantly made mainly to help the economy of the game and to keep everything in balance. Soon raked Leagues will change again making it no longer possible to stay in a lower league without moving up which will make the game feel more Pay2Win again giving more incentives for players to buy cards. Most of the changes in the past years were all about nerfing the rewards to make everything more sustainable and to make it harder tor bots to milk rewards. If there are overpowered cards, new dynamics are also created to level things out so paying good money for powerful decks at some point will come with a nerf in new cards or abilities that are created to weaken them.
All of this tends to come at the cost of actually creating more fun game modes or to create a much better new player onboarding experience which is highly needed.
Tip 4: Blogging about Splinterlands is a Must !
If you want to grow somewhat organically, it is pretty much a must to write about the game taking part in the weekly battle challenge, Social Media Challenge, Art Contest organised by the team on Hive. Since the team has a lot of Hive Power they need to run the game on the blockchain, their upvote is worth quite a bit and they are using it to make sure players write about the game. This created a dynamic where blogging about the game can earn you way more than actually playing the game and this without the requirement of doing a major investment.
I would advise averyone who somewhat enjoys writing, to start a blog with the Hive Account which comes with creating a Splinterlands account about their journey in the game taking part in some of the challenges. Funds that you earn with this can be used to re-invest in the game to grow.
Tip 5: Treat Splinterlands as A Game!
If anything, always just see Splinterlands as a game and not as an investment opportunity. This is the healthiest mindset to go about things and will leave you enjoying things the most. Along the way, it can be expected that there are crazy highs but also frustrating lows.
Conclusion
Even though things can get highly frustrating at times, I still love Splinterlands having good belief that the good days at some point will come back. Right now though, the game simply isn't suited for a mainstream audience because everything remains overly complicated. The only people I would advise to actually try Splinterlands outn are those who enjoy collectible card games looking for one where you can sell your assets once you want to move on to something else which right now is not possible with something like Hearthstone.
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