Playing SplinterForge After Launch

SplinterForge was launched two days ago and, as a pretty heavy investor in Splinterlands, I was naturally drawn to it.

As far as I remember, it is the first game that leverages the Splinterlands NFTs to create their own gameplay on top of it.

I already talked about Splinterforge once when it was in presale.

Since then and their test server, they've made some updates to the gameplay. For example, now, bosses become more powerful after they die and are brought back to life. Up to certain max levels of their skills, which are incredibly high.

Then, I don't remember if that was a restriction in test mode too, but the monsters you use are limited for lower-level bosses (league caps style from Splinterlands).

Also, bosses have a set of fixed abilities but also random abilities that change after each fight.

Overall, you can see this evolution in the changes from the boss selection screens.

Here's now:

Versus then:

My Impressions After Playing Splinterforge for a While

First of all, I want to congratulate them for finding a recipe to use the NFTs of a popular game like Splinterlands and still monetize the game and make it attractive, for their own crates and bags. As well as a number of other sinks, from combining cards to adding runes and gems to sockets, re-forging or transmuting, or buying potions.

Will that make the game economy sustainable? Hard to say this early. I'd love that because I believe the genre has a lot to offer, from RPG and growing a hero to boss fighting. And on top of that, using Splinterlands cards puts me in a pretty good position.

Some remarks.

For Splinterlands players, the game is free to play. Otherwise, you need the Splinterlands cards, either owned or rented.

If it's free to play, why would anyone purchase anything?

Here's why:

• to increase your max stamina - otherwise I think it gets filled in less than 4 hours; note: it costs a lot for only +5 more max stamina points (100k FORGE) - but I wouldn't have made it any cheaper either.
• for (improved) equipment for the hero and bonuses (like unlocking certain splinters even if you don't use a summoner from that splinter or increasing the max mana limit)
• ultimately, to save up time or move higher on the leaderboard by earning more per battle (if you last longer or inflict more damage to the boss)

While the game isn't very time-consuming once you get into a rhythm, it takes more time than something like Rising Star, which also needs your attention at least a few times a day.

I haven't seen any information on the blockchain (custom JSONs) regarding the gameplay of Splinterforge. Probably NFT transactions are there, but I haven't checked. And they use the account management system from Hive.

From the bots' perspective, they can't use blockchain to automate the game. That doesn't mean the game isn't bottable, because there isn't such a thing. But it's an interesting aspect to notice.

At first impression, what I don't like about the game is that you have to play it every 4 hours or so (less actually) to not fall behind (without a significant upfront investment). Here's where shared accounts from different time zones have an edge advantage compared to someone who plays on his own.

If you're interested in details about the game, they are posted on the account of @unitmaster. I believe this is the "official" source of information. They have a discord, but when I checked it the invitation had expired.