So you just joined Splinterlands and got your spellbook... what's next?
You have a few options, but I recommend starting with a deck from NFTy Arcade. (LINK HERE)
You get a whole set of cards to play with, at no up-front cost. You'll get the cards until the end of the season, and your earned SPS will be split with the card owner according to the terms of the agreement (which are set for each deck individually, and you'll see it clearly posted on the NFTy site). NFTy will get an additional 5% of the SPS, the lender will receive any prize packs that are received, and you will keep all soulbound rewards cards that you earn.
Even better, it's ALL automatic! You don't have to worry about anything, just don't open the packs that you get from your chests.
NFTy can be tricky to navigate, so here's a quick walkthrough:
Signup is simple, just enter your email and create a password like you've probably done a million times before. Choose a secure password. Don't use the same one you already use elsewhere (especially for your account!)
Once you get in the gateway, this should be the page that loads. On the left side is a menu, where you can find an expanding menu labeled "Accounts".
Click the bottom link "Track New Account" to add a new account.
Game: Splinterlands
Address: Your IGN
Description: If you have enough accounts, this can help you keep track of them
You will need your active key to use NFTy services; you can find this in the email you got sent from Splinterlands when you requested your keys, or copy it from the Hive Keychain app if you use that.
Ensure you ONLY enter ANY keys in sites that you TRUST! Verify the URL is as you expect it to be. Check your connection is secure. NFTy Arcade is a great company that both the Splinterlands team and myself trust and can vouch for, but this is still Web3 and scammers are everywhere. You're only as safe as you keep yourself!
Once your account is set up, find an available deck you would like to use (look for the nftybronze account when you're starting out, but you'll notice there are other, higher-level decks with various split deals available to cover different levels of play)
When you click on the deck, you'll see the specifics of the rental terms up top:
Title- Bronze Chaos Legion 4,3,2,1 (what we're looking for on this first deal);
Default League- Bronze (used for listing and sorting functions);
Minimum Rating- 0 (for higher-tier decks to gatekeep players who aren't in the correct leagues);
Player Split- 50 (This is the important one! 50% player split means you keep 40% of the SPS you earn, because the lender will get 50% and YOU PAY 10% for NFTy's services!)
You can skip the second part, visibility, it's only used for the card owner when creating listings.
Duration- nftybronze decks are set for 30 days (currently; subject to change!) but most decks are set to end after each season. When any deck rental ends, that deck will be off the market for 24 hours even if it automatically relists
Guild Invite- this will be set to 'off' for these nftybronze decks, but some higher decks may include a guild spot whereby you have to participate in brawls for the owner's guild.
Brawl Rewards- this will be set to 'on' so the Splinterlands team will also receive their split of SPS rewards earned in Guild Battles, known as Brawls.
Scroll to the bottom, choose which account you want to receive the delegation, and accept!
Congratulations, you're ready to rock through novice and start kicking ass and taking names in bronze!
I got my deck, what now?
Play! Win! Earn!
OK, it's not that simple... Is it ever?
Splinterlands is a complex game with many layers and tons of opportunities for growth and profit, but nothing is free.
To start out, I recommend familiarizing yourself with some abilities, rule sets, and the basic mechanics of the game.
Damage types:
Melee: Can only attack from the front position (Exceptions: 'Reach' attacks from first or second position, 'Sneak' and 'Opportunity' as outlined below)
Ranged: Cannot attack from front position (Exception: 'Close Range' allows ranged attacks from front position)
Magic: Can attack from anywhere.
As you see above, most rules, abilities, stats and circumstances can change in certain situations.
You'll naturally pick most of these up over time, and there are great resources available to help you learn.
The most important abilities, spoiled above, are the targeting modifiers:
Normal: Monsters always attack the front-most monster on the opposing team. Your front monster can ONLY attack the monster in the front position, even if they have other targeting abilities.
'Snipe' ("Target Practice"): Ranged and magic only. Attacks the first monster on the enemy team (other than front) which has a non-melee attack. Counts ranged and magic, even if the target also has a melee attack. Also counts monsters with no attack, even if they are granted an attack through other means.
'Sneak' ("Super Sneak"): Works with any damage type, attacks rear-most monster on the other side.
'Opportunity' ("Equal Opportunity"): Attacks the opponent's monster with the lowest HP, regardless of position. Will default to the forward monster in case of tie.
'Scattershot' ("Aimless"): Ranged and magic only. These monsters do NOT target, they can hit any monster on the opposing team, randomly chosen.
'Camouflage': Monsters with this ability cannot be targeted unless in the front position. Can still be struck by scattershot.
'Taunt': Forces enemy monsters to target this monster, if able. Does not affect scattershot or position 1.
That basic run-through should give you enough of an understanding to dive in and play a few games. You'll want to try each splinter once or twice to find two or three that fit your playstyle best, then focus on getting better with them.
Note that neutral cards can be used with any splinter you play (except in the "Taking Sides" ruleset) and when you choose a Dragon splinter summoner you will get to choose one other splinter to play as well.
Now, that deck you got from NFTy is probably a fairly complete Chaos Legion set. It's going to serve you well, and allow you to start building up reward cards, but I recommend adding a few key pieces if you can.
Fire: Flamesmith (Untamed- Common, 7 mana) Armor is usually the bane of a fire deck's existence, so having a quick ranged monster with 'Shatter' will help to clear the way for your melee monsters to land a killing blow.
Water: Djinn Oshannus (Chaos Legion Reward- Legendary, 8 mana) Ridiculously powerful card that will be a key component of your water team even if you intend to rise through the ranks and challenge the Champion tier leaderboard!
Earth: Unicorn Mustang (Untamed- Common, 8 mana) Fantastic tank when you're expecting your opponent to use magic.
Life: Pelacor Conjurer (Chaos Legion Reward- Common, 2 mana) Must-have high-utility tank that scales well into late game.
Death: The Gorlodon (Untamed- Epic, 9 mana) Mana-intensive monster that you won't be able to use every time but provides 3 melee damage with reach, making an excellent off-tank.
Dragon: Dhampir Infiltrator (Chaos Legion Reward- Rare, 4 mana) 'Double Strike' and 'Sneak' get much better as you level up to get more damage but can clear 'Divine Shield' and still deal damage, or clear armor and strike the health as well.
Neutral: Uraeus (Chaos Legion Reward- Epic, 3 mana) 'Sneak' monster with armor at level 1, who not only gains damage but also 'Poison' with levels.
Obviously, this list is far from conclusive, but a solid starting point of cards you should be able to purchase with your 3000 bonus credits from purchasing the spellbook, and you may have enough left over to rent more!
Next Article: How Battles Work!
We'll take a dive into a few battles and break down all the mechanics as we watch it unfold, turn-by-turn.
