Splinterlanes is a three-lane way to play Splinterlands: two players battle across a Friendly Lane, the Command Lane and a Hostile Lane, using Decks built from their own Splinterlands cards, and the winner of a battle for Tickets takes a real card prize. A match runs 25 rounds and a lot happens across three Lanes at once. Until now, when it ended you got a result and not much of an explanation.
Now every finished battle has a What decided it button.
What it shows
Press it on the result band when a battle ends and you get one panel:
- The story in a few lines. The round you (or your opponent) took the lead on Monsters for good, the Lane that won it with its kills and damage, and how many times either army was wiped. If both armies fell together, it tells you how the draw was decided instead.
- Every Lane side by side. Damage, kills and Mana for both players on the Friendly Lane, the Command Lane and the Hostile Lane, with totals, and who still held each Lane at the end. The Lane that decided the match is marked in gold.
- The best card on each side. The card with the most kills (damage breaks ties), with its numbers.
- The Talisman mods that fired for each player, and how many times.
- The dice. For each player, how many of their attacks missed and how many of their abilities failed to trigger. It's the same randomness the Luck scores track.
It's in replays too. Open any match from your History, or a replay link someone shared, and the button appears when the replay reaches the end (press next to skip there). Replays don't need an account, so a shared replay link now comes with its own breakdown.
How the numbers are counted
These counts follow fixed rules, and the panel states them in a footnote:
- Damage counts attacks, plus splash damage and damage reflected back at attackers.
- A kill goes to the last enemy card that hit the fallen Monster. Deaths to fatigue, poison or an earthquake count for nobody.
- Mana is the printed cost of the cards placed in that Lane. Talisman discounts aren't taken off.
- Taking the lead compares how many Monsters each player had on the board at the start of every battle round, through to the final board.
Reading it
The breakdown is most useful after a loss. A few things to look for:
- One Lane doing all the work. If your opponent's kills all came from one Lane, your Deck had no answer there. Remember that your Hostile Lane is their Friendly Lane, fought under their Talisman's Rules Mod.
- Mana in, damage out. A Lane where you spent more Mana than your opponent and still dealt less damage is a Lane where your cards didn't suit the fight. Check what was against you there before you place there again.
- When the lead changed hands. A lead taken early and never given back points to the opening placements. A lead taken late points to the comeback rounds after a wipe, or to the death battle.
- The dice. If the dice ran heavily against you, some of that loss was luck. If they were even, it wasn't.
New to the format? The How to Play guide covers the three Lanes, Mana, wipes and the death battle, and the Splinterlanes FAQ answers the usual questions about cards, Tickets and prizes.
Play
Your next battle, and its breakdown, are at splinterlanes.com. A free Practice match against the AI shows you the panel without spending a Ticket.
Questions, or a breakdown that doesn't match what you saw on the board? Comment below — we read every comment and look into reports quickly.