As I have now been playing "Splinterlands" for over a year, I've wanted to contribute something of ACTIONABLE value to my fellow players (and FUTURE players) - but NOT just fill my Hive feed with daily images of quest reward - or battle - SPAM (no offense to those doing so). Ultimately, Hive is about ADDING VALUE to the social experience - that is the magic of blockchain social media technology. So, after some serious pondering, I decided that a weekly ""Splinterlands" player strategy diary" type series, with CONCISE and ACTIONABLE tips, would be of most value to my audience. Please let me know your thoughts (good and/or bad), and I hope that readers (now and into the future) will benefit from this series. If you gain a better understanding of blockchain, gaming, "blockchain gaming", marketing, investing, accounting, psychology, forensics, philosophy, and/or any other area(s) of knowledge I end up exploring (voluntarily or involuntarily) as this series naturally progresses, then I will have done my "good deed" (of providing value) for the week - and also have a nice little injection of DEC payout to buy more cards. Also, feel free to hit me up on the battlefield.
1 ) This past week I was able to keep up with the schedule I charted out last week -- that is, of alternating the daily pack opening between Untamed packs and Dice packs (one pack of each every other day). I discovered a few additional ways to generate the required DEC to keep the "one Dice pack every other day" schedule steadily going. One of these is when I get one (or more) Untamed packs in a reward batch. Since an Untamed pack in the rewards is equivalent to 2,000 DEC (the price of the pack in the shop/market) then it only costs me an additional 850 - 880 DEC (2,880 DEC/Dice pack with my current guild discount) to basically "swap" the free Untamed pack for a Dice pack purchased in the shop. In addition, buying that Dice pack during the pre-sale gives me "+1" pack applied toward the airdrop, and just that one pack may enable me to get an airdropped card, which could very well be worth enough to retroactively offset the cost of several of the total Dice packs that I purchase during the pre-sale (especially if I get any gold airdropped cards). Additionally, there are the larger DEC loot chests (ex. 248 DEC, 942 DEC, 1,000+ DEC. etc.) whose value can be combined with my daily gameplay DEC earning, AND any free Untamed packs I get in the rewards. The combination of the value of these can offset the cost of the one Dice pack, and since I am opening them EVERY OTHER day then I think the pace of earning versus the pace of payout is an ideal one. This past week has proved that to generally be the case.
2 ) I'm now keeping a rough track of the number of potions (both legendary and gold) which I am getting in the daily quest rewards and season rewards dumps, with the goal of seeing how much the QUANTITY of those potions cover the daily packs of Untamed and Dice packs I am now opening (one type per day on alternating days -> so : Monday -> Untamed pack , Tuesday -> Dice pack, etc.) In other words, if I can average 5 legendary potions and 5 gold potions per daily quest rewards then those five potions (of each) cover the one daily pack. In this way I am eating less into my reserve of potions, and it will take A LOT more time before I have to buy another round of 500 (+50) legendary and gold potion batches, as I have in the past. As a reader of this post you can also see the number of potions I am getting daily, over time, in the diary section of this weekly post. I always include " x legendary potions, x gold potions" when I record the contents of each daily quest reward dump. So this is a more practical/valuable reason for any of you to take a quick look at the diary section of these posts.
3 ) My new editorial strategy of including ONLY SEVEN daily play activity records in each weekly post in this series appears to have turned out to INDEED be a good move. Firstly, capping the number of daily entries makes it easier for me to pace (and streamline) the writing and publishing process of these weekly posts. Secondly, it makes it less cumbersome for the reader to properly consume the information. It also enables me to receive a "weekly proper" payout on these posts, and so I can more accurately account for, and use, the income from these posts in the more formal strategy (ex. buying "x" number of additional Dice packs "per week". So, if I can, let's say, count on a 10 Hive payout (aside from a 10 Hive Power payout (which is not immediately accessible until power-down) each week then I can more accurately allocate that 10 x (Hive value) towards at least one weekly Dice pack. As of writing this sentence 10 Hive is worth around 3,000 DEC which covers one Dice pack with a little leftover to buy some cheap individual cards (like the "Battering Ram" Dice card I am upgrading now). This will also make it easier for me to write about what I do with the payout of these posts relative to the game each week.
4 ) My "DEC Hunters" guild had decided earlier in the year that we would take a break from contributing daily DEC to the guild, as we had reached Level 7 of the Guild Hall, which would then require an additional 500,000 DEC to move up to Level 8. At that time there was some small mention by #splinterlands admin that they intended to roll out "guild wars" into the game, but there was little concrete information provided about that. Recently, though, the main admin of the game have started doing weekly AMA sessions, which are very informative, and since they started mentioning the guild wars, as well as "guild land" which they are planning to roll out with the rollout of the land feature (likely within the next six months to a year), I contacted our guild leader and proposed that we start back up with mobilizing our guild members to start contributing daily DEC again. I also did a calculation that if all/most of the guild members contributed 80 DEC per day that in the 3-month timeframe we would be within reach of Level 8 guild hall (with some additional larger contributions from some members). I also mentioned to the guild leader that I was growing a bit weary that our guild was not moving forward (although we have all been earning a nice "guild bonus" of 9% DEC per won ranked battle, compared to the guild of one of the members of my #DrugWars gang. We have a nice little crew in the Drug Wars gang (Discord), where we share a lot of our Splinterlands battles, and reward card screenshots, and strategy tips, etc. I have been hoping to have an engaging place like that in our DEC Hunters guild. I started monitoring my friend's guild three months ago, and they were at Level 6 guild hall, but members were actively contributing daily (as opposed to our guild, which had been on "break"). To make this brief, I mentioned to our guild leader that I was CONSIDERING the possibility of switching guilds, mainly because I believed that it would now be BEST for us to start moving foward again. Luckily, we were able to formulate a new plan (including that members start contributing daily DEC again, and I was pleased to see that that started happening immediately, and for the past week most of the members have been contributing the 80 DEC per day I have suggested. The guild leader also promoted me to "co-leader", and I figured that since our guild strategy relies on up-to-date official information about the game I would offer to watch all of the official weekly 
5 ) Okay. As I did in the last post in this series, the highly-detailed "diary" of my daily #splinterlands activity is laid out in the last part of this post, for those of you who are inclined to follow, more closely, what I am doing. It occurred to me that this "diary" section is JUST THAT - a highly detailed record of my daily activity in the game, with some JUICY "play-by-play" analysis notes, and commentary, on what works, what doesn't, and some suggestions for further tweaking and experimentation. So, with this in mind, I hope some/any of you will enjoy this information. If not, you are under no pressure to read it fully, and are free to SKIM, or even IGNORE, any parts, or ALL parts, completely - at your discretion. I lay this out because it also HELPS ME to document my progress in the game over time, and may help some people NOW, and into the perpetual future...
Starting DEC : 56,132 DEC
Starting Capture Rate : 100.00%
Ending DEC - xx,xxx DEC [ survival issues interrupted the recordkeeping today ]
Ending Capture rate : xx.xx
Balance = DEC Earning = XXX DEC = -> 0.xxx HIVE x ~ $00.xx USD/Hive = ~ $00.xx USD
Spent :
1 x ***Dice" pack - 2,880 DEC
Untamed (Pack #1 : today's daily pack)
keepers -
(+) 120 DEC
non-keepers -
(+) 20 (gifted to gang) DEC (+) 00 DEC
Dice (Pack #2 : celebration pack for reaching "Champion III" season level --> +20 loot chests --> +80 season loot chests)
keepers -
(+) 80 DEC
Daily Quest (today's "fire" quest)
keepers -
(+) 110 DEC
nonkeepers -
(+) 15 (gifted to gang) DEC (+) 125 DEC
potions - 3 legendary potions, 3 alchemy/gold potions
Untamed - 1 packs
DEC - 259 DEC
Notes: Since I got 1 x "Untamed" pack, plus the (+) 248 DEC look chest ( 2,000 DEC + 248 DEC = 2,248 DEC), I decided it would be a good tradeoff to buy a 2,880 DEC Dice pack to, as there is really no different (except for the extra 880 DEC cost) between an Untamed pack versus a Dice pack, and this will add one more pack towards my eligibility for the airdrops.
Starting DEC : 54,204 DEC
Starting Capture Rate : ~ 96.54%
Ending DEC - 61,696 DEC
Ending Capture rate : ~ 85.99%
Balance = DEC Earning = 7,492 DEC = ->20.217 HIVE x ~ $00.180 USD/Hive = ~ $03.64 USD
Spent :'
2 x "Dice" packs - 5,760 DEC
12 x "Battering Ram" (non-gold - Level 1 - $0.80 USD - 1,732 DEC -- 36 cards remaining to Level 7)
Dice (Pack #1 : today's daily pack)
keepers -
1 x "Oaken Bohemoth" (non-gold - Level 1 - $3.33 USD - 1,000 DEC -- one card remaining to Level 2)
(+) 30 DEC
Daily Quest (today's "dragon" quest)
keepers -
1 x "Robo-Dragon Knight" (non-gold (summoner) - Level 1 - $2.30 USD - 1,000 DEC --
(+) 80 DEC
nonkeepers -
(+) 10 DEC (gifted to gang) (+) 115 DEC
potions - 5 legendary potions, 2 alchemy/gold potions
Untamed - 0 packs
DEC - 15 DEC
Starting DEC : 54,204 DEC
Starting Capture Rate : ~ 96.54%
Ending DEC - 54,577 DEC
Ending Capture rate : ~ 84.50%
Balance = DEC Earning = 373 DEC = -> 1.287 HIVE x ~ $00.188 USD/Hive = ~ $00.241 USD
Spent :
82 x "Battering Ram" (non-gold - Level 1 - $3.99 USD - 6,622 DEC -- bummped up to Level 7 (to increase "speed" from "+3" to "+4") with 24 cards remaining to Level 8)
Untamed (Pack #1 : today's daily pack)
keepers -
"Magnor" (non-gold - Level 1 - $1.33 USD - 1,000 DEC -- bumped up to Level 3 (to add the "rampage" ability)
"Spark Pixies" (Gold - Level 2 - $1.60 USD - 2,000 DEC)
(+) 40 DEC
non-keepers -
(+) 20 (gifted to gang) DEC (+) DEC
Daily Quest (today's "water" quest)
keepers -
(+) 10 DEC
nonkeepers -
(+) 25 DEC (gifted to gang) (+) 75 DEC
potions - 4 legendary potions, 4 alchemy/gold potions
Untamed - 0 packs
DEC - 68 DEC
Starting DEC : 47,955 DEC
Starting Capture Rate : ~ 91.46%
Ending DEC - 49,558 DEC
Ending Capture rate : ~ 73.36%
Balance = DEC Earning = 1,603 DEC = -> 4.743 HIVE x ~ $00.176 USD/Hive = ~ $00.834 USD
Spent :
13 x "Battering Ram" (non-gold - Level 1 - $0.78 USD - 1,572 DEC -- eleven (11) cards remaining to Level 8)
Dice (Pack #1 : today's daily pack)
keepers -
1 x "Frost Lion" (Gold - Level 3 - $1.53 USD - 500 DEC -- bumped up to Level 4 (to increase "health" from "+2" to "+3")
(+) 70 DEC
Daily Quest (today's "water" quest)
keepers -
(+) 80 DEC
nonkeepers -
(+) 25 DEC (gifted to gang) (+) 30 DEC
potions - 1 legendary potions, 3 alchemy/gold potions
Untamed - 0 packs
DEC - 1,056 DEC
Starting DEC : 47,986 DEC
Starting Capture Rate : ~ 73.54%
Ending DEC - xx,xxx DEC [ survival issues interrupted recordkeeping today ]
Ending Capture rate : ~ xx.xx%
Balance = DEC Earning = x,xxx DEC = -> x.xxx HIVE x ~ $00.xx USD/Hive = ~ $00.xx USD
Spent :
Daily contribution to my "DEC Hunters" guild - 80 DEC
1 x "Dice" pack - 2,850 DEC
Untamed (Pack #1 : today's daily pack)
keepers -
"Magnor" (non-gold - Level 1 - $1.33 USD - 1,000 DEC -- bumped up to Level 3 (to add the "rampage" ability)
"Spark Pixies" (Gold - Level 2 - $1.60 USD - 2,000 DEC)
(+) 40 DEC
non-keepers -
(+) 20 (gifted to gang) DEC (+) DEC
Daily Quest (today's "water" quest)
keepers -
(+) 00 DEC
nonkeepers -
(+) 20 DEC (gifted to gang) (+) 85 DEC
potions - 3 legendary potions, 2 alchemy/gold potions
Untamed - 1 packs (bought one more Dice pack against this free Untamed pack, plus some of the additional DEC from this reward dump)
DEC - 239 DEC
Dice (Daily Pack #2 : celebration pack for reaching "Champion II" season level --> + 40 loot chests --> + 120 season loot chests)) keepers -
(+) 300 DEC
Starting DEC : 45,807 DEC
Starting Capture Rate : ~ 93.65%
Ending DEC - 46,317 DEC
Ending Capture rate : ~ 76.30%
Balance = DEC Earning = 501 DEC = -> 1.631 HIVE x ~ $00.176 USD/Hive = ~ $00.287 USD
Spent :
1 x "Dice" pack - 2,850 DEC
10 x "Battering Ram" (non-gold - Level 1 - $0.55 USD - 1,068 DEC -- bumped up to Level 8 (to increase "health" from "+2" to "+3")
Dice (Pack #1 : today's daily pack)
keepers -
(+) 80 DEC
Daily Quest (today's "death" quest)
keepers -
(+) 00 DEC
nonkeepers -
(+) 25 DEC (gifted to gang) (+) 25 DEC
potions - 5 legendary potions, 8 alchemy/gold potions
Untamed - 1 pack (bought one more Dice pack against this free Untamed pack, plus some of the additional DEC from this reward dump)
DEC - 39 DEC
Starting DEC : 42,399 DEC
Starting Capture Rate : ~ 76.30%
Ending DEC - 19,347 DEC (lowered significantly because of the "Dice" pack batch purchases)
Ending Capture rate : ~ 89.00%
Balance = DEC Earning = xxx DEC = -> x.xxx HIVE x ~ $00.xxx USD/Hive = ~ $00.xx USD ( not applicable today)
Spent :
Daily Guild contribution - 80 DEC
Today I decided to do a major "booster" buy of Dice packs, by selling ~ $100 USD of Doge (which has been stagnant), and converting ~ $160 USD of Stellar ( XLM ) into Bitcoin and then into Hive and then DEC. In the end I ended up purchasing and opening another ~ 150 **Dice packs. The result is that I now have 242 packs applied toward ALL FIVE upcoming airdrops (and will continue to buy at the more gradual pace), and a more properly competitive Dice arsenal (including maxed "Battering Ram" (non-gold), and now working on maxing the gold version). I also burned some of the higher-value "life' deck Dice cards after opening all of the packs, and was able to then convert an additional 50,000 DEC into 18 more Dice packs which I now have lying in my reserve ( 23 packs as of writing this sentence) to open using the "one pack every oother day" protocol. Now that I got this "buying spree" out of my system I will return to the main strategy. I do NOT think that I will do another 100 ( + 10 free ) pack batch purchase, but if I hit any high-value rewards cards I may possibly do another 20 (+1) pack batch until the sale of the Dice packs ends.
Untamed (Pack #1 : today's daily pack)
keepers -
"Khmer Princess" (Gold - Level 2 - $1.58 USD - 2,000 DEC -- bumped up to Level 3 (to increase "health" from "+2" to "+3")
"Horny Toad" (Gold - Level 3 - $0.38 USD - 500 DEC -- four (4) cards remaining to Level 8)
(+) 00 DEC
non-keepers -
(+) 20 (gifted to gang) DEC (+) 40 DEC
Daily Quest (today's "water" quest)
keepers -
(+) DEC
nonkeepers -
(+) 10 10 DEC (gifted to gang) (+) 15 120 DEC
potions - 4 legendary potions, 5 alchemy/gold potions
Untamed - 0 packs
DEC - 66 DEC
Starting DEC : 18,047 DEC
Starting Capture Rate : ~ 95.51%
Ending DEC - 21,928 DEC
Ending Capture rate : ~ 91.54%
Balance = DEC Earning = 3,881 DEC = -> 13.04 HIVE x ~ $00.179 USD/Hive = ~ $02.33 USD ( not applicable today)
Spent :
1 x "Battering Ram" (Gold - Level 3 - $1.29 USD - 2,260 DEC -- one (1) card remaining to Level 5)
Daily Guild contribution - 80 DEC
Dice (Pack #1 : today's daily pack)
keepers -
1 x "Oaken Bohemoth" (non-gold (summoner) - Level 1 - $4.00 USD - 1,000 DEC - four (4) more cards remaining until Level 4)
(+) 30 DEC
nonkeepers-
(+) 10 DEC
converted 11.701 HIve (from previous weekly series post) to 3,473 DEC
Daily Quest (today's "death" quest)
keepers -
(+) 70 DEC
nonkeepers -
(+) 20 DEC (gifted to gang) (+) 50 DEC
potions - 3 legendary potions, 6 alchemy/gold potions
Untamed - 0 packs
DEC - 57 DEC
Whew! These posts are growing dense - but that's okay. Take what resonates with you,and leave the rest. I hope you find some/any of these tips useful in increasing your understanding and/or skill level in the SteemMonsters (Splinterlands) and/or Drug Wars, and/or "Prospectors, and/or any other game(s) - and the " blockchain gaming " industry as whole - which I end up exploring as this series evolves. More JUICY tips to come with each weekly update, as I dig deeper into this whole REVOLUTIONARY PHENOMENON, and become more experienced and successful in the game(s).
See you on the battlefield...
@transcript-junky