"Splinterlands" Power Strategy Tips #59

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, psychology, forensics, addiction science, philosophy, investing, 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 have a little extra Hive to buy some more #Splinterlands cards/packs. Also, feel free to hit me up on the battlefield.

@transcript-junky

1 ) This week I made some great, and consistent, progress in my guild effort of both contributing 80 DEC per day to the guild, AND, more importantly, working through the official @splinterlands weekly AMA session videos. Admin is divulging some VERY PROMISING news about many exciting developments of the game (ex. major collaborations with some established gaming companies, the roll-out of the land pre-sale, roll-out of the guild wars and guild points, etc.). They have also decided to bump to output of AMA sessions to TWO (one-hour episodes) per week, which I agree is a wise decision just based on the sheer amount of info which needs to be shared about various facets of the game at this point of it's evolution (ex. marketing, upcoming features, player engagement activities/potential, etc.) I have also been reporting this promising news to our "DEC Hunters" guild leader. Since I am one of the two guild "co-leaders" now I figured it would be valuable to contribute something substantial like this on a regular basis. He is growing increasingly excited about these developments also, so morale is increasing. With all of this good news it seems that my push, last month, to get the guild mobilized again (with members contributing daily DEC) was good timing. We had a good year to reap some of the DEC benefits of our past phase of active contribution, and so now we are in the "second phase" - which I personally believe will be significantly more lucrative as a result of the more developed status of the game and larger " blockchain gaming" ecosystem. This week we reached the 50,000 DEC (out of 500,000 DEC) contribution milestone towards ascending to Guild Hall Level 8 - which will bump all guild members up to a JUICY 12% DEC guild bonus (up from the current 9%) for won battles, and a 6% discount in the in-game store (up from 5%). The discount can be substantial, especially when buying the 100 (+10 free) promo batches ( ex. Untamed, Dice, etc.). That extra 6% DEC savings can be used to buy a significant number of valuable/useful cards. Reaching the next level will likely give us higher clout when the guild wars are rolled out (which seems to be planned for October), and our new mobilization will enhance group cohesion when the more collaborative "guild wars" features are rolled out. Things are looking optimistic on the guild front, and my/our daily "80 DEC guild contribution" is EASILY offset by the extra 10% - 20% DEC bonus I am getting daily on my Orbs and Dice "promo" (10% per won battle) and "gold promo" (20% per won battle) card play. It's a win-win situation across the board.

2 ) This may seem like a small thing, but I have realized two things this week related to the zoom level of my browser (Opera) which enhances the enjoyment of two specific tasks/aspects of the game. Firstly, I have started opening the daily pack(s) and rewards loot chests with the browser screen magnified to 90%. This really makes the cards POP out when you open them (with enhanced color and detail as you open the cards at this larger size). These larger images also pop out more in these posts, and so add to the aesthetics of this series effort. Secondly, I have found that LOWERING the browser zoom to 67% during the "card selection" and actual "battle play" screen both makes it easier to see more of my available deck cards (when selecting) and gives nice nice wide view of the active battle. Sometimes, however, I like to do the active play at a larger zoom, which creates a more "immersive" battle experience. My preference changes based on any given situation, mood etcetera. The nice thing is that we have full control over this, but the point here is that it affects the experience more than many might assume. Give it a try.

3 ) Okay, now for the weekly descent into absolute CHAOS...

In light of my significant recent loss of 0.05 BTC last week ( as a result of gambling at BetFury.io ) I came across this interesting article :

Could holding 0.28 BTC could put you in the top 1% wealth bracket someday?
https://cointelegraph.com/news/could-holding-0-28-btc-could-put-you-in-the-1-wealth-bracket

which basically calculates the math to show that owning the amount of 0.28 BTC into the future will result in "substantial wealth" - (aka - "more than enough"). My issue, of course, is that in the past 1-2 years I have had BOUTS of foolish pay-for-play gambling (often in crypto casinos which have proven, over time, to be scams - ex. BitcoinVideoCasino ), PLUS some legitimate need to sell some BTC for survival cash ( ex. for food, shelter, etc.), BUT ALSO some legitimate regular spends/investments on NFT assets in games like, primarily, "Splinterlands". However, my BTC balance is STILL within reach of that magic "0.28 Bitcoin" number, and so this week I have once again reconsidered my thoughts on starting to buy up Bitcoin again, in regular, smaller amounts.

Last week I concluded that I would be using MOST of my Bitcoin value in DEC form, actively in #Splinterlands, and HODL-ing the remaining amount of BTC that I have. However, thinking more about this I did the calculation of a weekly conversion of DEC/Hive to Bitcoin ( so ~ 9,000 DEC = ~ 40 Hive = ~ .00046796 BTC x $10,697 USD/BTC (on day of writing this sentence) = ~ $4.997 USD (so let's just round it up to $5.00 USD). I am thinking that being able to generate 9,000 DEC per week from my overall #Splinterlands effort would be feasible, but also leave me a significant amount of weekly DEC earnings to continue my regular activities of buying new cards, packs, etc. Then I will be able to start REPLACING the original ( ~ 1.0 Bitcoin) I obtained when I first got into Bitcoin (back in 2013-2014). The $5.00 of BTC per week will equal $20 USD/BTC per month ($5.00 x 4 weeks), and then $220.00 USD per year ( $20 x 12 months = $220 USD). I would also be "dollar cost averaging" the buy of BTC, as the price will fluctuate over time as I make regular weekly purchases.

My new first goal will be to get back up to that magic 0.28 BTC number that the above article states will provide "significant financial security" for anyone who holds that amount of BTC. As I have mentioned several times in the posts of this series, I have been (generally) methodically spending down my BTC balance to buy Splinterlands assets with which to then "earn" some additional crypto through my gaming activity. So my conversion of BTC to DEC has INDEED been a form of "investment" in "play to earn". However, I have been hesitant in the past to simply start re-buying/replacing some of the BTC I have sold (out of the original 1.0 BTC) because of the sheer small amounts of BTC that could be bought with my DEC earnings. However, it really doesn't MATTER if the weekly buy amounts are small, since the ultimate limited supply of BTC can eventually produce SERIOUS gains of value for even small amounts of holdings into the future. And, as I mentioned last week, my main goal is to replace all of the BTC I have sold in the past year (especially the #BTC I have sold to buy Splinterlands stuff) then it actually ONLY MAKES SENSE that specifically buying up Bitcoin would provide the MOST CLEAR measure/metric of progress on replacing the original Bitcoin. That is, with each weekly buy of $5.00 USD of BTC (via @blocktrades) I will have a MORE CLEAR metric of my BTC replenishing progress, as my #Coinbase balance ticks back up with each weekly buy. I don't think it can hurt to at least TRY this new strategy, and so I will go ahead and do the first "replenish buy" of Bitcoin using 9,000 DEC (via @blocktrades) this week, and will also be focusing more on getting a more clear idea of how much total DEC I am earning each week, and also the PERCENTAGE of that weekly DEC earning which will be the $5.00 Bitcoin buy, versus the remaining DEC which is continuing to be used to buy cards, packs, etc. I am well aware that it will take a LONG time ( and that it may possibly not even be POSSIBLE to get back up to the original 1.0 Bitcoin), but I think that this new strategy provides a good way to measure my overall crypto, and crypto-gaming progress. In addition, if I set the lower goal of replenishing the recommended 0.28 BTC from the article I think it is attainable. Who knows. Maybe the "crypto gods" will do their magic and something will happen where this " blockchain gaming" stuff will ultimately leave me with MORE than the original ~1.0 BTC I had acquired. That would be a major success.

[ UPDATE to the above: It is with great disappointment that I have to report that on Friday, September 25th, 2020 I checked to see that one of the rare, high-value Dice gold cards I got in one of the Dice packs in my first 100 (+10 free) promo batch) was NOT selling on the market for the "$50.00 USD suggested market price" I put it up for two weeks ago, and in line with my above plan, since the DEC burn rate value of that card was 10,000 DEC (right around the amount I described above that I would be using to start re-buying ~ $5.00 USD of Bitcoin every week) I decided to go ahead and do my first DEC (Hive) -> Bitcoin (Coinbase) buy, via #blocktrades. I had NO IDEA of the MESS what would unfold next, and would surely not even have gone ahead if I had be forewarned. I was originally considering just burning the card for 10,000 DEC and buying some more "Battering Ram" gold cards. To make this story short, and certainly NOT-sweet, I converted the card to 10,000 DEC and then sent 9,000 DEC to Hive-Engine, and converted it to Hive. I noticed that the conversion rate from DEC-Hive was NOT especially good. In fact, it APPEARED that I needed to convert around 18,000 DEC to Hive to get the equivalent of $5.00 USD (of BTC) into Coinbase. So I lost 80% of the value of the card just converting the DEC to Hive! I then opened #blocktrades to send the transaction, and the blocktrades fee for converting $5.00 of Hive to BTC (into Coinbase) was like 5-29 Hive ( $0.76 USD - $4.44 USD). At the maximum ( 29 Hive) that would wipe out MOST of the $5.00 USD, and would make the whole transaction pointless. In the end it appeared that I had lost a significant amount of the 10,000 DEC worth card I burned (by trading the DEC for Hive), so I essentially LOST the card! Well, that's I went into "retaliation" mode, and had the YET AGAIN stupid idea of "chasing my losses" by sending 99% of the DEC in my Splinterlands wallet into the BetFury.io crypto-laundering VORTEX, which I (of course) lost, followed by YET ANOTHER descent into the ABYSS of compulsive gambling (like last week, except this time NOT full voluntary, nor expected) - landing me 0.04 BTC poorer as a result. In my defense, I had ZERO intention of putting more money into BetFury. This was simply a knee-jerk reaction, out of ANGER for having lost the entire value of that Dice gold card for basically no justified reason, which I was first going to simply buy more Dice cards with INSTEAD of even trying to do the $5.00 BTC buy. Live and learn, as the saying goes. Man, after THIS crisis I am aborting the mission to "buy $5.00 BTC per week" (as described in the first part of this section). I can't afford to take that kind of risk. Maybe at some future point, if I can earn a MORE SIGNIFICANT amount of DEC to convert to a LARGER amount of BTC it will make sense to "eat the loss" (against higher future value of BTC), but at the $5.00 USD of BTC level it is a complete no-go for now. I still have some of the 13,000 Tron I deposited in this new "descent into the underworld", and I intend to play that SLOWLY, with the main goal of simply getting back to up to 13,000 Tron and then converting that to DEC to use to buy cards in Splinterlands - IF I can salvage it. I'm angry that this happened again, but moreso because I wasn't aware of this kind of issue when converting DEC to Hive to then buy Bitcoin through @blocktrades. This problem literally cost me 0.04 BTC that I certainly DID NOT want to spend, and instead of increasing my Bitcoin HODLing by $5.00 USD it ended up COSTING me $400+ USD (of BTC). I am telling you readers this NOT to bore you, or throw a "pity party", but to show the REAL effects (positive or negative) of the strategies I implement as part of this weekly series post. So, in terms of success, the "buy $5.00 BTC each week with 9,000 DEC of earnings" gets a big, fat "F-". This one really stung. Also, I hope anyone reading this who is considering the same strategy heed my warning that it is "high risk" and that you NEED to be properly informed about the token-conversion process before quickly ( and irreversibly) losing your valuable crypto.

[ UPDATE: Oh boy! Another 0.05 BTC "chaser" down the tubes after losing the 0.04 BTC chaser. But as in life, this is an opportunity to take a step back and make a higher-level strategic decision. My goal for the past year has been to gradually move my BTC out of Coinbase. I have figured that getting that crypto value into NFTs will be valuable both in terms of "tax issues", as well as unlocking the "earning power" of my BTC. I have decided that this is the ideal opportunity to follow that plan fully through. So what I have done is sell my remaining 1.0 BTC for Hive, deposit that into BetFury in a "Hail Mary" attempt to get some of the previous recent losses back, and then put any remainder back into DEC. The good news is that after one day of slot play at MAXIMUM bet of "150 Tron per slot pull" I INDEED got my starting 26,000 Tron back, and bumped that up to 34,000 Tron. The irony/revelation here, though, is that the process of converting the Hive to Tron resulted in a loss of over $400 USD (it came out to ~ $675 USD worth of Tron (down from the 0.10 BTC sell value of $1,000 USD). The extra 8,000 Tron ( 34,000 - 26,000 Tron) actually replaced MOST of the $1,000 USD (down to $915 USD - which still stings) but the grand lesson here is that when you convert between tokens you risk SUBSTANTIAL loss of your core crypto value. It appears I had not realized this in past conversions, and so this was a hard, but important, lesson. In the end, I managed to get ~ 1,200,000 DEC into my in-game Splinterlands wallet, and plan to use that WISELY ( with one major planned spend to be on "land plot/claims" in the upcoming Splinterlands land presale. According to the AMA information the land units will function to allow players to CREATE cards and in-game items, and/or RENT out their land plots to other players (similar to the purchaseable land plots in the "Prospectors" game, which I did a fairly thorough analysis of in some of the earlier posts in this series). My HOPE is that investment of much of my remaining DEC into land plots will eventually RECUPERATE this recent loss of ~ 0.10+ BTC over time, and gradually enable me to replEnish the original 1.0 BTC I acquired back in 2013-2014 when I first got involved in crypto. That 1.0 BTC enabled me to get up and running with Splinterlands, and other crypto pursuits, and build my current powerful collection which is currently worth AT LEAST $4,600 USD (according to my PeakMonsters profile : https://peakmonsters.com/@transcript-junky/collection ). Since BTC is currently valued at $10,700 USD I believe that with continuing daily "play to earn" activity on Splinterlands, combined with the earnings from the future land plots, it will be POSSIBLE to replenish the current difference of 10,700 USD - $4,600 USD = $6,100 USD. This calculation also doesn't account for the value of my current holding of 1,200,000+ DEC, and/or the value of the cards in my current reserve of 229 Untamed packs, and 116 Dice packs, which could be substantial assuming there are some gold and legendary cards in those packs.

In addition, now that ALL of my main crypto value is in Splinterlands (in the form of DEC and cards) I can now conduct a more FOCUSED and accurate method of measuring and accounting for my earnings, over weeks/months of daily "earn for play" to most accurately measure the pace, and amount, of replenishment of my original 1.0 BTC of value. This is one of the main tasks I will be working on daily, and reporting the results/progress of in the future posts of this series. I want to be as precise as possible to really get a good sense of the ROI on this Splinterlands effort. Fingers crossed. I know this was a long, and tedious section of this post, but I think the above information is important in the larger sense of this " blockchain gaming " endeavor.

4 ) I now have mined 91,026 in-game BFG token on BetFury.io, which is now paying me out a dividend of ~ 579 Tron per day, which according to the conversion quote done today ( September 30th, 2020 ) works out to 99.50 Hive. So if I claim that ~ 579 every month and convert it to 99.50 Hive that will give me a monthly additional ~ 23,600 DEC ( 99.50 Hive --> 23633.591 (exact calculation) boost of DEC to spend on cards. That ~ 23,600 DEC can buy a nice round of gold Dice cards, like the several of the remaining 15 "Battering Ram" gold cards I need to max out that card. Each "Battering Ram" gold card is selling on the market today for $1.37 USD ( 2,263 DEC), and so the monthly ~ 23,600 DEC dividend from BetFury.io right now would buy me AT LEAST ten (10) additional cards. Plus, the "Battering Ram" gold card is a "gold promo" card, which means that it earns me 20% DEC bonus per won battle (into perpetuity) - 10% (gold bonus) + 10% ("promo" bonus). And so all of the cards which can be purchased with the BetFury dividend, into the future - and ESPECIALLY the "gold promo" cards - can be calculated against all of the BTC losses I have had in the past year of playing at BetFury. Also, I DO NOT intend to actually play any more gambling games at BetFury. To really earn there you would need to save up, let's say, 20,000 Tron worth of DEC and play the slots at maximum bet of "150 tron pr slot pull". If I get some sort of unexpected crypto windfall I may do that a few more times in the future, primarily to bump up the monthly dividend by mining the BFG token. For now, though, the focus is on measuring the return I get on the dividends resulting from the ~ 0.20+ BTC I have deposited into BetFury since I started playing there. This is also another good case study of developing multiple "crypto income streams" to then feed one's Splinterlands card-buying efforts. Fingers crossed.

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...

September 22nd, 2020

Starting DEC : 61,849 DEC
Starting Capture Rate : ~ 90.40%
Ending DEC - 62,674 DEC
Ending Capture rate : ~ 90.93%
Balance = DEC Earning = 825 DEC = -> 3.084 HIVE x ~ $00.162 USD/Hive = ~ $00.50 USD

Spent :

80 DEC - daily contribution to guild

1 x ***Dice""" pack - 2,850 DEC

Untamed (Pack #1 : today's daily pack)
keepers -
(+) 00 DEC
nonkeepers-
(+) 60 DEC (+) 20 DEC (gifted to gang)

Daily Quest (today's "earth" quest)
keepers -
(+) 80 DEC
nonkeepers -
(+) 45 DEC (+) 25 DEC (gifted to gang)
potions - 2 legendary potions, 4 alchemy/gold potions
Untamed - 1 packs (bought one more Dice pack against the value of this Untamed reward pack)
DEC - 148 DEC

September 23rd, 2020

Starting DEC : 59,824 DEC
Starting Capture Rate : ~ 91.00%
Ending DEC - 60,430 DEC
Ending Capture rate : ~ 100.00%
Balance = DEC Earning = 606 DEC = -> 2.252 HIVE x ~ $00.145 USD/Hive = ~ $00.326 USD

Spent :

80 DEC - daily contribution to guild

1 x "Grenadier" (non-gold - Level 1 - $0.42 USD - 820 DEC -- six (6) cards remaining to Level 5)

Dice (Pack #1 : today's daily pack)
keepers -
(+) 90 DEC
nonkeepers-
(+) 10 DEC (+) 20 DEC (gifted to gang)

Daily Quest (today's "neutral" quest)
keepers -
(+) 100 DEC
nonkeepers -
(+) 55 DEC (+) 10 10 DEC (gifted to gang)
potions - 5 legendary potions, 2 alchemy/gold potions
Untamed - 0 packs
DEC - 255 DEC

September 24th, 2020

Starting DEC : 59,610 DEC
Starting Capture Rate : ~ 100.00%
Ending DEC - 60,307 DEC
Ending Capture rate : ~ 95.67%
Balance = DEC Earning = 697 DEC = -> 3.12 HIVE x ~ $00.151 USD/Hive = ~ $00.47 USD

Spent :

80 DEC - daily contribution to guild

1 x "Grenadier" (non-gold - Level 1 - $0.45 USD - 685 DEC -- five (5) cards remaining to Level 5)

Untamed (Pack #1 : today's daily pack)
keepers -
(+) 00 DEC
nonkeepers-
(+) 100 DEC (+) 20 DEC (gifted to gang)

Dice (Pack #2 : celebration pack for reaching "Champion III" level (+ 20 loot chests, + 80 season loot chests)
keepers -
(+) 100 DEC
nonkeepers-
(+) 40 DEC (+) 20 DEC (gifted to gang)

Daily Quest (today's "neutral" quest)
keepers -
(+) 210 DEC
nonkeepers -
(+) 15 DEC (+) 20 DEC (gifted to gang)
potions - 6 legendary potions, 7 alchemy/gold potions
Untamed - 0 packs
DEC - 76 DEC

September 25th, 2020

Starting DEC : 59,622 DEC
Starting Capture Rate : ~ 95.79%
Ending DEC - 2,853 DEC [ PLEASE REFER TO "NOTES" BELOW ]
Ending Capture rate : ~ 92.08%
Balance = DEC Earning = xxx DEC = -> x.xx HIVE x ~ $00.xxx USD/Hive = ~ $00.xx USD --> because of the main unexpected loss of DEC today (explained in main section of this post) I will not do the total calculations here, nor purchase any cards today. I will start fresh tomorrow).

Note: As much as this is the LAST thing I hoped to report this week, I had YET ANOTHER descent into the Betfury.io abyss. But, in my defense, let me at least explain what TRIGGERED it. In the main section of this post (above) I explained my newly charted strategy to start buying up $5.00 USD of Bitcoin per week. Well, it turns out that the fees associated with the first buy I did ate up a significant amount of the $5.00 USD (and I lost the value of one "Dice" gold card which I burned for DEC to make the $5.00 BTC purchase. This resulted in another catastrophic "chasing" spiral which ended up costing me another 0.04 BTC, and cleaned out 99% of my DEC balance (reflected in the sudden sharp decrease in DEC balance in this daily record. Please refer to the more detailed description of this catastrophe in the main section of this post.)

Spent :

80 DEC - daily contribution to guild

Untamed (Pack #1 : today's daily pack)
keepers -
(+) 40 DEC
nonkeepers-
(+) 20 DEC (+) 50 DEC (gifted to gang)

Daily Quest (today's "death" quest)
keepers -
(+) 260 DEC
nonkeepers -
(+) 50 DEC (+) 20 DEC (gifted to gang)
potions - 2 legendary potions, 2 alchemy/gold potions
Untamed - 0 packs
DEC - 112 DEC

September 26th, 2020

Starting DEC : 2,853 DEC
Starting Capture Rate : ~ 100.00%
Ending DEC - x,xxx DEC [ SEE DISCLAIMER BELOW ] -> new DEC balance : 1,191,122 DEC
Ending Capture rate : ~ xx.xx%
Balance = DEC Earning = xxx DEC = -> x.xx HIVE x ~ $00.xxx USD/Hive = ~ $00.xx USD

[ DISCLAIMER : I am skipping the calculations today, because I spend the past two days "pay-for-play" gambling on BetFury.io, and that messed up my focus. But the good news is that in the end I have ended up with over 1,200,000 DEC extra DEC which I will include in the next calculation. For today I will use some of that new DEC (in the "spent" section below), to buy up some new important cards /DISCLAIMER]

Spent :

80 DEC - daily contribution to guild

1 x Dice pack (against the 1 x Untamed pack I got in today's quest reward -- 2,850 DEC)

3 x "Battering Ram" (Gold - Level 3 - $3.75 USD - 5,475 DEC -- two (2) more cards remaining until Level 8. I actually wanted to buy all 23 remaining cards (to max) today, but that would cost ~ 50,000 DEC, and think it is best right now to pace myself, as well as conserve my final large reserve of DEC for the land pre-sale).

Dice (Pack #1 : today's daily pack)
keepers -
"Brighton Bloom" (Gold - Level 2 - $5.25 USD - 5,000 DEC - bumped up to Level 3)
(+) 10 10 DEC
nonkeepers-
(+) 200 DEC (+) 10 DEC (gifted to gang)

Untamed (Pack #2 : celebration pack for reaching "Champion II" level (+ 40 loot chests, + 120 season loot chests)
keepers -
(+) 00 DEC
nonkeepers-
(+) 60 DEC (+) 20 DEC (gifted to gang)

Daily Quest (today's "dragon" quest)
keepers -
(+) 90 DEC
nonkeepers -
(+) 80 DEC (+) 25 DEC (gifted to gang)
potions - 5 legendary potions, 2 alchemy/gold potions
Untamed - 1 packs ( which I bought one (1) new Dice pack against )
DEC - 340 DEC

September 27th, 2020

Starting DEC : 1,182,797 DEC
Starting Capture Rate : ~ 82.28.00%
Ending DEC - 1,186,475 DEC
Ending Capture rate : ~ 90.31%
Balance = DEC Earning = 3,678 DEC = -> 16.838 HIVE x ~ $00.156 USD/Hive = ~ $02.63 USD

Notes: Did a final sell of my remaining Bitcoin, which gave me a final large reserve of DEC you see above, which I will CONSERVATIVELY spend on cards, as well as some land in the pre-sale.

Spent :

80 DEC - daily contribution to guild

1 x "Battering Ran" (Gold - Level 3 - $1.40 USD - 2,000 DEC -- one (1) card remaining to Level 8)

1 x "Grenadier" (non-gold - Level 1 - $0.54 USD - 959 DEC -- four (4) cards remaining to Level 5)

Dice (Pack #1 : today's daily pack)
keepers -
(+) 60 DEC
nonkeepers-
(+) 00 DEC (+) 60 DEC (gifted to gang)

Daily Quest (today's "earth" quest)
keepers -
(+) 880 DEC
nonkeepers -
(+) 00 DEC (+) 25 DEC (gifted to gang)
potions - 2 legendary potions, 7 alchemy/gold potions
Untamed - 0 packs
DEC - 70 DEC

converted 13.043 Hive (from previous series post) to 2,924 DEC (to buy cards)

September 28th, 2020

Starting DEC : 1,183,512 DEC
Starting Capture Rate : ~ 90.47%
Ending DEC - 1,185,131 DEC
Ending Capture rate : ~ 72.84%
Balance = DEC Earning = 1,619 DEC = -> 7.971 HIVE x ~ $00.156 USD/Hive = ~ $01.24 USD

Spent :

80 DEC - daily contribution to guild

1 x "Battering Ram" (Gold - Level 3 - $1.37 USD - 1,771 DEC -- bumped up to Level 8 (to increase "health" from "+2" to "+3")

Untamed (Pack #1 : today's daily pack)
keepers -
(+) 40 DEC
nonkeepers-
(+) 20 DEC (+) 20 DEC (gifted to gang)

Daily Quest (today's "death" quest)
keepers -
(+) 40 DEC
nonkeepers -
(+) 285 DEC (+) 25 DEC (gifted to gang)
potions - 5 legendary potions, 3 alchemy/gold potions
Untamed - 0 packs
DEC - 113 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 Splinterlands 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