With the whopping uptick in new Splinterlands players, the demand for renting cards in the market has also increased. This has also caused a significant rise in card rental prices, with season-end gold foil cards costing more than 1000 DEC/day at the minimum.
As renters, we should always aim maximize the amount that we are paying for our rented cards. At the end of day, we would like to see the profits from our battles outweigh our operating costs. This post aims to provide tips to new players on how they can maximize their card rentals in Splinterlands.
1. Avoid renting for long duration and regularly check your daily rental
Unless you had a really good deal on a card (and it seems like the owner won't cancel), it is better to rent on shorter durations rather than longer ones. Always remember that not because you are paying a relatively cheaper price now, you will pay the same by season-end. With the current rental system, owners can easily cancel on your current deal (there is a 24 hours leeway), and put out the card in the rental market at a steeper price.
Another way to put things into perspective is by looking at how much are you paying for your rentals on a daily basis. It helps to look at your account on a potential PnL level. Are you earning more from your daily battles compared what you are paying daily?
You can check this by going to PeakMonsters -> My Card -> Upper left part
2. Play like a madman when you are renting a full stack
Since you are paying the same amount for rentals regardless how often you use it, you would like to play as much as you can when you are renting a full stack. This also means that it is better to start from a high DEC capture rate when renting out new cards. It will be much more difficult to profit if you are already starting at a 50% DEC capture rate, and you are moving it down to single-digit.
3. Stack your quests
You can finish up to two quests by renting cards just for a day.
Splinterlands allows us to stack up to two daily quests at a time. This means that you have the option not to finish your quest on a single day, and just finish it along with your next day quest.
The advantage of this is if you don't have a good card collection, you can just rent for a day and finish two daily quests with a set of your rented cards.
Note: If you are looking to maximize it up to three quests, the 23-hour timer for the third quest will start after you have claimed your reward in the first quest.
4. Delay opening your chest rewards
Chest rewards are based on the league that you opened them, not on the league you finished it.
Now that you have stacked your quests, it is better to delay claiming your quest rewards and wait to get to a higher league. If you are looking to move up from Bronze to Silver III, you would want to wait until you get to Silver III and open two chests rather than one.
This is like the marshmallow test. Delay instant gratification to get more rewards.
5. Consider getting a gold foil card if there is little discrepancy in price
Each gold foil card gives you a 10% bonus in your DEC rewards when you win. For summoners and neutral cards, I make it a practice to prioritize getting gold foil cards because the odds of playing them is higher than the specific ones.
Luckily, if you are renting via PeakMonsters, it would suggest to you a gold foil card if it is cheaper versus the regular one. So just follow that one if you don't to manually check it!
That's it! Let me know in the comments if you have additional suggestions on how we can maximize our rented cards in Splinterlands.
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