If you're just getting started in #Splinterlands and are familiar with the battle system but don't know where to put your money or how much, then this guide is for you!

My goal for this post is to help guide the new player in creating a solid foundation for their journey into Splinterlands. My basic game plan for a new player with a minimal investment is as follows:

• Invest enough to reach the Silver League
• Rent high impact meta cards
• Complete Daily Quests
• Reinvest earnings into building your deck

Keep in mind, this is MY OPINION on what I think is the best way to build your foundation. It is not financial advice. It is not meant to be the best way to invest (in terms of ROI) nor is it the only way to get started. I simply what to share what I think would be a good way for a new player invest in order to get the most out of the game.

Remember, playing this game can be considered an investment since you can buy in with the hopes that your assets will appreciate. Additionally, if you decide the game isn't for you, there is always the option of selling your assets and recouping some of your money.

One more thing. There will be a new rewards structure in the future that may change the league requirements as well as how rewards are distributed. Since it isn't released yet, I can only help with what we are currently being offered. Once the new structure is released, I plan to write a new guide with more up to date information.

Technically, the bare minimum you need to play Splinterlands is $10. That will buy you a spellbook which allows you to:

1. Earn rewards (including ranked battle rewards, daily chests, and end of season chests)
2. Enter tournaments
3. Participate in the card market

Note : You can still receive gifts from other played but you will not be able to transact (in or out) on the Hive Blockchain

So besides the $10 required the Spellbook, how much more should you invest to get the full experience?

Personally, I feel that the game doesn't really "begin" until you reach the Silver league which opens at Silver III.

At that point, there are a handful of advantages in Silver over playing in Bronze:

1. No more Credits in chest rewards! Yay!
2. 2+ chests for each completed daily quest
3. 50% chance to obtain a card in your chests (daily and end of season)
4. Chance to earn Chaos Legion packs in your chests
5. More card abilities and rulesets for every battle (allows you to be more strategic vs playing "Rock, Paper, Scissors")

In order to reach Silver, you need a minimum of 15,000 collection power (CP) which can be obtained through rentals or card purchases.

You also need to achieve a rating of at least 1,000 which is accumulated through winning Ranked Battles. I will cover some strategies on getting out of Bronze later in this post.

At the current market rate, you can obtain about 300 CP for every $1 spent. So in order to obtain 15,000 CP you'll need (15,000 CP / 300 CP) a total of $50.

This means you'll own a lot of Gargoya Devils, Venari Seedsmiths, Twilight Basilisks, Lava Launchers, and Venari Bonesmiths. Luckily, these are great cards in their own right so you're not exactly buying "bottom feeders."

It's not the most exciting way to spend your money but in doing so, you really open up the game without the need to rely on rentals to keep you in Silver.

One other helpful tip is to make your card purchases through MonsterMarket or Card Auctionz. Each of those websites will give you cashback (3% and 3.25%, respectively) which will return you $1.50 on your $50 card purchase (1000 DEC at today's rate).

With that 1000 DEC, you can then rent a few cards that will help you complete your daily quests and raise your rating.

Once you've purchased a card collection worth 15,000, you'll need to get your rating over 1,000 in order to fulfill all the requirements for Silver.

It is entirely possible to do so with just the purchased cards and the starter "ghost" deck but it will be difficult, especially for the newer player who's getting the hang of the rules.

Luckily, Splinterlands has a robust rental market where you can rent a killer deck for pennies a day. To get out of Bronze, you really only need to rent a handful of powerful cards and work them into the rules/mana limits.

The rental prices below reflect the early season market. Keep in mind that on the last day of the season, rental prices will increase greatly and your cheap rentals may be cancelled. That's not a big deal if you own at least 15,000 CP since you won't need the cards to stay in Silver III.

• Rental Cost : 2.0 DEC/day
• Strategy
  • Mylor Crowling is an Earth summoner that gives all friendly monsters the Thorns ability (deals damage back to melee attackers).
  • It can generally be used with the Unicorn Mustang tank followed by the Goblin Thief (Sneak Attack) and/or Goblin Psychic (Tank Heal). This allows you to resist some Magic attacks while giving Thorns back to Melee attackers. Sneak also helps take out backline Healers and Ranged attackers.
  • The Mycelic Infantry (Shield) and the Disintegrator (Demoralize) combo is exceptionally powerful in melee only rulesets.

• Rental Cost : 0.1 DEC/day
• Strategy
  • The Wood Nymph is an Earth splinter Magic monster with tank heal.
  • When paired with the Goblin Psychic, you get a double heal on your tank, making it very hard to kill in Bronze.
  • It can also be used as a lower cost alternative to the Goblin Psychic.

• Rental Cost : 0.1 DEC/day
• Strategy
  • Fineas Rage is a Fire Melee monster with the Reach ability.
  • When paired with Tarsa, Fineas Rage hits hard and quickly from the safety of the 2nd position.
  • He can even be used as a tank since he has a large life pool and quick speed.

• Rental Cost : 0.5 DEC/day
• Strategy
  • The Axemaster is a Water Ranged monster with Double Strike.
  • This card can single handedly win you battles as long as you are able to keep it from ending up in the first spot where it can't attack (unless the Close Range ruleset applies).
  • The high speed and double strike ability make this monster an absolute killer. Just play Kelya Frendul as your summoner and place it in the back of your lineup.

• Rental Cost : 0.1 DEC/day
• Strategy
  • Lorna Shine is a Life summoner that gives all friendly monsters the Divine Shield ability.
  • Lorna Shine essentially removes an attack from your opponent, making your monsters much harder to kill
  • A common strategy is to use Melee sneak monsters paired with the Inspire ability to boost their attacks. However, Lorna Shine is so good at Bronze that you can play the Shieldbearer with attackers behind him and win a good amount of the time.

• Rental Cost : 0.2 DEC/day
• Strategy
  • Haunted Spirit is a Death Melee monster with the Heal ability.
  • The Heal ability makes the Haunted Spirit a great tank, especially at low mana where the Death deck thrives (with Thaddius Brood).
  • Cursed Windeku is the tank of choice for most players in Bronze but the Haunted Spirit can be used as well and costs 1 less mana.

• Rental Cost : 0.1 DEC/day
• Strategy
  • Creeping Ooze is a Neutral monster that has the Slow ability. As long as it is alive, it will reduce the speed of all enemy units by 1.
  • Getting a speed advantage over you opponent is huge. You can attack first and potentially dodge more of their attacks.
  • If you have 1 mana left, the Creeping Ooze is a good card to throw in there to give yourself the edge.

• Rental Cost : 1.0 DEC/day
• Strategy
  • The Furious Chicken is a non-attacking 0 mana Neutral card with no abilities.
  • At low mana battles such as those in bronze, it's a great card to throw in for 0 mana that basically absorbs an attack
  • Place it at the very back to protect against a sneak attack or place it in front of your lowest health monster to protect against an opportunity attack
  • 1 absorbed attack can be huge when you and your opponent have similar lineups

• Rental Cost : 0.1 DEC/day
• Strategy
  • The Sand Worm is a Neutral melee monster with the Sneak ability.
  • At Bronze, this is one of the hardest hitting melee monsters out there.
  • This one is a little bit harder to use because of the high mana cost, but it's definitely worth playing in the higher mana battle

If you rented all of these cards, you're looking at less than 5 DEC/day in rental fees! That's a steal! For reference, 5 DEC is less than a penny at today's price ($0.0075 total). You can definitely spend more on other high powered cards to help you get into Silver so feel free to experiment!

So you have the Spellbook, you've purchased 15,000 in CP, and you've rented the cards above. Now what?

You are now set to play the game daily and receive chest rewards as well as Ranked battle rewards. Essentially, you want to complete you Daily Challenge every 24 hours in order to the get the 2 Chest Rewards. Then, at the end of each season, you'll want to claim your 12 chests (assuming you're in Silver III).

At the moment, the value of the Silver III chests are as follows according to Splintercards:

What this means is that you can expect a value of 50 DEC per chest or 100 DEC total each day. Then, at the end of the season, you can expect your 12 chests to average a total of 600 DEC.

In addition to your Daily Quests, you'll want to claim your Daily Airdrop as well.

With 15,000 CP, you can expect about 1.1 SPS to be airdropped per day. This will last another 90 days from the time of this post. You will also get SPS for holding DEC which I left out of this equation for the sake of simplicity and to be conservative with the estimates.

Feel free to stake your SPS, HODL, or convert it into DEC to make card/pack/etc purchases! Spend it however you would like.

Now that you have a solid foundation to build on, let's go over the numbers.

The total amount spent is $60 ($10 Spellbook, $50 in cards). With that, we get the following each day:

Without the Daily SPS airdrop, you're still getting about 145 DEC back per day without including the Ranked Battle Rewards. Over a year that is 52,295 DEC or $79 at today's DEC price! Not bad for a $60 investment!

And remember, you own the assets in the game and are free to sell them at any time. As you accumulate more cards over your 15,000 CP, you can rent them out for even more DEC! You can't really do that with other video games which makes Splinterlands so unique!

Like other #Play2earn games, Splinterlands allows you to earn assets through playing the game. It has a very low entry price of $10 but in my opinion, you will get much more out of the game by spending an extra $50 to bring up your collection power. Think of it like purchasing a PS5 or Xbox game that gives you the potential to sell it back for more than you paid!

Of course, you don't want to stop at $50 either. You are free to invest as much as you would like but I would definitely change my strategy if I were planning to invest more than $50. My priorities would be:

1. Chaos Legion Summoners
2. Chaos Legion Cards
3. Reward Cards

Regardless, you will still be purchasing those cheap 300 CP/$1 cards shown above, but maybe less since you'll be getting power from other cards such as Legendaries and Summoners.

Thanks for reading! I hoped you enjoyed it!

Referral link : https://splinterlands.com?ref=at.bui89

If you decide to use my referral link, I'll happily send you a few cards to help you get started!