The changes are coming in hard and fast! It feels like Splinterlands is undergoing nonstop changes every single week as the developers try to finetune the rewards structure and the problems of the bots.

Personally, as a player, I'm finding it quite overwhelming to have to adapt to the changes every week. Every single time I seem to have gotten a handle on the new format, another change comes in. It almost feels like the ingame random rulesets are being applied outside of the game too! 🤣🤣🤣

The previous week saw the release of Modern and Wild formats in tandem with the start of a new season, and now, we've got a whole slew of changes yet again, which I'll touch on a little more later on.

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A brief introduction before I start though...

Good Day to all Splinterlands players! (and people of HIVE! 😜) I've made it a point to blog about my weekly progress and experiences in Splinterlands/HIVE in my "weekly diary". Splinterlands & HIVE are what I'd consider to be my entry point into the World of Crypto, and I intend to use this as a means to look back on the path I've taken in the years ahead.⏳⏳⏳

This is now the 35th consecutive week writing in my Diary (of sorts) detailing my Splinterlands Journey ever since I started this game. Of course, this also marks my 35th weekly giveaway! 🎉🥳🎊

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No week goes by in Splinterlands without some news event happening though. And here's my pick of some of the most interesting ones in my opinion. 📰📰📰

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🗺️🧳✈️Updates on my Splinterlands Journey🗺️🧳✈️

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I had been saving up a bunch of packs from my rewards drops over the past season to open all of them in one fell swoop last week. Generally speaking, I'd say that my pack opening luck is pretty horrible. 💔

However, I think this is the best I've had so far in my entire Splinterlands pack opening history 🥳!

Out of 6 packs opened, I got 2 Legendary cards (my first 2 from any pack ever to boot!) and 1 Gold Foil Epic! Now these aren't the best/most valuable cards from the entire CL collection available, but for someone who hasn't had much luck with packs, I'll say this is a solid win and a nice change of luck! 😁

On the more negative side of things, notice that even a pack with a legendary in it is barely worth more than what it costs right now? 1 pack costs 4000 CREDITS (4USD) OR 4000 DEC (slightly more than 2USD) OR CHAOS from hive-engine (about 1.8USD).

It really shows how depressed prices are at the moment. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, as the entry point for a new player is probably lower than ever. If one were to build a deck now, it would probably cost several times less than just 6 months ago at the height of the crypto bull frenzy. 📈📊📉

My quest for that elusive Gold Foil Legendary from my rewards chests continues on though 🤞🏻🍀🤞🏻🍀🤞🏻🍀 (It's a 0.008% chance, at base level, to pull a legendary gold foil, in case you were wondering 😉). I'll get there some day (i hope).

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🏆💰🎁Gameplay Changes🏆💰🎁

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I did mention at the start about the whole slew of changes that were introduced this past week, here's a list of the most impactful ones (which should be most of them)

• New Daily Focuses

Instead of just the Splinter based daily focus we've had for the past few seasons, We've got 10+ new ones added in now. With just about every single ability in the game being covered.

• Daily Focus Mechanic change

Players will now gain focus points for ANY deck they play with. Instead of just the daily splinters giving focus points for daily rewards, they now award 10% bonus for each card used. This is similar to using a Gold Foil/Alpha/Beta card.

It is definitely a positive change, as players don't have to be pigeonholed into just 1 splinter a day now.

• Focus Splinter/Element No Longer Guaranteed to be Active

This is another big change. Or rather, a reversion back to the old format whereby no splinter is guaranteed to be active in your battle rulesets even if it pertains to your daily focus. This changes the focus from a single splinter to a wide variety of cards again, just to be able to deal with the randomness of rulesets being thrown your way.

• Merits as a Chest Reward

Merits, which have been the purview of Guild Brawls are now awarded in chests too. I'm not too enthused about this. It seems like a way to forcibly "encourage" players to join guilds. Of course, this is also a stealth nerf to bot farms by giving them some untradeable rewards that only REAL HUMAN players can make use of.

• Changing Minimum Card Rental Time to 2 Days

This is probably one of the biggest changes ever. Rentals now come in 2 day blocks at the bare minimum. This feels like a kick in the gut for most of the player base. The costs of playing just doubled basically. It is supposed to be yet another nerf to bots by hitting them in the wallet, but I'm still undecided on the benefits of such a system. Perhaps we'll all need some time for the market to stabilize again before we can come to a proper conclusion.

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These are really A LOT of changes to take in suddenly, and I do think that the overall sentiment hasn't really been a positive one. Perhaps only the whales or players with vast holdings are pleased with it. Time will tell however, sudden and extreme changes always need some time to settle down before we can get a better grasp of things.

I do get that the developers are trying their very best to tread a fine line between appeasing all their players and trying to grow the game too. So, I'll put a hold on any definite judgement on my part until everyone can get a clearer picture. 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻

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Weekly Chaos Legion Sales Tracker

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And now, for an update on the number of Chaos Legion packs sold thus far. About 48.8k sold since last week. That is an amazing sales figure! 😄

Here's the current count (as of the moment I'm writing this post) of the number of packs sold, and we're 878k away from the 10 million mark! Which also means everyone has a chance to get in now and grab more packs for the remaining airdrops! 😜

My fingers are crossed! 🤞🏻🤞🏻🤞🏻 Hopefully I'll get some amazing luck for the next round! 🍀🍀🍀

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✨🎁✨Weekly GIVEAWAY✨🎁✨

The next card for GIVEAWAY #35 is...

✨🎁✨Choose One of these Reward Cards✨🎁✨

Instead of continually going through my list of common reward cards I can afford to give away each week, I've decided to let YOU CHOOSE WHICH YOU PREFER! 😜

This is probably more helpful, especially for new players who join my giveaways, as they can then finetune their decks with what they need (if they're lucky enough to win 😉🍀).

Of course, all these options are while stocks last, if I'm unable to offer you the card you've chosen should you win it, I will send you one of these cards in the list instead. They are all very useful for new players, and even veterans who level these cards up to high levels will find them pretty strong too! 👍💪

📖✨🎁Rules for Giveaway🎁✨📖

This Giveaway will last until the next week's post, with 1 random lucky winner being picked. All winners in my Giveaways will also receive a slice of 🍕PIZZA🍕 token.

• All you need to do to participate is to COMMENT and leave your Splinterlands name if it is different from what you use to post.
• Winners will have to acknowledge their win within 48 hours by leaving a comment in the winner announcement post. This is so I don't send cards to non human accounts. (I'd strongly recommend you to FOLLOW me so that you can keep yourself updated should you be one of the winners 😉)
• In cases of non responses, prizes will be forfeited at my discretion.

I will also be VERY grateful for any UPVOTES, FOLLOWS & REBLOGS. 😍

🤑💰🍕Added Bonus of PIZZA Token🤑💰🍕

• I will use my staked 🍕PIZZA🍕 to share a slice of 🍕PIZZA🍕 with anyone in the comments who also FOLLOWS & REBLOGS my post in the interests of spreading the Word of Pizza 🤣🤣🤣
• Just let me know if you've done that so I can easily keep track. 👍
• Any fellow 🍕PIZZA🍕 connoisseurs who !PIZZA me will also receive 🍕PIZZA🍕 back from me. 😊

🥇🏆🎁WINNER of Previous Giveaway #34🥇🏆🎁

🎉🎉🎉@operahoser CONGRATULATIONS!🎉🎉🎉

Please send me a message on the comments section to acknowledge (and auto enroll you for the next giveaway 😂 unless you wish to opt out) before I send the card to you.

(P.S, I might take some time to reply and send out the cards sometimes 😅. So all winners, please be patient, as long as you reply and acknowledge, I WILL definitely get it done 😜.)

📣🍕SHOUTOUT to HivePizza📣🍕

The guys over at PIZZA DISCORD have been very helpful throughout my Splinterlands journey. I strongly recommend that you guys check it out if you haven't already done so.

PIZZA is an active gaming and creative arts crypto community on the HIVE blockchain. Popular games on HIVE like SPLINTERLANDS, RISING STAR, EXODE, HASHKINGS, WOO, BANG!DEFENSE have their own PIZZA communities here.

Don't miss out more events that are always being organised. Join the PIZZA DISCORD. Even if you aren't interested in the 💰🍕🎁GIVEAWAYS & AIRDROPS💰🍕🎁, there is a vibrant and friendly community there awaiting you.

CLICK THIS LINK TO JOIN PIZZA DISCORD!!!

Here's to wishing everyone all the best for the upcoming week 🎉🍀.

To any new players who wish to explore the world of Splinterlands, do feel free to sign up with my REFERRAL LINK 😊.