What to expect starting in Splinterlands as a F2P

This is the start of my series of F2P gaming experience in Splinterlands.

Will I become rich without spending money? Will I reach high leagues with the starter cards?

All of these questions and more in this upcoming series.

But lets start from the beginning...

Starting the Journey

I started playing first days of September, after reading about blockchain games, NFT and all that jazz. And being a Card games fanatic, this seemed like my cup of tea, so i dived in.

Bought the Spellbook because If you dont you wont even earn 1 penny, so my mentality was "if i continue playing, eventually ill come up even".

I did the tutorial and downloaded the game in my phone. I continued learning about the game while I played... DEC Capture Rate, SPS, DEC earnings, Leagues, Power, Magic is OP, Cerberus wins games, etc. If you are reading this and you feel like you want to know these things too, leave me a comment and ill do a new article with a SPLINTERLANDS DICTIONARY

I read tons of reddit and did some questions myself, joined a couple discords and kept asking questions there and getting answers.

2 weeks passed. Im still a complete noob, BUT now I think i understand a bit more about the game.

What I wished I knew the 1st week

So here are some basic tips that everyone should now when getting into splinterland, and the game doesnt explain too well.

1. You only get DEC when you win
2. The DEC Capture rate goes down EVEN if you lose.
3. Don't force playing with 1 element. Sometimes you just win a match by chosing the correct Summoner.
4. The mobile app is awful for beginners. Its lacking tons of things. Honestly, the app works just for doing battles WHEN you get to understand a bit more about the icons and the abilities
5. Do your daily quests, but dont risk losing a match because you tried to add the quest condition into a unfavorable match up
6. Join discord and do questions
7. Don't try to rush getting money if you are not planning on spending first.
8. Win Streaks are great
9. Guilds are not THAT useful at the beginning, and getting into one is REALLY hard, plus most of them will require you donate an amount of DEC that you wont be able to earn

FINAL AND MOST IMPORTANT TIP:
DONT SPEND WHAT YOU DONT HAVE OR YOU CANT AFFORD LOSING.

Spending to earn or spending to play

Like a lot of the NFT / Blockchain games, there is a whole finance / investing side of these games that go paralel to actually playing the game.
Splinterlands is no exception.
You can buy cards which will increase your power and will increase your chances of winning matches, earning you better daily rewards, end of season rewards and dec wins when you climb in the leagues.
BUT you can also buy DEC / SPS and let that keep giving more of itself. You wont be able to win too many matches, but you will still earn some money by having those funds in there.

What kind of player are you depends on what you want to do, but it has a bit for everyone.

I myself added 50usd into SPS and some DEC for the Airdrops and Stacking, like a test kind of things

Actually the money i've spent into splinterlands is not giving any kind of advantage in the gameplay.

Am I rich already?

No. In fact im poorer than before. I bought SPS when they seem to be high and after a couple days the price went down 20%. So if i were to cashout my investment i would be losing, but while the funds are in the game they are continue giving more of themselves, eventually they will catch up (I HOPE)

Ill repeat the final and most important tip: dont spend what you cant afford losing, you might as well do it.

Be mindful with your money

How am i doing in game?

Season	Rating	Cards Owned	Power	Comments
1st Season	700	0	0	I was lucky enough to get a friend in discord to grant me 5k power by delegating me cards to be able to enter Bronze 1 and get 9 Season chests.
2nd Season	1149	4	100	Im reaching Silver 2 rating without having actually any cards. Im not using the cards i Got. .

Next steps

1. Continue playing and getting the chests every day
2. Try to earn some dec everyday by winning
3. BEG (or rent) for enough power to have access to more end of season chests
4. Considering buying packs when CL comes (still undecided if 25,50 or 100 packs... )

Questions? Suggestions?

Ask me all the questions you need. Ill try to answer them all or get someone that knows more than me to answer them

I will also want to give away some cards if given the chance. I want to setup a system in which ill use part of the earning of my post to check what is the BEST newcomer card that I can buy with that ammount and give it away in the following article.

You can reach out to me in discord. I hangout in the Cryptogaming guild Discord with some cool dudes that know a lot about SPL

JOIN THE DISCORD

You still havent started playing? help me out with the referral link then and come have fun and earn some money:

MY REF TO SPLINTERLANDS

I also started playing some other Blockchain games. If you feel interested in knowing the game experience of someone almost F2P on them, let me know. You can also start those games by entering my referral link! Much appreciated!

Rollercoin	Rising Star