Improve Your Returns with Splinterforge!

You might have noticed, there's a new game taking the Splinterlands community by storm... and for good reason!

We've been promised boss fights for years, and we no longer have to wait for Uncle Aggy to deliver because Splinterforge is here, and that's exactly what they offer!

So how does it work?

Let's ignore the Splinterforge-specific hero unit for the moment and focus on the cards you ALREADY have from your Splinterlands journey-
Imagine a massive boss with hundreds of thousands of hit points, 1-3 static abilities, and a randomly selected ability that changes every time you fight them. Pick two summoners from your collection (whose levels are irrelevant) and up to seven monsters with a total mana cost of 45 or less, utilizing the splinters of both summoners plus neutral cards. The syngergies you can enact with these team creations are insane and it only gets better from there as you progress, but we'll get into that more with the hero. Now you step into the actual battle, after paying 45 stamina (or less, if you used less mana, but note that the minimum stamina cost per battle is 15 even if you use no monsters) and be warned, it's not gonna be pretty.

While the game itself is fun and engaging, the actual combat is messy and graphically counterintuitive. I honestly feel like it looked better in alpha than the finished model. Once you are familiar with mechanics and have your team set up, you'll likely find yourself skipping every battle; at least I do. You're also going to get annihilated and your team is going to die. Quickly. Don't get disheartened! Unlike Splinterlands, your goal is not to win this battle! Your goal is to do as much damage as possible, then go back and do as much damage as possible again, and again, and again. The bosses take a significant amount of time and effort to kill, many many attacks by many many players, and take days to kill if not weeks. Keep at it!

Now- the HERO!

You have 3 options for your free-to-use unit, to allow them to match with the rest of your team- melee, ranged, or magic. Splinterforge NFTs are equipment and gems to improve the stats and abilities of your hero, and some gems can increase the strength of your team by allowing you to bring more monsters, spend more mana, or even use monsters from a splinter from which you are not using a summoner.

Getting said equipment is much like building your Splinterlands collection; buy crates for equipment and enhancement bags for gems, or buy them off the market from other players. I always recommend, don't open packs to build your power- buy what you need! Packs are fun, they're good for making content, and they grant the potential for airdrops if purchased directly just like in SPL, but even if you open better-than-average pulls they're unlikely to be what you actually need! Unless your luck is extraordinary (and I know there are some people to whom this applies) you will often find yourself spending far less over time by buying the things you need directly, particularly if you manage the market well and score some deals on them!

Strategy

There are two primary strategies, depending on your own investment and equipment. The general strategy is to put together a highly synergistic team and bring really strong monsters to the battle. The MOST effective strategy, for the high rollers, is to run more battles with fewer monsters to spend less stamina per fight, and take advantage of the insanely high stats achievable on the hero unit. As mentioned above, hero unit costs 0 mana to play and stamina cost per battle is equal to mana spent (with a minimum of 15) so you can maximize damage output by using fewer monsters and running more often, IF your hero is well-equipped and stronger than any SPL moster has the potential to be. It's entirely possible, with legendary equipment and gems in all slots, to have 20+ in every stat on your hero unit.

Note

Many things work differently in Splinterforge than you are used to in Splinterlands, including during the battle itself. Many abilities don't function at all (particulary those that dictate position of attacks, such as sneak snipe and opportunity) and instead are replaced by a straight 50% dmage boost. A complete list of these abilities can be seen by hovering over this rule on the team-selection screen. Speed does not determine the order of attack within a turn-based structure, but instead is an active stat that determines how quickly each monster takes turns (meaning faster monsters don't just go first, they go more often) and it's also impossible for you to make a monster fast enough to be completely unhittable bt the boss.

Conclusion

If you haven't tried it yet, you have nothing to lose so give it a shot. Playing Splinterforge will in no way effect your Splinterlands cards and has the potential for huge returns with a little investment- or even small returns with no investment at all, just play with you SPL cards!

I'll see you on the mountain and as always:
Good Luck, Have Fun!
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IGN: onthemountain

Posted using Splintertalk