Beginner's Guide by a beginner

Hi everyone, this is my first post so sorry for the unappealing design, I'm just starting to figure this all out.

Quick introduction

I started playing Splinterlands around three weeks ago by just signing up, playing the tutorial, buying the spellbook and jumping right into ranked battles. One week later I ended up in Silver 2.
I wanna share what I've experienced and learned so far with you in the following. If you're new too, maybe you'll identify with it or learn something :)

1. The best way to learn the game from scratch for me was to watch guides on youtube for every splinter and then sticking with one.
   By always playing the same splinter/cards in the beginning you will familiarize with the mechanics and learn what works/ what doesn't much more quickly.
   In my case it was the water splinter, because I loved the bearded guy and the way magic attacks sound, haha.
   Here's a great Youtuber who has starter guides for every splinter: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCN4I68211i87l5y-lm5TNMg

2. It takes a little patience and effort in the beginning.
   When I won my first couple of games and the rewards were 0,02DEC per win I got really discouraged.
   After playing just 20 to 30 minutes a day, completing the daily quests for a couple of days, I had enough DEC (like 50) to rent a few cards though. And boy was that fun!
   I cruised through bronze ranks, earning up to 2DEC per win with a capture rate of just 50% because I had played for hours. Eventually ending up in silver 3 and earning back all the DEC I spent for the rentals.

3. Splinterlands is a game of investment and just like with any other investment usually: the more you invest the greater the return.
   Example
   If you play with just the starter cards that are given to you, earning rewards through daily quests and slowly saving up some DEC, you might be able to rent cards to get to higher ranks, earning more rewards = returns.

   If you invest some money to buy those cards instead of renting, you get better rewards from the beginning plus you save the DEC you'd otherwise use for renting = greater returns.

   If you use the saved DEC and the greater rewards to rent cards to get to even higher ranks, you will earn even more rewards = even greater returns.

   And so on...

   That being said always calculate the price you pay for renting cards and the reward you're earning by doing so.
   An average price per loot chest can be found here: https://www.splintercards.com/tool-lootchest.html

   There are complete posts about this which explain it in much more detail and way better than I can, so I will just leave it with that.

   Here's another great Youtuber who does lots of videos on the economic part of the game: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOoOxEybRJm_iK7EtL11YNw

4. A simple strategy for beginners for maximizing returns without investing any more money besides the 10 bucks for the spellbook:

• Do your daily quests every day and try to get as high a rating as possible
• Save all the DEC to get higher airdrop points and stake the airdropped SPS
• Let your DEC capture rate recover to a 100% towards the last day of the season
• On the last day of the season rent a couple of strong but cheap cards that will help you climb ranks and gold foil cards with enough power to unlock ranks. Here is a useful chart to check which cards give how much power
  

I've found silver 2 to be an achievable rank for a fairly low amount of DEC but again, check spendings/rewards.

• Hold on to your reward cards, they might appreciate in value as time goes by and player base grows

Here's a great site for checking price history on cards: https://splintercards.com/cards.html

• During the beginning and middle of each season rent out your more valuable cards for some extra passive income, since you won't be needing them to complete the daily quests
• Repeat this process and slowly grow your collection so that you can get higher ranks and earn more rewards

1. If you do want to invest some more money

• Dollar cost average into the game, meaning don't put all your money in at one time because prices fluctuate and maybe you're buying at an all time high. Rather put in a certain amount each month to level out highs and lows
• Start by buying cards that are strong level one, preferably neutrals because you can use them with any splinter
• Then focus on summoners, because their level determines the playable level of your monsters (a higher level monster doesn't help you if your summoners level is too low)
• Invest in power. Those cards are much more expensive because the highest power cards are gold foil cards, but they allow you to play at a higher rank consistently, thus earning more rewards (daily chests and DEC per win) and they are very likely to appreciate or at least not depreciate in value, because everyone needs power. They can also be rented out to generate extra income
• Last but not least, buy cheap monsters like the new reward cards and level them up to get some strong cards to help you win. They are cheap now, because there's a lot of supply, but as soon as those won't be given out and a new set of reward cards is introduced, they will become more scarce and they will appreciate in value

Please note that none of this is financial advice. Nor do i believe it's the best strategy or approach to the game. This is just what I (a complete beginner) have learned and what has worked for me so far.

Hope you're all drawing legendaries and having tons of fun.

Pinkman45