4th Season on Splinterlands

“No more new-player friendly, it’s pay to play, and the system is just feeding the old players. You are just playing for the old timers.” These are the typical complains I read on social media besides from technical issues about Splinterlands. I even saw some players on Facebook selling their accounts. I wonder what is up there on the higher league that made them stop playing this game. I also read many complains about the change in rewards in Bronze league.

There is some truth in the above statements, but a player cannot blame the mechanics of the game for his decision. Ultimately, it is not the old timer who decides, but you as a new player.

Entering the fourth season on Splinterlands, I have been utilizing regularly the rental market just to complete the daily quests at Bronze I level. I usually spend around 100 DEC. However, after completing the daily quests and receiving potions as rewards, somehow, I am beginning to share the sentiment of those who are not satisfied with the recent change. It appears that the incentive in playing the game is no longer the same as before. Though I recognize that the rewards system is random and that the dev wants players to move up to the upper leagues, still I could not avoid to be disappointed. But this does not mean that I will be quitting the game. Instead, I will observe how this thing will unfold. If this will continue, I think better to play less and focus more on the staking side of the game.

I asked myself, “Why continue playing when it is no longer profitable?” And if you are not having fun either or you are really convinced that the game is no longer valuable, then you have the following options:

1. Close your account for you are no longer happy with the game and as for you, the earning door has already been shut down.
2. If you lack the fund, find a way to climb the higher league in a most economical way.
3. And lastly, just focus not on playing, but on the financial aspect of the game.

Nevertheless, if you are still entertained despite the meagre returns, then your time spent playing this game is still worthwhile. In this post, I just want to share my experience during my fourth season on Splinterlands. My story will cover the rental contract, change in strategy, EOS rewards, and two interesting fights on Silver league.

Don’t Be Excessive on Your Rentals

During the initial days of playing, I observe from my experience that if you rent less than 130 DEC in Bronze I league, you can still increase the quantity of your DEC collection. The reason why I am saying this is because after two days of playing, when I opened the daily chests after renting cards worth 168 DEC, I only received 7 DEC plus potions. And so, I thought better to focus on ranked battle instead of the daily quests. And then as I increase the quantity of my DEC, I am thinking to use it to grow my collection power by buying cards. I think for players like me who have limited find, this is a more strategic way to reach the Silver league. So instead of stopping to play, better to find a way out of your predicament and try to reach the higher league using a different route. However, patience is necessary for such an approach requires several months or even a year or two.

Changing My Strategy

In my previous post, I shared the reason for my hesitation to climb up the Silver league. I thought that my cards aren’t ready yet for bigger fights. However, after reading ecoinstant’s story that it is not necessary to level up one’s cards just to reach the higher leagues, I decided to test it myself. And so, two to three days prior to the end of the last season, I rented cards amounting to 546 DEC; this is equivalent to $8.62. I want to know firsthand if climbing up to Silver III is really profitable. This is the highest rental I ever tried. Previous to this, as I already mentioned, my highest rental was 168.57 DEC, which I regretted later for it took me two days of playing to recover it. Since then, in completing the daily quest and playing the ranked battle, I decided to rent only 50% of that amount. This to me is easier to recover after 20 battles. After that, I can start increasing the quantity of my DEC.

And so, I thought of a rental strategy. I was thinking of renting powerful cards that would not only add to my collection power, but also would be of great use in actual battles. I rented cards with 500 to 1,500 DEC value like Djinn Oshannus, Sacred Unicorn, level 2 of Daria Dragonscale, Dragon Jumper, Robo-Dragon Knight, and Lord Arianthus. After renting these cards, my collection power increased to 10,000. To fill up the remaining 5,000 power that I need, I rented other cards with lower DEC value, but of great use in the game. Doing this, I reached 15,000 collection power, which is a requirement to enter the Silver III battle arena.

Entering Silver III, I was expectant that the 12 loot chests at the end of the season will make a difference by adding more to my collection power. With just less than 3,000 collection power, my immediate goal is to reach at least 5,000 to settle at Bronze I as my base.

Critical Assessment of Rental Contract

Unexpectedly, while playing less than a day, I was puzzled that despite my continuous winning, the rewards from ranked battle was decreasing. Preoccupied with playing, I did not notice that four of my cards were already cancelled. I thought I was still playing on Silver III, but in reality, I was demoted back to Bronze I for lack of 960 power. This explains the reduction in ranked battle rewards. It’s good that I found it before the season ends. For if not, my fate would be similar to those who spent huge amount of DEC for nothing. The four cancelled cards were Djinn Oshannus, Vera Salacia, Lobstradamus, and Serpentine Mystic. I find it understandable for the owner to cancel Djinn for I rented it for two days with just 15.5 DEC. He wanted to join the price craze during the last day of season, and so I was forced to rent Djinn Oshannus again for 85 DEC. But as for Lobstradamus and Serpentine Mystic, I could not understand the cancellation for the price increase was so minimal, from 7.7 to 9.8 DEC and from 0.97 to 1.72 DEC respectively. And so, I rented two more gold level 3 nightmare cards even without utility in the game just to make sure I would not fall back to Bronze I in case somebody would cancel the rental again.

Cards that Have Been Cancelled

I accept the reality of monetary incentives that explains the decision of card owners. However, renters especially new players need at least a measure of stability in rental contract. Rental cancellation to me is a waste of time and resources. It misallocates fund that should have been used for better purposes due to artificial price increase on the last day of the season. One way to avoid such waste is by adding time duration to rental contract such as daily or weekly. In this case, both owners and renters could choose the number of days particular cards will be rented. This to me is the kind of transaction that is emulated from real life doing face to face transactions. Renters would not be placed at the disadvantage side of the agreement just what is actually happening now. I think the development team also wants this ideal scenario of “fair deal.”

Moreover, visiting PeakMonster, I wonder why only “active” and “ended” contracts are recorded. Cancellation is not. Yes, successful transaction is being recorded on My Explorer and rental refund on Balance History, but not on Rental History. This seems that no transaction has ever existed. Better to record it so that renters would be able to distinguish between reliable and unreliable owners. Though I sympathize with the “small guys” who only own few cards and wanted to maximize their profit, but I think it’s better to rent from those who own many cards though the price is a little bit higher. I found out that those who rent their cards at bargain price would soon cancel the rental once they see the price soaring on the last day on the season, which I did not experience among the “big guys” who own many cards.

For a better proposal to fix the system, I find this article very helpful. For the writer, disregarding the 15-day period and simply focusing on a single day to determine EOS rewards is a fundamental mistake. This resulted to unintended consequences that might discourage new players. For him, reduction in the number of active players as a result of such mistake is a big red flag. Furthermore, he argues that with the current system, incentives are misaligned. One of his proposals that I agree is the provision of security in rental contract.

Rental Comparison

Enough with my critical assessment of the rental market. To make a judicious decision, I made a chart to compare three types of prices of cards that I am renting: 2-3 days prior to EOS, last day, and start of the season. The cards and prices marked in red are to be avoided during the last season due to massive price spike. On the other hand, cards that are marked in gold though their DEC value is lower can be considered by renters for they just have minimal price increase. And so, learning from the last season, my strategy for this season would be to rent cards two days prior to the end of the season from those reliable owners. In case, it happened again that some owners would cancel the rental contract, players should go for cheaper cards to meet the required collection power for their desired league.

Ending the Last Season at Silver III

Finally, I completed EOS at Silver III. I had a couple of realizations that hampered my progress in playing on Splinterlands. One, I didn’t realize that my goal to be included among the top 100 players on Bronze I level was working against me. I didn’t know then that I would be facing tougher opponents and the battle would be fiercer as I draw closer to the leaderboard. That’s where I got the impression that battling at Silver league would be more difficult since I struggled to have consistent victories even at bronze I level. The highest rank I reached was 111 and the highest rating was 2,310.

As for EOS rewards, these are what I received with their corresponding DEC and USD value:

• Pelacor Bandit – 5 - $0.17
• Potions – 180 - $2.69
• Rare Gold Venari Crystalsmith – 500 - $30.00
• Rare Naga Assassin – 20 - $0.82
• 45 DEC - $0.67
• Pelacor Bandit – 5 - $0.17
• Pelacor Mercenary – 5 - $0.22
• Gorgoya Lion – 5 - $0.16

And so, the DEC quantity added to my power the last season was 540 resulting to a total of 3,670 collection power. Converting the entire rewards in USD terms, its total value is $34.90. Since the total rental expenses is $8.62, if you subtract it from total rewards, the total gain would be $26.28. And so, for those who are concerned about the risk/rewards ratio, I think playing Splinterlands is still profitable.

Two Interesting Battle Stories

As usual, I want to end this article with interesting battle stories. This time, I will just pick two fights to illustrate the nature of battles in entering the Silver league. My expectation was not all wrong. Ecoinstant’s observation is mostly correct. Combine these two and you will have the complete picture of the type of opponents you will be facing at Silver III.

In the first battle, the USD discrepancy is too great! The other player owns unusual cards: a level 4 Alric Stormbringer (11 level 1 cards) worth $525.00, a level 3 Mermaid Healer (6 cards) worth $300.00, a level 5 Genie (25 cards) worth $60.00, and a level 2 gold Djinn Oshannus worth $580.00. The other player invested too much in this game and it is but reasonable for him to win the battle. I am glad to see first time Mermaid Healer in action, a very powerful card that heals the back-line monster that has taken the most damage. See the result of the battle here.

In the second battle, it is also true that leveling up your card isn’t necessary to win the fight against a higher-level card. The other player has 115,000 collection power. This indicates that in terms of purchasing power, he has the edge. But this does not mean that he could easily defeat lower cards. What matters is the battle strategy. See the different outcome of a fight against a superior card here.

Still not playing Splinterlands? Try it! It's fun!

Here’s my code.