Splinterlands Guide: Understand the League System
If you are even vaguely familiar with the NFT based game Splinterlands then you would already know that the game is played in different tiers from Novice, Bronze, Silver, Gold, Diamond and finally Champion.
Every new player starts from Novice and then plays his way up the tier levels. As you reach a higher level the rewards you get in terms of SPS reward and soul bound NFTs increases. Higher the level you play in higher is the chance of getting a much coveted gold foil or legendary card.
Game Strategy Should be Customised for each level
Normally in most card NFT based games there is a simple logic that the stronger and better cards you hold the easier it is for you to beat your opponents. It is not so straight forward in the Tier system. This is due to the fact that Splinterlands puts a limit on what level cards can be played in a particular Tier. In Bronze level your maxed out or higher level cards will give no advantage. You will see there will be matches where a player with basic cards will beat you despite you having a portfolio full of legendary monsters.
As a rule of thumb you should play the highest tier you have the supporting levelled up cards for. This will give you optimal rewards for your card collection.
First Thing First- Get out of Novice Level
The first level is Novice and you should level up and get out of here as soon as possible as this level is only designed to get you familiar with the gameplay and you will get absolutely no rewards playing in this level.
The good thing is it does not take much to move up from Novice league. Just a couple of consecutive wins and you will find yourself in Bronze league where you will be earning SPS tokens and soul bound NFTs as rewards.
Move up the Leagues Slowly
From my personal experience of playing Splinterlands for so many years I will advise you to create your collection organically and don’t rush into buying too many cards too soon or levelling up them too fast. I built majority of my cards through game rewards but I do understand that it was much easier to do earlier and now the cards you get are soul-bound so they can’t be traded or sold. You still should not be disheartened if you recently started as it does not take much to get started and you can still build a decent pack by collecting and levelling up soul-bound NFTs as they are pretty decent. Splinterlands also gives you some starter cards for free so you can start playing even if you don’t want to purchase any cards upfront. You can also take your time to see which cards are more useful and give a winning edge to your opponents and you can always rent a card for. Few days to see if it fits in your game strategy before you decide to buy it.
Make Sure to Join an Active Brawl Guild
The biggest edge you get in Splinterlands is by having the Epic and Legendary Gladiator cards. And the catch is that these strong Gladiator cards can not be bought. They can only be purchased through merits which you get by fighting in brawls together with your Guild. If you are part of an active guild where each member fights regularly then you will earn 2,000 to 3,000 Merits in each brawl. A pack of 5 gladiator cards needs 2,000 merits to get. If you are taking part in brawls regularly you can open 2-3 packs every week which means getting 10-15 gladiator cards every week. A good levelled up legendary gladiator is worth much more than a strong card purchased from the market for several hundreds of dollars. This shows that with time Splinterlands is trying to even out the game for new players who do not want to invest too much money while starting out.
The last advise I would like to share is not to get frustrated with losing streaks. You will get a adrenaline rush from a winning streak but sooner or later you will hit a losing streak. It’s important to not lose your calm and keep playing regularly and look at your losses to see how you can improve your gameplay.
All the best!
Cheers,
Sam
