"Steem Monsters" + "Drug Wars" -- Power Strategy Tips #38

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As I have now been playing Steem Monsters and Drug Wars for several months, I've wanted to contribute something of ACTIONABLE value to my fellow players (and FUTURE players) - but NOT just fill my Steemit feed with daily images of quest reward - or battle - SPAM, (no offense to those doing so). Ultimately, Steemit is about ADDING VALUE to the social experience - that is the magic of blockchain technology. So, after some serious pondering, I decided that a weekly "Steem Monsters + Drugs Wars player strategy diary" type series, with CONCISE and ACTIONABLE tips, would be of most value to my audience. Please let me know your thoughts (good and/or bad), and I hope that readers (now and into the future) will benefit from this series. If you gain a better understanding of blockchain, gaming, "blockchain gaming", marketing, and/or any other area of knowledge I end up exploring as this series naturally progresses, then I will have done my "good deed" (of providing value) for the week. Also, feel free to hit me up on the battlefield...

@transcript-junky

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1 ) Some very good news this week is that it seems that purchasing those extra 500 (+75) Untamed packs during the pre-sale has INDEED started to pay off, as, for the first drop (out of the first three) which now has ALL 798 of the cumulative packs I have bought since the pre-sale started (the first drops only applied around 220 pre-sale packs, and produced ZERO airdropped cards), in this most recent airdrop of the THIRD pre-sale "Drake Of Arnak" card I got a whopping 33 regulars and 1 gold (so 34 cards)! The total value of these airdropped cards (based on maret price immediately after the airdrop) is:

1 x "Drake Of Arnak" - (Gold - Level 2 - $4.50 USD - 2,000 DEC)

(33 Individual Cards: non-gold - Level 1 - $0.40 USD - 60 DEC)
(Combined Cards: non-gold - Level 4 - $19.80 USD - 1,320 DEC)

Total - $24.30 USD - 3,320 DEC)

So this total amount (in USD) can be SUBTRACTED from the combined cost of the of the packs, and added to any ADDITIONAL airdropped cards I may get in the remaining 11 drops! Even if we extrapolate from the value of THIS airdrop, and multiply $24.30 USD x 11 (additional airdrops) this would work out to a hypothetical value of $267.30 USD to offset the ultimate cost of ~ $1,400 USD for all of the pre-sale Untamed packs I've actually purchased with Bitcoin. That would essentially work out to a TOTALLY FREE 100 (+10) promo batch of Untamed cards (or 550 individual Untamed cards) just from the value of the airdrops - any of such 550 cards which may be "super cards"! That's actually a very good deal, and proof that my decision to spend the $1,400 USD on all of the pre-sale packs was a sound one.

What I am also now doing is using the equivalent of the $24.30 airdopped card value to buy one of my most needed gold cards per day for the next few weeks (24 days x ~ $1.00 USD gold card per day). In this way, I am able to more immediately convert some of the profit/value of the airdropped cards into gold cards which will continue to boost my DEC earnings per each ranked battle I win. In this way, that value becomes significantly amplified in the long-term. I will keep a running log of the cumulative value of all airdrops going forward, so that we can see just how wise of a decision it was to go "all in" with the 798 pre-sale packs. It's looking good so far.

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2 ) I ended up following through with the plan I laid out in the previous update, of starting to use a monthly amount of fiat (via PayPal) to buy potions. I explained my reasoning in the last post, but just to reiterate, I decided it would be good to use some fiat to ( 1 ) get some regular fiat into the crypto sphere, and ( 2 ) use that fiat for something with longer "staying power" than simply purchases cards and/or packs. So I decided that if I make a monthly in-game fiat purchase then potions would last for AT LEAST one month. I decided to start with a relatively low amount, and so decided to purchase one "brilliant legendary" 500 (+50 free) charges promo batch for $19.20 USD (19,200 DEC) as well as one "brilliant alchemy (gold)" 500 (+50) charges promo batch for $24.00 USD (24,000 DEC). The best part is that the value of the 50 free charges for each of these promo batches combined works out to :

$1.92 - 1,920
$2.40 - 2,400


$4.32 USD - 4,320 DEC

and then the cost of a 10 (+1 free) "+5 quest reward cards" promo batch is $7.20 USD (72,000 DEC). So, subtracting the 4,320 DEC from the 7,200 = 2,880. I used 2,880 DEC that I had on hand (in liquid DEC) to fill the extra cost of a 10 (+1 free) "+5 quest reward cards" promo batch, and purchased that immediately after buying the brilliant potions.

I will be analyzing the ROI on this first month's outlay of $43.50 USD for these potions (including the value of the cards I get PLUS the length of time these potions last) so I can get a sense of how valuable it is to use fiat for these purchases (as opposed to tapping into my Bitcoin reserves (which I prefer NOT to touch right now). In addition, if this works well, I may do a purchase of a 100 (+15 charges) promo batch of "+5 quest reward cards" NEXT month. Although the cost of $72.00 USD (72,000 DEC) is a bit steep for my budget, I am now starting to look at my Splinterlands daily gaming activity as essentially a "part-time" job, and so I can justify the monthly expense (in fiat) as a "business investment" cost - especially since these potions increase my chance of hitting some "super cards". My decision to treat this gaming activity as a part-time job has arisen out of my research, and is reinforced specifically by this recently-published interesting article:

Why Play-to-Earn will replace Free-to-Play as business model
https://www.nederob.nl/2020/01/01/why-play-to-earn-will-replace-free-to-play-as-a-leading-business-model/

I am also analyzing the monthly fiat expenditure to see how much of a hedge it provides against fiat inflation. For instance, if I land some gold cards as a result of these potions purchased with fiat then those gold cards produce a "dividend" (in the form of 10% DEC bonus per won ranked battle, per card). This "dividend", in combination with an expected general appreciation in the value of the cards themselves, will I believe GREATLY offset the current inflation of fiat, and make the conversion of fiat into crypto (in this case, in the form of Splinterlands cards) a VALID and STRATEGIC hedge against inflation - if my theory is correct. I can also cover the expense with the fiat income I have coming in monthly from my transcription work, which is paid to me directly through PayPal, and so I can easily transfer the necessary amount via Paypal each month when I get paid for my transcription work. I mean, even if I am earning $2.00 USD per day from my daily Splinterlands activity that is still $60.00 USD per month (food money) where I live (Vietnam). So, from both the logistical and business standpoints, it works, and is worth taking this seriously.

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3 ) Now that I have loaded up on potions, for AT LEAST the rest of this month, it will be easier to calculate my daily earnings on Splinterlands. I will start recording my DEC balance immediately upon starting to play battles each day (recorded next to the date in the daily activity log (the last section of this post), and then I will make my daily purchases of cards (new cards, and/or upgrades to existing cards) before bedtime, and then record the final DEC balance of the day (next to the beginning balance in the log), which I am HOPING will make the process of evaluating my daily income (in DEC) much easier. I was able to catch the data for two "play days" (using this new strategy) before publishing this post. One the first day I had run my capture rate down very low,
and so I realized that I needed to account for (and document) the capture rate (along with the day's starting and ending DEC balance) in order to get the most accurate estimate of my daily DEC earnings. Once I record the "ending" DEC balance at the end of the day I am then able to enjoy going on a little "shopping spree" for cards, in the amount of the DEC I have earned that specific day. I think that this is the most organized, and motivating, way to do it.

The actual data for the two days I implemented this new strategy this week is as follows:

January 5th, 2020

Starting DEC: 6,198 (started at a low capture rate of ~ 60% and intentionally ran it down as far as possible ( ~ 40%). I ended up down to 39% capture rate at 12 midnight, with 7090 total DEC. So 7090 (ending DEC) - 6198 (starting DEC) = 892 DEC ( ~ $0.68 USD). With the 892 DEC daily earning I bought "Goblin Thief" (Gold - Level 3 - 988 DEC), which was SLIGHTLY over the 892 DEC, but close enough.

January 6th, 2020

6,101 DEC (starting DEC, with a low capture rate of ~ 52.5% to start the day).

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4 ) In the previous post in this series I mentioned that my task for the week would be to figure out how to get 1.0 EOS from my Coinbase wallet into the Prospectors game, by converting the EOS to PGL (the in-game token of Prospectors) and then into gold to perform various activities in "Prospectors" (ex. buy tools, rent a plot, etc.) It turns out that this is SIGNIFICANTLY more complicated than I original assumed, and so I believe it will take me a FEW WEEKS to due the necessary research to understand this process, and follow through to make it happen. It appears you need to use an intermediary EOS wallet (of which I am working on figuring out one of them, called Scatter) to sent your EOS to, and then use Scatter to interface with the Prospectors token (via the NewDex.io exchange). In addition to the funding issue, I found progress to continue to be slow in "Prospectors", and so there is no super rush to get funds in there as I work on building momentum. I will take the rest of the month to try to sort out the Scatter funding issue. In the meantime, I am spending most of my effort, in Prospectors, doing "transport" jobs, which earn a steady stream of gold, and require little effort to do. For now, I think that is enoughto keep things rolling in that game.

The good news is that I figured out ANOTHER way to reallocate the Steem earned from these posts into ANOTHER crypto token. This decision came about by my research this week, in which discovered this article which states that Tron has now acquired Live:

Tron Acquires DLive Blockchain Streaming Platform
https://cryptobriefing.com/tron-acquires-dlive-blockchain-streaming-platform/

I believe this is very good news, which indicates increasingly strong fundamentals for Tron, and since Tron is ALREADY integrated within #Splinterlands , AND since 1 Steem buys you roughly 10 Tron (which is good leveraging (in terms of QUANTITY at least), I went ahead and created a TronLink wallet, hooked it up to my Splinterlands account, and made my first withdrawal of 13 Steem (2,100 DEC) - from the previous post Steem payout - and then 12 Steem, from the payout of the previous post, (a few hours before publishing this new post) to my new TronLink wallet. The transfer from Splinterlands was in the form of "DEC", so this week I need to figure out how to convert/trade "DEC" for actual "Tron". That is the task goal for this week. I believe Tron has long-term potential, and the likelihood is that if Tron continues to engage in these major mergers and acquisitions, I think there is a good chance going forward that there will be some JUICY airdrops based on one's Tron holding.s For example, with this DLive acquisition, there is a likelihood of some sort of airdrop of Dlive (or Bittorrent) coin based on current holdings of Tron. If this happens then I could cash out on those airdrops (or part of them) and use that free crypto to buy more Splinterlands cards.

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5 ) Some very BAD - but enlightening - news this week is that, after successfully depositing 0.03 Bitcoin, last week, into the BitcoinVideoCasino.com web site and withdrawing 0.04 BTC after winning 0.01 BTC (and then using the 0.01 BTC to buy a 20 (+1) ***Orbs""" promo card batch (explained two posts ago in this series) I decided that that went so well that I would just try it again --- BAD MOVE! The hell that unfolded this past week when I deposited ANOTHER 0.03 Bitcoin to this casino, with the intention of repeating the 0.03 BTC = 0.04 BTC win, and then buying another 20 (+1) Orbs promo packs, was a sheer TRAGEDY, albeit an educational one. It's hard for me to even BELIEVE what happened, but to keep it short here, I made the usual deposit of 0.03 BTC (via Coinbase) while I was playing with their free "test" credits. The problem is that they set it up in a manipulative way so that there is no distinction between the "test/free" credit play, and the "real BTC" play. In other words, once the real BTC hits your account your "test" play suddenly becomes "real" play. There is no sort of proper system whereby you are allowed to give PROPER PERMISSION to accept that you are transitioning from playing "test" credits to "real" ones. The worst part is that customer support was so terrible that it became clear to me that their main goal is to simply get you to complete the "send" of Bitcoin, and then once they have the BTC in their account there couldn't care less about you. Here is the screenshot of my "20 previous hand" betting history, which clearly shows the CLEAR difference in the amount of "real Bitcoin" I was better per hand ( ~ 0.0002 - 0.0008 ) when I played the previous deposit of 0.03 BTC, versus the 0.03 BTC (in ONE HAND!) that was played when my 0.03 BTC deposit cleared (without proper notification) on December 28th, 2019.

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I started a post on BitcoinTalk to complain about the situation:

I allege that https://bitcoinvideocasino.com/blackjack stole 0.03 BTC from me
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5213322.0

Another interesting thing is that, after I started posting the evidence of my incident, the admin/programmers of the casino site ADDED (for the first time EVER) record entries of the "test credit" play to the "20-hand history" record:

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From this (above) screenshot you can CLEARLY see the difference in the amount of the bets between playing with the "test credits" versus "real" credits. This is additional proof that I was DUPED as a result of the casino not providing a proper control mechanism to ADEQUATELY inform the play when they are making the transition from "test" to "real" credits - both modes which should ultimately be run on DIFFERENT PAGES of the site itself to void the chance of this happening. But my guess is that they DON'T WANT to avoid this from happening - which is the whole point.

While many BitcoinTalk forum members agreed that what happened to me was unfair, the offending site ITSELF appears unwilling to want to make any effort to remedy the situation. So I have now begun the process of spreading the evidence of this incident (and the offending business ( @BItcoinVideoCasino (Twitter)) on social media, as well as filing a few proper complaints with organizations whose mission is to protect consumers from having this sort of experience. The thing is that I ended up losing 0.03 BTC (plus ANOTHER 0.03 BTC - which I used to "chase" the first 0.03 BTC). That amounts to 0.06 BTC, which is NOT a small amount, and COULD have been used to buy MANY Splinterlands Orbs and/or Untamed packs, instead of being sucked into the VOID. So I am going to CONTINUE to pursue action against this company. In the future, however, I will no longer be using crypto for any sort of gambling. It's just too risky to send the funds to these companies, and gambling itself, of course, is holds MUCH HIGHER risk of losing your play money than free-to-play games like Splinterlands. I got sucked in this final time because I won the 0.01 BTC the previous time I played at this casino, and was trying to duplicate that (in an honest manner) so I could buy another 20 (+10 Orbs promo batch. Instead, I ended up losing 0.06 BTC which I never intended to happen. If nothing comes out of my effort to get back AT LEAST my 0.03 BTC then I will consider this YET ANOTHER painful learning experience, and use this incident as a way to COMPARE how much less risky, and more profitable in the long-term, it is to use one's crypto for "free-to-play" games, as opposed to "pay-for-pay"games, such as online casinos. Live and learn.

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6 ) On the "Drug Wars" and "Prospectors" front, I have continued making the daily resources contribution to the #DrugWars gang, and looking out for any news about the game, but just did the bare minimum in that game this week in order to focus more on building momentum on "Prospectors". DrugWars DID launch a significant update this week, and I saw one of the gang members doing some big "gang jobs" which generated a noticable payout of resources, so I may spend some more time this week getting up to speed on these new changes. As I have said, my interest in #DrugWars has gradually fizzled out over the past month, although I HOPE that they can turn that around so I can become more active again. In fact, since I had not been paying much attention to my DrugWars account some players attacked my primary based, and over a few days, wiped out my entire army and resources above those which were protected in my safe. So this showed me that if I cant maintain interest in DrugWars then I should either just focus on cashing out my current daily DWD token generated by my current level of resource production, or perhaps stop playing altogether. I will continue giving DrugWars admin another month or two of time to regain my attention, and then evaluate the situation and decide what to do.

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In line with my new goal of buying 1.0 EOS with the combined payouts of the previous post in this series plus THIS post, I HAVE made some headway with research how to get the EOS from Coinbase into "Prospectors". At this point it seems that I have to set up an "intermediary" wallet - of which I am focusing on the highly recommended Scatter desktop wallet, which integrates with the many EOS dApps, and so it seems that you send EOS to this wallet, and then the Scatter wallet interfaces with the NewDex.io exchange to them enable you to trade EOS for PGL (the in-game token of "Prospectors"), which you then convert from PGL -> gold to use for various in-game activities (ex. buying tools on the market, renting plots, etc.) It will probably take a few weeks of watching videos to really figure out how to complete this whole process, and luckily I am in no rush - especially since my actual progress in the Prospectors game is slow , and so I am not yet clear of the long-term potential of investing my time/energy in that game. It also now seems that in order to open the Scatter wallet it will cost ~ 0.75 EOS (one-time fee), and so I will need to come up with this amount (equivalent in Steem) to make the whole transaction happen so that I end up with 1.0 EOS worth of PGL at the end of the transaction. One nice thing that I see so far with Scatter is that once you get some EOS into the wallet you can then interface with NUMEROUS other interesting dApps (just like you can interact with the various Tron dApps via the TronLink wallet) - ONE of which is "Prospectors" - and so learning how to do this, and following through with the task, will enable me to FURTHER diversity my crypto into various other gaming dApps, so I think it is worth going through this process for the sake of the larger picture. Perhaps I can ultimately make back the 0.06 BTC that was SCAMMED from me this past week at BitcoinVideoCasino.com, and so that might have simply been a ROUGH bump in the road to long term success - although I sure wish, now, that I had just taken that 0.06 BTC and bought one or two 100 (+10) Orbs and/or Untamed promo batches. It would have had much more long-term value than just flushing that crypto down the virtual toilet. Live and learn.

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5 ) Okay. As I did in the previous posts in this series, the highly-detailed "diary" of my daily #steemmonsters / #splinterlands activity is laid out in the last part of this post, for those of you who are inclined to follow, more closely, what I am doing. It occurred to me that this "diary" section is JUST THAT - a highly detailed record of my daily activity in the game, with some JUICY "play-by-play" analysis notes, and commentary, on what works, what doesn't, and some suggestions for further tweaking and experimentation. So, with this in mind, I hope some/any of you will enjoy this information. If not, you are under no pressure to read it fully, and are free to SKIM, or even IGNORE, any parts, or ALL parts, completely - at your discretion. I lay this out because it also HELPS ME to document my progress in the game over time, and may help some people NOW, and into the perpetual future...

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December 30th, 2019

Untamed (Pack #1 : morning pack)
keepers - 110 DEC

Daily Quest Reward Cards
keepers - "Goblin Mech" (Gold - Level 4 - $0.68 USD - 750 DEC) + 15 DEC
nonkeepers - 195 DEC

Untamed (Pack #2 : evening pack)
keepers - 80 DEC

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December 31st, 2019

Season Reward Cards (full potion power applied)

keepers - "Zalran Efreet" (non-gold (legendary) - Level 1 - $2.05 USD - 1,500 DEC), "Gelatinous Cube" (Gold - Level 4 - $1.80 USD - 750 DEC), "Black Dragon" (non-gold (legendary) - Level 1 - $1.84 USD - 1,500 DEC), "Fallen Specter" (non-gold (legendary) - Level 1 - $1.30 USD - 1,500 DEC) + 585 DEC

nonkeepers - 240 DEC

Pre-Sale (Untamed card airdrop)
1 x "Drake Of Arnak" - (Gold - Level 2 - $4.50 USD - 2,000 DEC)
33 x "Drake Of Arnak" -
(Individual Cards: non-gold - Level 1 - $0.40 USD - 60 DEC)
(Combined Cards: non-gold - Level 4 - $19.80 USD - 1,320 DEC)

Untamed (Pack #1 : morning pack)
keepers - 80 DEC

Untamed (Pack #1 : Celebration pack for 1st battle of season - 22 reward cards - "Gold III")
keepers - 80 DEC

Untamed (Pack #2 : evening pack)
keepers - "Dragon Jumper" (non-gold (legendary) - Level 1 - $7.33 USD - 1,000 DEC) + 260 DEC

Daily Rewards Cards
keepers - 120 DEC
nonkeepers - 90 DEC

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January 1st, 2020 [HAPPY NEW YEAR!]

Untamed (Pack #1 : morning pack)
keepers - "Tortisian Chief" (non-gold (rare) - Level 1 - $1.43 USD - 200 DEC), "Coral Wraith" (non-gold (rare) - Level 1 - $1.09 USD - 200 DEC), + 30 DEC
Total = 430 DEC

Daily Quest Rewards
keepers - "Exploding Dwarf" (Gold - Level 4 - $0.64 USD - 750 DEC), "Naga Windmaster" (Gold - Level 3 - $2.50 USD - 3,000 DEC) + 195 DEC
nonkeepers - 75 DEC

Untamed (Pack #2 : evening pack)
keepers - "Goblin Thief" (Gold - Level 3 - $0.69 USD - 500 DEC) 10 40 10

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January 2nd, 2020

Untamed (Pack #1 : Celebration pack for reaching "Gold II" level - 26 season reward cards (4 additional cards for season))
keepers - 110 DEC

Daily Quest Reward Cards
keepers - 120 DEC
nonkeepers - 105 DEC

Untamed (Pack #2 : morning pack)
keepers - 80 DEC

Won tournament (20th Place - Prize = 1,000 DEC)

Untamed (Pack #2 : evening pack)
keepers - "Diamond Dragon" (non-old (legendary) - Level 1 - $5.24 USD - 1,000 DEC) + 130 DEC
Total = 1,130 DEC

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January 3rd, 2020

Untamed (Pack #1 : morning pack)
keepers - 80 DEC

Daily Quest Rewards
keepers - 180 DEC
nonkeepers - 45 DEC

Untamed (Pack #2 : evening pack)
keepers - 80 DEC

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January 4th, 2020

Untamed (Pack #1 : morning pack)
keepers - 240DEC

Untamed (Pack #2 : Celebration pack for reaching "Gold I" level - 30 season reward cards (4 additional cards for season))

keepers - "Diamond Dragon" (non-gold (legendary) - Level 1 - $5.23 USD - 1,000 DEC), "Elven Defender" (Gold - Level 3 - $0.54 USD - 500 DEC) + 60 DEC
Total = 1,560 DEC

Daily Quest Reward Cards
keepers - "Goblin Mech" (Gold - Level 4 - $0.64 USD - 750 DEC (bumped up to Level 7)) + 120 DEC
nonkeepers - 195 DEC

Untamed (Pack #3 : evening pack)
keepers - 80 DEC

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January 5th, 2020 -

Starting DEC: 6,198 (started at a low capture rate of ~ 60% and intentionally ran it down as far as possible ( ~ 40%). I ended up down to 39% capture rate at 12 midnight, with 7090 total DEC. So 7090 (ending DEC) - 6198 (starting DEC) = 892 DEC ( ~ $0.68 USD). With the 892 DEC daily earning I bought "Goblin Thief" (Gold - Level 3 - 988 DEC), which was SLIGHTLY over the 892 DEC, but close enough.

Untamed (Pack #1 : morning pack)
keepers - "Shieldbearer" (Gold - Level 2 - $1.80 USD - 1,000 DEC) + 70 DEC
Total - 1,070 DEC

Untamed (Pack #2 : evening pack)
keepers - "Herbalist" (Gold - Level 3 - $0.72 USD - 500 DEC) + 70 DEC
Total = 570 DEC

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January 6th, 2020 -

Starter DEC: 6,101 DEC (started at a low capture rate of ~ 52.5%)

Untamed (Pack #1 : morning pack)
keepers - 170 DEC

Untamed (Pack #2 : evening pack)
keepers - 80 DEC

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Whew! These posts are growing dense - but that's okay. Take what resonates with you,and leave the rest. I hope you find some/any of these tips useful in increasing your understanding and/or skill level in the SteemMonsters (Splinterlands) and/or Drug Wars, and/or "Prospectors, and/or any other game(s) - and the " blockchain gaming " industry as whole - which I end up exploring as this series evolves. More JUICY tips to come with each weekly update, as I dig deeper into this whole REVOLUTIONARY PHENOMENON, and become more experienced and successful in the game(s).

See you on the battlefield...

@transcript-junky

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