"Splinterlands" Power Strategy Tips #64

As I have now been playing "Splinterlands" for over a year, I've wanted to contribute something of ACTIONABLE value to my fellow players (and FUTURE players) - but NOT just fill my #Hive feed with daily images of quest reward - or battle - SPAM (no offense to those doing so). Ultimately, Hive is about ADDING VALUE to the social experience - that is the magic of #blockchain social media technology. So, after some serious pondering, I decided that a weekly "Splinterlands" 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, psychology, forensics, philosophy, ethics, accounting investing, law, and/or any other area(s) of knowledge I end up exploring (voluntarily or involuntarily) as this series naturally progresses, then I will have done my "good deed" (of providing value) for the week - and have a little extra Hive to buy some more Splinterlands cards/packs. Also, feel free to hit me up on the battlefield.

@transcript-junky

1 ) I hit 2 x "Scarred Llama Mage" (non-gold - Level 1 - $9.50 USD (x2 = $19.00 USD) ** value immediately at the time of the airdrop) on Sunday, Nov 1st. As of writing this sentence they are selling on the market for $6.00 USD each. If I had gotten any GOLD versions of this might I might have burned the DEC (assumedly 50,000 DEC) to buy another batch of 20 (+1 free) Dice packs, but this time I only hit the non-gold version. However, there are TWO reasons I have decided to keep the two cards: ( 1 ) I seem to have an affinity towards these "animal"-themed cards (two of my favorite Splinterlands cards being the "Furious Chicken" and the "Battering Ram" (both of which I have maxed out in gold version). Maybe its because I'm an animal-lover, but also because these more "simple" cards are for some reason especially useful and powerful. As I have said many times, for me this game is about ENJOYMENT and ACTUALLY USING the cards to both develop my skill, and earn daily DEC so I can buy/upgrade more cards. So, since I only need ONE more "LLama" card to bump up to Level 2 ( and NINE (9) more to max this legendary summoner out), AND because the price of each card is MANAGEABLE (in the sense that I could convert any higher-value cards I get in future airdrops, and/or reward dumps, to buy more - I will hold on to these and try to experiment with and upgrade this. I can experiment with the card IDEALLY in lower-level tournament battles, where I won't risk loss of DEC (and capture rate) and the current lower level (Level 1) of this card can make it viable in lower-level battles.

2 ) Following my first buy of swap.btc with Hive last week, which I explained in the previous update (please refer to that), I have INDEED followed through with the goal of monitoring and calculating ALL Hive income for this week (and each week going forward), to start deciding on a feasible amount of swap.btc I can buy weekly. As of publishing this update the amounts of Hive income are roughly as follows:

payout from previous series post - https://hive.blog/splinterlands/@transcript-junky/splinterlands-power-strategy-tips-61
12.615 HP
converted 2,854 SPT (from previous post) to 3.6 Hive - subtotal = 16.215 Hive

payout from second previous series of this post : https://hive.blog/splinterlands/@transcript-junky/splinterlands-power-strategy-tips-62

12.340 HP + 1.431 HBD (converted to : 11.21 Hive
total Hive = 26.267 (deposited to Hive-engine)

Total - 31.459 in Hive-engine

I have a 20 Hive (2nd of 13 power-downs) payment coming tonight (after I make this post) which I plan to use in place of the ~ 12 HBD from each of this weeks two series posts. I will use the 31,459 + 20 Hive (to replace the 12 + 12 HP) = 51.459 Hive. The should bring me significantly closer to the $5.00 USD of swap.btc goal. In the next update I will post the actual transaction screenshots.

One thing I hadn't considered is the nice bonus SPT income from each post. You can see that for the above (first) post that worked out to be 3.6 Hive. So, if we just extrapolate the above 16.215 Hive x 2 (the new two weekly series posts in this series) that works out to 32.43 Hive. And since last week's 20.193 Hive bought me $2.43 USD worth of swap.btc I think we can safely estimate that this coming week's buy using 32.43 Hive (plus the 20 Hive (2nd of 13) power-down) could buy AT LEAST $4.00 USD of swap.btc, which would surely be closer to the goal of $5.00 USD of swap.btc per week. But this also doesn't account for the Hive income on my two other weekly series posts ( the " blockchain gaming news" and " blockchain social media news" posts). I may just be able to get it up to the goal of $5.00 USD of swap.btc per week once I account for all of the income from these posts later in the week. Although $4.00 USD of swap.btc would be okay to settle on also.

3 ) Since I purchased the previous 20 (+1 free) Dice batch of packs last season, which will last me another 3-4 seasons (by opening one pack each time I reach a season level milestone) I have decided to try NOT to actively spend more DEC on Dice packs. However, what I HAVE decided to do is, if I get any high-value cards in any Untamed packs I get in rewards dumps I may burn those to DEC and purchase additional Dice packs. For instance, if I it a gold legendary card in a free Untamed pack I may burn that card for 50,000 DEC and buy a new 20 (+10 free) Dice batch for 57,000 DEC.

Actual cards from Untamed pack in the daily quest rewards (above). If there were any high-value cards in this pack I could burn them to buy more Dice packs:

4 ) With the land pre-sale a little over three days away there have been all sorts of changes to the process of purchasing land, to try to make things fair (ex. prevent a few whales from buying up all of the plots immediately after the pre-sale launches. I have made an attempt to get more info on how I may MAXIMIZE securing my desired "one tract" of land when the pre-sale launches, but as I have said in the past, I don't like all of the games going on with those Homos (sapiens) in the Discord channel, and all of this lottery stuff, so I have decided to simply follow through with waiting for the countdown clock to run out and placing my order for 1 x land tract (100 plots) = 850,000 DEC. If SL admin makes it possible for people like me to pre-order tracts I will pay immediately, but that doesn't appear to be an available option at this point. Fingers crossed.

5 ) Okay. As I did in the last post in this series, the highly-detailed "diary" of my daily #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...

October 26th, 2020

Starting DEC : 1,176,667 DEC
Starting Capture Rate : ~ 82.05%
Ending DEC - 1,177,786 DEC
Ending Capture rate : ~ 57.96%
Balance = DEC Earning = 1,119 DEC = -> 7.597 HIVE x ~ $00.137 USD/Hive = ~ $1.04 USD

Spent:

1 x "Goblin Dartling" (Gold - Level 3 - $1.00 USD - 1,028 DEC --

Daily Quest (today's "earth" quest)
keepers -
(+) 270 DEC
nonkeepers -
(+) 75 DEC
potions - 4 legendary potions, 5 alchemy/gold potions
Untamed - 0 packs
DEC - 37 DEC

Dice ("Champion III" season milestone pack ( + 80 season loot chests )
keepers -
(+) 70 DEC
non-keepers -
(+) 10 DEC (total DEC = 80 DEC)

October 27th, 2020

Starting DEC : 1,176,758 DEC
Starting Capture Rate : ~ 58.14%
Ending DEC - 1,177,489 DEC
Ending Capture rate : ~ 70.00%
Balance = DEC Earning = 731 DEC = -> 5.192 HIVE x ~ $00.132 USD/Hive = ~ $0.68 USD

Spent:

1 x "Goblin Dartling" (Gold - Level 3 - $0.99 USD - 1,039 DEC -- three (3) cards remaining to Level 10 (max))

Daily Quest (today's "earth" quest)
keepers -
(+) 00 DEC
nonkeepers -
(+) 65 DEC
potions - 6 legendary potions, 3 alchemy/gold potions
Untamed - 0 packs
DEC - 301 DEC

October 28th, 2020

Starting DEC : 1,176,450 DEC
Starting Capture Rate : ~ 80.30%
Ending DEC - 1,177,525 DEC
Ending Capture rate : ~ 70.41%
Balance = DEC Earning = 1,075 DEC = -> 7.684 HIVE x ~ $00.133 USD/Hive = ~ $1.02 USD

1,075 DEC + 301 DEC = 1,376 DEC

Spent:

2 x "Phantasm" (Gold - Level 3 - $1.33 USD - 1,398 DEC -- one (1) card remaining to Level 6)

Daily Quest (today's "neutral" quest)
keepers -
(+) 80 DEC
nonkeepers -
(+) 55 DEC
potions - 3 legendary potions, 2 alchemy/gold potions
Untamed - 0 packs
DEC - 204 DEC

Dice ("Champion II" season milestone pack ( + 120 season loot chests )
keepers -
(+) 50 DEC
non-keepers -
(+) 60 DEC (total DEC = 110 DEC)

converted 2.157 HIve (post payout) to 301 DEC)

October 29th, 2020

Starting DEC : 1,176,958 DEC
Starting Capture Rate : ~ 80.01%
Ending DEC - 1,179,481 DEC
Ending Capture rate : ~ 66.19%
Balance = DEC Earning = 2,523 DEC = -> 18.885 HIVE x ~ $00.125 USD/Hive = ~ $2.36 USD

Spent:

1 X "Phantasm" (Gold - Level 3 - $0.65 USD - 742 DEC -- bumped up to Level 6 (to increase "health" from "+7" to "+8")

12 x "Kelp Initiate" (non-gold - Level 1 - $0.84 USD - 954 DEC -- bumped up to Level 5 (to increase "health" from "+6" to "+7")

1 x "Owster Rotwell" (non-gold - Level 1 - $0.63 USD - 721 DEC -- six (6) cards remaining to Level 7)

Daily Quest (today's "dragon" quest)
keepers -
(+) 250 DEC
nonkeepers -
(+) 255 DEC
potions - 4 legendary potions, 6 alchemy/gold potions
Untamed - 0 packs
DEC - 1,115 DEC

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 Splinterlands 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