Objective
Updated April 14, 2023: The original post was from one year ago and a lot changed. With the new Energy system it now makes sense to battle whenever it is convenient, at least every 2 days (as the Energy stops increasing after 2 days at 50).
In this post I hope to make clear some important concepts regarding ranked battles and how they affect ECR. Note that this post is just my opinion, but from the math (see below) I think it is correct. Please let me know if you see any errors.
- DEC - Splinterlands coin which can be earned by winning a ranked battle
- ECR - Energy Capture Rate. This is the percentage of the max possible DEC winnings per battle. Max depends on the cards played, win streaks, league, etc. The ECR will be displayed in a pop-up if you place your cursor over the purple DEC amount at the top of the battle page.
The purpose of ECR is to discourage people (and bots) from non-stop playing to collect DEC and other assets. Every time a battle is played 1% of the current ECR is subtracted from itself so that over time the earnings per game decrease.
- The formula is: ECR - (ECR * 1%)
- For example: 100% - (100% * 1%) is 99%
- Another example: 50% - (50% * 1%) is 49.5%
Note that the ECR does increase to 100% over time independently of any other factors. The current rate of increase is 1.04% per hour, or .01733% per minute.
- For example: if the ECR is at 75% then it will take about 24 hours to reach 100% at 1.04/hour
- Many people who play daily will battle until the ECR decreases to 75% and then wait a day to play again starting at 100%
Bots
Regarding bots they like to constantly run and will theoretically drop the ECR to 0, but that usually doesn't happen because when the ECR gets close to 2% it stabilizes.
Let's do some examples for bots with the following assumptions to make the math easier:
- When a bot wins a ranked battle, it gets 10 DEC
- If it loses, it gets 0 DEC
- Bot won't battle if below configured ECR
- Bot wins each battle (I wish!)
| Configured
ECR | DEC Award
Per Win | Amount ECR
deducted
each battle | New ECR | Minutes to
recharge to
configured
ECR | Battles
Per Day
(1440 min
per day) | DEC Total
Per Day | |-|:-:|:-:|:-:|:-:|:-:|:-:| 100% |10
(100% 10) |1
(1% 100) |99.0
(100 - 1) |57.70
(1 / .0733) |24.96
(1440 / 57.70) |250
(10 24.96) 90% |9
(90% 10) |.9
(1% 90) |89.1
(90 - .9) |51.93
(.9 / .01733) |27.73
(1440 / 51.93) |250
(9 27.73) 80% |8
(80% 10) |.8
(1% 80) |79.2
(80 - .8) |46.16
(.8 / .01733) |31.20
(1440 / 46.16) |250
(8 31.20) 70% |7
(70% 10) |.7
(1% 70) |69.3
(70 - .7) |40.39
(.7 / .01733) |35.65
(1440 / 40.39) |250
(7 35.65) 60% |6
(60% 00) |.6
(1% 60) |59.4
(60 - .6) |34.62
(.6 / .01733) |41.59
(1440 / 34.62) |250
(6 41.59) 50% |5
(50% 10) |.5
(1% 50) |49.5
(50 - .5) |28.85
(.5 / .01733) |49.91
(1440 / 28.85) |250_
(5 49.91) 40% |4
(40% 10) |.4
(1% 40) |39.6
(40 - .4) |23.08
(.4 / .01733) |62.39
(1440 / 23.08) |250
(4 62.39) 30% |3
(30% 10) |.3
(1% 30) |29.7
(30 - .3) |17.31
(.3 / .01733) |83.19__
(1440 / 17.31) |250
(3 83.19) 20% |2
(20% 10) |.2
(1% 20) |19.8
(20 - .2) |11.54
(.2 / .01733) |124.78
(1440 / 11.54) |250
(2 124.78) 10% |1
(10% 10) |.1
(1% 10) |9.9__
(10 - .1) |5.77
(.1 / .01733) |249.57
(1440 / 5.77) |250
(1 _249.57)
2% |.2
(2% 10) |.02_
(1% _2) |1.98
(2 - .02) |1.154
(.02 / .01733) |1247.83
(1440 / 1.154) |250
(.2 * 1247.83)
Conclusion
As the "DEC Total Per Day" column shows, it really doesn't matter how often the bot runs. In fact it's better to not run every minute as it is just extra overhead for Splinterlands. Perhaps a minimum ECR value of 20% is a good compromise as the bot will battle 125 times a day which is easily enough to finish a daily quest without having to target the quest (which can lead to a lost battle).