All in-game features related to Midnight potions have been released last Tuesday by Splinterlands. That includes the Aura Labs (and Aura Labs Permits) with aura being its product (a soulbound token). Aura can be crafted into Midnight potions in the Artisan Quarter, the same place from where permits can be obtained for research. Also, combining totem fragments has been moved here as well.
So... we have almost a week of history with them.
I stuck with my plan almost to the letter. I intended to switch my 2 SPS miners to Aura Labs right away and see later if I want to add more aura production or not. I decided not to add more aura production right away. I'm fine having a little excess resources every week and mining a little research too, besides aura. I want to keep my Grain stockpile at 10m, and slowly increase, if possible, the stockpiles of the resources I run on deficit, that is Wood and Iron, while I don't care much about having a stockpile of Stone, since I have an overproduction there, and just in case I have some in the pool anyway.
But let's get back on my plan for Midnight potions.
I switched both SPS miners to Aura Lab right after we went out of maintenance. I didn't have any TC and didn't want to buy any either, so I was going to leave them for the usual 24h delay to switch the worksite.
Where I screwed things up a bit was that I forgot to feed the workers to start production right after the 24h. I mean, I remembered about an hour before the time passed and I said to myself that I didn't need an alarm. Well... looks like I needed one. I wasted about 15 hours or so before I started production the next day.
This is the hourly aura production on one of my plots (the highest of the two). That's almost 1 Midnight potion per hour, which is nice (without counting the other plot which is about half of that)!
Currently, the lowest price Midnight potions are on the market is $0.076, but fluctuated this week between $0.07 and $0.084 (at least these are the price limits I personally observed and don't know of a price chart anywhere for them). There are investors who need lots of them and buy from the market. That means that either they can't produce as many as they need, or they don't produce at all and need them from land owners who have in excess or consider the price is right to sell some.
My needs for Midnight potions are limited for the time being, so I decided to sell mine, which I have done every day, sometimes twice a day.
Taking into account the 25 potions I still have on the NCM, I've made around 10k DEC in over 5 days, so almost 2k DEC daily! 😀 Considering I was making about 750 SPS weekly with my two plots from mining, that would be around 550 SPS in the same period. At a SPS price of of roughly $0.001 this period, and a DEC price of let's say $0.00097, that means my 10k DEC would be worth around 9,700 SPS... compared to 550 SPS. So... yeah! Anyone still mining SPS? I assume if very few are, rewards for those that still do increased significantly. But 17x?
What I haven't checked in my calculations is if the amount of wood, stone, and iron needed to mine SPS are the same as for aura. If it's cheaper to mine SPS from this point of view, then the profit margin of Midnight potions goes down a bit because of the cost differential between the two in terms of the needed resources, but probably aura is the king... for the time being.
Also, it depends on the productivity of the plots. Plots with high boosted productivity are better suited to produce aura (if they benefit of the 100% bonus too). Ok... I convinced myself into switching my epic magic plot from research to aura too. 🤣 Should have done this a few days ago...
Play-to-earn is alive! I earn every day in Splinterlands, but every once in a while, I earn really well! Not to mention I really like their Land game and where it can lead for land owners.