Hello there.
Bitcoin has been increasing for the past few weeks, and along with it are some alt coins. For Splinterlands tokens, DEC has been stable at 0.0009+ and is close to peg. SPS has increased as well, from 0.013 to 0.018 at the time I am writing this. Some might say it could be the start of the bull run. During the last bull run, Splinterlands had a large number of players join, with me being one of them. If the bull run is indeed upon us, what better way to get ready for it, than by creating a guide for new players.
The Splinterlands team set this week's Social Media Challenge to this very topic. A lot of my early posts in Peakd were about this; from creating an account, what to rent, how to join tournaments, etc. I'm sure a lot of people are going to share their own thoughts and experiences on this as well. But as for this post, I'll try to give a big overview of what a new player needs to know.
If I were to describe Splinterlands to a person who hasn't heard of it, the simplest would be: It is a card autobattler, where you can also collect and trade the cards. If I were to compare the gameplay to a current game, the closest I can think of is Hearthstone Battlegrounds. Before a battle, you position your cards, and when the battle begins, the fight happens automatically with the cards following a set of in-game rules and abilities. The team that has a monster still alive at the end, wins. If that is up your alley, then continue reading.
First, you can access the game by going to the Splinterlands website. You can try it out first without having to purchase anything. It was actually my first post here in Peakd. If you liked the game and purchased the spellbook, the first thing I recommend is to join the Splinterlands Discord afterwards. You can talk to a lot of veterans, ask questions, and learn a lot about the game. A lot of people are nice, and some even delegate cards to new players. You can read more about it in my discord post.
When a player purchases a spellbook, it comes with 3000 credits, which is worth 3 USD, but you can only spend it in-game. Before you spend it though, I would recommend playing the game out for a few days, and familiarize yourself with the way things work; how battles work, how abilities work, etc. The biggest reason why I recommend holding off any purchases is because on Dec 5, the Modern Ranked will have its first set rotation. The Untamed and Dice cards will no longer be playable in Modern Ranked, and will be replaced by the Rebellion set. Not only will the playable cards change, but I am expecting the meta to change as well. So those 3000 credits can definitely give you a good start. I posted about what to do with the 3000 credits before, but a lot has changed since then. You can check it out here.
After playing a few games, you might notice that you earn very little FP and SPS. There are two big reasons for this. One, is because you are using shadow/starter cards [Cards with a blue 'S' on the top part of the card]. Second, is because you don't have staked SPS in your account. These two things give a penalty on the rewards earned by players. The game encourages the use of owned/delegated/rented cards, as well as accumulating stake SPS. There are currently discussions on improving the new player experience in discord, which includes staking 100 SPS to new players.
This is the SPS staking chart. The values from 2x-12x are the staked SPS of an account. Try to aim for 8x-12x to get good SPS and FP rewards.
This might be all daunting at first, and that is why my next recommendation is checking out NFTY Arcade. You can get deck delegations in NFTY Arcade, and the only catch is that rewards are split between the card owner, and the player. I started playing before it was started, so I'm not too familiar with it, nor do I have a post for it. It is worth checking out for new players so they can stop using starter cards, and also learn to use other cards. Once you stop using starter cards, you should earn a bit more FP and SPS, and you should be on your way to increasing your staked SPS.
Since you have some experience, and hopefully some NFTY delegated cards, my next recommendation is to join a guild. Guilds offer a lot of perks, from Guild Reward bonus, Gladiator cards, and ability to earn SPS from Brawls. In the SPL discord, there is the Guild-Recruitment channel where people post which guilds are looking for members. I would suggest looking for a beginner friendly guild that has no required contributions, and will let you enter a brawl fray. You can also check out the guilds in the SPL website and join guilds that are Open for membership. Try to look for ones that play in brawls. The guild can help guide new players, maybe delegate some cards and SPS as well. The Gladiator cards you can earn will be very helpful in your battles.
Once you've started increasing your Staked SPS, you can try joining the tournaments. A lot of the tournaments are "free roll" where you get your entrance fee back as a reward. This is because not a lot of players play in tournaments. Tournaments are a good way to earn SPS, and even get some DEC which is very hard to get for new players. Expect the competition to be fierce since a lot of veterans join tournaments, but consider it as additional training grounds, and a place where you can learn efficient teams.
Finally, the game can be difficult for new players if they don't know what they're doing. You might face Soulbound Reward and Gladiator cards, but know that you can earn them, and will eventually help you in the long run. You might face the OP Untamed summoners, but they should rotate out by Dec 5. We'll have a new meta, and we can all learn the best teams together. Hopefully, the tips above can help your start be less rocky, and guide you to a solid foundation that you can use in your journey. If you really like the game, and found grinding can be tedious, you can always put some money in to give you a jumpstart. If we are heading to a bull run, then you are looking at really cheap prices.
I covered most of the gameplay aspects of Splinterlands. But this is only the tip of the iceberg of what you can do in the game. Land will be released soon, there is also a tower defense game in the works. There is also the Collecting and Trading card portion, where you can rent out your cards/SPS, buy and sell assets similar to paper TCG/CCG. We have tokenomics like Liquidity Pools, dual tokens in DEC and SPS, where you can burn SPS for DEC, there is also decentralized governance where your staked SPS is your voice in voting. There are also Hive posts where you can earn [this is my entry for the Social Media Challenge]. There are a lot of things to do, and there are more to come.
That is it for my Beginner Guide in one post. A lot of my older posts were geared towards beginners and new players. You can check them out and don't hesitate to let me know what you think, and if you have suggestions for improvement.
And as always, these are Not Financial Advice, and Do Your Own Research.
If you want to start playing Splinterlands, you can use my link:
Splinterlands Referral Link