My Learning Journey To Become A Battle Mage

Hello there! @saydie here, playing Splinterlands everyday!

I've been playing Splinterlands since November of 2021, going through more than 26,000 battles fought on my main account alone, so at this point, you can say that I'm already one of those battle-hardened veterans. But just like everyone, I was also once a beginner and had to start somewhere before I became the player that I am today.

That is why for this week's Community Engagement Challenge, I'm taking a step back from the battles to reflect of my #learningjourney as a Splinterlands player and maybe help to educate other players and guide them with their own journey .

My Splinterlands Journey

The way that I learned about Splinterlands is by itself, purely by chance as not only am I unfamiliar to the game, I also barely know anything about cryptocurrency or the blockchain and only after watching some guides on Youtube such as @infidel1258 and @stever82 that I finally decided to purchase a Spellbook to play the game. However, their videos are primarily about tokenomics, card market or the strategies they apply when playing in their respective leagues which is at the highest level, so as a beginner who just started my journey, many of those strategies can't be applied in Bronze League where I am playing at that time.

It was not until I come across the videos made by @luke-wtp that I really begin to understand the game. His video tells exactly what cards I need to rent or own and at what level they need to be for the league that I'm playing. He would even wrote it on a google sheet that every players can access even today.

^{^Source:}

Of course, this videos are all obsolete now given that it was made many years ago and there are already many changes made into the game, including new game formats, new card sets and new game mechanics.

What was the biggest hurdle you faced when learning Splinterlands?

As a Auto-battler card game, I think the biggest hurdle that I faced when learning Splinterlands are card level and the different card abilities. Understanding the card is on itself complex already but if we add the different abilities that they had, it becomes more confusing specially since a card can have multiple abilities.

For example, at level 1, Ruler of the Seas has the Blast ability that inflicts damage to adjacent units to its target but at level 3, it suddenly gets Swiftness that increase the speed of all ally units and Silence that reduces the magic damage of all opponent units. As a beginner, I made a rookie mistake of renting a level 3 Ruler of the Seas when I was still only at bronze league during the time that there is a league cap, meaning, even though I have a level 3 legendary unit, I can only use it at level 1 as I am still playing at bronze league. There was also a time when I rent an under level Archon, making me unable to use the full abilities of the cards that I rent.

Nowadays, it was no longer a problem since league caps was removed but having to register the hundreds of card abilities by a newbie can still takes its toll on a player.

Which feature or mechanic took the longest to fully understand?

I think, the Archon tactics is the aspect of the game that took the longest to understand. Unlike other game mechanics, players need to be more involved in the game by choosing what abilities to grant and on which card you need to grant it so even if you know the logic behind it, applying this mechanics can still be tricky specially when new cards where added into the game.

What advice would you give to your past self—or a brand-new player—starting today?

To a brand new player, my one advice is that before playing any ranked battle, start first with completing the Campaign Mode. Not only it will teach you the basic mechanics of the game, completing it will also gives you cards that you can use in ranked battles as well as some glint to purchase some reward cards. If this feature was already available when I was just starting, I think I will learn playing the game much faster.

After that, you may also want to try the Practice Mode which now also offers ghost cards to play at different levels, so that you can try all the cards first before making a decision of renting or buying them as well as to improve the players skills. This is also something that is not present way back when I'm just starting with the game so it kind of makes me feel jealous the new players that will that can have access to this feature as soon as they start playing the game.

Closing

Compared to the time that I started, I can say that learning how to play Splinterlands today is now easier than before, thanks to the new features that was added to the game such as the Practice and Campaign Mode that, with new additional content in plan, will make understanding the game easier.

Thank you and see you on the next post!

Conclave Arcana Free Assets

This were assets that I edited using Adobe Photoshop and more of this assets were available in this post for anyone who likes to use them.

Tashoshi Drakamoto.png

^{To read previous articles, just click on the image of the article that you want to read.}

All the assets and images that I used here belong to Splinterlands.

If you find the game through my post and register through my Referral Link, just comment in any of my posts and I will provide you with some cards and SPS delegations to help you get started in the game.

All the battle links provided come from my personal accounts.

Thank you for reading my post. If you're interested in playing Splinterlands, you can join by clicking the images below and follow me on Twitter and 3Speak for timely Splinterlands updates.