Hello Splinterlands Summoners and welcome to another edition of Community Engagement Challenge. A few days ago, the new free to play mode in Splinterlands called Frontier went live. Let's dig in to what's the Frontier mode is all about!
Splinterlands Innovates with Free to Play Mode
The Splinterlands team listened to the community suggestions on how to improve and onboard new players to the game. Previously, a player versus environment mode or PvE was introduced. It was a new mode of play to complete campaign missions while learning the basics of Splinterlands lore and gameplay. It was also a mode of play to earn starter cards called the Foundation set. To expand upon the Campaign Mode, the Frontier Mode is introduced into the game to use only Foundation Set cards in battles.
Welcome to the Frontier
The Frontier Mode is now one of the choices aside from Modern, Wild and Survival Modes of play. Winning five battles rewards the player with a Foundation card with a maximum of three cards daily. Advancing in leagues will also grant reward chests with Foundation cards. Clearly, this mode of play is for new players to start building their decks. Also, having limited the cards to use Foundation sets only, new players will not be overwhelmed by veteran players who own stronger decks.
Battles in Frontier
Battles in the Frontier also spend energy so if you're a veteran player, consider where you want to spend your energy. Would you rather earn Foundation set cards or earn Glints and SPS in other modes of play? That said, let's check out some of my battles.
Battle 1 - Countering the Death Splinter
The Death Splinter is probably the strongest currently. It has its own legendary card, Little Sister and strong epic card, Sorrow Harvester. In this battle, I saw that my opponent used Death in all of his battles. I had to think how to counter this powerful team. I'm familiar with the Death Splinter having played it countless of times myself. It has a strong tank in Nim Guard Captain that complements his powerful backline attackers. So to counter it, I had to hit first and target his backline.
The team I used was Fire. The Fire archon grants a bonus of speed to the team. This ensures that my team wil strike first before the opponent does. I also chose units with Opportunity and Sneak abilities to target the enemy backline. My strategy was to decimate the enemy rear units in the first round before his turn to hit.
My strategy worked as my opponent's team was reduced quickly before they can strike. Little Sister proved to be resilient because she accumulated a lot of health with her Life Leech ability. However, I had four units against her so she wasn't able to put much resistance in the final round.
Battle 2 - Fire vs Death Again
The next battle had the Unprotected and Explosive Weaponry rulesets. My opponent was also favoring the Death Splinter and used it in most of his battles.
In this ruleset, the Nim Guard Captain lost his armor and had lower defense. The Fire tank, Frankasgard has more health and thus, the advantage. I also had the advantage in speed and firepower with my two ranged units dealing two damage each. To take advantage of the Blast ability, I had two units with Opportunity ability who will work together to wreck the enemy rear units.
The battle was easier to win. The opponent lost three units in the first round before he can strike on his turn.
Rewards for Playing the Frontier Mode
I earned the following rewards from playing the Frontier Mode.
Daily Rewards from Winning Battles
I got two extra chests from daily rewards for a total of five. My pull includes a rare card, Savage Butcher!
League Advancement Rewards
Final Thoughts
The Frontier Mode is a fun free to play mode that not only new players will enjoy but the veteran players as well. It features a level playing field where players will play with the same set of cards. Making the cards stronger will depend on the player's dedication to play and earn more cards. This is a great new mode in Splinterlands!