New Player Rewards Guide! Glint & Gladius Cases! (P2P)

Greetings Praetorians!

It is I, the Psi, back with another article in my "Path to Power" (P2P) series designed to help new players navigate the wonderful world of Splinterlands!

In this article we will be discussing some of the Glint strategies my new account (thepsilence) is using to get helpful cards and become more competitive. I'll be covering what I spend my glint on, as well as some of the cards I feel are "must haves" that you should prioritize to maximize impact.

THE REWARDS SHOP

First, how do you GET to the REWARDS SHOP to spend all that juicy GLINT you've accumulated?

You can access it through:

1. The "SHOP" icon in the upper navigation bar, then choosing "REWARDS"
2. From the BATTLE screen in the rewards box by pressing the "SHOP" button

Welcome to "GWEN'S GLINT SHOP"! You'll be a regular customer and get to know Gwen well ;)


Once you're in the shop, you'll see many, MANY options on what you can spend your glint on. It's easy to get overwhelmed as a new player and not know where to start. Fortunately, that where this article comes in!

WHAT TO BUY AS A NEW PLAYER

There are lots of tempting items in the Glint shop... where should you start?

As a new player, I feel there are a few options that will give you the best "bang for your buck". It's important not to waste your early Glint making poor decisions since you'll have a limited supply. As you progress in the game and you start to earn more Glint with each battle, you can afford to try out all the interesting options, but as a new player, I suggest sticking to the following:

MERITS

Merits allow you to buy GLADIUS CASES from your GUILD STORE (you did join a guild already, didn't you?). Gladius cases contain GLADIATOR cards which are extremely powerful, although only useable in guild BRAWLS and the "Are you not Entertained?" ruleset.

I would recommend purchasing all 10x of the first batch of MERITS, which will net you 2000 of them... just enough for a GLADIUS CASE! If you've got leftover Glint burning a hole in your pocket at the end of the season, you can always buy another batch for 3000 Glint since the price goes up every batch you buy.

You'll ALSO be receiving MERITS as rewards in your guild Brawls, as well as through Reward CHESTS.

REWARD CHESTS

What are Reward CHESTS you ask? I'm glad you did! There are many chests available in the shop, but BEWARE! They are not all new player friendly, and although they may look tantalizing, they could drain your glint balance quickly while offering little in the terms of progress.

As such, I suggest sticking to the following chests:

MINOR CHESTS.
Yep. That's pretty much it for now.
Minor chests will have a good chance to pull common and rare cards, and you could get really lucky with an EPIC or LEGENDARY. They will also contain useful items like potions (legendary / alchemy), merits, and energy, as well as a whopping 0.001% JACKPOT chance! These chests will build up your collection at the best value in my opinion since you'll have a chance at all card rarities vs a specified card rarity, and they are a lot of FUN since there's that random element of chance involved!

You MAY be able to buy a few MAJOR chests at the end of the season if you've already purchased a some COMMON and RARE rarity draws, but avoid ULTIMATE chests at all costs!

RARITY CARD DRAWS

Finally, we have the RARITY CARD draws!

Once you've used up all your MINOR chests, you can purchase a few COMMON DRAWS. They will be your quickest avenue to expanding your card base, which will give you more options in battle. Many of the common cards will be KEY to victory, so between the MINOR chests and the COMMON DRAWS you should be able to get them to minimum viable playability quickly.

If you've got glint to spare, the RARE cards are AMAZING and will certainly help you win battles! With a few exceptions they really start to shine at around 25 BCX, and since they are more expensive, I suggest focusing on your commons first and trying to get them playable whilst relying on CHESTS to earn RARE cards at first.

I was hesitant to even include a "?" on EPIC CARD draws, but they are so powerful that they deserve mention. Many of them require only 1 BCX to literally change the dynamic of certain battles, so if you want to throw caution to the wind, you can try for that elusive epic draw and cross your fingers that you get a good one. Personally, I would go for MAJOR chests before epic draws, but the right EPIC is so powerful it could be worth it to blow your load on a single attempt!

(Clint Eastwood reference in honor of @Azircon)

For now, LEGENDARY and GOLD FOIL draws should be avoided.
The GLINT to pay off ratio is not very high for the beginner Battle Mage.

BEST EARLY CARDS TO AIM FOR

There are a few cards that I suggest focusing on early, as they should be relatively obtainable, and will make a HUGE difference in the competitiveness of your deck. This is by no means exhaustive, but I'll mention a few of them to help get you started!

COMMONS

MAR TOREN TRADER to 30BCX is ESSENTIAL in orer to get HEADWINDS which reduces ranged damage by 1. Combined with Quix to further reduce ranged damage, giving a large taunt target in the form of Wave Brood and then healing the Wave Brood with Angelic Mandarin is a crazy combo that will win you most "Ranged Only" matches on it's own.

Other cards of note that will be easy to get "playable" would be:

1. Halaran Huntress - 1 BCX because of immediate CHARGE
2. Broken Earth Thug - 5 BCX for a 2 damage Melee Opportunity attacker
3. Blackmoor Wild Elf - 5 BCX for early AMPLIFY ability
4. Nimbledook Explorer - 1 BCX for immediate PROTECT

The other cards are also useful in their own ways, but either require many more BCX before they really start to shine or are much more situational.

RARES

Many of the RARE cards are also good at even a single BCX, but they really start to excel at 25 BCX when they gain additional abilities. I've selected the above because they are good right off the bat, or require very few BCX to make "playable":

1. Commander Slade - 1 BCX DODGE Tank that makes opposition miss even more
2. Thunderhoof Nomad - 1 BCX access to REFLECTION SHIELD
3. Quilliun Legionary - 5 BCX for THORNS to kill opposing SNEAK attackers
4. Janni Rebel - 1 BCX fat body magic user granting INSPIRE
5. Dark Arborist - 14 BCX requires investment, but great with Thadeus Brood in Magic Only Rulesets, and good at only 1 BCX for DEMORALIZE
6. Dragon Egg Forager - 1 BCX OPPORTUNITY attacker in a pinch

Again, ALL of the RARES have their place, but these are good right away or with minimum BCX to really start to shine.

EPICS

They are ALL GOOD at even 1 BCX, but cost a lot of GLINT to "buy" them.

1. Kha'Zi Conjurer / Shock Trooper are both great in "Back to Basics" rulesets where their disadvantages are removed and you get undercost attackers.
2. Thanalorian Blade is weak at 1 BCX, but it's still access to an Opportunity attacker in a pinch.
3. Olivia Of The Brook is a dual attack type opportunity card that gets the incredibly broken MIMIC ability at only 4 BCX. Put her next to a MARTYR card and watch her eat the entire opposing team!
4. Arachne Weaver gets CORRUPTED HEALING at only 1 BCX which will heal your entire team!
5. Night Reaver is costly, but if you've got the mana has high attack and targets other FLYING units first while also flying itself!
6. Halfling Refugee is absolutely usable in almost any situation as a 1 cost tank, gets healing, and has 5 attack at max level... BROKEN!

LEGENDARIES

If you happen to draw one in a chest... great! But don't expect to get any!

For purposes of the beginning account, all of the 1 Mana cards will be useful because they have a relevant ability and low mana cost. You can always put them into their respective element where they will be able to attack right away in one manner or another.

All of the other legendaries will require some investment to become playable, so they are a story for another time...

If you prefer to watch a visual on this subject, you can see my YouTube channel and the corresponding video HERE. I also open some CHESTS and GLADIUS CASES so you'll see some real world examples of what you can expect!


There you have it, oh fledgling Battle Mage! A quick tutorial on how best to manage your GLINT reserves based on the experience of your friendly neighborhood Psiderman.

Feel free to experiment on your own, but bear in mind that when you start your GLINT will be limited, and a few wasteful choices could set you back an entire season!

I hope you've enjoyed this article on the GLINT REWARDS and how to efficiently spend them! This has been a part of my "Path to Power" (P2P) series where I focus on the NEW PLAYER experience and offer some helpful tips and tricks to get you started.

Until next time, it is I, the Psi, and I'll see you around Praetoria!

The Psilence

PLEASE DO NOT FORGET that for the next 4 seasons (THIS season included) I will be giving back to the Splinterlands and HIVE community with a CONTEST! Leave a comment on any of my HIVE and/or YouTube posts and include your in game name, and you will be entered into a draw to win 1 of 2 Chaos Legion packs at the end of the season! You will receive 1 entry per video / HIVE post, so drop me a comment, leave me your IGN, and cross your fingers!

NOTE: A portion of the HIVE rewards earned for this post will go towards funding my NEW Splinterlands account "ThePsilence" as part of the "Path to Power" (P2P) series. It will also help me win an ongoing streamer contest where the lucky recipient will be able to give away an ETERNAL TOFU to one of their followers thanks to DRIP! I really appreciate your help in making this series successful, and helping me win that contest so that I can give YOU, oh faithful HIVE user, the chance to win a TOFU!

THANK YOU for all your support! <3