How to Rock SteemMonsters (While Remaining Stingy)

From the very first day when I decided to get into playing SteemMonsters I knew I had to be very careful about it. Knowing myself, I was aware of my tendency to to immerse myself fully into it for a while, until I’d realize that it was not for me. In the meanwhile I would spend a bunch of money, which I’d later regret. On the other hand, there is no point (and no fun) in playing a losing game, so I had to find a balance.

This Is For You, Stingy SteemMonster Novice!

If you are thinking about getting into the game, or if you have just done so, these are some of the experiences I gathered in playing SteemMonsters for close to a month now. If you want to have fun and advance in the game without spending too much of your hard-earned STEEM on it, you might find these pointers useful.

Where Did I Leave Off?

In my last SteemMonsters post I gave a detailed description of the cards I got in my starter pack and the booster pack (which I learned to avoid). This story picks up where that one left off, at the end of Season 4, with just a hair’s width under the Gold League.

Starting the New Season (On the Wrong Foot)

Hair’s width or not, with a rating of under 1900 I got my reward of 30 cards, and I was set back to 1000, the bottom end of the Silver League. I didn’t stay there long either, as I kept losing, losing, and losing some more. The 30 reward cards turned out to be a major disappointment as well, since they tended to be the most common reward cards: Vampires, Rusty Androids, Sea Genies, and Highland Archers mostly, with an occasional Fire Imp or Mushroom Seer sprinkled in the mix. There was also a Daria Dragonscale card in there, but it took me a bit to discover its usefulness.

Leveling Up

Back then I had the hardest time even completing a daily mission, until I discovered the reason: Even though my strategy at the game was getting better (positioning the monsters with enemy snipers and sneakies in mind), I was beaten again and again because my cards sucked, simple as that. I realized I had to start leveling up certain monsters. I would pick the splinter of the quest I got each day, and I would bring the summoner of that splinter up to level 2, as well as those cards I considered particularly useful, to the level the summoner could handle (that is 3 for common cards, 2 for rare ones). This is what I got:

Earth: Flesh Golem, Goblin Sorcerer, and Minotaur Warrior to level 3, and Stonesplitter Orc to level 2.
Water: Pirate Captain and Crustacean King to level 3, Water Elemental and Frozen Soldier (which I hadn’t even had) to level 2.
Fire: Kobold Miner, and Fire Beetle to level 3, Goblin Shaman and Cerberus (both of which I had to get first) to levels 3 and 2 respectively.
Death: Skeleton Assassin to level 3, Haunted Spirit to level 2, and I got myself a Twisted Jester and Undead Priest, both of which I brought up to level 2.

The Life Splinter and neutral cards I left for later, mostly because my daily quest never asked to use that splinter, and for some reason neutral cards are a bit more expensive. I calculated that it would cost me about a dollar more to bring my favorite neutrals (which are the Elven Cutthroat, the Centaur and the Cyclops) up to the level of my summoners.

Now, with these improved teams I started winning again. Soon I was back in the Silver League, moving gradually upward. I was also happy, because the payoff for my previous post about this game just came in, which was just under $10. So spending $2 on each of my splinters would break me even. But before I even got there, I had a game-changing realization:

Daria Dragonscale is a Powerful Summoner

I knew that as a summoner from the Dragon splinter Daria could summon monsters from either one of the splinters (at one time), but what I hadn’t noticed until recently, is that as a level 2 summoner she could summon rare monsters at level 3! WOW… under these conditions it was well worth spending the 4 mana points. This meant I could level up my favorite monsters without having to buy the expensive summoner cards of their splinter. This strategy wouldn’t help me with the daily quests, of course, but it would make me stronger in winning battles, which improved my rating, which in turn promised more reward cards.

Throwing Reward Cards on the Market

Once my common reward cards were at a level my summoners could handle, I started selling them for pennies (okay: 2-3 cents) at the market. This was minuscule in comparison to what I was spending, but it helped me nevertheless, and selling twice as many (Gold League, baby!) was a nice incentive. So instead of improving every card, in every splinter, I picked the one where leveling up the rare cards to 3 would make the biggest difference. That turned out to be the water splinter.

So I went ahead and brought up my Frozen Soldier and Water Elemental to level 3, as well as my Medusa, which until then I had completely neglected. Since I was shopping already, I also improved my lower mana tank, the Spineback Turtle, to level 3. Since all this cost me only about $1.50 I also got myself two more Cyclops cards to raise him to level 2. Then I went into battle.

Two hours later, I had improved my rating from just under 1500 to over 1800. I was not constantly winning, of course, since on some occasions I could not use the dragon splinter, the water splinter, or either. So playing “normal” battles was still an either-or situation, but whenever I assembled my powerful water team under the leadership of Daria Dragonscale, victory tended to be mine. At this rate I should be in the Gold League soon!

Could ‘ave, Should ‘ave? You Can Do It!

So is there any room for improvement here? I’d say so. At each battle you are matched up with an opponent of similar “magic and mayhem”. The way I understand that is that the more and the better cards you have, the stronger opponent you will encounter. Since you can only use monsters from one splinter each time, you may as well just focus on one splinter. In my case, I could have concentrated all the money I spent on four splinters on the water splinter only. While fighting daily quests with level one cards, you can use the strong splinter to reach higher leagues, which will get you more reward cards each day. Those ones you can sell on the market, and gradually improve your other splinters without digging too deep in your STEEM wallet.

Admittedly, this idea of mine is still quite recent, and it may have some major flaws in it. If you noticed them, please don’t hesitate to point them out to me. Still, I’m happy to share these ideas here, hoping it might benefit some.