Hello there.

The Splinterlands Social Media challenge has an interesting topic for players to talk about this week; our Splinterlands journey. Join me as I take a trip down memory lane, and reminisce about my experiences with Splinterlands.

I'll be going through life before Splinterlands, and what led to me finding out about it. I'll share some of my experiences, and accomplishments. I'll discuss my goals and future plans. And in the end, I'll impart some knowledge to new players just joining the game.

Discovery of Splinterlands

Back in July 2021, I barely had any idea about cryptocurrency and NFT games as a whole, let alone about Splinterlands. I was talking to a friend, when additional income and investments came up. He asked if I was familiar with crypto. I said no, but was interested in learning more. He gave me a brief rundown of things, and offered if I wanted to be a scholar in Axie Infinity.

Back then, Axie Infinity was already big in the Philippines. I've heard of it, and seen some posts regarding it. I used to just ignore it as a possible scam. With his offer, I said sure why not. I don't need to put in any cash, but I can earn instead? Count me in. That was the beginning of my crypto and NFT games journey.

Image source is a screenshot of dappradar.com page

As I was making my way through this new world of crypto, I tried to learn more about it and find other games like Axie. That is when I found dappradar. I checked out the top ranking games, from Alien Worlds, to Upland, and including Splinterlands. I was hesitant to try Splinterlands at first because it needed a 10 USD purchase of the Spellbook. The TCG and strategy aspect intrigued me so I took the plunge.

This was the image in my email when I joined Splinterlands.

It was August 2021 when I officially started playing Splinterlands. Being a new player, I didn't know what to do, and I was just using the starter cards. On hindsight, I should have followed the image and joined the Discord community to get me started. Since I am very competitive, I learned the game, developed strategies, and eventually got better at the game.

Day to day life with Splinterlands

Eventually, playing Splinterlands became part of my day to day routine. Initially I just played rank. But after I joined the game's discord, I learned more about the game and what I was missing. I joined a guild, I started joining tournaments, I rented cards, I even started flipping a few cards.

Of course it is not always sunshine and rainbows. After a few months of playing, near the end of the year, the value of assets started to decline. It was the start of the Bear Market, but I didn't know it yet at the time, I was earning cards, SPS, and DEC. Their value was dropping but I wasn't too affected. I didn't whale into the game and was enjoying playing and earning.

Days passed, and a lot of things happened. Chaos Legion airdrops started being released. I am a firm believer of the saying, "You can't win the lottery if you don't buy a ticket", so I bought a few packs. I wasn't expecting to get any airdrop cards, but I was still excited when the new one comes out. But incredibly, I was actually able to get 1 Carnage Titan with my 9 packs. I was so hyped because I had very low chances. I took a screenshot immediately, and that is the image you see above.

Nowadays, I spent more than a few hours a day playing Splinterlands. I play ranked, I join all tournaments I can, and I still watch almost all of my battles. I spend more time on it now than when I first started, and I don't see that changing anytime soon with all the upcoming updates.

Accomplishments

A lot of my accomplishments that I am proud of are my tournament wins. I am very competitive, and that is why I regularly try to improve my strategies. While I watch the battles because I think it is entertaining, I also do it to look for strategies and interactions. If I see an opponent use a unique team, or a different placement, or different strategy, I analyze it and identify which ones are good. I will then incorporate it to my strategies. Doing this has helped me improve my gameplay. Eventually, I used these knowledge and strategies in tournament to great success. Here are some of my high placements in tournaments [I don't document all my wins]:

What's good about Splinterlands is that skill and strategy are rewarded. Sure there can be advantages with better cards, and higher card levels, but it is still possible to outplay an opponent by countering their teams. With card rentals available, those differences can disappear, and you can even the playing field.

Upcoming goals

With the coming release of the new Rebellion set, Modern ranked will have its first set rotation. Untamed and Dice cards will no longer be playable in Modern, and will be replaced by Rebellion. The Untamed set summoners are really strong, and I frequently lose to them, especially to the Legendary summoners like Yodin, Llama, and Kitty. I'm hoping that once they rotate out, I can finally end the season on a Leaderboard spot. The reward would definitely be nice, but it would also be a big accomplishment and validation of my hard work.

From an account perspective, I still want to increase my SPS staked. I was playing in Silver Wild before, but the SPS staking changes and bot ban in Modern made me switch to Bronze Modern. I also want to continue increasing my card collection. With Rebellion comes new cards and abilities, which means new meta and strategies. I will have to tweak my teams, and I am excited to concoct new combinations.

Advice for Beginners

The best first advice for new players is to join the Splinterlands Discord. There are a lot of things to learn there, and people are always willing to help beginners. For mental advice, embrace the challenge. This is a card game, and there are strategies involved. You're new, learning the game, and you will face a lot of players that have more experience than you. Don't get disheartened and learn from every battle. They will have better cards, and better strategies than you, and that is expected. Take what you like and absorb it. Buy the cards or rent them, once you've found a strategy you like, and that works for you.

If you don't want to go to the discord and want to just rely on this part of the post, here is a high level breakdown of what I think a new player should do. On the first few days, learn the game; the cards, the abilities, the interactions, etc. Try to look for strong strategies and take note of the cards they used. Join a guild. There are a lot of open ones, but try to find one that doesn't require contributions, and are active. Visit NFTY Arcade, and try to rent/look for a bronze deck that you can use. They split the rewards, but you can play cards you don't have. Once you've gained some knowledge, you can rent the cards you took note of. Slowly, you can accumulate the Gladiator cards, and the reward cards. Continue stacking your SPS. Eventually you can unstake some SPS, convert/burn them to DEC, and buy your own cards. Or if you're a whale, you can immediately buy the cards you want. Unless you're a whale, I would steer clear of buying packs. It is difficult to level cards this way. You should buy singles and focus on the cards that you use in your strategies. Join tournaments when you can [a lot of them are free roll where you get the entrance fee back as a reward if not a lot of players joined.]. And finally, enjoy the game.

That is it for my trip down memory lane on my Splinterlands Journey. I'd like to think that two years in, and it is only the beginning. We've survived the Bear market, and I hope we make a roaring comeback during the Bull.

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