Splinterlands: The Ultimate, Comprehensive Guide for Total Beginners!

Ever played Hearthstone or a card-related game? If you have, you need to check out Splinterlands. A blockchain-based technology, this smart card game uses the same principle as Hearthstone, but with a twist! Cards have several different characteristics, attributes, effects, and capabilities that can be used in a match fight with other players.

The difference? You have the potential to earn in Splinterlands.

Popular among its intended audience, on average, more than 50,000 players launch it every day, which proves that there is a hunger for this game. A Hive Blockchain-based game, the original name for it was Steem Monsters.

A great game to start immersing yourself in blockchain games is Splinterlands; it is one of the most well-known NFT games in the market. Splinterlands has the potential to compete with the likes of Axie Infinity, Lost Relics, or Plants vs. Undead.

Without further ado, in this tutorial, we will learn how to play Splinterlands, especially if you’re a beginner. We’ll go over important topics, so even if you’re completely new, you will clearly understand more about the game and begin your battle to win. Here is the ultimate, comprehensive guide for total beginners in Splinterlands.

Is Splinterlands a scam?

If you care about your security, you should know that no reports anywhere say it is a scam so far, so the safe answer is a resounding no.

Splinterlands has been securely paying all its players since the start after putting a minimum investment in the game to get to the required league. The game is about the hearts of the card. You will have fun, but above all else, explore NFT trading through a game that has the potential to draw in some decent earnings.

Also, the Splinterlands website appears to be a safe and well-operated blockchain game. 

You’re not alone in playing the NFT game. Thousands of players have vouched for its security, uniting a whole community of card-lovers and special effects fans across the world. Splinterlands is also a free-to-play game, but some of its features like the Spellbook will be locked when playing for free. 

Is Splinterlands free-to-play?

Yes, it is initially free-to-play. This system is essential for novice players to get a feel for the game first and participate in a few fights to learn the flow of the game. 

However, if you want to open the daily quests, seasonal prizes, unlock cards, buy/sell on the market, and earn DEC currency, you need to first spend $10 to acquire the summoners guide.

Before investing in any venture, remember to always research the thing you’re doing. Please remember that any type of cryptocurrency is volatile and can fluctuate radically from one moment to the next.

Can you earn in Splinterlands?

Built on the Hive blockchain, Splinterlands is an auto-batter card game featuring daily quests, seasonal rewards every two weeks, guilds, a tournament system, and an in-game marketplace that offers secure card rentals.

Players can earn card and token rewards just by playing.

You get Dark Energy Crystals (DEC) in each victory with a ranked match. Your rank determines the number of DEC you obtain. This means that the higher your rank, the more prizes you get. You can use wallets like Metamask to transfer these DEC and be converted to USDT.

With Splinterlands, you can earn cryptocurrency in the form of DEC, SPS and Vouchers:

Earn money with DEC

You can earn money with the Dark Energy Crystal, the currency anchored to the game where you can earn your income after winning ranked battles. It would be best to build a good collection to face other players. Earnings on DEC can be very high, so this option could be profitable.

Sell cards

If you feel it is very difficult to defeat your opponents in Splinterlands, you can always earn money in other ways, such as selling cards. You can devote yourself to buying cards and reselling them on the marketplace at a value that increases your investment. On the other hand, you can also sell other game products such as land, packs and totems.

Rent cards out

Another way, or at least the most passive way to earn in Splinterlands with your cards, is to rent them out to other players for DEC. Towards the end of the ranked season, some players are willing to commit a ton of DEC for rentals.

Holding DEC

An alternative is to hold DEC. Just holding the cryptocurrency DEC will earn you daily airdrops of SPS, the governance token of Splinterlands. This token can be staked in-game to earn more SPS which is also pretty passive.

What is Splinterlands?

Founded in 2018, Splinterlands is the first blockchain game of digital trading cards. Every card is NFT with a limited supply, and every asset is owned by players. Thousands of Splinterlands players battle daily for countless rewards in this strategic masterpiece of a play-to-earn game. Players have battled more than 60 million times.

It is a collectible card game that challenges you to gather squads to fight other players. It resembles Hearthstone Battlegrounds because a core mechanic in the game is an artificial intelligence-led automatic battle management based on randomness.

Because of the blockchain, players have the ability to use NFTs, distinguishing Splinterlands from Hearthstone, a game with no marketplace and other blockchain-based features.

The game is attracting more players, increasing demand for its assets. So these NFT cards have utility. They’re not for decoration or aesthetics only. You don’t just look at them or think about them. You use them to battle other players, and by doing so, you can win more assets. The more assets you own, the more assets you can win. It’s a cycle that works for you.

Not only can you receive income from winning battles, but also from staking dividends. Thus, all project players can generate passive income. While players don’t actually participate in battles, they do build a deck for the game. It takes a specific skill set and strategy to master card-building.

The game mechanics are like Hearthstone: about 300 cards are divided into factions, each with its own characteristics. Cards can be bought, sold and also rented.

With that, you have to build a deck of available cards. They can always be purchased on the market or found in specialized bundles or sets. Then, you go into a fully automatic battle. The battle results will indicate the reward and experience you receive, which is necessary for upgrading cards.

What you need to play Splinterlands

To play the card game, you must have a decent internet connection or a mobile device. You can also play Splinterlands from your default browser on a Windows or Mac computer. The game will not require a great internet speed, but it will require stability when participating in tournaments.

You don’t need special skills and in-depth knowledge of NFTs to participate in Splinterlands. You will only need to be eager to win money, have fun, and learn everything you can about the game. You can adapt to the scheme of the game in its free mode until you can commit yourself to invest in some cards.

In short, you need everything that you use to play any other game, in this case, namely:

• A computer and access to the internet
• A Hive account and Hive KeyChain

How much does Splinterlands cost to play

Essentially, Splinterlands is initially free-to-play, but, to get the most out of Splinterlands, as mentioned, you must invest at least 10 dollars. With this money you invest, you will buy the Spellbook that you will eventually use to build your deck. After having the Spellbook, you have two alternatives to appear in the game, and they are:

Invest in cards

Buying the cards individually in the game market, where you will have the freedom to choose the card you want, is one of the best options. After playing the game, you should get a good sense of what cards perform well. You should not buy cards lightly because you would be investing money unnecessarily.

We recommend building out your collection to grow each of the splinters instead of hyper-focusing on one. Remember to diversify, don’t put all your eggs in one basket.

This is the better option as some rule sets will prevent you from playing certain splinters and increase your win rate since you will have a more balanced collection. The value of the cards may vary due to their exclusivity.

Purchase packs in-game

If you don’t know what cards to purchase individually and want to dive into Splinterlands immediately, you can purchase packs. This method isn’t as cost-effective as purchasing cards individually. However, it offers excitement for a chance to pull an expensive card.

How to Register

Registration is available for each user but requires an admission fee ($10). For this amount, the user receives a starting set of cards, which they can use to build their first deck of cards. The decks built are used for battles — if the player wins, they are rewarded with in-game DEC tokens.

To start playing Splinterlands, you must go through the registration process. Here are the key steps to follow.

• Open the main page of the Splinterlands website, splinterlands.com, and click ‘Play Now’;
• Click on the ‘Create Account’ button;
• Fill out a form consisting of one e-mail, which must be entered twice, and accept the privacy policy and the terms of the service.
• Click on the ‘Create Password’ button.
• Set and confirm the password, click ‘Create’.

And you are done! Now you will also be asked if you want to proceed with the tutorial. The system will offer you a tutorial on all the main features of the interface and game mechanics. We highly suggest you take the tutorial. 

As an introduction, the player will engage in a test battle. But if the player already knows about all the mechanics, then the tutorial can be skipped.

After registering, you’ll be given your temporary name. You can change that after purchasing your Spellbook, and you can also create your blockchain wallet.

How to Start Playing

After you’ve registered, here are the steps to start playing Splinterlands:

1. Remember to make use a web extension wallet like MetaMask to log in.
2. Once you’ve registered an account and logged in, you can click the “Play Now” option . Then, on the next page, click the “Battle” option.
3. The Splinterlands battle system matches you with an enemy with similar experience or skill.
4. When an opponent is located, a prompt will inform you of the constraints or restrictions of the battle. For example, if you’re only going to play with a particular selection of cards, including a number of Mana points to be used in combat.
5. Click “Create Team” button.
6. Forming a squad is the final step. You must do so within the time constraint, considering the largest amount of Mana points indicated at the top left. Combining cards strategically enhances the performance of your decks.

When both players are ready, the fight begins. From this point onward, you have no control over the battle. However, you hav an option of either watching the combat pan out or just clicking to see the results. The winner receives DEC, winning some experience points, while the loser loses some experience points.

How to Use NFT Cards

All cards in the game are divided by six elements: 

1. Fire
2. Water
3. Earth
4. Life
5. Death
6. Dragons

It is the element that determines which monsters the player can summon. Each card has specific characteristics: the required mana to summon, attack, speed, defense, and health. 

All ordinary cards have a similar gold copy. These NFTs do not affect gameplay in any way, but they are extremely rare and visually different. It is because of their rarity that they have a much higher value on the market. The only major advantage of such cards is participating in Gold Foil Only tournaments, where only decks of golden cards are allowed.

The player only needs to build a battle-worthy deck that matches current trends. The battles take place automatically without the participation of the player. You can familiarize yourself with all available NFT cards on the official market page.

How to Buy Cards

Cards are the central part of the game as they are necessary to build decks for battles. Here are the key steps to buying cards.

• Open the market page on the official website;
• Use available filters to find the required card;
• Click on the card you want to purchase;
• After choosing a card, select the currency used for the purchase, and press the ‘Buy’ button.
• Complete the transaction. 

The card will be added to the player’s collection instantly.

How do Card Packs work?

The first pack each player will have to purchase costs $10 and is called the Summoner’s Spellbook. Only after buying the pack can you complete daily tasks, compete for season rewards, earn DEC, etc.

Also, a player’s request is paramount and respected to all other investments made within Splinterlands. For example, Booster Packs allows you to get five random cards from a specific set (like Hearthstone), of which one card is guaranteed to be of Rare quality or higher. You can buy packs for credits and in-game DEC tokens.

If you buy 100 such packs at once, the system will give you ten free packs; if you buy 500 packs at once, you will receive 75 additional free packs. That’s a sweet deal!

How do Booster Packs work?

You might’ve seen terms like ‘Untamed Packs’ when playing Splinterlands. The Booster Pack is the primary product sold by Splinterlands. A 5-card booster costs $4. Each card contains a unique rarity drop probability based on certain percentages.

When purchasing a pack

There are 2 main ways to purchase Booster packs on the Shop Page. It can be using Dark Energy Crystals or Splinterlands Credits. You can see here below a sample image of what that looks like:

Any of the 20+ cryptocurrencies accepted by Splinterlands and Paypal can purchase credits. However, the credits can’t be transferred, only being purchased at a fixed rate of 1000 = $1.

You can earn Dark Energy Crystals through winning Splinterlands battles, burning Splinterlands cards, or trading from one of the exchanges. We have listed these exchanges below. When purchasing booster packs with DEC, their price is always 2000 DEC.

• HIVE-Engine
• Steem-Engine
• Uniswap
• TronTrade
• Cub Finance

When opening the packs

If you want to open the Booster packs, you simply need to go to the Mana Well or the “OPEN” tab of Splinterlands.com.

Simply drag the Booster packs in your collection to the left into the Mana Well to trigger the pack opening animation and then, you can flip your cards. The cards will instantly appear in your collection after opening.

When tokenizing the packs

Hive-Engine, Steem-Egine and WAX can transfer to and from your Tokenized Booster Packs. However, the packs can’t be opened when tokenized, but external markets can list and trade them.

Because Splinterlands is built on the Hive blockchain, your Hive-Engine wallet will be automatically linked. However, you must link your WAX wallet to your Splinterlands account to be able to use this feature.

As you can see from the image above, clicking the CONVERT button on the MANA WELL (OPEN) page will make a menu appear.

This will give you the chance to either tokenize or deposit packs to/from your various linked external wallets. Also, it will show you how many packs you currently have in those external wallets.

Next, you need to select the chosen wallet from the dropdown, specify the number of packs to move, then click TOKENIZE to move out of the game, or DEPOSIT to move into the game as you can see from the image above.

What are Booster Potions?

You might’ve stumbled in this particular area of the game, and you’re wondering, what is it? Here’s the explanation.

Two types of Potions affect the drop rates of cards found in Booster Packs of all Editions: Alchemy and Legendary. Each charge is effective for a single card, and only 1 charge of each potion can be used per card.

Potion charges can be purchased in the POTION SHOP by the individual charge, with Guild and bulk discounts always available.

Daily and Season reward chests can provide Potions, with higher league rewards chests containing potions and giving greater amounts of potion charges, similar to how they give larger amounts of DEC tokens.

• Alchemy Potion – Use an Alchemy Potion charge to double your chance of that card being a Gold Foil card.
• Legendary Potion – Use a Legendary Potion charge to double your chance of that card being a Legendary card.

Legendary and Alchemy Potions are only applicable to cards from Booster Packs. They cannot be used on cards found in Loot Chests.

Is it worth to buy Potions?

At the end of the day, it all boils down to numbers, so let’s research and study the facts of the matter!

A pack without any potions will have an average value of $1.14. Let’s be clear that this means that you will usually lose money when buying packs. However, opening packs is a lot of fun so it’s understandable. That being said, we should take a look at the cost and value of alchemy and legendary potions.

The legendary potion doubles the chance of finding a legendary card. Without a potion, you have a 0.8% to get a legendary potion per card. With a legendary potion, this will be buffed to a 1.6% chance.

When you buy a pack with 5 legendary potions, a pack will have the average value of $1.63.

In short, this means that your pack will be worth $0.49 more than without legendary potions.

Remember that you will have to buy 5 legendary potions at a price of 40 DEC resulting in 200 DEC. Let’s say, 200 DEC is worth around $0.18 which means that adding legendary potions to the mix will gain you a net added value of $0.31 per pack, so in the end, it’s definitely worth it!

Meanwhile, the alchemy potion doubles the chance of finding a gold foil card.

Without a potion you have a 1% to get a legendary potion per card. With a legendary potion, this will be buffed to 2% chance. Adding 5 alchemy potions to your pack openings will result in a pack having the average value of $1.45.

This could only mean that your pack will have an increased value of $0.31. But, that being said, alchemy potions cost 50 DEC each, which will result in a total cost of 250 DEC per pack.

Let’s say, 250 DEC equal around $0.22, which means alchemy potions will provide a net added value of $0.09 per pack.

Adding both legendary potions and alchemy potions nets a pack value of $2.04, which is great. But you need to remember that you have to buy both legendary potions and alchemy potions, at a total cost of 450 DEC per pack. This will cost you $0.40.

In total, you pay $0.40, but you get a gained value of $0.90 per pack, which results in a net profit of $0.50 per pack.

That being said, it’s remarkable that alchemy potions are actually more expensive than legendary potions, since legendary potions are actually more valuable. Still, combining both legendary and alchemy potions is pretty much the best strategy and will result in the most profitable situation.

How to Buy Spellbook

Spellbook is key to starting your play-to-earn journey within the game. There are a lot of perks to enjoy that do not apply to those who are playing for free. When you buy yourself a Spellbook, you’ll be able to choose your own unique name in the game, create your blockchain wallet, and unlock the ability to earn valuable rewards from winning matches.

Aside from that, you’ll also be able to climb your way up to the rank leaderboards, complete daily quests and season rewards, earn Dark Energy and a lot more.

Using Paypal

To buy your own Spellbook, you need to proceed to splinterlands.com, then go to Shop and make sure that you’ve logged in to your own account. You can choose different payment methods, but for the purpose of this article, let’s choose Paypal since it is the most accessible.

After clicking Paypal, a new browser will pop up, requiring you to login your paypal account. After that, you’ll proceed to the check out and just confirm your transaction.

It will take no more than 2 minutes for the transaction to be completed and you will be getting your own Spellbook in a while.

Perks of Having a Spellbook

Now that you have Spellbook, you’ll enjoy perks exclusively for Spellbook owners and are not available to free-to-play players. You also need this if you want to earn money in this game.

• Choose a Unique Name
• Create your blockchain wallet
• Compete for Season Rewards
• Earn Dark Energy Crystals
• Unlock the ability to earn valuable rewards from winning battles
• Season Leaderboards

How to Play Splinterlands

Now, we got all of the fundamentals of what you need to know, here’s the fun bit: how to play Splinterlands.

Each Splinterlands card represents a unique splinter. When you enter combat, you can only use one splinter, implying that the battle cards must be all Fire, Water, Earth, Life, Death, or Dragon. Within a team, you cannot shuffle Fire and Water cards.

If you utilize a Dragon Summoner, you can play Dragon cards in addition to the ones you’ve chosen for the fight.

Types of Cards

Summoner and Monster are the two types of cards in Splinterlands.

Every ranked combet, you get to choose your cards. These will become part of your deck selection. You will have one Summoner and up to six Monsters. Summoners have abilities to connect with Monsters.

Your Summoner can even impact the opponent’s entire monster squad.

Using Healthy Summoner Cards can boost your Monster health. Your summoner has this influence only in the game. Thus, you won’t see him in a fight. For example, Tyrus Palladium, the Life splinter Summoner, can give all friendly monsters +1 armor in battle.

Card Fundamentals

Here we tackle how the cards work in Splinterlands.

Health

As you can see in the image below, the heart-shaped crest found on the lower right of the card shows the Health points of your Splinter. The number of Health is dependent on the level of the card. For example, if the level increases, so to the overall health. Strengthen and Weaken abilities can affect the Health Points.

Different Forms of Attack

There are three different forms of attack. A card attack’s power is dependent on the level of the card. For example, should you have a higher level, you can conjure up more powerful attacks. Inspire and Demoralize abilities can affect how much power your attack has.

The character’s physical strength, speed, durability, and health are described within the stat values.

The degree of harm you will deal on an opponent monster per turn is indicated by your physical power. Also, there are three basic attack types: melee, ranged, and magical attacks. Position 1 is where melee attacks are launched. Launch attacks from the battlefield’s back row (i.e., position 2 to 6) are for Ranged Monsters.

What about magic? Magic is the good part. It has the best possible attack since it can be launched from any position and place. The opponent’s armor is bypassed by magic attacks, and they directly target the enemy’s health. However, some rulesets do influence the battle and the location which the Monsters can attack from.

Melee Attacks

As you can see below, the blade-shaped crest on the left side of the card indicates the Melee attack power. As mentioned, close range is for melee attacks only (i.e., the 1st position). Sneak, Snipe, Opportunity, and Reach abilities can make exceptions to that rule.

Range Attacks

As you can see, the circular arrow-like target icon on the left side of the card indicates the Range Attack power of your Monster. Unless you are using the Close Range ability or the Close Range ruleset is in effect, you can attack from any place around the battlefield.

Magic Attacks

As you can see below, the purple cloud-like lightning icon found on the left side of the card indicates the Magic Attack power you will deal to your opponent.

As said, Magic can be used from any place on the battlefield. As a general rule, it bypasses Armor, directly dealing damage to Health.

However, you can use the Silence ability to reduce the Magic attack power of every card from the opposing team. Void, Magic Reflect, Void Armor and Phase can change the effectiveness of Magic attacks.

Abilities

Most Monsters will have a variety of skills. As indicated by the green circle below, you can see that the power of each card is given at the bottom. You can hover over the abilities on your Monster or Summoners card to view the name of each skill.

Dozens of various abilities belong to certain Splinterlands cards. Some are acquired as the cards level up. Others are always present at the beginning of level 1. Unique characteristics such as Flying, Dodge, and Piercing are represented by some abilities. Meanwhile, Protect, Swiftness, and others can affect your entire team.

Abilities that reduce certain stats to your opponents are commonly known as debuffs. Examples of this include Demoralize, Slow, etc.

Both Monsters and Summoners can have abilities.

Speed

As you can see below the arrow-like target icon, the blue-colored circular crest on the lower left of the card indicates the Speed of your Splinter. Their speed stat determines the Monsters’ order of attack. Speed can make Monsters more difficult to hit. Each The Speed stat varies based on the card’s level, which means the higher your level, the more speed you have. Slow and Swiftness abilities can affect your Speed stat.

Armor

Based on the example below, a Shield image above the heart-shaped crest indicates the Armor stat of your character. Like the other stats, Armor varies by level. This means that the higher level you are, the better Armor value you’ll have. Unless acquired through another card’s ability, such as Protect, most cards have no Armor.

Until they lose their Armor, Monsters can’t lose energy. If a monster has 4 health and 2 armor and is attacked by a 4 damage attack, the monster’s armor will be destroyed. The monster’s health is visible beneath the barrier. In short, the more health a Monster has, the longer it can battle.

Mana Cost

During combat, there is a cost to Mana being employed on Monster and Summoner cards. Every fight in Splinterlands contains a randomized Mana Cost. It will influence how your team make up.

Prior to every battle, a Mana Cap, the max number of mana points that may be used to create their teams, is shown to the players.

Whether Monster or Summoner, every card includes a Mana Value as shown in the example below, indicated on the top left corner of the card.

Experience

One more thing is that the knowledge stat represents the card’s level of experience. You can only level up cards by combining similar Monster or Summoner cards, giving you access to new abilities. You can also acquire more health/damage/armor as you level up your card. For example, you would need to combine 5 level 1 card to level Tyrus Palladium, the Life splinter Summoner.

Card Stats Overview

Here is an overview look of what we have covered. This is the make up of the cards in Splinterlands.

Card Rarity

As shown above, the card’s rarity is indicated by the icon at the center. Playing Splinterlands cards consist of four rarities:

• Common (grey),
• Rare (blue),
• Epic (purple), and
• Legend (gold).

In Splinterlands, you can only level up cards by combining multiple cards into a higher level card. Cards have a Base Card Experience, or BCX, representing how many cards have been combined into that one card.

Legendary Cards

Nobody says no to Legendary cards. This is where it gets a little more complicated, because Potions can change the odds, as mentioned above. When a Legendary Potion is applied to a card, the chance of it being Legendary is doubled to 1.6%.

Legendary cards are the rarest cards in Splinterlands; it’s nearly improbable, though not impossible, to obtain Legendary cards.

Loot Chests contain the same 0.8% chance of acquiring a legendary card, which is 33% of the time.

Generally in most sets, only 11 BCX is needed for Legendary cards to be combined to reach the max level of 4. In the Alpha Edition, only 8 BCX are needed.

Epic Cards

You would know it’s an Epic Card when it’s purple around the edge of the card before being flipped. They only show up roughly 4% of the time. Fairly high-powered at the beginning of level 1, Epic cards has strong attacks of every type, only getting stronger as the levels increase.

Being the second-most rare type of card in Splinterlands, generally, the number of Epic cards needed to reach the max level of 6 is 46 BCX. In the Alpha Edition and certain early Promo cards, the number was 32.

Rare

You are guaranteed a Rare card with each 5-card pack opening. That being said, the chances of getting a Rare card is 20%. They max at level 8 and are much easier to level up than commons.

However, the ironic thing is they tend to be more powerful at lower levels. Even the lowest DEC-value Gold Rares (Untamed) can be burned for enough to buy an entire Booster Pack (2000 DEC)!

Generally,115 is the number of Rare cards required to reach the max level of 8. In the Alpha Edition, the requirement is only 86 BCX.

Common Cards

The chance of finding Common cards are 75.2% of the time when a card is revealed, be it a Booster Pack or a Loot Chest.

They are Common for a reason. That is to combine them to level up your cards. Investing in Commons is a good strategy as they are some of the strongest cards in the game at max level. However, it takes time and so many of them to acquire the max level. By set, the numbers may vary. For example, a Common card from the Alpha Set requires 379 single cards to reach the max level of 10, while a Common card from the Untamed Set requires a total of 400. Also, remember this: no matter the set, it takes a lot of Commons to get a Champion-League contender, and once those cards are combined, they cannot be uncombined.

The number of Commons required to reach the max level of 10 varies depending on the set of cards.

• Alpha – 379 BCX to max
• Beta, Reward, and Promo – 505 BCX to max
• Untamed and DICE – 400 BCX to max

The Splinters

The name given to one of the six main continents formed when the great Splintering divided the world’s land nearly a thousand years ago is called “Splinter”.

The magical forces for the whole world is provided by the Mana Flow of the Planet, but they must be called through the invocations of one of the basic elements of magic. Each Splinter focuses almost entirely on a single one of these elements.

• Governing growth and the forces of nature, the Earth Splinter of Anumün primarily uses the element of Earth.
• Governing destruction, heat and anger, the Fire Splinter of the Burning Lands primarily uses the element of Fire.
• Governing chaos, flow, and spontaneity, the Water Splinter of ΛZMΛRÉ primarily uses the element of Water.
• Governing healing, youth, and resurrection, the Life Splinter of Khymeria primarily uses the element of Life.
• Governing pain and decay, the Death Splinter of Mortis primarily uses the element of Death.
• Residing as the Glory Splinter, the Dragon Splinter of Draykh-Nahka is also known to the Dragons. They use an ancient combination of all the elements called Glory.

Indicated by their colors, cards are divided evenly into the six Splinters. Although Summoners of the same Splinter can only summon a card to battle, there are also several Neutral cards that any Summoner can summon.

Allowed Splinters is one of the restrictions presented prior to each battle. The unlit Splinter icons represent the Splinters that will be unplayable by either player in that battle. This ensures each battle is unique and encourages players to build a balanced collection across various Splinters. 

Combining Cards

Every single card found in either a Loot Chest or a Booster Pack is 1 BCX, meaning it has not been combined.

When 2 separate 1 Base Card Experience (BCX) versions of the same card are combined, both of the 1 BCX cards are burned and a new 2 BCX card is created, combining the two. This is how cards are leveled up in Splinterlands. Once a certain card has been combined to the required BCX, it gains the corresponding level.

Leveling Up

On the Stats page of every card, you can see how many BCX of that card are needed to reach each of its different levels, and what stats and abilities correspond to each of those levels.

In Splinterlands, you progress by leveling up your cards, making them stronger and allowing you to beat more enemies, which in turn, gets you to a higher league.

Take this card for example, by leveling this thing up, he gains all sorts of abilities and higher attack stats.

From the image above, the Common Alpha Edition card requires 379 combined singles to reach the max level of 10.

This Untamed Legendary requires 11 combined singles to reach its max level of 4.

Here are a few things that you need to remember before leveling up cards in Splinterlands:

1. You need to own the card to level it up
2. You need multiple copies of the same card to level it up
3. As a card increases in level, its stats, abilities, and power increase with it, as well
4. This is an irreversible process, so make sure that you actually want to level up the card
5. The higher the level, the more cards are required to level it up

Your First Battle

You never forget your firsts. This should be exciting! By now, you should be prepared for your first battle. Navigate to the Battle page and select the “RANKED” option. The battle engine will now look for a battle you can join.

There are three important factors to consider: mana cap, playable splinters, and rulesets:

• Which Monster to summon in a fight is determined by the Mana Cap.
• Only playable splinters are the ones you can use in combat.
• Lastly, the rules or so-called rulesets are specified regulations to make the battle more intriguing. There are certain rulesets like the Even Stevens ruleset that allows Monsters only with even Mana cost to be deployed in combat.

Simply click “MAKE TEAM” to create a team.

Take Notes While Making a Team

Your playstyle depends on choosing a summoner and forming a team. For example, do you want to emphasize Melee attack damage or Range attack damage? It’s up to you!

However, rulesets and mana cap must be considered if you want to win. A consideration to this is if your mana cap is 12, then you’ll only have to choose a Summoner and Monsters with a total mana cost of 12.

You need to choose the arrangement of your Monsters on the battlefield. For example, suppose you have a ranged character in position 2, and your tank monster in position 1 dies. In that case, all monsters will shift up a position, preventing your range monster from attacking.

You only need to click “COMBAT” if you like your deck setup. Then the fighting begins!

Once all the Monsters and Summoners are in position on the fight page, click “RUMBLE!” Battles in Splinterlands are quick; they only last about a minute. It is crucial to keep an eye on your fights to determine whether your plan, monster, and summoner pick worked.

To craft a successful formula, battling demands a lot of patience and effort!

What to Do Next

Once you’ve completed your first battle, the fun begins! From here on, you need to focus on completing your daily missions. This is assuming you got the Summoner pack to unlock it. With it, every player is provided with a set of daily quests, like winning 5 battles with a certain type of Splinter. Completing these tasks will reward you with a number of chests based on your level. Prizes may include DEC, packs, cards, and potions, among others.

Final Word

You might’ve noticed that comparing Splinterlands to other NFT games such as Axie Infinity or Plant vs. Undead, Splinterlands is actually relatively cheaper in light of the amount of wealth you have in the beginning. But the cheapness doesn’t reflect the quality. It’s beyond price comparisons!

Splinterlands proves to be the NFT game of the moment where you can earn with little to no hassle. There are many ways to earn money playing Splinterlands that might appeal to you.

The game’s reputation makes its credibility in winnings high, so you don’t have to worry about getting scammed. The game will allow you to play without investment, although you will only have to give $10 to start building your collection and earning, as we have mentioned in the beginning of the article.

Earning huge rewards mean that you must climb in the ranked leaderboards or you can invest more so you have the ability to buy or rent cards, boosting your chance of winning. However, it’s easier said than done as the game requires you to understand its mechanics as deeply as possible, such as the cards, powers, stats, and battlefield positioning. You must dedicate extra time to learning those to dominate the game!

In summary, Splinterlands is perfect for any card game lover and even for Hearthstone fanatics, as the card mechanics are something familiar yet novel at the same time.