Anyone who participated in the recent Survival Mode bracket test event must be thrilled these past few days, as the massive reward of 250,000 Glint tokens has finally arrived! As I mentioned in previous posts, once the reward landed, I planned to write about the upgrades I made, my strategy, and the reasoning behind each Glint expenditure.
It’s worth starting by looking at what can be purchased with Glint—and the quantities involved—to understand why 250k Glint is significant, even for highly advanced Splinterlands players. The first purchase options are "Draws," which provide cards of a specific rarity; each draw can yield any card from the current reward set at that rarity level. We have the Common Draw (300 Glint), Rare Draw (1,500), Epic Draw (15,000), and finally the Legendary Draw—by far the most expensive option at 70,000 Glint.
Starting with the Common Draw, 250k Glint would allow you to acquire a total of 833 Common cards. Regarding Rare Draws: while the image shows a cost of 2,250 (due to it being "Batch 2"), waiting for the season reset ensures the best Glint-to-card value; at the 1,500 cost, that amounts to 166 cards. For Epic Draws, you could get 16—likely enough to own at least one copy of each card in the set. Finally, regarding Legendary Draws—which few players seem to be considering—you could obtain about 3 cards.
You could also obtain a large number of chests, though this depends heavily on luck; generally, they yield fewer cards than if you were to get them directly from Card Draws. However, for those curious about the numbers, it would be possible to get 500 Minor Chests—an incredible amount—with nearly half of that value effectively returned in the form of cards. You could also get 100 Major Chests, which is equally impressive. Finally, regarding Ultimate Chests, you could get 25 of them; since the Jackpot chance is 8% (and 25 x 8% = 200%), it is highly likely that you would land one or two jackpots.
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Card Upgrades Using the Survival Event Prize
Before deciding how to spend the extra Glint earned from the Survival event, I sought the opinions of other players. The general consensus was that the best use of the currency was upgrading Common and Rare cards, as these see the most play in ranked matches. However, one particular opinion caught my attention and made me reconsider the strategy I had been following—which was simply buying Common and Rare draws whenever possible, given how powerful these cards become at higher levels.
What do you do after upgrading your Common cards to near-max level? Most players would say that once they’ve upgraded their cards to their desired level, they’d try their luck with chests. And that is precisely where the problem lies. Common cards have the highest drop rate in chests, followed by Rare cards. So, focusing solely on Common and Rare cards when spending your rewards might not be the best idea.
At the same time, I reasoned that while that makes sense, Common and Rare cards are the ones that require the most copies to reach max level. So, the solution was to strike a balance: keep working on Common and Rare cards while also focusing on Epic cards. Epics become very powerful as soon as you start leveling them up and aren't as expensive as Legendaries—plus, the odds of pulling them from chests remain very low, even with 250k Glint, following a past update that altered the drop probabilities.
Since the major shift in strategy revolves around Epic Draws, I believe it's worth focusing more closely on the specific choices made. I started by opening two Epic Draws using potions that boost the odds of pulling gold foil cards, and I got really lucky—I pulled Joraki Venshiro. I only had a level 1 copy before, so having this Gold Foil version at level 2 will be a huge help in battles; it boasts solid attack power and gains the Blind ability. On top of that, I gathered enough copies to upgrade Kazira Valestrik to level 2, gaining +1 ranged attack.
Another interesting highlight is that I finally obtained the Saltwraith Pirate—a card I didn't own a single copy of previously. Through the Epic Draws, I managed to pull enough copies to bring it straight to level 2. However, since its main ability requires it to be eliminated to grant a +1 boost to all members of the Rodentian bloodline, I’m not sure if upgrading it further is worth it. For now, I’m keeping it at level 1, especially since its melee attack won't have much of an impact overall.
Finally, regarding the epic cards, I managed to gather enough BCXs to level up Voss to level 2, gaining the Void ability, which made him more resistant to magic attacks. Until then, I hadn't been too concerned with these epic cards because I don't have a summoner that allows me to use bloodlines, and their stats generally aren't great; however, considering that we might see a greater focus on this in the future, passing up the chance to unlock bloodline abilities for Undead, Rodentian, and Avian units didn't seem like a wise move.
Furthermore, since the Survival event is running again this season—with the 250k prize once more available to those who meet all the requirements—and given that the requirement this time involves using Modern cards (of which I don't have many), leveling up these epic cards could give me a helpful boost.
