When i started to set foot into the crypto space, i heard about games that run on blockchain technology and use NFT (non-fungible-tokens).

Since i've been playing Blizzards Hearthstone, i'm sure a lot of you know, for about five years now, i immediately thought about the implications. Being able to trade cards with other players was something i always missed in that game. There i was, with hundreds of dollars spent on the game, that are just gone forever. Can't even sell my account since it's bound to my battle.net account. Anyway, i came across Splinterlands, a card game that allows exactly that – trading cards with others. So i decided to give it a try. I started one week ago and thought about blogging about my journey. I was looking at articles on publish0x to get information about crypto related topics anyway so why not use it as a blogging platform myself.

So this is how my first week of Splinterlands went down.

I just went right in without thinking too much about it. The big fat "Play Now" button was just too enticing, so i hit it and created my account.

First thing i learned was that to be able to do daily quests and receive any rewards one has to invest $10 and buy the so called "Summoner's Spellbook". It will also enable you to enjoy all the advantages of the game that come with being a real blockchain game, as it states in the information given after clicking the button to learn more about it.

"By upgrading your account, you will now be able to buy, trade, own, lease, earn, and manage your digital assets within the game. In other words, it empowers ANYONE to become a professional gamer. You may now profit from your time playing Splinterlands!

In addition to unlocking a wide range of earning opportunities, you will also gain access to your Hive wallet keys in the Settings menu. This will provide you with true ownership of all account assets, including related cryptocurrencies and the power to log in to other Hive platform applications."

This information is freely accessible on the shop page. The offer in the shop looks like this:

I didn't hesitate and bought it. (That's the whole point of the game right?) It's possible to buy via many crypto currencies but also via Paypal if you're not so much into the crypto game already. If you wanna try out the game beforehand you actually can play in practice mode, you just won't get any rewards doing so.

I received my first daily quest: "Stir the volcano, win 5 ranked battles with fire splinter" and started playing the game.

Of course i didn't know what i was doing at all. I just went into battle, picked the available fire splinter summoner Pyre and put some units in as to fill out the given amount of mana. As it seemed quite logical i put a tank minion (Living Lava) in the front and others behind it. Four opponents surrendered and i randomly won against one. So my first daily quest was done. I claimed the reward and got a chest with 56 Dark Energy Crystals.

Fine, i thought, and kept on playing.

I tried using another splinter and randomly won again. Still no idea what i was doing. I won some more random ass games and somehow made it to bronze II. The games cards are divided into six elements,  you chose a so called summoner that determines the element of the minions you can use to make your team. Additionally you can put in neutral minions that go with every summoner. Every summoner and mininon has a mana cost and the max mana available for the team will vary with every battle. Also not every element is available for every battle.

After playing 25-30 games or so, winning some and losing some, i received a free pack which i opened immediately.

To look at the cards i received, i went into the cards section for the first time and found out that you can actually convert cards to Dark Energy Crystals which also seems to be burning them, actually deleting their existence on the blockchain. I also realized that there are so called “playable” cards, the standard cards that are available to you in the beginning, and “owned” cards, which you receive from packs or when you buy them. I was kinda confused that i received cards from packs i already “had” but only actually had one of them and not two. Turns out the available cards in the beginning are not actually yours but every one you get after purchasing the Summoner's Spellbook belongs to you and is listed under "owned cards" in the cards section. Likewise it seems to be possible to "lease" cards to or from other players.  

Later that day i found out that it's also possible to play on a mobile browser on your phone but it seems it doesn't quite work for me. I lost two games because i didn't put in enough units because i didn't see all the available spots on my iPhone 6 screen. Duh. 

The next day i went and bought my first card – The Goblin Mech. I faced other players playing this card and i lost horribly so i thought why not and got it for 2 cents.

You can buy cards in the market for either credits or Dark Energy Crystal (the two in-game currencies). You receive DEC from battles and apparently in loot chests or from destroying cards. You can also buy DEC and credits with FIAT via Paypal or trade some HIVE tokens against DEC on the Hive Engine. I didn't get into that right now though but as i understand it, DEC are actual tokens that are tradable and could even be transferred to another wallet, while credits are just virtual in-game currency.

I also realized the importance of actually looking at the game modifier when planning a battle. It can be something like "slowest minion attacks first". This means that slow assassins like the cave slug of the light splinter suddenly become very good (it has more health than other assassins and attack of 1, so it attacks first and snipes the enemy DD) I call Minions with the opportunity or sneak ability Assassins because they attack either the lowest health minion or last minion instead of the first one.

Another thing that came to my attention was the importance to memorize the abilities of all the summoners and that it's a good idea to look at which teams the enemy used in the last games. Look at the summoner, the minions and try to build your team accordingly to try to counter theirs. In doing so i was able to win some more games and finished my second daily quest for which i received the "Flame Monkey" card.

I also educated myself a little bit on combining cards etc. and tried out the market some more with $1 investment, bought some cheap cards (Sea Monster, Fire Spitter, Manticore), got into a random guild through discord which i had seen here on Publish0x and joined an upcoming tournament event from that guild.

Also somehow i made it to silver, one day before the season ended. Maybe i was lucky, maybe i was understanding the game a little better, i didn't exactly know.  

It is possible to level up cards through combining them, thus making them stronger and lessen the amount of level 1 cards on the blockchain. Higher level cards are needed to climb the ranks and compete in tournaments. Until now all my cards are level one but i got some cards twice already.

For my third daily quest i received two potions, a legendary and an alchemy potion. Potions give you charges and these specific ones improve the droprate of legendary and goldfoil cards respectively when generating cards (i.e. through opening card packs). One charge is used per generated card. Up until now i received some gold cards but no legendary. You can also buy these potions in the shop. If it's worth it, for now i don't know.  

I actually made it to Silver II and got my first season rewards. The higher your rank, the more loot chests you get and the end of each season (every two weeks) The leagues are Bronze, Silver, Gold, Diamond, Champion and each one has three sub leagues. You start in the Novice league that is below bronze. With each win you gain rating and with each loss you lose some. Reaching at least bronze shouldn't be a problem. Apparently even Silver is possible in the first days of playing the game. Once you've reached a milestone, you'll receive the according amount of loot chests even if you drop a rank again. So no worries.

For my fourth daily quest i had to use the death splinter and completed it on an easy win-streak. As rewards i got another legendary potion and a "Screeching Vulture" card.

I then started losing some other matches to what felt like “op cards”. Mostly people that had Level 2 summoners and cards i think. I guess that was because of the beginning of the season where everyone started a bit lower again.

The tournament event started this day and i lost every fight in the arena event battles (7 out of 9) Later it turned out i “won” two fights because the opponents didn't enter a team on time. I guess it's still a little bit too early to compete in tournaments.

For my fifth daily quest reward i got a "Battle Orca" card and 2 legendary potions.  

I didn't receive anything in the airdrop for the newly revealed character "Chanseus the Great". I had bought 10 eligible packs to try out how buying and opening packs works and feels and to compete in the airdrop (to maybe have a tiny chance?)

Over the cause of the Untamed Expansion "There are a total of 14 special Airdrop characters that will be unlocked throughout the Untamed sales event." You have to buy card packs to be eligible to take part in the airdrop. I Somewhere read that if you buy 400 packs you'll receive a hero in the airdrop 100%. That would be $800 though, not the kind of money i can invest.  

Kinda came to the conclusion that it doesn't seem to be worth it for me to buy many packs, considering my financial situation as a student. But maybe i could spend $10 a month on packs even if it seems better to me to just buy "good" cards right-away through the market. I'm not sure about this now. Also i don't know what "good" cards are yet.

For my sixth daily quest rewards i got the cards "Barking Spider" and  "Nectar Queen" and another legendary potion.  

Yesterday i realized the importance of cards like "Furious Chicken". These cards cost zero and you can fill out your team with them. This will protect other valuable team members from getting sniped or assassinated. As you can see, i got the the chicken in my season rewards.  

My plan for now regarding how to approach the game is basically to do the daily quests and maybe reach higher ranks for even more rewards while doing so. I guess a first step would be to level up some summoners, since the level of the used monsters depends on the level of the summoner. It is possible to just buy higher level summoners and cards but for now i will try to see what i get from rewards first and not rush anything.

As a bonus i got a free card from a Splinterlore contest on Twitter. I solved the math problem and got one "Exploding Dwarf" as a reward in game. I guess following that twitter account is a good idea for all players.

My daily quest for today isn't quite ready yet but it seems it'll be the only thing i do today anyway. I'll include the rewards i got in the next update. At the moment i'm already Silver I so i'll get at least 18 loot chests on the end of next season. Maybe i'll get even higher in next two weeks. Let's see.

That's it for my first week of Splinterlands. 

Thanks for reading.

If you want to Get into Splinterlands too, follow this link, create an account and purchase the Summoner's Spellbook – you and i will receive a random card from the Untamed Expansion and you can start to battle and receive more rewards right away and invite more people too. Just click on your username after logging in and choose the "Affiliate Program".

I go by the name of Supercrispy in Splinterlands.

I also appreciate any tips on how to make the best out of the game from experienced players. Let me know in the comments.

To play the game i'm using Brave Browser and it works just perfect. If you don't already have it, get from my link. I'll get a bonus and you can get paid for watching ads through Brave Rewards System too.