Greetings Gamers!

Welcome to the what will be the first regularly occurring post on The Crypto_Gam3r Blog, The Splinterlands Weekly Recap!

In these posts we will look at what my earnings are in the game, talk about strategy, and look at any news in the Splinterlands world. 

Background:

There are many posts about this very popular game, explaining what it is and how the game works but here is my quick recap:

Splinterlands is a highly NFT driven trading card game on the Hive network. Players collect cards, all of which are NFTs, and use those to cards to set a lineup of cards that meet battle conditions to fight against other users. The winner of the battle earns a native token (DEC) which they can use to buy better cards in an attempt to level up to earn even more rewards. In addition, the game is now airdropping another native toke (SPS) which players can stake to earn even more. 

There are videos and articles online claiming people are getting "rich" playing this game, and claims of people in developing countries quitting their job and living off the income. So I was curious what all the hype was about and decided to make Splinterlands my first dive into crypto gaming. 

My Goal:

My goal with this game was to see how much I can earn, in one year, from casually playing the game, which is what I will be documenting here. 

I started playing on August 11th, before I had the idea to start blogging about my journey. At this point I have a good feel for the game, and have learned from my early mistakes. Each week, I will breakdown and record my account value and will update readers on my progress.

Account Value:

Currently, I am calculating account value based on the three things; the value of my cards, the value of my DEC, and the value of my SPS. Lets take a look at the data and then I'll break it down:

Card Value:

The game lets you used "starter cards" to get involved in your first battles. You do not actually own these cards, and they are not NFTs, however, there are NFT versions of these cards that can be bought and leveled up as you progress in the game. Since I don't actually own these cards they will not be counted towards my card value. 

Cards that I own in the game have come from either earning them in daily or season reward chests, or from spending DEC I have earned in the in-game market. The only out of pocket expense I have had was the initial $10.00 for the spell book to unlock the chest rewards.

Here is a look at the current cards that I own:

You may notice that I have some level 2 and 3 cards. An initial strategy I had was to buy the lowest value cards on the market and combine them to get higher level cards. The thought was this would be a cheap way to grow my value quickly, but I have since abandoned this strategy as higher level cards typically have a lower $/BCX value. I will be taking a deeper look at this in a later post.

I feel a better strategy for a new player is to invest in cards that help you win battles to level up and increase your battle, daily, and season rewards. This is the strategy I will use moving forward.

Here is how my owned card value has changed over time:

In one of my first daily quest chests I got lucky and received 500 DEC which I used to start building my owned cards. As you can see this was a big contributor to my card value rising quickly in the beginning of my gameplay. Since then I have been slowly adding cards to grow my assets. 

Market fluctuation also plays a big factor in card value.  When I first started playing you could get a Chain Spinner card for around $0.17, a few days ago they were selling for $0.28, and today there are some listed at $0.22. As I continue to learn in this game, market prices will be a big focus on my strategy for future profits.

There is some speculation that once the new Chaos Legion packs are released later this year, the price of the older cards available now will rise, so I will be keeping a close eye on this as it unfolds.

DEC Value:

Dark Energy Crystals (DEC) is the in-game token used to fuel the Splinterlands economy. This is earned through winning battles, daily and season rewards, and by selling cards in the in-game market. It can be used to buy cards in the in-game market and to upgrade buildings in your guild, which I have just recently got involved in. You can also rent cards and rent out cards with DEC, allowing players to temporarily improve their deck to gain ranking or earn passive income.

Here is a look at my DEC value over the first 4 weeks, which is calculated by multiplying my current DEC supply with the current market price of DEC. Keep in mind I am only capturing the data once a week:

And here is a ticker for DEC supplied by CoinGecko:

Typically, my DEC slowly builds each day and then as I contribute to my guild or buy/rent cards it will dip. The hope is that the DEC I am spending will increase my overall value in other ways. As far as the value of DEC, the hope is that as more and more players join the game, the need for DEC will increase making the token more valuable, but who knows.

SPS Value:

Splintershards (SPS) is the official governance token of Splinterlands and is currently airdropped to players based on their in-game assets. Holding SPS will give you access to be part of deciding future game implementations and is another way the game lets you earn a passive income. Currently the staking rewards for this token are very high, but are on a sharp downward path per day. Just a few weeks ago the APR for staking you SPS was over 200% and is currently down to 124.28%. Since I have low in-game assets currently I do not receive much SPS.

Here is a look at my SPS value over the 4 week period, which is calculated by multiplying my current SPS supply with the current market price of SPS:

And here is a ticker for SPS supplied by CoinGecko:

Other Ways to Earn:

In the coming releases we will see additional ways to earn, it looks like the biggest change will be the introduction of land. Owners of land will appear to be able to craft resources needed by players in the game. This sounds like it has huge earning potential, but the initial investment is too large for me currently. I am however intrigued to see how this affects the game.

Buying skins for cards and holding them in hopes they gain value could also be a future strategy, I have not participated in this yet though, so more to come on this later.

Current Profit:

So the biggest question everyone has, myself included, what is the ROI? Taking into consideration the initial spell book purchase of $10.00, and looking at my current value of in-game assets we can see what my profit would be if I sold everything in my account right now:

With in-game assets valuing $17.51, minus the cost of the spell book I have only made $7.51 in 4 weeks of playing Splinterlands.

But, here's the thing. Unlike a lot of the early crypto games, Splinterlands is actually fun to play and does not take a lot of time out of my day. In fact, there is a built-in game feature that discourages players to spend all day on the game called a capture rate. I will get more into this in a later post, but essentially the more games you win per day, the lower your capture rate is, lessening the DEC you earn per win. For some people this may be a deterrent, but for a casual gamer like me, this lets me play as able, earning my daily chest reward and gaining some DEC along the way, without feeling like I need to spend hours each day to maximize profit. 

In conclusion, my experience after four weeks has been positive. I have enjoyed learning the game and slowly building my deck and although the profits have been slow, I can see how the potential future earnings could grow significantly. 

If you enjoyed what you read and want to follow my progress be sure to follow me and consider hitting the tip button below! If there is something I missed, or you have advice to increase profits please put it in the comment section.

Fruitful Gaming!

the crypto_gam3r