Greetings Gamers!

Its time again for my Weekly Splinterlands Update! Admittedly I am one day later than my usual post date, but some I wanted to be able to process and touch on some announced changes to the game economy and rewards. 

On 9/28/21 Splinterlands announced that due to rises in asset prices, they would be making some changes to improve the health of the economy, with the goal of making the earning opportunities proportional to the amount of in-game assets held.

The first change will be to the DEC earned for ranked battles. Currently the amount of DEC earned for a ranked battle win is based on your rating. The more battles you win in a season, the higher your rating and the more DEC you can earn per win. The DEC reward will now be based on your current league, so a player who has a rating high enough to be in Gold III league, but does not have enough power for Gold III league, will only earn DEC based on what league they are currently in. This will essentially encourage players to either hold or rent more cards to increase their power, and rise in leagues to maximize earnings. They also hinted that future updates will include SPS rewards for ranked battle wins.

The second change will only affect Novice and Bronze league players, such as myself. DEC will no longer be a part of rewards chests, instead players will receive credits. They will also have a lower chance of receiving rewards cards, which is disappointing since the new cards have only been out a few weeks, and will have increased chances of earning potions. I have mixed feelings on this change and will probably need to see how it plays out over the next month to form a solid opinion.

My initial thought is that earning credits with the upcoming release of Chaos Legion packs might actually be a good incentive for new players, because once the packs are released they can use the credits to load up on packs. This will also make the increased potion chance beneficial to them. However, it has been nice to get cards pretty much every day recently and I fail to see how taking these away from Bronze players hurts the game economy.

These changes are expected to go into effect after the season ends later today.

This week was a nice turn around from my last two recaps, lets take a look at the numbers.

Goal Review:

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 each week.  My only current investment is the initial $10 cost of buying a spell book, which unlocks earning DEC for winning ranked battles, Daily Quest Rewards, and Ranked Season Rewards. 

Account Value:

Here is a look at my current account value, which is calculated by adding my owned card value, current DEC value, and current SPS value:

Overall a very good week! Between market gains for both DEC and SPS, and getting lucky on some daily rewards chests for cards, my account value rose $6.44, for a 41.23% gain. 

Card Value:

Here is a look at my current card value, this is based on the current market price of each card I own:

This week my card value rose $3.62, a 27.28% increase. I did not buy any cards this week from the market, but I have been getting cards pretty regularly since the release of the new rewards cards. I have been mostly selling them for DEC, but I am still holding three of my rewards cards I earned this week: a Venari Heatsmith valued at $0.07, a Pelacor Mercenary valued at $0.13, and my best score yet a Gold Foil Pelacor Deceiver valued at $2.75. 

I will most likely keep the Gold Foil Pelacor Deceiver to add to the power level of my deck, or rent it out and make some passive DEC. I am also more likely to hold onto the other cards, as it looks like I will have less of a chance to earn them with the upcoming changes. 

DEC Value:

Here is a look at my current DEC value, which is calculated by multiplying my current amount of DEC by the current DEC market price:

The amount of DEC held will fluctuate as I use it to rent/buy cards to earn daily and season rewards. I also send 100 DEC each week to my guild to advance our buildings, which will later help me increase profits. The value of DEC has seen a huge increase of 48% over the last week:

SPS Value:

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

I continue to claim and stake my SPS daily.  SPS saw huge gains of  98.9% over the last 7 days and had a high this week of over $0.61. The huge increase could be most attributed to the game change announcements that I talked about above. 

Current Profit:

And finally, here is the true measure of the game, my profit:

With my in-game assets now valuing $22.05, minus my investment for the Spellbook of $10.00, I am currently at a profit of $12.05. That is up $6.44, or 114.72%, from last week.

Conclusion:

There has been a whirlwind of in-game changes over my first seven weeks, which although they can be confusing and change the strategy for increasing profits, they have kept me interested and engaged in the game and community. Although a $12 profit is nothing to brag about, I am still enjoying casually playing the game and believe my profit will continue to rise exponentially over the next 45 weeks of my experiment. 

If you have not tried Splinterlands yet, I recommend giving it a shot. The $10.00 price of the Spellbook is worth unlocking rewards and is a relatively cheap entry into the world of NFT gaming.

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Fruitful Gaming!

the crypto_gam3r