Long ago, even before COVID hype, I made a couple of posts about my US$28.95 inwastement into Splinterlands card game. Since then I didn't write about the game (actually, I didn't write anything at all since then), but all that time I paid quite a lot of attention to the game. After all, I still want my USD 28.95 back!!!1
The game of SPLINTERLANDS has become quite popular recently. Well, I think this kind of games (namely, collectible/trading card games) in general, as well as Splinterlands in particular has a lot of fans. Some people sometimes do love queer things, any porn site owner can guarantee you that. However, de gustibus non est disputandum. Personally I'm definitely not a CCG fan, so everything I say about Splinerlands, I say mainly as an "investor", and not as a "fan". Anyway, whatever I say it will hardly benefit me.
"You can't win with a losing hand."
Bob Dylan
And as an "investor" I must first remind what some PUBLISH0X Splinterlands guy once said: treat the game as a game first, and as an "investment" second. Particularly, if you're lucky to live in a rich country like US, EU, Japan or Australia: you will be better off spending your time on any paid job (at least, if you're a Joe Average like me, and not a code genius or crypto whale).
Splinterlands noobs are often hypnotized by the "collection value" they see at Peakmonsters market, and by the players who have huge collections (say, some @j6969, who has about 100K cards valued around 15K dollars at Peakmonsters). The truth is that Peakmonsters numbers, if not a complete bullshit, shouldn't be taken at face value, and players like @j6969, in addition to being smart and lucky, started to play the game very early (say, in 2018), when the circumstances, rules and loots were kinda different.
Today making money out of Splinterlands goes in two ways: earning DEC tokens in battles and trading cards (I don't count here referral earnings). So simple theoretically, in practice it's much easier said than done, because in practice, in addition to being lucky and smarty, you must win and trade a lot to get some noticeable outcome.
Splinterlands is a heavily "pay to win" game. The inwastment starts with 10-dollar "starter pack" (or "summoner's spellbook", as they call it today), because without the pack the game runs in "demo mode", without DEC earnings and cards loot.
Theoretically, it's possible to get the pack for free (with a promo code obtained from someone in the internets) and battle your way up with a single account and bare hands using only won DEC and loots. In practice, this way it's kinda difficult to level even a "reward" card (i.e. a card from loot boxes) up to, say, quite moderate Lvl.4: some shitty common Lvl.4 Nectar Queen needs 30 cards which will take months to collect. And even a common Lvl.4 card is nothing but a useless piece of shit without a Lvl.3 summoner, which is hardly possible to get in years of doing manual handjob on a single account... There's some "catch-22" or "chicken-egg" dilemma here: you can't get out of low (bronze/silver/gold) leagues without powerful cards, and playing in low leagues you can't get powerful cards fast.
Here comes alternative option: pour some money into your acc and quickly buy the cards you need to win. If you're dumb like me, you simply level up as many cards as you can. If you're smart you buy the cards for your winning combinations, because, in appropriate circumstances, with the right combination of proper Lvl.1 cards you can beat a bad combination of random Lvl.4 cards. But in any case, pour your money!
To be continued, I hope...
Here goes usual "disclaimer" shit.
