Splinterlands may be one of the first true play-to-earn games. It emerged as a success in May of 2018, the product of a vision by its founders. This vision was of a gaming world in which players could actually own their assets. They would not be expected to continually buy the next set as power creep and reprinting of cards demanded. Instead, players would have the freedom to not only own their cards, but earn rewards for holding and playing them, rewards that could also be easily sold. This is how SPLINTERLANDS was born, and as its steadily growing user base of loyal players can all tell you, it is a very rewarding game, and one of the earliest applications of playing to earn.
One of my favorite things to tell people about the game when they are completely unfamiliar is this: If you get tired of playing for any reason, you can simply sell your cards and forget about the game. With other traditional digital card games you never had that option. Sure, you could attempt to sell your account on the black market, but such actions were always risky and usually forbidden by the game's terms of service. This paradigm shift in gaming from paying to compete to playing to earn is no small event, and all sorts of games are now experimenting with ways to reward their players for playing.
With Splinterlands' revolutionary model, owning cards and playing with them is essentially a form of staking. Collections are increased by those wishing to earn greater rewards for regular ranked play, and in order to unstake Splinterlands assets (cards), a player must simply sell them on the market, converting them back into a liquid currency. By combining cards to gain levels (a permanent action), players can give themselves a distinct advantage, making it easier to play to earn even more.
Splinterlands Ease of Purchase
On the HIVE blockchain, the home of Splinterlands, transactions are fast (3 seconds) and free. This has made HIVE the ideal blockchain for play-to-earn games, and it has allowed Splinterlands to consistently have the greatest number of transactions of any blockchain game day after day for years now. Splinterlands cards can usually be purchased directly off the Monster Market for as little as one penny.
Purchasing cards from the market is incredibly simple. There are two currencies with which they can be purchased: Dark Energy Crystals (the reward currency of Splinterlands) and Credits. Credits are like your Splinterlands cash balance. They can be bought with 22 different cryptocurrencies as well as with a credit/debit card through Paypal in just moments.
DARK ENERGY CRYSTALS - Individual cards can be purchased from the market for Dark Energy Crystals, as well as $2 Booster Packs at the rate of $1 = 1000 Dark Energy Crystals.
CREDITS - Credits can be purchased with any of the currencies on the following list, or with a credit/debit card through Paypal. 1000 Credits always equals exactly 1 dollar. Once purchased, Splinterlands Credits cannot be moved or converted into anything else, so do not purchase more Splinterlands Credits than you intend to spend.
This system is what makes Splinterlands purchases so easy to complete. No blockchain experience is necessary at all. In fact, many of our players have become familiar with blockchain technology through Splinterlands alone, and while knowing all the details was never a necessity, they have gone on to become extremely knowledgeable DeFi wizards. With all the cards acting basically like low marketcap coins, using Splinterlands as a blockchain crash course education is a fantastic idea.
Earned for Affiliate Payments - When one of the players that you referred spends money on the Summoner's Spellbook, Booster Packs or Land, you receive 5% of the amount of the sale. This payment is always awarded as Credits, which allows you to easily reinvest your earned affiliate rewards into the game. If you wish to convert these Credits into cash, I will describe the easiest way to do so in the next section of the article, involving burning cards for Dark Energy Crystals.
Splinterlands Ease of Selling
The pride of Splinterlands is in the ability to quickly and easily sell cards to other players. The Monster Market is incredibly active for several reasons, all of which you can take advantage to sell your cards whenever you have the impulse to do so.
When viewing a card on its Collection tab, all you need to do is check the box next to the card you wish to list on the market, then click the Market icon in the top row, as circled below. A popup will ask you if you're sure you would like to list. If the listing price is much lower than the lowest currently listed, you will even be warned of this to prevent a possible costly mistake on your part.
Remember to pay attention to which card from your collection is being listed. Sometimes you may have a long list of the same card, all at different BCX (Base Card Experience) levels, like the Chicken below.
That's it! Once you have confirmed that you would like to list the card, it will be listed with an instant blockchain transaction. The card will still belong to you, but you will not be able to battle with it while it is listed, and it will be more difficult to locate in your collection. You can use the filters at the top of the Collection page to see all cards, including those you have listed on the market.
When cards sell, you will always be paid instantly in Dark Energy Crystals, which are transferable out of the game and sellable on several different exchanges. HIVE-Engine is the recommended exchange for Dark Energy Crystals, but they are also tradable on Uniswap and Trontrade. To send Dark Energy Crystals to HIVE-Engine, simply click on your DEC balance in the upper right of the screen. The following box will appear:
Enter the amount of Dark Energy Crystals you wish to transfer out of the game, then select the wallet of destination from the dropdown. Notice that they can also be transferred to another player if you wish.
Once you have selected the wallet, simply click "Transfer Out." You'll be asked if you're sure, then the transaction will be sent through. The Dark Energy Crystals will appear in your HIVE-Engine wallet immediately. For more information about how to use the HIVE-Engine decentralized exchange, visit THIS POST. Through a 2-exchange process, you'll be able to convert your Dark Energy Crystals into SWAP.BTC, which can be withdrawn directly to the BTC wallet of your choice.
1. Dark Energy Crystals -> HIVE
2. HIVE -> SWAP.BTC
DEC Burn Value - Cash in a Hurry
If you ever find yourself in a real pinch, or you're unable to wait for your multiple listings to sell at reasonable prices, there is another option: Burning your Splinterlands cards. Every card has a set burn value, which varies depending on set, rarity, foil, and combined BCX value. If the market values of cards drop too low on certain cards, there is always the option to burn cards to receive instant Dark Energy Crystals. In the following example, my max level Furious Chicken would burn for 7371 Dark Energy Crystals.
Burning is permanent, as its name implies, but it is also good for the entire ecosystem, as it creates more scarcity. Cards are also essentially burned when they are combined, in the mechanic that allows for older cards to continually decrease in circulating supply and encourages their values to rise. If you are curious about what burning your entire collection (though I do not recommend it) would be worth, just take a quick look at your Collection Power, as pictured below.
If I threw all my Splinterlands cards into a bonfire, it would take at least a few hours of clicking, and I would eventually be left with roughly 1.6 million Dark Energy Crystals, worth about $1630. While my cards are valued much higher than that burn value, this is always an option. It's also one of the things that I love about Splinterlands. The freedom to do this makes me even more comfortable holding more money in the form of Splinterlands cards.
Well then, I hope that was helpful to you and explained some of the basics of buying and selling cards in Splinterlands. This is barely scratching the surface of what is possible. Many different features can be found at the other secondary markets, such as Peakmonsters.com, Monstermarket.io and Splintx.com. Still, the best place to begin learning the market and buying/selling cards is right there at Splinterlands.com as I have described above.
Get out there, do some trades and have a blast!
-Chris
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