This is a repost from: https://www.publish0x.com/tinyvestment/splinterland-play-to-earn-or-pay-to-play-xvymdxk
What is Splinterland?
Splinterland is the collectable card auto battler game. The game allows you to build a collection of various cards which are later used to battle other opponents, quite similar to Magic the Gathering or Hearthstorm. The main difference is that you do not control any of the actions after selecting the team for the battle.
The main part of the game is PVP matches. At the start of the match, you can see basic details of the opponent like his nic nad his last few matches setup as well as match conditions. You can observe the mana limit, which controls which limits the number of cards you can put to the game. Every card ha it mana cost and a total number of cost has to be lower or equal to mana level.
After that, you need to select a summoner, which has a global ability and belongs to one of the elements. The summer will have the largest influence on what monsters you will be able to select.
The last part is to select the team to fight. It is easy to understand and hard to master part of the game. In this review, I am not even trying to describe how to play to win, but it does contain the strategy to see previous opponents selections and choosing a strategy to attack.
Cost to start
You can start playing the game off the chain for free. There is a large set of starter cards that are provided for every player. These starter cards will allow you to have a proper game, and to be honest you will use most of them in the on-chain game. This mode will not provide you with any game bonuses ( DEC coins nor free chest).
To be able to enjoy the game fully and to receive the blockchain rewards you need to purchase the Spellbook. It does cost $10, which can be paid in various crypto or FIAT currency.
How to make money.
The only required purchase is the Spellbook, after that, you can play and earn crypto without any additional cost. It does include the battles, they are saved into a blockchain but with any gas cost on your side.
The first way to earn money is to earn Dark Energy Crystals (DEC). You will get a little bit of DEC every time you will win a battle. The amount paid after the battle is dependent on the league you are in, the higher the league the more DEC, starting with 0.00x for the Novice to 30DEC( as I have heard as I am still in bronze) . The biggest limit to move to a higher league is the power level that you gain by having more and better cards.
There are a few possibilities to speed up the DEC earning. You can join a guild or take part in tournaments.
So now we can move to a second way of making money, selling the cards. There are at least 4 markets that allow selling your cards to other players. The game suggests the price for the card when you are trying to sell it, but does not limit it.
There are two possibilities to get a free card by paling a game. First is a daily quest, which is a simple task to win 5 battles under a given condition, for which you will get a number( depends on the league you are in) of the chest, which might contain a card, potion or dec. The second option is to wait until the end of the season, which takes 14 days, to obtain at least 5 ( for lower bronze league) chests. Now getting a card is random and the price of the cards depends on rarity.
Conclusion
Gameplay:
The Splinterland is a fun game. It does require a lot of strategic thinking but still allows for a quick 5-minute battle.
It is true that having more better cards make it easier to win with a stock player but for the past few weeks I have not seen a lot of play-2-win situations.
Cost
The spellbook cost is not high and is not a big barrier to start a game. The plus is that a single game does not cost anything as well.
Earning:
I find it slow to earn DEC and cards. The last 20 chests gave me only 1 card, which makes progress to a higher leag a slow one if I am not willing to invest anything outside of the game. However, there is no limitation on the time spend ( like slowly regenerating stamina) so making more many is possible.