i like the consistent improvements with this site. just now i noticed this "Acknowledgements" section on the bottom of the user drop down menu.
turns out, my favorite little robot heads are provided by a service called RoboHash ( robohash.org ), that generates random avatar images based on user input.
for example, the golden robo-head below is built from the word "fuck." check it out --> https://robohash.org/fuck?set=set3
i've been using my original noise robo-head for other website avatars as well. nice to see that i can do this legally under the Creative Commons license, i just need to give RoboHash attribution. woohoo!
i was very excited about the potential of Smart BCH when the idea was first announced. i had more free time then, too, so i lerked in the Telegram, read the docs, slowly getting more and more hyped.
and we're here now, a multi-DEX ecosystem with a number of functioning, (potentially) useful tokens, and i haven't touched it.
to be honest, DeFi doesn't exactly click with me. i suppose i've done a fair share of it over in Hive's neighborhood, but something like Pancakeswap farming just seemed...boring?
3-4 digit APR juggling. so boring. i can't explain it except to say that i guess i'm not directly money motivated. crypto is my side-hustle. a game. an experiment.
at this point, however, it seems like sBCH is *the place* to experiment. and i'm almost ready to get my hands dirty.
i'm going to be mean and put the tl;dr way down here:
lerk will soon make ( a portion of ) their BCH *smart.*
a little over a week back i made a post about cards in the #Splinterlands Starter Set with exceptional abilities, but i missed one!
you can find the old post here --> https://noise.cash/post/1wzv292n
it's still relevant but today i want to mention TIME MAGE. this Life Splinter monster has the SLOW ability. you may recognize it from Creeping Ooze. it gives the opposing team -1 Speed. that's huge!
and it's only 4 mana? with 1 Magic attack, 3 Health and 4 Speed? are you kidding? this card can go in so many compositions!
currently selling around 0.50$, but you don't even need to buy one to start playing with it, and it just might give your Life monsters the edge they need to win.
okay, am i missing any other great Starter Set cards? let me know!
i just won a game and made 11 DEC. i'm currently in Silver III, at 1075 rating.
for reference, at the end of last season, maxed at Silver III but at 1800~ rating, i was earning 2 DEC per win. i mentioned in a post a few days ago that i earned double that when Ranked matches were unavailable for a few hours, so woohoo 4 DEC...
DEC earnings are proportionate to the amount of DEC in the rewards pool ( shut up about the rewards pool, lerk! ) and the number of active players.
seems like even a few days into the new season there aren't many active players.
GET OUT THERE AND EARN, FOLKS
or better yet, figure out your own strategy. i don't know your needs.
it is only now, looking at my #Splinterlands battle record, that i recognize this player! it's @mscryptoph of course, with a very interesting strategy. i was obviously expecting non-Magic damage, hehe.
at first, i thought i was dead. glad i ran the Divine Shield summoner and had some backline attackers to clear the Venari Crystalsmith. very close!
good game, mscryptoph!
the #Splinterlands season ends in roughly 30 minutes. you can start battling for the new season 5-10 minutes after that. the very beginning of a season gives the highest DEC rewards.
unfortunately, this does not apply to Bronze III, but it might still be worth it to grind to Bronze II to capture rewards, as the playing field is leveled and you will face other Bronze III / Novice opponents.
with the recent price decreases in DEC, rewards are lower in general. it pays to find ways to capture a larger percentage. after the short break in Ranked battles yesterday, i earned twice as much DEC per win as the previous day.
keep your eyes (and schedule) open and there are many opportunities.
image is the current DEC in the rewards pool, down almost 2 million from yesterday. you can find this statistic here: https://game-api.splinterlands.com/players/balances?token_type=DEC&players=$REWARD_POOL
don't sleep on level 1 #Splinterlands cards with exceptional abilities. for example:
Demonshark! 8 mana, 2 Melee attack, 6 Armor, 7 Health, 4 SPEED and TRAMPLE.
Trample gives this baby an additional attack whenever it kills a monster. there is only one other level 1 monsters with this ability, and it's Legendary. maybe pair it with Demented Shark for the attack buff. this "Shark/Sea monster composition" actually seems quite powerful; you could add Wave Runner, or the new Flying Squid and Deeplurker....
or consider Mycelic Slipspawn: 9 mana, 2 Magic attack, 10 Health, 2 Speed and TAUNT.
this one is slightly less exciting as i feel Taunt is there to balance this card's power level. it does not have natural tanky abilites at lvl 1, so it will eat a bunch of damage. but it also negates opposition Snipe and Sneak, making your opponents calculations more difficult. add in the fact that Earth's new Summoner gives +1 Magic attack and you've got a powerful addition to your compositions.
what about Disintegrator: 7 mana, 2 Melee attack, 2 Armor, 5 Health, 1 Speed and DEMORALIZE.
a neutral tanky minion that reduces the power of opposing melee attackers? yes please! add this along with a minion with Shield and you might not take any damage...definitely one to keep in your rotation.
finally, take a look at Pelacor Arbalest: 6 mana, 2 Ranged attack, 2 Health ( meh ), 2 Speed and DOUBLE STRIKE.
add in the new +1 to Ranged Life Summoner and you've got 6 Ranged damage everytime the Arbalest attacks. yes, this unit is quite fragile, but in the right compositions it is the very definition of Glass Cannon.
and the best part? these are all Starter cards. enjoy your counterplay, folks!
image of Demonshark being awesome, and shout out to the new monsters with Tank Heal: https://splinterlands.com/?p=battle&id=sl_91b8a59189280672e78c2b11747aab13
i was sad to see my good frend Haunted Spirit leaving the Starter Card set, but i think Cursed Windeku is actually bonkers as a replacement.
yeah, one mana more, no Heal ( at lvls 1-4; the fact that it gains Heal at higher levels is just silly ) but Thorns gives it essentially double damage versus opposing tanks and it has 9 F'ING HEALTH at level 1.
Molten Ash Golem has 9 Health and Close Range, but 1 Ranged attack.
Tusk the Wide has 12 Health and Void, but 1 Melee attack and he's an Epic card.
the new cards provide a number of great new Tank options, a lot of them at lower rarities. Cursed Windeku is a great example, but there are more, like the series of 3 and 4 mana tanks in the various Splinters
Antoid Platoon, Fire
Cruel Sethropod, Water
Hill Giant, Earth
Blinding Reflector, Life
Crypt Beetle, Death
Xenith Monk, Neutral
3 mana! you can fit them anywhere! i like them as a first line tank, with another tanky monster in second position.
a final note about Xenith Monk: 4 mana for 6 health is the same ratio as Cursed Windeku, Flesh Golem, Spineback Turtle (minus the Armor). it gets Heal at lvl 2 and it becomes a very reasonable Magic damage Tank at higher levels. it's Neutral as well. seems like a good thing to me.
this utility is reflected in its current price. it sells for more than 60% of the new Rare cards. but keep an eye on it. if you want, after doing your own research of course.
image somewhat related, but i like how Hill Giant crowds into his art frame. i think its a bug. his normal art is further zoomed out.
so i see a lot of the typical comments when the market is in decline, but no one saying:
"now our tips are worth more sats."
so i guess i'll say it: now our tips are worth more sats.
thank you for your time.
ah yes, it is true once again.
https://noise.cash/post/lzwwgv63
we have come full circle.
( i love getting paid to lerk. huzzah! )
( also, hi. busy days. )
this battle is very frustrating to me. yes, i won, but not because of the specific choices i made.
https://splinterlands.com?p=battle&id=sl_cb5ba95d42da02f7238ef02c31b683d7
well, i guess i won by choosing Fire / Malric, but then, nearly every significant attack was a Speed based coin-flip. my opponent won the majority of the flips, but i won the one that mattered. that's frustrating.
i understand why this is the system. i understand that most other games in similar genres have turn-based systems that randomly determine which player goes first, and that going first often gives you an advantage, despite the extra card you get going second in Magic, or the card *and* 1 free mana you get in Hearthstone. the Splinterlands system is slightly confusing but understandable, and its occasionally random. a lot of front position battles are mirror matches where this happens frequently, but with less significance than here. Sea Monster battles can be similarly annoying.
i guess randomness is frustrating, and managing expectations in a random environment is a skill one develops. and i prefer this sort of coin-flip battle to the default Draw that would've happened in a mirror match, if i hadn't played my Fire Monkey, and i did win after all.....
believing in a creator deity (in my culture, the eponymous God) == believing in a conscious, universal ordering principle
this takes a lot of mental load off the individual. i can see why it is appealing.
then, if you don't quite understand why something happened, you can tell yourself, "hey, it happened for *some reason.*"
that is, it *makes sense to someone.*
compared to the alternatives (chaos, anarchy, The Nothing, various other negative representations of random living processes), faith in God-design is much more palatable.
if you play #Splinterlands, please look at the DEC rewards pool balance at least once a day. it will give you a sense of how much DEC you'll get from winning.
you can find the rewards pool balance here:
https://game-api.splinterlands.com/players/balances?token_type=DEC&players=$REWARD_POOL
the number is relatively stable when most people are playing, but it has jumped 3 million in the last 12 hours. if you play now, you'll earn a bigger chunk of the pool, regardless of level or earning cap.
it seems like a lot of players take a break after season end, but we should know that when others are resting, disengaged with the crypto space, *that is the time to step up.*
i also want to talk about reward expectations for a moment. the biggest thing i care about playing Splinterlands is each battle's Expected Value of DEC reward.
Expect Value (EV) is a term from probability, and it is often used in games with some sort of variance, like card games or Splinterlands, to help a player assess the value of any given game, regardless of outcome, to let that player decide if playing is still *worth it*.
you can get complicated with EV, but with Splinterlands it's pretty simple:
( your average DEC reward from a win ) multiplied by ( your winrate )
it should be pretty obvious that winning more makes this number bigger, but EV is not an objective judgment. you'll get some number from this and it's up to you to decide if that number is good enough.
i don't mind the grind to earn my rewards. i like seeing end of season loot, but that's not my goal. i mine DEC with every game.
and right now, mining is good.
i'm a nosy little son of a b* sometimes, and blockchains make this so much easier, lol....
i've been watching the #Splinterlands Chaos Legion presale leaderboard. i like having a larger sense of people's interest in the game, and the promise of new cards have a lot of folks reaching for their Hive wallets.
but who's kush-hyg? currently the leaderboard leader after buying another 2000 packs. they're buying a lot of packs....and selling them....
buying vouchers, buying cards, earning SPS, and selling packs....in total they've sold 2976 CHAOS packs...
i can't wrap my head around it. surely some of their VOUCHER was airdropped, but they've been buying some, too. and that seems like net loss....unless the SPS earned offsets this as well....with the 10% discount on packs for SPS purchases....meh.
finally, they've had to buy HIVE a few different times to power up their account. they are using absurd amounts of Resource Credits. happy to see that! Hive functioning as it should.
reading about Worldcoin, and they never once mention the potential for a blackmarket in eyeballs....
what's Worldcoin? scan your eyeball with their cool Orb to prove you're uniquely you and get some ERC-20 tokens....but! they have their own layer 2 to make transacting easier/cheaper....its meant to be world money for the future....hmmm.
a few more notes, from their Launch page:
--- "Out of the fixed supply of 10 billion tokens, twenty percent are used to fund Orb production and initial protocol development."
--- due to legal uncertainty, this new world money is not available to the US or China, lol
i like that they built a slick little webcam and want to build more, but i don't like the, how shall i put it, VIBE from this project. it's a very BIG MONEY, BIG PROMISES, OMINOUS EYEBALL situation....
image snippets from https://worldcoin.org/privacy-by-design and https://worldcoin.org/about
over 20k #Splinterlands CHAOS packs purchased today. seems like the whales are waking up. i see some older Steem/Hive names in the top 10, Cryptomancer and Neal McSpadden particularly. they were not on the board earlier today, and boom, top 10, a cool 3015 packs for Crypto....
~7.2% of the presale packs have sold....20 days left of VOUCHER airdrops....
how much would you pay for the privilege of visiting the cube?
https://opensea.io/assets/0x495f947276749ce646f68ac8c248420045cb7b5e/36033305814565393839012117540795495898903988734891995320738861183142759235585
from the listing:
"This NFT represents a real-world physical cube that will be stored at Midwest Tungsten Service headquarters and owned by the NFT owner. One visit to see/photograph/touch the cube per calendar year will be allowed....The cube will be stored in a room of its own that will be locked and only accessible by the NFT owner."
further, the cube is only visitable on a yearly basis. you visit the cube, touch its edges or whatever, snap a pick, then sell it to your friend for $1....they'll have to WAIT 365 days from your visit....
don't like the custodial set up? burn your NFT to start the delivery process, but please, prepare a nice home for your cube.
current offer of 1 WETH (~$4000), minimum bid of 47.74 ETH (yes please palindrome, atomic number 74!)
the listing imagery is godawful.
it's essential to have a plan. i remind myself this every time i want to:
--play #Splinterlands
--claim my SPS
--look at peakmonsters.com, to track potential rentals and current pricing
--look at monstermarket.io, to track current pricing
--look at my Hive Engine wallet
see, my plan is to buy Chaos Legion packs. as many as i can get, when they are $4. i have decent Splinterlands assets at the moment, *sitting idle,* and a part of my brain says, "BUY CARDS NOW, AND TOMORROW, AND THE NEXT DAY. DCA INTO NFTS UNTIL YOUR EYES BLEED," but that's not the plan.
that *was* the plan a few weeks back, when DEC was peaking and the bot farms were selling cheap Rewards cards. but Aggroed and the Splinter Police have cracked down on the filthy scum that live in Bronze (like 75% of the games playerbase?) and times are tough. now i'm waiting.
my market habits haven't really changed. it certainly pays to stay informed, keep an eye on new listings, but that leaves the door open to those nagging thoughts, buy buy buY bUY BUY.
but i have a more powerful thought. cracking fresh Summoners from packs in quantity, securing future Chaos Legion airdrop cards.
i'm happy to see people that started playing after me going after the game with such gusto. i have to admit i can't abide the rental market rollercoaster. i'm a humble DEC miner that has a nice selection of picks and drills with which to tackle the mountain. i don't need them to be gold plated.
image unrelated, but hilarious. can you tell me what happens? perhaps you'll be rewarded...🤔
i was poking around in my Hive Engine wallet last night and i noticed some VOUCHER that i had not sent from Splinterlands, so i used this sweet tool, https://he.dtools.dev/, that shows you Hive Engine token transactions, and saw that i was getting VOUCHER drips from holding INDEX...sweet!
so i bought more INDEX. i like having (a modest amount) more exposure to Splinterlands tokens, without having to do anything! i didn't go crazy by any means, but i do like my drip tokens.
if you're playing #Splinterlands but not interacting with the larger Hive ecosystem, you might be missing out on something. but of course, you'll need to do your own research to find out.
glad #Splinterlands updated the Chaos Legion presale page to include the number of packs sold.
well, it's actually on the "Leaderboard" page, where we can see the top 100 players that have purchased pre-sale packs. i think a lot of players are waiting until they have more vouchers, can buy more at a better price, etc....this is still early times. as you can see in the image below, there are still >960,000 pre-sale packs left.
i will gain 2 VOUCHER (plus fractions) over the course of the presale. i'm going to buy 2 packs. a small chance to get a free airdrop card is better than no chance.
i'm not going to sell my left over VOUCHER either. the Splinterlands team said that there will be future utility for the token, so i'm fine waiting.
'tis that spooky season. i wish this candy still existed. the world could do with more tiny plastic coffins filled with bone puzzles (with inexplicable heart shaped piece) for your children.
sometimes two wrongs can make a right:
my laziness often defeats my poor impulse control.
ahhhhhhhhhhh
so i'm not dead, y'all. even if i feel like it sometimes.
it's cold and i've been working a lot, and then grinding Splinterlands like a feend....
weird when you "don't have time" for things that are rewarding. there's a pit in my stomach when i think about all the writing ideas i have and how i never seem to have enough mental bandwidth to get to the actual writing part....
read.cash i miss you. noise i miss you.
okay, so this *is* as mind-blowing as they say:
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/snes/588741-super-metroid/faqs/10114
image relevant but not *the spoiler*
you say huh lerk? maybe Matt Gemmell on Twitter can explain it better:
https://twitter.com/mattgemmell/status/1441497498573545478
as my dad would say, "form follows function." in this instance, they are tightly wrapped up with each other. this is art. if you think that's an overstatement, sue me.
i spent a good portion of my computer time as a kid on the GameFAQs message boards, so this is also hitting my nostalgia centers. i like me some manually formatted plain text.
so i'm stacking (small amounts) of NANO....
i want my % of a fully distributed free to transact token. that seems good. i still need to wrap my brain fully around the blockchain structure, and naturally all the major positive sources say nothing of potential drawbacks...
but i've heard others mention it positively before, and BANANO is an absurd and lovely thing which speaks to the community involved.
a small amount of my time for a slice of something. turned out well so far for my "investment" in noise and BCH, as well as my time on Hive....this is not the same at all, aside for time spent. i suppose we'll see.
have you ever thought of buying a Chicken? what about renting one?
for your consideration:
https://splinterlands.com?p=battle&id=sl_e0c5c05b7cccff7ed4e2c2854f1c0f77
perhaps i should've put the Chicken in first position, but the result is the same. something to think about. this is just ONE use for the zero mana monster.
i ended up buying Kretch, Evangelist, Uraeus, Gargoya Devil and a Fire Spitter yesterday. a bit more DEC than i wanted to spend but i've been eyeing Fire Spitter for a while.
if i didn't own Byzantine Kitty, the sweet Legendary Dragon summoner that gives +2 speed, which is absolutely BONKERS, i probably would've skipped the Spitter, as i couldn't play it in Modern, but i can play it now, it's very strong, and i doubt it will lose much value as it is only getting rarer.
so i drained some of my DEC reserves, raised my card power, joined Silver league ( where i'm struggling a bit... ), and *still* earn enough SPS for my daily staking goal, with a little extra to set aside for easy swapping. perhaps i should've used the SPS tool that @achim03 wrote about recently on Hive:
https://www.splintercards.com/tool-sps-airdrop.html
it worked out anyway, but it doesn't hurt to plan things out a bit better! the lust for cards got me a bit i guess.
my first chest in Silver III this season? a Legendary *and* an Alchemy potion....ooOOooOOooh. love getting TWO chests instead of just one.
this #Splinterlands card seems really cheap to me at the moment.
Axemaster is an Epic Water splinter monster with 2 Ranged attack and the Double strike ability. that means it does 4 damage a round, barring debuffs. it has 4 speed so it often goes first, it generally wins Speed tie-breakers because it is Epic.
having a strong Ranged attacker for your splinters is very important. for Water this is especially important, as a lot of your power at lower levels comes from Alric Stormbringer and Magic attackers, making you easy to counter. Axemaster diversifies your damage output.
and if you purchase on https://monstermarket.io, you get 3% DEC back! i'm not affiliated with this site at all, i just use it and love the discount!
i spend a lot of my days monitoring #Splinterlands things. it's very compelling, and my attention has proven rewarding many times over now.
i'm currently evaluating more card purchases to finally clear 15,000 card power and unlock Silver III. Bronze I is proving very competitive, and filled with tuned rental accounts with *the* meta compositions all in gold foil to maximize return.
i don't play that way. i buy cards when they seem affordable to me. i don't want a rental cost hanging over my head, pushing me to play more and draining my DEC capture rate.
i still "need" some cards to fill out my level 1 collection, ignoring absurd Legendaries that are out of my price range currently. i'm aiming to play the new Modern format, which is limited to Untamed and Chaos Legion, so i'm currently looking at:
--a good amount of the Untamed set. i'm not sure if Spectral cards will still be a thing after Chaos Legion, so i might need to own the Summoners and core cards
--Kretch Tallevor, Dragon Summoner for 3 mana
--Evangelist, Life Ranged attacker
--Uraeus, a useful addition. wish i saved the battle link for the match where it DESTROYED me single-handedly. that was fun, in a way.
i'd love to grab Tortisian Chief and Lobstradamus as well, but they're a bit expensive atm....maybe if i use more BCH....the Gorlodon is neat but not a pressing purchase.
finally, the rental market is quite cheap at the moment so i've stopped renting my Legendaries. welcome back to match life Cornealus, you gimmicky son of a b*!
@lerkfrendOnNoiseApp
