Cover Image: Logo and Character images owned by @splinterlands - Edit by @libertycrypto27- Font used is Open Source
Splinterlands is one of the most famous games in the world of blockchains.
It is by far the most played game on the Hive blockchain.
Splinterlands is above all my favourite game.
You can play Splinterlands for free but in order to receive the rewards which are mainly cards (NFT) and DEC (game tokens) you need to pay an entry fee of $10.
The entry fee is easily recouped if you participate in the contests that the Splinterlands account organises on Hive.
Players who participate in the weekly contests receive a maximum of two upvotes per week and it takes 5-6 participations to recover the initial cost.
One of the contests that Splinterlands organises is called "Share Your Battle" and usually has a theme that corresponds to a card.
The protagonist card of the latest Splinterlands contest is the Water Elemental card.
Water Elemental is a very good and useful card in battle and is also one of the cards I used most of the time when I was at the beginning of my Splinterlands adventure and when I had a much smaller card collection than now.
The topics I'll be covering in this post are as follows:
Topics
- Card: Water Elemental
- Description, Stats and Skills.
- Cost and Levels
- Level Considerations
- My battle with Water Elemental.
- My battle formation.
- Battle Considerations
- Final Considerations on Water Elemental.
Card: Water Elemental
Description, Stats and Abilities
Water Elemental is a card that is part of two different collections: Alpha and Beta.
It is a Rare card and is a card of the Water Element.
Water Elemental of level 1 has the following stats:
- It has a low to medium mana cost (5).
- It has 3 ranged attack points.
- It has 4 life points and has no armor points.
- It has good speed (4).
- Level 1 Water Elemental has an ability: Heal.
The Heal ability allows Water Elemental to restore a portion of its life points (+2) each round of battle.
The Heal ability is one of my favourite abilities and is very useful in battle.
When it reaches level 5, it acquires a second ability: Dodge.
Cards that have the Dodge ability have a higher chance of avoiding a melee or ranged attack.
Cost and Levels
The lowest cost of Water Elemental (Level 1) - Alpha Collection on the market is $0.78 (March 2, 2021)
In the following image you can see the complete statistics
The lowest cost of Water Elemental (Level 1) - Beta Collection on the market is $0.68 (March 2, 2021)
In the following image you can see the complete statistics
Considerations on levels
Level 3
Level 3 is the level that, in my opinion, has the best benefit/price ratio!
When Water Elemental reaches level 3, it improves its stats compared to level 1 in the following way:
- increases speed points by one unit (4->5)
- Increases health points (4->5)
- Increases attack points (2->3)
To reach level 3 you need:
- 4 cards to combine for the Alpha edition and the best price on the market is 4.48 $.
- 5 cards to combine for the Beta edition and the best price on the market is 1,88 $(purchase of a level 3 card (0,50$) plus the purchase of 2 level 1 cards (0,68$ + 0,70$) ).
Level 5
Level 5 is the second interesting level to consider, because when Water Elemental reaches level 5 it acquires its second and last skill (Dodge) and, compared to level 3 increases the health points by one unit (5->6).
To upgrade Water Elemental to level 5 you need:
- 16 cards to combine for the Alpha edition and the best price on the market is 7.99 $.
- 21 cards to combine for the Beta edition and the best price on the market is 5.00 $.
Level 7
Level 7 is the third interesting level to consider because when Water Elemental reaches level 7 it increases the attack points by one unit (3->4) and reaches the maximum possible attack score.
To upgrade Water Elemental to 7th level you need:
- 46 cards to combine for the Alpha edition and the best price on the market is 22.50$.
- 61 cards to combine for the Beta edition and the best price on the market is 9,00 $
Max level (Level 8)
To reach the maximum level (8) that Water Elemental can reach, you need:
- 86 cards to be combined for the Alpha edition and the cheapest cost on the market is 25.70 $.
- 115 cards to combine for the Beta edition and the best price on the market is 16,95 $.
My advice is to upgrade Water Elemental to level 3 which is the level that has the best benefit/cost ratio especially if we consider Water Elemental from the Beta edition which costs only $1.88.
Between level 7 and level 8, I don't recommend level 8 because spending 3,20$ more for the Alpha edition or spending 7,95$ more for the Beta edition to have only 1 life point more than level 7 is not a very reasonable choice because it's important to expand your card collection first to have more strategic choices and, eventually, only later on to think about bringing the cards of your collection to the maximum level.
Now let's see how Water Elemental behaves on the Battlefield
A battle of mine with Water Elemental
If you want to see the battle, you can do so from this link:
https://splinterlands.com?p=battle&id=53ecdd2a05612c11adbbff8456b93a43f02568ef&ref=libertycrypto27
In the battle of this post I had the following conditions to respect:
- Close Range: All cards with a range attack can also attack from the first position.
- Mana Cap: 21.
- Useable Summoners: Only summoners of the elements can be used: Water, Dragon and Death.
My battle formation
The maximum number of cards that can be deployed in battle is 7 (1 Summoner + 6 monsters)
I chose to deploy 6 cards (in order of position):
Furious Chicken - Kelp Initiate - Halfling Alchemist - Ruler of the Seas - Crustacean King - Water Elemental
Alric Stormbringher (Summoner)
I chose this battle because Close Range is one of the combat rules that favours the use of the Water Elemental card in battle.
In fact, the weakness of Water Elemental, but of all ranged cards in general, is that when it gets to first position it loses the ability to attack the opponent's cards.
First position: I deployed Furious Chicken (level 3 - Gold version) in first position because I chose not to use strong and resistant cards in first position (Tank) in order to have the possibility to deploy Ruler of the Seas in fourth position.
Furious Chicken together with Kelp Initiate and Halfling Alchemist are weak cards to deploy in the first positions, but in this case they act as expendable cards to avoid the card with the strongest attack of my battle formation (Ruler of the Seas) to suffer at least 3 attacks.
Second position: In second position I deployed Kelp Initiate (level 3).
A card that costs only 2 mana points and has a high speed.
When Furious Chicken is eliminated, it will be able to withstand at least two attacks from opposing cards due to its high speed.
Third position: For the third position I chose the card Halfling Alchemist (level 1).
Halfling Alchemist is a card I like a lot because it has a very good ability (Halving) and a very low mana cost (2).
I chose the third position to protect it and to allow Halfling Alchemist to attack at least once the opponent's card in first position.
Halfling Alchemist will allow me to halve the attack points of the card my opponent will deploy in first position, which is usually the card with the most attack points.
Fourth position: In fourth position I have the card Ruler of the Seas (level 2).
My Ruler of the Seas card is level 3, but because I'm in the Silver League its maximum usable level is level 2.
It's one of my favourite cards and its Blast ability allows me to attack at least two cards every round with one attack.
Fifth position: In fifth position I have Crustacean King (level 5).
Crustacean King is a very useful card that I use a lot.
It only costs 3 mana and thanks to its Tank Heal ability it can restore the life points of the card in first position every round.
Sixth position: In the last position I put the protagonist of this week's Splinterland contest: Water Elemental (Level 3).
Water Elemental is a great card to play in last place because:
- it has a very high speed that allows you to have a high probability of avoiding an attack and the last position is the second most attacked position after obviously the first position.
- It has the Heal ability which is very useful especially when the opponent fields cards with the Sneak ability that will target the card in last position.
As summoner I have chosen Alric Stormbringher (level 5) that thanks to his ability allows me to increase of one point the attack of my cards with magic attack and in the case of the battle of this post Ruler of the Seas acquires a magic attack of 4 points.
Battle Considerations
Generally for the Share Your Battle contest I choose a balanced battle and in fact in this battle there is an initial balance:
- my opponent has a higher total life + armour points than my battle formation (27 vs 23)
- I have a higher total of attack points than my opponent's battle formation (10 vs 7).
From a strategic point of view, my opponent has a fairly balanced formation: 1 card with a magic attack, 1 card with a ranged attack, 2 cards with a melee attack and 1 card without an attack (5 cards in total).
I decide to go for cards with ranged attack: 1 card with melee attack, 1 card without attack points, 1 card with magic attack and 3 cards with ranged attack (6 cards in total).
During Round 1 I lose Furious Chicken as expected while my opponent loses Haunted Spirit who can't make it to Round 2 to use his Heal ability.
During Round 2 I lose Ruler of the Seas which suffers the attacks of the opponent's cards that, thanks to the opponent's summoner ability, all acquire the Magic Reflect ability.
At the start of Round 3 I reversed the situation regarding total life plus armour points and I took the advantage (12 vs 6).
I'm still ahead in terms of attack strength as well, although my advantage is only one point (6 vs 5).
At the start of Round 5 my advantage is especially noticeable because I have two cards that have the ability to restore some of their life points.
The battle ends in the second turn of Round 6 with me winning.
Final considerations about Water Elemental
Water Elemental is a very useful card in battle and is a great card to play in last position.
It's a card I used a lot in the early leagues of Splinterlands.
Today I have a larger collection than in the past and I use it less frequently but Water Elemental is a very useful card and I think it should not be missing in any card collection.
If we consider the statistics and its ability (Heal) from level 1 it is a card that has a good benefit/cost ratio.
According to my point of view the favourable battle rules for the use of the Water Elemental card in battle are:
- Close Range
- Rise of the commons
- Lost Legendaries
- Unprotected
- Fog of war
With this post I am participating in the weekly Splinterlands contest entitled "Share Your Battle"(on Hive blockchain).
If you're a Splinterlands player, I highly recommend that you participate as well.
Not a Splinterlands player?
If you are not a Splinterlands player, you are missing out on a unique opportunity to have fun while earning cards and DEC.
If you decide to register, you can do so from this link:
https://splinterlands.com?ref=libertycrypto27
Of course if you'd like to use my refferal link... :)
If you use a refferal link when registering for Splinterlands you have the following advantage:
Splinterlands is a beautiful game but it is above all a good investment (I'm not a financial advisor and this is not a financial advice but just my personal opinion) especially if you regularly participate in the weekly contests organized by the @splinterlands account.
See you on the Splinterlands battlefields.
Unless otherwise indicated, the images in this post are screenshots taken from the sites:
https://splinterlands.com?ref=libertycrypto27
The images containing calculations and tables are my property
Font used is Open Source
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