How to Play and Earn with Splinterlands
GameFi is a term composed of the words “game” and “finance” that points to blockchain games where you get rewarded with crypto for playing.
Another popular name you can come across is play-to-earn. Players get rewarded in various ways: through new coins and tokens, more powerful characters, ownership of land, and NFTs. Blockchain games are significantly different from traditional video games that are centralized in nature and only exist on a company server somewhere in the world. Your in-game progress and everything you have achieved remains in the control of the creators, and outside of those walls, there is nothing you can do with it.
Luckily, the GameFi industry has realized that its players are the ones creating value and giving importance to their games. Therefore, they need to be incentivized and given actual ownership of those virtual creations. The earn-to-play model allows buying, selling, trading, borrowing, or giving away digital items on marketplaces that don’t have to be connected to the game itself. The cryptocurrencies earned for your progress can be sold on crypto exchanges like ChangeNOW.
Billions of dollars are being invested in the GameFi sector. Splinterlands has been one of the hottest games for several years now. Let’s see how you can benefit from playing this action-packed game and what it’s all about.
What Is Splinterlands?
Splinterlands is a collectible NFT card game released in 2018. The game runs on the Hive blockchain and consists of automated battles in multiplayer mode between different people. Each card is an individual NFT owned by a real player.
Splinterlands was created out of the disappointment of traditional card games. They allowed the companies behind them to remain in absolute control and even restrict, delete, or suspend certain users for supposed term violations. But with the decentralized nature of the blockchain, that is no longer a concern.
In its beginning, this game was named Steem Monsters and was launched on the Steem blockchain. The name change didn’t occur before April 2019, and the migration to Hive happened in 2020.
The original Steem Monsters series was a great success. From May until November 2018, it had already seen over 1 million battles. Before 2019, the company had paid out over $25.000 to its players in tournament mode, while the card sales on the official marketplace reached $1 million.
Several important milestones were reached in 2020: Splinterlands integrated with Ethereum, the official mobile app was launched, and support was added for many cryptocurrencies, plus PayPal. In 2021, the company launched new bridges to Binance Smart Chain and the WAX blockchain. The increased popularity among gamers resulted in tournament prizes of over $200.000 being awarded since the game’s release.
The Team and Founders of Splinterlands
Splinterlands has two co-founders: Dr. Jesse “Aggroed” Reich, and Matthew “Yabapmatt” Rosen. Jesse is the company CEO, while Matthew is the CPO. Dr. Reich is a longtime gamer and designer. Matt is an experienced blockchain developer, computer programmer, and game designer.
The two of them met in 2018 while working on a completely different project. Their interests in gaming made them become partners and develop the Splinterlands card game. Besides these two co-founders, the company has over 60 employees and an unknown number of advisors, partners, and investors.
It’s important to mention the CTO “Hardpoint,” Nate Aguila, the Creative Director, eSports Manager “Weirdbeard,” and “Chatter,” who is the Head of Marketing.
How to Play Splinterlands
Splinterlands is available for desktop, Android, and iOS devices. The initial registration is free and gives the player a starter pack of NFT battle cards. A tutorial will walk you through the basics and allow you to play demo matches to get the hang of it. But to earn Splinterlands crypto rewards, join tournaments, and go into battle, you must pay $10 to buy the Summoner’s Spellbook.
Once you have made the purchase, you can start collecting the in-game tokens in several ways. It’s important to remember that Splinterlands is a strategic game focusing on tactical battle preparation and placing characters in strategically vital positions. The battles themselves are fully automated.
For each round, a player can pick 1 Summoner and 6 Monsters. The summoner summons their fighters, but only if they belong to the same team as him. These teams or groups are known as **splinters, **and there are 7 different kinds: fire, water, earth, life, death, dragon, and neutral splinters.
The fighters are known as monsters. All monsters have their own strengths and abilities denoted in stats for health, armor, speed, and attack. These qualities determine their chances of winning in battles.
The winner of each round receives rating points and Splinterlands crypto rewards. There are a few ways you can do that.
Splinterlands’ native currency is called Dark Energy Crystals (DEC). It can be earned by winning battles in ranked mode against other players. Depending on the level you are at, the level of the opponent, and your collection power and rating points, you can earn more or less of DEC.
Another way to earn Dark Energy Crystals is by selling your cards (NFTs) on the Splinterlands marketplace. Rare cards can reach prices of thousands of dollars, while the most common ones are only worth a few cents.
The DEC Splinterlands token is awarded for completing daily quests and as the end-of-season rewards. Players can complete specific tasks daily and receive new NFTs or Dark Energy Crystals as an incentive. When a season ends (after 12 to 16 days), players can unlock chest rewards depending on their league level and overall ranking. Better rewards await those playing in the highest of leagues.
Winning tournaments earns the most tokens. They take place every day and have an entry fee to participate. However, the best ones issue rewards of hundreds and thousands of USD worth of crypto.
Lastly, the market section has a feature that allows players to rent out their cards and receive daily rewards according to the character’s strengths and abilities.
Splinterlands Roadmap
The team working on the Splinterlands product has released an official roadmap explaining the current development state and what can be expected in the future.
- The developers decided to increase the ranked battle rewards in Q2 2022, offering players greater potential to earn more crypto.
- Owners of SPS tokens had the chance to vote for validator nodes that verify transactions, control foundation funds, and maintain the network.
- Ranked battles now have two modes: wild and modern. The difference between them is in the types of cards that can be featured.
Q3 of 2022 will introduce the following novelties:
- It will become possible to sell and purchase parcels of land on the official Splinterlands marketplace.
- A new type of card will be introduced called Riftwatchers. These can only be bought with the SPS Splinterlands token.
For Q4 2022, the team plans to release a new user interface for the wild and modern battles. Additionally, a physical meetup will be organized in Las Vegas on 8-9 October 2022, titled Splinterfest.
Some new changes are in the works for Q1 2023 as well. Rebellion cards will be released to the community. An upgrade is expected for the Lands feature that foresees the creation of new buildings and land areas.
The 3 Tokens of Splinterlands
This card game comes with 3 different cryptocurrencies. Each asset has its own use case. The tokens you will come across are Dark Energy Crystals (DEC), Splinterlands Credits (CREDITS), and Splintershards (SPS).
Dark Energy Crystals (DEC)
The main in-game currency is DEC. Being victorious in battles earns players new Dark Energy Crystals. This Splinterlands token is pegged to the USD in the ratio of 1000 DEC = $1. During times of volatility, the fixed daily rewards pool of 1 million DEC is adjusted to maintain the same value.
Dark Energy Crystals are burned when NFTs are sold on the marketplace to preserve a steady price for the asset. DEC tokens are not just used within the game of Splinterlands. They are also listed and can be traded on various cryptocurrency exchanges.
Splinterland Credits (CREDITS)
Credits are somewhat different from DEC. They have no value outside the game and can’t be bought or sold on 3rd-party platforms. These tokens have the same market value as DEC (1000 CREDITS is worth $1) and can be used to purchase or lend cards and NFTs on the official Splinterlands marketplace.
Additionally, the referral system uses CREDITS to pay out commissions. This digital asset can be bought with PayPal or a long list of established cryptocurrencies.
Splintershards (SPS)
SPS is Splinterlands’ official governance token. Splintershards is a BEP-20 coin that can be staked and used for voting on community proposals. Each token represents one vote on the network. A 1/3 of the SPS total supply was airdropped to active players following their in-game collection power.
The game has thousands of active nodes that validate transactions and receive block rewards. These validators use a Delegated Proof of Stake (DPoS) consensus algorithm with open-source software.
Wallets & Exchanges
Dark Energy Crystals
Dark Energy Crystals are available in 2 forms: ERC-20 and TRC-10 tokens. The most popular wallets to store these coins in include Trust Wallet, MetaMask, Tronlink, and Binance Chain Wallet.
When we are on the subject of crypto exchanges, several of them have listed Dark Energy Crystals. They can be purchased on Uniswap, PancakeSwap, Hive Engine, Steem Engine, Club Defi, TribalDEX, and TronTrade.
Splintershards
SPS tokens can be stored in some of the same wallets as DEC. But the most reliable software for long-term storage is NOW Wallet. It offers support both for the ERC-20 version and the BEP-20 one. Other popular apps include Trust Wallet, MetaMask, and Binance Chain Wallet.
For instant and hassle-free purchasing and selling of Splintershards, we suggest ChangeNOW. This governance token can be exchanged for other cryptocurrencies or fiat. Alternatively, you are free to buy your tokens on Gate.io, Uniswap, MEXC, Crypto.com, PancakeSwap, etc.
