Splinterlands | The Road To 500k Staked SPS!
The State of Splinterlands
Splinterlands is still alive and there is no sign that it will go down like many other web 3 games, which on its own is quite the achievement, especially as the altseason bull market has been canceled, as retail seems to have zero interest anymore in crypto.
The main change that has been made is the new reward system which so far is holding up much better than I expected. Basically, right now, there is demand from the whales for the gold foil cards that come unlocked from the rewards, which gives them a minimum value of around 0.40$ for common cards.
At the same time, I'm not quite sure if this will hold up as eventually more of them will get them to max level lowering the demand while the supply keeps coming. They are limited in maximum print rate and that certainly might help to keep the values up. My strategy right now is to just sell all the ones that I earn, use the DEC to pay for the Battlepass, and convert what it left to SPS while keeping an eye out for possible deals on older max level cards.
Aside from this for me, there is almost nothing to do anymore in Splinterlands as a game. I'm burned out by too many cards and abilities with the archmage bot service playing all of my Wild battles and I mainly just manage my collection and my rewards. The only thing I do play manually anymore are the Brawls. Modern is no option as I believe it's a sure way to lose a ton of money and time. Tournaments still feel unfair like a poker tournament which is pay2win which only makes sense for the players who have all the cards and edge. In a way right now, it's a relief that I no longer have to play Splinterlands as a game but at the same time I also would want to play it in a way where it is actually made fun and fair like for example a Draft Mode which I still believe is the key to actually make Splinterlands into a success.
I might make a post next week going deeper into the new reward system.
Welcome To The Family New Max Level Cards
From the looks of it, the prices of old cards on the market have somewhat bottomed. There was a moment when max Level summoners went under 4$ and some of the legendary ones around 6-7$
By now, they have gone back above 5$, despite the fact that DEC and the Burn value went down way below the Peg value at 0.000577$.
Since Survival Mode is offline right now, there is/was more selling pressure which I believe potentially offered an opportunity to pick up some cards. I actually ended up buying 2 more Max Level cards with an eye to put them to use when Survival mode comes back.
Supply Runner
The thing with Wild and Survivor mode is that the most favorable cards are the overprinted Chaos Legion Cards as they get you the most bang for your buck. The Supply Runner as a Neutral card is one that is often used by archmage and especially as a Common card, it's handy to have an extra copy. At 5.819$ it feels quite cheapgiven that it has 400 copies in it and that it's a strong useful card. So I stacked it with an eye on the future.
Merdaali Guardian
Water along with Death remain my favorite Splinters and one of the cards that is very useful in many decks is the Merdaali Guardian. It sucks to lose that in Survival mode so at 5.749$, I also bought another copy of that with an eye to get stronger in Survival Mode once that comes back.
Archmage Beta Upgrade
Somewhere in the past 6 months since the last accumulation update, I upgraded from my standard Archmage Pass which took a whopping 35% of my earnings to a Archmage Beta Pass which now takes 25%. An Alpha pass at 15% would even be better but I would need to see one for sale at a reasonable price to get it.
SPS Accumulation
The general trend in Splinterlands continues in that the bar always gets raised as Glints now is way more expensive and with higher Staked SPS Requirements. This while the vakue of SPS continued to only go down. 6 Months ago, 316k SPS was worth 3381$, while right now 348k SPS (10% more) is worth 2305$ (-32% less)
| 6 Months Ago | Now |
|---|---|
 |  |
I don't see Splinterlands going down completely though, and at one point, I do believe it will start to reverse to a situation where there simply is not enough SPS for everyone pushing up the price again. So, I'm moving my target again to 500k SPS which means I only have to add 1000$ more SPS to reach that at the current price levels.
Looking at the chart, it does feel like it kind of has been setting a base bottom level. There is also the upcoming mini set which should increase demand a bit even though I still believe it mainly gets the price of DEC down to where people actually value the packs.
Conclusion!
Splinterlands has shown some sparks of hope which made me resume my accumulation increasing my Staked SPS goal but still a lot need to happen and improve to actually get some widespread adoption.
Do you plan to buy more SPS to get closer to the 500k or sticking with re-staking earnings? Either way, good luck!
I do plan to buy some more SPS if the prices stay at this level or go lower by rotating some of the other assets into them like sold reward cards, vouchers, ...
Eventually all value should flow into SPS and als everything stands or falls with it the way it is set up. Right now from playing and staking I earn somewhere between 700 and 1000 SPS naturally, so there is no realistic way for me to reach 500k without actively buying some.
Yeah that makes sense. I'm in a similar situation.
With tournaments at least you get a good ROI on SPS gained.
My problem with tournaments remains the idea that they are not fair, they shoule be set up in a way where everyone is equal and not where the same few people who have all the cards have an edge and take all of the money. Imagine poker tournaments but where certain players get deald Aces far more often, why would anyone outside the ones who have an advantage take part. It never made sense to me.
I think tournaments are fair. A player who has a power a 1 million or close to it, can't use a level 8 rare summoner in a bronze or silver tournament. I've encountered players who have a lot of power in these tournaments. In a bronze tournament, the highest level a rare summoner can be is level 2. In a silver tournament, the highest level a rare summoner can be is level 4. If a player has cards that are at a level of diamond & champion league, the levels of the higher cards get decreased to the level caps of the bronze or silver tournaments.
If only I could achieve 10% of your goal.
Interesting observation:
Yes, I agree losing time in playing modern. How about losing money?
Looking at the chart, this provides a rare opportunity for accumulation.
The way I see it, you now buy packs for 4$ (eventually the DEC should be worth that) which gives you 5 cards most likely 4 commons & 1 Rare. Old cards range from 2.5$-10$ for a max level card which has 400 limited copies combined. Once Modern cards are dumped into wild, their utility is almost fully stripped away and they are bound to trade closer to the value of the cheapest cards. I would be surprised if it was possible to out-earn the devaluation over their time in modern which is why I believe it' a losing proposition.
When it comes down to the price, you never really know. I used to think under 0.02$ for SPS was a really cheap yet here we are 66% lower. The main thing I look at is the likelyhood that Splinterlands will keep existing. In that regard, I see Splinterlands as probably the #1 best Crypto game out there.
Now I understand why you said a player is losing money in modern.