Earnings, Fun, & Community!
The Reality about Web3 Games is that new players don't come in looking to have fun and spend money on a gaming experience in Web 2 like Hearthstone where all money that is put into the game is basically lost forever into the pocked of the devs. Nearly everyone comes with an eye to possibly earn something along the way potentially discovering a fun game as a nice bonus.
I've seen many come for the money but stay for the Fun Game and the Great Community. These are the main tips I have for anyone who aims to earn by playing this game...
How Play2Earn Earnings Work!
As someone who has been in Spinterlands for 5+ Years, I've experienced both the depressing lows and the crazy insane highs so far giving me some experience in how these cycles things work.
Basically what all earnings in every Play2Earn game come down to is enough new players coming into the ecosystem pushing up the prices (making the game crazy expensive) and providing exit liquidity to older players before the devs press the print button to make sure they benefit the most from the growth. Once the inflow of new players comes down, it is followed by a situation where de supply is bigger than the demand causing players to drop out selling off their assets until a bottom is reached for the pattern to possibly start over again. Eventually, a game will come to the end of its life cycle and everything goes to zero or is recycled somehow into the next game.
The way it usually goes is that everyone is coming in at the same time when prices get crazy expensive while nobody is willing to get in while there is a bit of uncertainty while prices are trading at a massive discount.
The main way to earn from Play2Earn games is to get in while it is cheap before the real adoption wave happens and get out the moment everyone else wants in and before the devs press the print button. This is exactly what happened near the end of the Untamed era with most players coming in once that sold out causing the prices to go bonkers. This along with the printing of an insane amount of DEC and the creation of the SPS token which was given out to holders along with the next set to be double as expensive with roughly 10x the print rate. This overestimation of real demand since many of the 'new players' were bots that just tried to extract value, caused the depression phase where everything went down in value.
In a way, it's similar to Bitcoin which had multiple boom & bust cycles where each time the next one grew bigger compared to the previous one.
Will There Be Another Adoption Wave?
So in order to actually earn from the game you need to get in during the depression phase and there needs to be another adoption phase. If something can be said for sure is that right now we are NOT at a peak FOMO Top Cycle. Chaos Legion Packs that were sold in the store for 4$+ at the moment go for 0.77$.
Over the longer term, however, Beta & Untamed packs that were sold for 2$ I believe now on the secondary market go for 30$ and 10$ still now after the overall card valuation drops giving a return on long-term holding. The main question is if there will be another adoption wave and if Splinterlands will have more demand again. On these questions, I believe the answer is YES for the following reasons... (even though it likely won't get as crazy as last time)
- Splinterlands is a Fun Game: Many of the players that came in at the peak of the market when Untamed Sold out got crushed hard but are still around enjoying the game. The community is still going strong with many players that turned into content creators on Youtubve All Splinterlands Youtube Channels
- Game Economy seems Bottoming: With the outlook of Rebellion and Land to be released in a couple of weeks, 1000 DEC has gotten closer to the 1$ Peg (0.98$ now). SPS also is at a realistic 20 Million Market cap (which is nothing compared to games like Axie, Sandbox, ... who have way less of an actual product)
- Dev Team Restructuring: This happened twice in the past years in order to make the cost of running and making the game cheaper so there is less need for short term team earnings in order to keep things running.
- New Crypto Bull Run: Everything looks to be set for Bitcoin to see new all-time highs somewhere in the coming years which always translates into the altcoin market. There also yet has to a real mainstream Web3 game. The moment this happens, all eyes will be on all the crypto games and Splinterlands as one of the originals should be able to ride that wave.
So its quite safe to assume that Splinterlands is closer to the lows than to the highs with at some point in time another adoption wave of new players to come. This setup should make it possible to get some good earnings from the game.
Is Splinterlands For You?
So far the ones that got rewarded the most in Splinterlands are the ones that were early into the ecosystem and either stuck to it all the way through while taking some profit when things went wild. In order to get in this position going forward, the game itself needs to be really your thing as nobody really survives this long just for the money alone.
I would say If you enjoy games like Hearthstone; Splinterlands is something you should be able to equally enjoy if not more (which is the case for me). You also don't need a crazy budget right now as cards on the market are cheap while there also is an option to rent assets to play with very cheaply.
Tip To Recover the Initial Investment!
While the game can be tried out for Free, a 10$ investment is needed in order to buy the Spellbook and get access to the earning part of the game. This comes with 3$ worth of credits that can be used to buy or rent some extra cards. The best way by far to recover this initial investment and beyond is to use Hive Account (which you get from Buying The Spellbook) to write and report on your initial impression and journey about the game along with joining the weekly challenges that are put up on @splinterlands. When done right, the upvotes gotten from Splinterlands curators will easily pay back what you put in to get started within the first weeks/month. Writing about the game and engaging in the community remains one of the best ways to earn in the ecosystem
Earning In The Game
When it comes down to the in-game earnings in Splinterlands, it has been a story where bots in masses try to get a yield by selling earnings which put a lot of pressure on the market followed by rewards getting nerfed. This manifested in reward cards becoming Soulound so they no longer can be dumped while they can be used in the game to earn other rewards. The main rewards now in the game come from SPS earned from each Won Battle (this is much more in Modern where bots are not allowed) and chests that include SPS. This Staked SPS also earns Staking Rewards and once Rebellion is released, those packs (worth 3$-4$) will likely be included in the rewards also. It is also possible to rent out cards that you own as a way to earn rewards even though the rental market is extremely cheap right now.
How Much Playing Earns?
I started tracking my personal weekly earnings again from playing the game in the past months. Currently, these earnings are very low and don't really justify the time but when taking a potential 10x or more in SPS Price (which isn't crazy by any means) it surely adds up and is worth it. Right now I'm playing 2 accounts (Level 6 and Level 3 Summoners), getting around 14-20 Gold Reward chests daily on average along with 100+ Season Gold Chests while Joining 1 Silver tournament and Brawl Entries for both teams. I also have a total of 177k SPS Staked which earns me staking rewards and Vouchers. This last week exactly earned me 15.77$ (Pack Earnings & Merrits not Included). I'm also looking to put some cards on the Rental Market again the coming weekend to further increase this.
Tips For Beginners
If you end up starting a Splinterlands Journey, these are some tips that could help...
- Learn How The Game Works: There will be multiple guides on this. There are many aspects to the game and it can get quite complicated to understand the entire economy.
- Use monstermarket.io: To Buy Cards as they give a cashback in DEC on your purchases. (splinterlands.aqualis.io might also be ab option but I haven't tried that one yet)
- Play in Modern: Chaos Legion Cards are cheap Right now and Modern actually pays nice returns on Won Battles while you will play against humans instead of bots
- Top of Silver > Botton of Gold: You likely will earn more SPS on each battle when playing at the top of a lower league compared to moving up and battling near the bottom of a higher league.
- Consistency is Key: Each individual win or extra card you are able to purchase might not be much but is for sure adds up over time.
Conclusion
If you want to earn in Splinterlands, you need to get in at a time when everything is down and before the next big adoption wave happens. The only way to really make it is if the game itself is actually the thing that you enjoy playing. If there ever comes a time when things go crazy, make sure to get out at least your initial investment. In the first place, see Splinterlands as a fun game which allows you to sell your assets if you ever move on and not something to make a quick buck off.
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That's very true. I think we had very nice discounts lately when we look at the long term picture. Great post!
I have picked this post on behalf of the @OurPick project which will be highlighted in the next post!
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Thanks for sharing! - @alokkumar121
