Do you know what it means when a Splinterlands card is rimmed with gold just before being revealed? Of course you do!
It means you are about to flip a Legendary card. If you have had the fortune of finding a Legendary NFT card in Splinterlands, then you know: It’s an exciting moment when that card shakes in anticipation of its Legendary identity being revealed.
If the card turns gold, you know you’re having a great day.
Below are listed the four different levels of rarity in Splinterlands cards: Common, Rare, Epic and Legendary, with drop chances for each.
Common Cards - 75.2% Chance with Each Card Flipped
They are only common in name and at a glance, and here’s why. The only way for players to level up their cards is to combine them. Commons at max levels are some of the strongest cards in the game, because it takes so many of them to reach the max level. These numbers also sometimes vary by set. For example, a Common card from the Alpha Set requires 379 single cards to reach the max level of 10, while a Common card from the Untamed Set requires a total of 400. No matter the set, it takes a lot of Commons to get a Champion-League contender, and once those cards are combined, they cannot be uncombined.
Supply
Because of the above-mentioned combining issue, as the number of players grows, the number in existence of each common will be reduced. Take for example the Elven Cutthroat.
She is a heavily-played card that is playable in any Splinter, part of the first set of Neutral monsters that was released. With Beta Common cards, 505 singles are needed to reach level 10. There are currently less than 18,000 Elven Cutthroats in circulation, which means that only 35 more max versions of this card can be created. As new players buy single-BCX versions of this card, even the potential of 35 more max Elven Cutthroats will be gradually reduced, one BCX at a time.
Take as another example Rusty Android, the #1 most “burned” card in Splinterlands. Over 61% of Regular Foil Rusty and a whopping 94.3% of Gold Foil Rusty have been burned for Dark Energy Crystals.
Even with all that burning, Rusty Android’s circulating supply is around 80,000, which is about 4.5 times higher than that of the Elven Cutthroat, a popular card to combine.
Burning Commons
When Regular Foil Commons are burned, cards from different sets turn into different amounts of Dark Energy Crystals. The following is how many DEC are given for burning 1 BCX of a Common from the given set.
Alpha - 30 DEC (Gold: 1500 DEC)
Beta - 15 DEC (Gold: 750 DEC)
Reward - 15 DEC (Gold: 750 DEC)
Promo - 30 DEC (Gold: 1500 DEC)
Untamed - 10 DEC (Gold: 500 DEC)
Rare Cards - 20% Chance with Each Card Flipped
With each 5-card pack opening, one card is guaranteed to be Rare or better. Beyond that, the odds are that one fifth of the cards flipped will be Rares. Maxing at level 8, they are much easier to level up than commons, but they also tend to be more powerful at lower levels. Even the lowest DEC-value Gold Rares (Untamed) can be burned for enough to buy an entire Booster Pack (2000 DEC)!
Burning Rares
Dark Energy Crystals Awarded for Burning 1 BCX
Alpha - 120 DEC (Gold: 6000 DEC)
Beta - 60 DEC (Gold: 3000 DEC)
Reward - 60 DEC (Gold: 3000 DEC)
Promo - 120 DEC (Gold: 6000 DEC)
Untamed - 40 DEC (Gold: 2000 DEC)
Epic Cards - 4% Chance with Each Card Flipped
Epic Cards are purple around the edge of the card before being flipped, and they show up roughly 1/26 of the time. Epic cards are usually fairly high-powered starting right at level one, with strong attacks of every type that only get stronger as they increase in level.
Burning Epics
Dark Energy Crystals Awarded for Burning 1 BCX
Alpha - 600 DEC (Gold: 30,000 DEC)
Beta - 300 DEC (Gold: 15,000 DEC)
Reward - 200 DEC (Gold: 10,000 DEC)
Promo - 600 DEC (Gold: 30,000 DEC)
Untamed - 200 DEC (Gold: 10,000 DEC)
Legendary Cards - 0.8% Chance with Each Card Flipped
Everybody wants the Legendary cards. This is where it gets a little more complicated, because Potions can change the odds.
When a Legendary Potion is applied to a card, the chance of it being Legendary is doubled to 1.6%. (Splinterlands Trivia: The deducted percentage is taken from Common cards.)
Burning Legendaries (A Decision not to be taken Lightly)
Alpha - 3000 DEC (Gold: 150,000 DEC)
Beta - 1500 DEC (Gold: 75,000 DEC)
Reward - 1500 DEC (Gold: 75,000 DEC)
Promo - 3000 DEC (Gold: 150,000 DEC)
Untamed - 1000 DEC (Gold: 50,000 DEC)
Gold Foil Cards - These percentages are doubled when the Alchemy Potion is applied.
Gold Foil Common - 1.6%
Gold Foil Rare - .4%
Gold Foil Epic - .04%
Gold Foil Legendary - .00?%
Hopefully this article has been enlightening on some new aspects of Splinterlands cards of various sets and rarities. Thanks for reading!
Remember, with Splinterlands, every card is a non-fungible token on a blockchain. That means that these cards are assets that you actually own.
Very nice breakdown!
Thanks Nate! :)
If it weren't for the Discord General chat, I would never have come up with some of the details. Thanks to the players!
One thing I noticed is that I wasn't able to see the DEC burn reward for cards I don't own. Maybe would be good to add for all cards? Dunno.
This is informative thanks! I am curious with your mention of potions and that the percentage is deducted from common cards. What do you mean by that? I’m interested to learn more about that component.
I love my rusty Android I don’t think I’ve burned one! They definitely come in handy for those pesky magic users!
We had a conversation about this in Discord while I was writing the article. I have to ask our players for a lot of this detail info.
When a potion is applied that increases the chance of a Legendary, the chance of something else must decrease correspondingly. Instead of that percentage being taken from all cards equally, I was told that it was deducted from Commons only. It's a tiny, negligible number, but I thought it was an interesting little fact.
Thanks for stopping by! I also like Rusty. I play with him a lot (even at Champion), especially in Melee Mayhem.
If the value of dec goes up then your cards are worth more, do you hold your gold cards or burn them?
Thanks for stopping by!
I cannot give advice to any player because everyone should do their own research and everyone's situation is different. But if you're asking what I do...
I burn a lot of them, but my strategy usually involves opening as many packs as possible. I've been lucky this way for years now, so instead of holding onto a highly-valued card, I usually decide to sell (or burn) them pretty quickly.
I've burned 3 Gold Foil Legendaries. Two of them were Untamed Legendaries that I burned to buy packs in the Halfling Alchemist Promo. That worked out great too, since I found one of the Gold Foil ones.
I have also always been a fan of selling Gold cards and using the proceeds to enhance my standard foil deck. I hardly have any of my Alpha Golds left.
I like instant gratification, which burning provides. It also increases scarcity, which I also like. :)
As far as the value of DEC, I don't know. As long as packs are priced at a set amount of DEC, can it really go up that much?
Poor Rusty.
Thank you for spelling it out.
I never knew!
I'm constantly combining my cards.
There are a few Krons i'm hanging on to but for the most part....
I'm trying to level up.
I have one good card....The problem is waiting for someone to buy it. :)
I just noticed yesterday that there is a "combine all cards" button on the Collection page. That freaked me out a little, and I started thinking that I should write an article about to combine or not to combine. It's a big decision.
Check this out. I have a max Alpha Alric Stormbringer. He's my favorite summoner. If I had any single BCX Alrics, I could sell them for $4.99 each. With my max Alric, the most I could get for it at the moment is $1.40/BCX
Yes, you gotta weigh your options for sure.
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