The Ultimate Asset: Return Strategies with SPS

Greetings Splinterlovers 💚

SPS is the most important asset in the “Splinterlands” ecosystem, as it serves not only as the “Governance” token but is also the token used to distribute the vast majority of rewards—if not all of them—across each game mode. However, I imagine many players in the ecosystem are wondering: Where can you actually earn the most SPS? It’s natural, since, with so many game modes, ideally one of them should yield more than the rest.

However, given how the in-game economy works, the return on investment (ROI) in Splinterlands is exponential; this means that the more SPS you hold, the greater the efficiency of all your other assets (cards and lands); and, of course, this also directly impacts the rewards we can earn, since in many cases, SPS acts as a multiplier, creating demand around it, which encourages every player who wants to take the game seriously to take SPS just as seriously.

That’s why, in this post, I’ll explain practically every way you can earn SPS; that way, you’ll know exactly where to focus your efforts.

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Game Modes for SPS Generation

There are three main gameplay modes where SPS is distributed directly from the DAO’s reward pool, so I’d say that most of the rewards are concentrated in these modes; however, this isn’t just about investing—the rewards depend on your skill as a player. It’s important to point this out because many people are misled into thinking they can earn rewards without effort, which is quite far from the truth.

Now that we've cleared that up, let's move on to the game modes:

Ranked Matches

It is the primary source of SPS income in the game; however, winning battles isn’t enough, of course. As I mentioned, the player’s skill is a crucial factor in itself, since winning guarantees you a reward, but the actual return here depends on R-Shares (Reward Shares), which are influenced by the following:

• Staking Multiplier: This is the most important factor, since the system calculates how much SPS you have in "Staking" relative to the league you're competing in. This means that if your Staking is low for your league, your SPS earnings per win will be minimal, and vice versa; so, naturally, the more SPS you have, the more you could earn.

• Card Bonuses: Using "Golden Foil" cards or older editions (Alpha/Beta) grants an additional percentage of R-Shares, directly increasing your share of the daily SPS pool, so keep in mind that the editions of the cards you use can also directly influence the earnings you generate.

Survival Mode

This is a mode that’s both fun and challenging, designed to bring together the game’s most experienced players to compete in a format where matches are endless—as long as you have a deck large enough to literally survive every battle, since the goal is for your cards to survive the battle. In short, to play this mode, players must have excellent management and/or administration of entire collections from all editions; it is possible, but the coolest thing is that this mode offers a separate SPS pool from the rest of the formats.

Below are some important things every player should know about “Survival Mode”:

• Mechanics: Players compete in 11 difficulty brackets. Unlike regular battles, here SPS is earned by "surviving" elimination rounds.

• Return Potential: It’s significantly higher than the standard ranked mode for players with highly competitive decks, as it prioritizes consistency over the number of battles. This means that if you manage to keep your collection intact, you’ll earn a good amount of SPS in the process.

⁣Other Modes (Brawls, Lands, and Liquidity Pools)

There are other game modes—or simply another way—where we could earn SPS in the process. These modes aren’t the best, for the simple reason that the barrier to entry is higher and they require a relatively greater investment, even though some of the modes are related. I mention this because if you play in ranked battles, you need a deck of cards, and since you can use those same cards in “Brawl” battles, you’re essentially getting two for the price of one.

But let's see how these work:

• Brawls (Guild Battles): Here, players earn SPS and merits, both of which are distributed at the end of each "Brawl" battle. While it is true that this is currently one of the most reliable ways to earn SPS without having to rely on ranked battles, it is still challenging, as it requires a high level of skill depending on the "Tier" you're playing in.

• Plots of Land: In this game mode, it’s true that we can passively generate SPS, but to reach this level, you need to make the right decisions in terms of choosing the right plot for what you want to obtain—in this case, SPS—and in this regard, we must make an investment. On the other hand, SPS mining depends on the well-known PP (Production Points); of course, this depends on the cards we place in “Staking”—the older the card, the more PP you’ll have, and consequently, the more SPS we could earn.

• Liquidity Pools and DeFi: Liquidity pools are a great way to earn cryptocurrency, but in the case of the Splinterlands ecosystem, it’s risky because you can experience what’s called “impermanent loss” due to how tokens tend to behave—though in this case, I’m referring specifically to “SPS.” On the other hand, you can earn a lot depending on the pool’s liquidity and volume; if the volume is higher, great—you’ll earn a lot—but I’d say it’s the riskiest of all, even though it pays much more.

Conclusion

So, if you're looking for the highest return, the official strategy is to maximize SPS staking. Not only does this generate returns on its own through the network's staking rewards, but it also acts as the "key" that unlocks the earning potential of your cards in ranked battles—and, of course, your lands.

Without staked SPS, the rest of your assets in Splinterlands operate at a fraction of their true potential, so my final recommendation is to focus on SPS first and then on the cards. So, if you have any questions, feel free to comment on this post.