Hello Splinterlands Summoners and welcome to another edition of Community Engagement Challenge! I started playing Splinterlands in 2021 when #play2earn was at its height. I was earning from Axie and searched for other games where I can earn crypto. Somehow I discovered Splinterlands and found it not only profitable but fun to play as well. Here's my Splinterlands journey when I first started out.

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Fish Out of the Water

For beginners, Splinterlands can be confusing. The tutorial back when I started was not as comprehensive as today's excellent tutorial with full motion videos. I had to learn the hard way: through trial and error. I wrote down the best teams to use for certain number of mana. The same goes for rulesets. I also reviewed battles I lost and which teams the opponent used.

Mylor was very popular in Bronze back then because of his Thorns ability but even he can be countered and not a sure win. This is what makes Splinterlands a fun game to play. You have to craft strategies and predict your opponent's cards as well. This was my first challenge: to master card combinations for each mana cap and each ruleset.

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Being Consistent - Reviewing Battles

After learning the basic fundamentals of the game, the next step towards my journey was to have consistent wins. I began tracking my wins and losses. This way, I know which teams are optimal for certain rulesets and mana caps. I also learned how to predict and counter the opposing team. At this stage, I began to add cards to my deck. There are certain cards that I call "key cards" or cards that greatly increase my chances of winning.

I remember the first card that I invested in was Mylor who has a high chance of winning in Bronze League where I played. Of course, as I mentioned earlier, it's not a sure win but I won more than fifty per cent of the battles where I used Mylor.

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Learning from Others

To further refine my battle strategies, I had to learn from other players. I used to watch a lot of youtube video tutorials back then. Sadly, most of those are no longer active today. Most youtube videos today focus more on the investing side of Splinterlands and not on game play.

Aside from youtube videos, I read a lot of blogs on "Battle Mage Secrets" where players share their strategies and teams on certain rulesets. This made me appreciate the value of all splinters and not just my favorites. Water was my favorite splinter in the Chaos Legion and Life the least favorite because I viewed General Sloan as the weakest summoner. Later on, I grew to like the Life Splinter especially in Earthquake and Poison rulesets where the combination of Uriel the Purifier and Adelaide Brightwing shone.

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Learning by Sharing

A big part of my learning journey was documenting my strategies and combos. From a reader of "Battle Mage Secrets", later on I also participated and shared my strategies in this weekly challenge. Consequently, this also marked my beginning to seriously blog in Hive. At first I joined when I wanted or there's a particular team composition that I wanted to share but later on I made it a point to join weekly. Thus, blogging has become part of my Splinterlands routine. I also began saving my favorite battles and later wrote about them in my Splinterlands blog. It's satisfying when it gets feedback and appreciation from fellow players and beginners of the game.

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Splinterlands as an Investment

Splinterlands is a play2earn game. Part of the motivation to play the game are the real world monetary rewards that can be obtained. Another piece of Splinterlands is the investment side where veteran and newbie crypto investors can take part. There are several ways to invest in Splinterlands. First and foremost are the tokens. You can either invest in SPS or DEC when it's below peg. However, it's more fun to invest in cards because these have utility in the game. Cards not only have monetary value but also useful in the game. Naturally, ultra-rare and powerful cards cost more than regular ones. This is another fun side to playing Splinterlands: collecting and investing in cards.

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Final Thoughts

My Splinterlands journey began because of monetary reasons (play2earn). However, it became more than that when I discovered how fun and enjoyable Splinterlands is. This is probably the reason for the staying power of this game while other play2earn games have discontinued.

For new Summoners, the lesson is clear: play, learn and share. Over time, this loop will transform newbie players into strategists with influence on Splinterlands community.

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