Welcome to another article where I write about my journey playing Splinterlands! A lot of changes came out after last season, the biggest probably being the implementation of a rewards penalty for playing cards below the max level of the league under the one in which you are currently playing. That’s a little confusing, so to explain it another way, if you are playing in Silver league, you get a penalty to your daily/seasonal reward points if you play cards under the max level for Bronze league.
Also of note, the vote to burn the remaining unsold Chaos Legion packs passed. Starting December 1st, 25,000 Chaos Legion packs will be removed from the store daily. With the current supply, they are estimated to all be gone by the end of March next year. This will also mean that the remaining Summoner cards will start coming out at a fairly regular clip.
One other notable change was the sale of Lux Vega, the neutral summoner that people who bought a ticket to Splinterfest received a discount to be able to buy a guaranteed copy. The remaining copies were sold publicly, and sold out in about 9 seconds. I did not buy one, as having recently got a Runi I wasn’t about to make another larger card purchase, but she is a very solid summoner.
Another big change was the alteration of how monsters dying is handled in the game. Previously game effects like Earthquake damage or Poison damage would hit monsters one at a time, with the damage resolving as it happened. The change was that damage impacts all monsters, and resolves for all monsters at the same time. This is effectively a nerf to creatures with Scavenge, that gain life when other creatures die, as they no longer gain life from other creatures dying before taking Earthquake or Poison damage.
The first half of this season has been a bit slow. My rewards are slightly impacted by the new reward changes, as I do play a lot of under-level Legendary cards on my main account and some under-level utility cards on my InvestYGator alt. account. Anyhow, here’s the breakdown of rewards from the past week:
Daily Quest Rewards:
Daily Quest # 790. Got Flying Focus. In my single Diamond chest before resetting back to Gold League, I got 67 Merits.
InvestYGator got Disable Focus. For his gold chests before resetting back to Silver league, I got 2.543 Splintershards (SPS), a Merdhampir (common monster), and an Ever-Hungry Skull (common monster).
Daily Quest # 791. Got Death Focus. I received 2.746 (2.312 + 0.434) SPS, 56 Merits, and a Vampire Bat (common monster).
InvestYGator got Stealth Focus. I got 0.229 (0.167 + 0.062) SPS, 6 Merits, an Ever-Hungry Skull, and a Twilight Basilisk (rare monster).
Daily Quest # 792. Got Stealth Focus. I received 0.525 SPS and an Ever-Hungry Skull.
InvestYGator got Healing Focus. I received 0.194 (0.041 + 0.067 + 0.025 + 0.061) SPS, 44 Merits, 4 (2 + 2) Gold potions, 2 Legendary Potions, an Ever-Hungry Skull, and a Blood Maker (common monster).
Daily Quest # 793. Got Anti Melee Focus. I got 0.563 (0.367 + 0.196) SPS and an Ever-Hungry Skull.
InvestYGator got Fire Focus. I received 0.967 (0.031 + 0.179 + 0.757) SPS, 3 Legendary potions, a Vampire Bat, a Pelacor Mercenary (common monster), and a Gargoya Lion (common monster).
Daily Quest # 794. Got Fire Focus. I got 3.163 (0.553 + 0.542 + 2.068) SPS, 210 Merits, and a Pelacor Conjurer (common monster).
InvestYGator got Fire Focus. I received 0.354 (0.026 + 0.291 + 0.037) SPS, 2 (1 + 1) Gold potions, a Pelacor Bandit (common monster), a Blood Maker, and an Ever-Hungry Skull.
Daily Quest # 795. Got Life Focus. I got 0.657 (0.465 + 0.192) SPS, 11 Gold potions, 123 Merits, a Pelacor Deceiver (common monster), and a Naga Assassin (rare monster).
InvestYGator got Dragon Focus. I received 0.520 (0.167 + 0.035 + 0.318) SPS, 3 Gold potions, 3 (2 + 1) Legendary potions, a Pelacor Conjurer, a Blood Maker, an Ever-Hungry Skull, and a Vulguine (rare monster).
Daily Quest # 796. Got Defend Focus. I got 0.498 (0.256 + 0.242) SPS, 100 (44 + 56) Merits, 12 Legendary potions, and a Chaos Legion pack!
InvestYGator got Flying Focus. I received 0.379 (0.336 + 0.043) SPS, 6 Merits, 3 (1 + 2) Legendary potions, a Vampire Bat, a Pelacor Bandit, a Naga Assassin, a Dhampir Infiltrator (rare monster), and a Jared Scar (legendary monster)!
Guild Brawls:
Guild Brawl #115, playing Bronze League Gold Foil Only. This was the first brawl with SPS added as a reward. I was hoping this would inspire people to actually participate, but we came in last place with multiple people failing to submit teams.
Vs. VHIN024 of ILLUSIONS OF THE GRAVE – Opponent Fled
Vs. MISTER.ARIANTHUS of GOAT GANG
Vs. NAJLIVE of THE FORGOTTEN STARS – Opponent Fled
Vs. ZEESHANNAQVI3RD of GLADIATORS III
Vs. NEDSAYING123 of TEAM POSSIBLE HACKERS
Vs. MARIO13 of [KOG] AEGIS OF GLORY
The Rest:
I had actually picked up a couple of Jared Scars from the market, as they were selling at such a low price it seemed worth getting mine up to max level, so I now have an extra one. However, the biggest news is that Steemmonsters, the company that runs Splinterlands, laid off about half of their employees. The support staff was heavily impacted, and they are no longer doing live support on Discord or Telegram.
The Bear market in crypto hasn’t been too kind to a crypto related gaming company, particularly one that went on a big hiring spree during the last Bull market. They have said that this layoff will give them a year’s worth of runway to try to ride out the market. Some people have applauded this move, while others see it as a bad sign for the company staying in business.
Either way, I feel bad for everyone who lost their jobs right before the holidays. Hopefully the company can turn things around and hire some people back. And, that’s probably all I should say on the subject.
Kind of a tame week, up until the end when I hit some good rewards. Hopefully that will continue as we move into the second half of this season. Thank you for reading, and I’ll be back next week with the season wrap up!