"Splinterlands" + "Drug Wars" -- Power Strategy Tips #50

As I have now been playing "Splinterlands" and "Drug Wars" for over a year, I've wanted to contribute something of ACTIONABLE value to my fellow players (and FUTURE players) - but NOT just fill my Steemit feed with daily images of quest reward - or battle - SPAM (no offense to those doing so). Ultimately, Hive/Steemit is about ADDING VALUE to the social experience - that is the magic of blockchain social media technology. So, after some serious pondering, I decided that a weekly "Splinterlands + "Drugs Wars" player strategy diary" type series, with CONCISE and ACTIONABLE tips, would be of most value to my audience. Please let me know your thoughts (good and/or bad), and I hope that readers (now and into the future) will benefit from this series. If you gain a better understanding of blockchain, gaming, "blockchain gaming", marketing, psychology, forensics, philosophy, economics, ethics, guerilla warfare tactics, and/or any other area(s) of knowledge I end up exploring (voluntarily or involuntarily) as this series naturally progresses, then I will have done my "good deed" (of providing value) for the week. Also, feel free to hit me up on the battlefield.

@transcript-junky

1 ) A few months ago I had bought 3-4 x 100 ( + 10 free ) *** Orbs *** promo batches (using Bitcoin), and hit some UBER-JUICY *** Orbs *** cards, until I got to the point where I was just getting the same cards over and over in the packs, and decided to upgrade the cards manually (with my daily DEC earnings - which I HAVE been gradually doing). However, one day this week I got TWO *** Orbs *** packs in my daily quest rewards, and hit a legendary card ("Minotaur Warrior" (non-gold)) - which I converted to DEC to buy some important *** Untamed *** card upgrades since I already have that card maxed. Although I have WANTED to buy more *** Orbs *** packs, when I opened these two packs in one day I realized that @splinterlands admin made a good decision in including these *** Orbs *** packs in the daily quest rewards, as this allows me to continue be able to open SOME more *** Orbs *** packs ( albeit not as many ) to try and get lucky with those handful of select cards I want to upgrade ( ex. Minotaur Warrior (Gold)) before the *** Orbs *** cards sell out ( down to 31,400 packs remaining as of writing this sentence) and the cost/value of the cards increases dramatically due to scarcity ( in the exact same way as the "Halfling Alchemist" (Gold) card has this past week (jumping from ~ $25 USD/card to over $50/card overnight. If the price of the Obrs cards makes the same jump I may NEVER be able to obtain the remaining cards I want within my general budget. So it's nice that I can continue to obtain fresh Orbs packs to open, and maybe I will hit one or more of those specific remaining cards I need. Fingers crossed.

2 ) On the #DrugWars front, my entire army was wiped out one morning earlier in the week, when I wasn't paying attention. It turns out that this was sort of "collateral damage" resulting from the other main gang member having his army wiped out, and then other members got attacked. He kind of warned me at the time, but since I assumed that the defense units I had built up over time would salvage "enough" units (which is DID NOT - actually, it salvaged only under 100 units of each warrior) I wasn't expecting a nearly complete wipe out. As a result of the wipeout I became immediately unable to continue doing solo and/or gang jobs. It was at this point that I realized it would be ESSENTIAL to properly look into how the new "bunker" system works, and this is, again, where the gang came in handy. I spent around 30 minutes chatting with the other main gang member, and we agreed to build our armies up to ONLY the point of being able to do the solo and gang jobs, and put all of those units in the bunker. In this way, we would not have to worry about being wiped out again, and thus out of commission for up to a week (rebuilding the army).

3 ) Wow! The strategy I set out last week (of buy one "Halfling Alchemist" GOLD card each week for the next eight weeks (to max it out), using the weekly Hive power-down payouts) has turned out to be a good idea - but the problem is that I have not been able to buy up the remaining eight cards FAST ENOUGH! That is, a few days after making the previous post in this series, where I bought one of the gold versions of this card for ~ $25.00 USD, OVERNIGHT (within the 24 hour period of May 26th, 2020) the price of this gold card jumped from $21.78 USD to $74.95 USD! This is, of course good news for the gold cards that I DO have of this one, which are now worth nearly TRIPLE the value as when I got the first one airdropped a few weeks ago, but bad news in terms of me being able to achieve the goal of continuing to buy one per week (eight total) to max this card out. Well, one good thing that I did (expecting this jump in price, but not so soon, and not AS MUCH of a jump) is I maxed the non-gold version of the card last week, and also bought the final card necessary to bump this card up to Level 4 (and unlock the "redemption" ability), and so the best I can do now is monitor the price of this card in the coming weeks, months, etc. and gobble up any sudden cheap ones that people put up for sale on the market sometimes. Depending on if/when the price of this gold card comes down I will likely now have to put my "buy one gold card per week using the Hive power-down payout" strategy on hold, because this card is now simply out of my budget!

Actually, on Friday, May 29th, 2020 - the morning after I received my first HIve power-down payout of 141 Hive ( ~ 52,800 DEC ) the cost of one "Halfling Alchemist" (Gold) card had come down to $47.50 ( ~ 66,257 DEC ) with my in-game balance at 66,264 DEC, which would have left me with literally 7 DEC balance if I had bought it. So I was then faced with the decision of whether to spend my entire current balance on ONE of these gold cards (which would NOT yet bump me up to Level 5 (thereby increasing health from "+2" to "+3), and I would not be sure if the price of the card would come down to a more affordable level), OR do I wait it out for another week and monitor the price of the card, OR buy up some OTHER cards that I would have if I had NOT set out on the strategy of buying EIGHT more gold cards of this card with the upcoming Hive power-down payouts. I decided to err on the side of caution and HOLD OFF of buying this card AT LEAST until the next Hive power-down payout, so that I can monitor the price of this gold card over the next week. Even if I DID buy this card this week, for the REMAINING seven gold cards I would likely need to buy one every TWO weeks anyway (based on my DEC budget), and so it would not be out-of-pace to wait one more week, so that is what I have decided to do.

[UPDATE: The cost of this gold card actually came down to the ~ $40.00 USD range, and I also started accounting for the ~ $10 USD (in Steem and Hive) which I am making for each of these series posts to offset the cost of the gold card. So a $40 USD gold card minus the $10 USD post income works out to ~ $30 USD, which is what I paid for the FIRST gold card I bought last week. I also hit a "Minotaur Warrior" (non-gold0 card, worth $6.00 USD, and so any higher-value cards I earn in quest rewards throughout the week can be used to additionally offset the cost of the Halfling Alchemist (Gold) cards. Doing it this way, I SHOULD be able to keep to the "one gold card per week) for the remaining six cards I need of to max this card out.

4 ) My larger strategy seems to be working well with Splinterlands. Over time, the increased number, and level, of gold cards I am obtaining, through the daily DEC earnings from game play, IN ADDITION to the increased skills level which arises naturally out of daily play, is bearing fruit. One way it is doing that is my ability to reach "Champion II" season level this past season, which landed me 120 season loot chests. That is 40 cards more than "Champion III" level, and I DID hit a few gold cards (including one "Lucky Golden Chicken", as well as some 1,000 + DEC loot chests, which I then used to buy up more cards.

Another thing I am considering is buying up additional 100 (+ 10 free) *** Untamed *** promo batches, every three months, for as long as the pre-sale lasts, as each batch gives me BOTH additional packs to open (as part of y "one pack per day) strategy, AS WELL AS increasing my chance of hitting the additional airdrops. Actually, what would be MORE ideal is if Splinterlands admin runs additional promotions, like the "Halfling Alchemist" promotion, whereby I can FURTHER justify making the additional 100 ( + 10 free ) batch purchases, as I can recuperate some of the ~ 0.02 BTC cost IMMEDIATELY during the promotion, as I did with the Halfling Alchemist. I am assuming that the admin would do more such promotions if the pace of the pre-sale packs remains relatively slow, because there are still NINE airdrops remaining. If admin is reading this - and I KNOW you are ;-> - I hope you will consider running additional promotions.

5 ) Okay. As I did in the last post in this series, the highly-detailed "diary" of my daily #splinterlands activity is laid out in the last part of this post, for those of you who are inclined to follow, more closely, what I am doing. It occurred to me that this "diary" section is JUST THAT - a highly detailed record of my daily activity in the game, with some JUICY "play-by-play" analysis notes, and commentary, on what works, what doesn't, and some suggestions for further tweaking and experimentation. So, with this in mind, I hope some/any of you will enjoy this information. If not, you are under no pressure to read it fully, and are free to SKIM, or even IGNORE, any parts, or ALL parts, completely - at your discretion. I lay this out because it also HELPS ME to document my progress in the game over time, and may help some people NOW, and into the perpetual future...

May 24th, 2020

Starting DEC : 12,110 DEC
Starting Capture Rate : ~ 100.00%
Ending DEC - 12,774 DEC
Ending Capture rate : ~ 100.00%
Balance = DEC Earning = 664 DEC = ~ 2.161 Steem ~ $0.201 USD/Steem = ~ $00.434 USD

Spent : Will carry 664 DEC over to tomorrow.

Untamed (Pack #1 : today's daily pack))
keepers -

• 80 DEC

Daily Quest (today's "death" quest)
keepers -
"Screeching Vulture" (Gold - Level 4 - $0.70 USD - 750 DEC - eight more cards to go to Level 9)

• 10 DEC
  nonkeepers -
• 90 DEC
  potions - 3 legendary potions, 4 alchemy/gold potions
  Orbs - +0 pack
  DEC - 49 DEC

May 25th, 2020

Starting DEC : 12,774 DEC
Starting Capture Rate : ~ 100.00%
Ending DEC - 13,461 DEC
Ending Capture rate : ~ 95.00%
Balance = DEC Earning = 687 DEC = ~ 2.255 Steem ~ $0.213 USD/Steem = ~ $00.48 USD

687 DEC + 664 DEC (from yesterday) = 1,351 DEC
1,351 - 1,040 = 311 DEC leftover for tomorrow

Spent :

1 x "Screeching Vulture" (Gold - Level 4 - $0.67 USD - 1,040 DEC - seven more cards remaining until Level 9)

Untamed (Pack #1 : today's daily pack + celebration pack for reaching "Diamond I" season level --> + 10 lot chests --> 600 total season loot chests))
keepers -

• 300 DEC

Daily Quest (today's "" quest)
keepers -

• 145 DEC
  nonkeepers -
• 70 DEC
  potions - 4 legendary potions, 0 alchemy/gold potions
  Orbs - +0 pack
  DEC - 368 DEC

May 26th, 2020

Starting DEC : 12,421 DEC
Starting Capture Rate : ~ 99.29%
Ending DEC - 13,568 DEC
Ending Capture rate : ~ 87.94%
Balance = DEC Earning = 1,147 DEC = ~ 3.998 Steem ~ $0.199 USD/Steem = ~ $00.795 USD

Spent :

1 x "Screeching Vulture" (Gold - Level 4 - $0.64 USD - 965 DEC - six more cards remaining until Level 9)

Untamed (Pack #1 : today's daily pack)
keepers -

• 80 DEC

Daily Quest (today's "death" quest)
keepers -

• 45 DEC
  nonkeepers -
• 30 DEC
  potions - 6 legendary potions, 3 alchemy/gold potions
  Orbs - +0 pack
  DEC - 386 DEC

May 27th, 2020

Starting DEC : 12,602 DEC
Starting Capture Rate : ~ 88.02%
Ending DEC - 16,536 DEC
Ending Capture rate : ~ 82.91%
Balance = DEC Earning = 3,934 DEC = ~ 14.041 Steem ~ $0.202 USD/Steem = ~ $2.836 USD

Spent :

4 x "Mitica Headhunter" (non-gold - 3,480 DEC - eight cards remaining to Level 5)

454 DEC leftover from today

Untamed (Pack #1 : today's daily pack)
keepers -

• 280 DEC

Daily Quest (today's "death" quest)
keepers -
"Naga Windmaster" (Gold - Level 3 - $2.50 USD - 3,000 DEC - bumped up to Level 5 (to add "shatter" ability, but decrease health from "+4" to "+3")

• 20 DEC
  nonkeepers -
  "Minotaur Warlord" (non-gold (legendary) - $2.57 USD - 3,000 DEC - converted to 3,000 DEC because I already have this card maxed out)
• 375 DEC
  potions - 3 legendary potions, 3 alchemy/gold potions
  Orbs - +2 pack
  DEC - 128 DEC

May 28th, 2020

Starting DEC : 13,056 DEC
Starting Capture Rate : ~ 91.080%
Ending DEC - 66,264 DEC
Ending Capture rate : ~ 98.00%
Balance = DEC Earning = 53,208 DEC = ~ 191.57 Steem ~ $00.205 USD/Steem = ~ $39.27 USD
454 DEC leftover from yesterday
= 53,662 leftover from today

Spent :

Untamed (Pack #1 : today's daily pack + celebration pack for reaching "Diamond III" season level --> + 20 loot chests --> + 80 total loot chests for the season)
keepers -

• 80 DEC

Daily Quest (today's "death" quest)
keepers -

• 510 DEC
  nonkeepers -
• 55 DEC
  potions - 3 legendary potions, 6 alchemy/gold potions
  Orbs - + 0 pack
  DEC - 63 DEC

covert 1st Hive payout of 141.891 to 52,820 DEC, and sent to Splinterlands wallet to buy cards

May 29th, 2020

Starting DEC : 66,264 DEC
Starting Capture Rate : ~ 100.00%
Ending DEC - 67,259 DEC
Ending Capture rate : ~ 95.00%
Balance = DEC Earning = 995 DEC = ~ 3.906 Steem ~ $00.205 USD/Steem = ~ $00.80 USD
= 53,662 leftover from yesterday + 995 DEC
= leftover from today = 54,657 DEC

Spent :

Untamed (Pack #1 : today's daily pack)
keepers -

• 80 DEC

Daily Quest (today's "dragon" quest)
keepers -

• 30 DEC
  nonkeepers -
• 15 DEC
  potions - 3 legendary potions, 6 alchemy/gold potions
  Orbs - + 0 pack
  DEC - 618 DEC

May 30th, 2020

Starting DEC : 67,259 DEC
Starting Capture Rate : ~ 100.00%
Ending DEC - 67,854 DEC
Ending Capture rate : ~ 100.00%
Balance = DEC Earning = 595 DEC = ~ 2.412 Steem ~ $00.208 USD/Steem = ~ $00.501 USD
= 54,657 leftover from yesterday

Spent :

Untamed (Pack #1 : today's daily pack)
keepers -

• 110 DEC

Daily Quest (today's "death" quest)
keepers -

• 120 DEC
  nonkeepers -
• 95 DEC
  potions - 4 legendary potions, 1 alchemy/gold potions
  Orbs - + 0 pack
  DEC - 82 DEC

May 31st, 2020

Starting DEC : 67,854 DEC
Starting Capture Rate : ~ 100.00%
Ending DEC - 78,450 DEC
Ending Capture rate : ~ 62.65%
Balance = DEC Earning = 10,596 DEC = ~ 41.164 Steem ~ $00.210 USD/Steem = ~ $08.64 USD
= xx,xxx leftover from yesterday

Spent :

1 x "Hafling Achemist" (Gold - Level 3 - $40.00 USD - 53,947 DEC - one more to Level 4)

Untamed (Pack #1 : today's daily pack)
keepers -

• 80 DEC

Daily Quest (today's "win three battles without neutral cards" quest)
keepers -
"Gelatinous Cube" (Gold - Level 4 - $0.69 USD - 750 DEC)

• 30 DEC
  nonkeepers -
  "Corrupted Pegasys" (non-gold - Level 1 - $5.36 USD (market price) - 3,000 DEC -- put up for sale for $6.00 USD o market (because I already have this card maxed out AND want to put $6.00 USD towards today's purchase of the "Halfling Achemist' (Gold - Level 3 - $40.00 USD) card.
• 1,020 DEC
  potions - 2 legendary potions, 3 alchemy/gold potions
  Orbs - + 2 packs
  DEC - 129 DEC

Season Rewards ("Diamond II" season level --> 120 loot chests)
keepers -
"Furious Chicken" (Gold - Level 3 - $3.29 USD - 3,000 DEC - four more cards to go to max)
"Gelatinous Cube" (Gold - Level 4 - $0.67 USD - 750 DEC)

• 890 DEC
  nonkeepers -
• 240 DEC
  potions - 16 legendary potions, 17 alchemy/gold potions
  Orbs - + 0 packs
  DEC - 3,178 DEC

Converted 31.615 Steem to 8,289.884 DEC (from previous week's series post)
Converted 13.992 Hive to 4,510 DEC (from previous week's series post)

---

12,779 --> 49.457 Steem x .206 = ~ $10.18 USD

So, this $10.18 USD plus $6.00 USD (from the "Corrupted Pegasys" non-gold card I sold today = ~ $16.18 USD, which offsets some of the $40.00 USD I paid for the "Halfling Alchemist" gold card, working out to (in terms of "cash-flow") around $24 USD for that card, which is a lot less of a sting than the $40 USD market price. This also shows that the income from the posts in this series can be significant in terms of offsetting the price of the more expesive cards.

June 1st, 2020

Starting DEC : 37,303 DEC
Starting Capture Rate : ~ 70.53%
Ending DEC - 37,700 DEC
Ending Capture rate : ~ 80.00%
Balance = DEC Earning = 397 DEC = ~ 1.402 Steem ~ $00.213 USD/Steem = ~ $0x.298 USD
= 397 DEC leftover from today

Spent :

Untamed (Pack #1 : today's daily pack)
keepers -

• 80 DEC

Daily Quest (today's "water" quest)
keepers -

• 220 DEC
  nonkeepers -
• 0 DEC
  potions - 4 legendary potions, 3 alchemy/gold potions
  Orbs - 0 packs
  DEC - 141 DEC

June 2nd, 2020

Starting DEC : 37,700 DEC
Starting Capture Rate : ~ 67.37%
Ending DEC - 38,143 DEC
Ending Capture rate : ~ 81.93%
Balance = DEC Earning = 443 DEC = ~ 1.51 Steem -> 1.51 STEEM = 1.264 HIVE x ~ $00.244 USD/Hive = ~ $00.308 USD

Note: Since Splinterlands has moved fully over to HIve I have started converting the daily Steem earning into HIve and then calculating the earnings based on Hive, using this free online Steem/Hive conversion calculator:

https://coinxconverter.com/convert/steem/hive

= = 397 DEC leftover from yesterday

• 443 DEC from today = 840 DEC

Spent :

1 x "Goblin Thief" (Gold - Level 3 - $0.57 USD - 723 DEC - nine (9) cards remaining to max)

Untamed (Pack #1 : today's daily pack)
keepers -

• 80 DEC

Daily Quest (today's "water" quest)
keepers -

• 30 DEC
  nonkeepers -
• 30 DEC
  potions - 2 legendary potions, 3 alchemy/gold potions
  Orbs - 0 packs
  DEC - 69 DEC

June 3rd, 2020

Starting DEC : 37,420 DEC
Starting Capture Rate : ~ 82.07%
Ending DEC - x,xxx DEC
Ending Capture rate : ~ xx.xx%
Balance = DEC Earning = xxx DEC = ~ x.xx Steem -> x.xx STEEM = x.xxx HIVE x ~ $00.xx USD/Hive = ~ $00.xx USD

Spent :

Untamed (Pack #1 : today's daily pack)
keepers -

• 80 DEC

Daily Quest (today's "win three battles without neutral monsters" quest)
keepers -

• DEC
  nonkeepers -
• DEC
  potions - legendary potions, alchemy/gold potions
  Orbs - 0 packs
  DEC - DEC

Whew! These posts are growing dense - but that's okay. Take what resonates with you,and leave the rest. I hope you find some/any of these tips useful in increasing your understanding and/or skill level in the SteemMonsters (Splinterlands) and/or Drug Wars, and/or "Prospectors, and/or any other game(s) - and the " blockchain gaming " industry as whole - which I end up exploring as this series evolves. More JUICY tips to come with each weekly update, as I dig deeper into this whole REVOLUTIONARY PHENOMENON, and become more experienced and successful in the game(s).

See you on the battlefield...

@transcript-junky