SPLINTERLANDS: Weekly Battle Challenge with the Haunted Spider NFT

The second form of a Dark Eternal is determined by the state of the soul. Some of the more twisted souls take insect form, and the Haunted Spider is the favorite. The projectile venom and massive, armored thorax make the Haunted Spider a formidable (and intimidating) enemy in any battle.

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This week’s Share Your Battle Challenge theme is the Haunted Spider. This seems like an appropriate choice since Halloween is just 17 days away. This may not seem like a powerful card, but once you level it up, it can shoot poison at your enemies.

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It’s always hard for me to win when there is a low mana cap. For this battle, it was just 13.

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My enemy chose their cards wisely, but I got lucky. They took out my Haunted Spider, but it gave my Undead Archer the opportunity to get in a lucky shot on their Cerberus taking away the three-headed mutt’s healing ability which then let my Haunted Spirit smash all three of their fire cards. Thank you for reading and have a great Halloween!

Check out my battle:
https://steemmonsters.com?p=battle&id=sl_c87916b95f47917cf2f67bf3e5b0a416&ref=jeremiahcustis

Participate in this week’s challenge:
https://peakd.com/splinterlands/@splinterlands/share-your-battle-weekly-challenge-haunted-spider

Harklaw: My favorite new Legendary Death NFT reward card on Splinterlands

Harklaw has achieved the highest degree of Dark Eternal existence in this realm. For many years it has been ready to cross over to the dark reality, but it has graciously stayed behind. Such is the tradition with the greatest Dark Eternal sorcerers of all time to help with the conversion and advancement of others. Little does the Lord of Darkness know that Harklaw stays behind not to help his fellow Dark to oneness, but to pursue selfish and secret goals. Harklaw has already won the loyalty of some of the Dark Lord’s closest confidants, and together they are concocting a scheme to dethrone him forever.

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This week’s Splinterlands Share Your Battle featured the Crystal Jaguar. I’m not too keen on this card and can’t remember it ever winning me a battle, so for this week, I will show you my favorite new card, Harklaw.

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I’m not a rich man, but here are my current Legendary cards. I’m broke and haven’t had a job or real income for years so I only have the cards I think are one hundred percent necessary. I think most of these cards are Reward cards.

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Harklaw‘s shield made him mostly invulnerable to his enemy’s weak Life attacks. This is a must-have card that you can win simply by playing the game.

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Check out my battle:
https://steemmonsters.com?p=battle&id=sl_6a41329c2a3c248d096e2bd68ad96747&ref=jeremiahcustis

Participate in this week’s challenge:
https://peakd.com/splinterlands/@splinterlands/share-your-battle-weekly-challenge-crystal-jaguar

Check out my sexy new NFT battle card: CENTAURI MAGE

The magic of the Centauri people of northern Anumün is so secretive that it is a wonder their Mages make any demonstrations of their powers in the Mount Mox Arena at all. The audiences are always thrilled to see their magic attacks, especially at dusk and sunset, when they create a chillingly beautiful (and deadly) green light show. Not only does this magic rain green fire onto the enemy, but with proper concentration from the Mage, it also refortifies the defenses of the friendly team. Among the Centaurs, those who practice these ancient ways of magic are extremely rare. They spend most of their time close to Kron, protecting him from all the wild creatures outside his Citadel.

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One of the things I love about these weekly Splinterlands battle challenges is that they bring awareness to both new and old cards that have slipped past my radar. I’m not a strong Earth player so the Centauri Mage was one of those cards. I didn’t even notice she was a centaur until making this post.

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The Centauri Mage and her ability to return ranged attacks were key to my victory. Both arrows and magic attacks were returned to their source causing them damage like an instant boomerang of karma.

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My battle went so well that after the dust settled, not one of my monsters was killed. Flawless victory! Thank you Centauri Mage and thank you for reading about one of my favorite new NFT cards today. May the power of the Splinterlands be with you. Get in the game!

Check out my battle:
https://steemmonsters.com?p=battle&id=sl_ebd2224a5c9690005c0cefa40abc03eb&ref=jeremiahcustis

Participate in this week’s challenge:
https://peakd.com/splinterlands/@splinterlands/share-your-battle-weekly-challenge-centauri-mage

SPLINTERLANDS and my Waver Runner NFT battle challenge win

The Wave Runner sees not one but two sets of prey. The first set of eyes scours the ocean for a tasty morsel. The second set of eyes looks above to the skies for unsuspecting flyers. With a powerful swipe of its tail, the Wave Runner can leap out of the water and bring giant birds and dragons alike into the water where its body provides a natural fighting advantage. It’s best to find land or make peace with your soul if you’re unfortunate enough to face a Wave Runner.

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I can’t seem to win a match to save my life these days. Before the game became popular I’d soar through the Bronze and Silver Leagues as if they were a joke, but now it seems as if my enemies can predict my moves even though I carefully look at their past matches before I select my cards. Even though I usually choose older, stronger, and better cards, they still seem to win more often than I do. My neighbors must think I’m crazy hearing me scream obscenities alone in my room. My dog will look at me all scared, but I’ll tell him, “It’s not you baby, it’s these cheating A.I. bots!”

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I guess you could call me a Splinterlands veteran since I’ve been in the game since 2019 and have once been the top 86th player in the world, but I feel like a total rookie today. All I know is that this is truly a decentralized game and that you should never give up. You won’t get rich quick, but you will see cards go from $1 to over $100 if you are patient.

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For this battle, I sacrificed my chicken by putting him out front. My enemy would’ve won if they’d put their Water Elemental in the rear, but thankfully, they did not.

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My Wave Runner wasn’t the MVP of this match, but he did help us to win. This is a beautiful card, but it brought back a bit of PTSD for me. I’m a pretty crazy and fearless guy. I will fight guys twice my size and ride my motorcycle as fast as the engine will go, but I remember surfing in Monterey, California back in 1999 seeing a dark shadow swim underneath me. At first, I thought it was lovely that another dolphin had come to say hi and possibly swim in the waves with me as I surf, but then I noticed how big the shadow was. After it swam underneath me three times, I started to feel true fear. As it swam away, I could see its tail wasn’t like a dolphin’s and its black eye of death. Luckily for me, it didn’t find me interesting and a big wave came along. I didn’t dare to stand up, rather riding on the board on my stomach all the way to the beach grinding the board’s fins into the sand. I then screamed for my friends to come in and told them what happened.

When we were putting our boards into the back of my pickup they thought I was lying until a Japanese tourist came up to me shook my hand and told me that he was happy to see I was still alive and that the shark was as big as my truck. Thank you for reading about my Splinterlands battle and my close encounter with a great white shark today. Get in the game!

Check out my battle:
https://steemmonsters.com?p=battle&id=sl_76d3acaf8f1e143d97d3edff78b00634&ref=jeremiahcustis

Participate in this week’s challenge:
https://peakd.com/splinterlands/@splinterlands/share-your-battle-weekly-challenge-wave-runnerz

SPLINTERLANDS: Share Your Battle ANT MINERS

Kobolds have long been considered the most skilled miners in the land. Their small stature and inherent bravery allow them to squeeze into small and risky spaces, and they are very good with tools. Recently, however, the Kobolds have apparently dug too deep into the crust beneath the Molten Mountains. This has allowed an undiscovered race of Fire Ants to breach the surface. These Ants are each about the size of a man’s fist, not large enough individually to pose a threat to anyone, but they are very good at teamwork and they operate through a shared hive mind. The Ant Miners carry tiny tools, which they use to enhance their already-formidable digging skills. They always travel in packs and lines; if you see a line of Ant Miners approaching your home, do not attempt to fight. It’s best to just give up your home.

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Is it just me or do battles seem harder than ever these days? With 10,000 new players joining Splinterlands every day competition will surely increase. I wonder how many bots there are now. I’ve never used the Ant Miners in battle before, but their ability to scavenge health any time a monster dies makes them a useful card.

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My battle went well. I didn’t lose a single card. Maybe Splinterlands should add a flawless victory reward like in Mortal Kombat. It’s not always the case, but whoever places out more cards usually wins rather than relying on one really strong card. In this battle, I laid out six cards to my enemy’s three. My Cerberus or three-headed monster dog got down to one health at one point, but his ability to self-heal is what made the difference. Thank you for reading about my battle victory today. Get in the game!

Check out my battle:
https://steemmonsters.com?p=battle&id=sl_a3d3c916d8062d817738552ae7cfd8bc&ref=jeremiahcustis

Participate in this week’s challenge:
https://peakd.com/splinterlands/@splinterlands/share-your-battle-weekly-challenge-ant-miners

Ode to: The FURIOUS CHICKEN

I remember when you cost a penny, but now you are a must-have NFT if you want victory in your Splinterlands battles. While you may not have any attack power or magic abilities, you save the day very often. Thank you for your selfless sacrifice and sorry for eating so many of your brothers and sisters. All y’all are quite tasty and nutritious though.

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For this Splinterlands art contest, I experimented with sketches using open, closed, and divided negative space.

Open Negative Space

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Negative space or the empty space around your subject is usually ignored but is an important part of any drawing. For my open negative space drawing, I put the Furious Chicken in the middle of the artboard, small, and in front of the text. When using open negative space neither the text nor subject should touch the borders.

Closed Negative Space

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I thought a black background would work for my closed negative space drawing. When using closed negative space, the text or subject should not be fully in frame and will touch our come in from the edges.

Divided Negative Space

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I feel that the divided negative space drawing came out best hence it is the thumbnail of this post. I divided the artboard with a brown branch which divided the sky and ground. I felt the green ground would complement the red “Furious” well.

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Thank you for reading about my use of negative space today. I hope I explained the three types of negative space well. I started off with a pencil, then inked my sketches and used Inkscape for the digital drawings.

My computer is a total piece of junk I bought at Walmart for $99 back in 2017. It can only run for about an hour before it overheats and freezes up even though I made my room completely air-tight with painter’s tape and crank the air conditioning up on full blast in turbo mode. I have always despised Microsoft and Bill Gates and haven’t touched an X-box or any Windows operating system since 2007. The first thing I do to any computer I own (and sometimes to the great distress of my coworkers with company machines) is completely wipe Windows and install Linux Mint. I never understood why people continue to use crap like Microsoft when Linux is better, faster, and completely FREE. I guess people like being slaves to creeps like Gates.

I got into an argument with a big-ass retired British Sergeant Major back in 2019. He was so mad a me that he punched me down to the floor and kept punching me in the head. It took three people to take him off me. He then took my computer and ripped it in half tearing away the screen in true WWE drama. It still works if I connect an HDMI cable to a TV, so fuck you sir!

I tried using a bootleg copy of Adobe Illustrator I downloaded from the Pirate Bay, but since I’m running it through Wine, I couldn’t save my work for some reason, so I tried using Inkscape for the first time. Inkscape runs fine on my machine but takes some getting used to compared with Illustrator. If you can’t get Adobe Illustrator to work on your PC then Inkscape is a great and FREE alternative.

SPLINTERLANDS: My Grumpy Dwarf Victory

Having run from a great terror on the other side of the world, the Dwarves are new to the Splinterlands. They don’t take kindly to strangers, and since they are now surrounded by strangers, the residents of the Splinterlands have taken to calling them, Grumpy Dwarves. They are quite fierce with axes.

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Welcome fellow and future Splinterlands players. Today I’d like to share with you my battle using the Grumpy Dwarf. I honestly haven’t used this card for years. I sold it foolishly for pennies a while back, but since it is a part of my base set of cards it is always available to me. That is a very fair way to reward older players in my opinion, letting us use our old cards at level 1, even though we no longer own the NFT.

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The Grumpy Dwarf sadly died in this fight, but he took out my enemy’s Fire Elemental which was useful because it has the blast ability which not only hurts the card it’s aiming for, but the one next to it too!

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We both chose the Living Lava as our tank or first monster. This is a newer card, but it seems that everybody uses it these days.

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I put the three-headed monster dog, Cerberus in the second slot because he will self-heal and pick up where the first monster left off if it dies.

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I put the Grumpy Dwarf in the third spot, but I could’ve put him anywhere since he has the reach ability.

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The Kobold Miner has the sneak ability, so I could’ve placed him anywhere too.

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The Creeping Ooze reminds me of Slimer from Ghostbusters. He’s good because he only uses 1 mana and slows all of your enemies down by one point. This can often be the leading factor in your victory.

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The only reason I chose the Centaur was that he had a decent amount of health and filled up the possible mana for the battle. His snipe ability was useful in the fight though. Thanks for checking out my battle today. Get in the game!

Check out my battle:
https://steemmonsters.com?p=battle&id=sl_506f7059a7ef05ad26a2be27bce3b871&ref=jeremiahcustis

Participate in this week’s challenge:
https://peakd.com/splinterlands/@splinterlands/share-your-battle-weekly-challenge-grumpy-dwarf

SPLINTERLANDS: My Dragon NFT Battle Victory

Some time ago, Daria Dragonscale nearly lost her twin brother Delwyn to the Burn that had stricken so many of the scaled. She would have lost him completely, but at his deathbed, she hired the services of a dark sorcerer who transferred his soul into a special Heliosoulstone. While he was suspended inside the stone, Daria traveled to the Earth Splinter, where she visited the Flesh Golems in the root of the Elder Tree. With their help, she created a new Golem from fleshy scraps. Delwyn’s soul was transferred into the new Golem, and Daria had her brother back… forever.

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I’m having a lot of fun playing Splinterlands now that there are so many new players. It makes the game harder, but also better in many ways. I was once a Champion player, but got bored and sold everything before the recent popularity. Now I’ll be lucky if I can crawl back up to the Silver League. At least I still get daily SPS airdrops for back in the day when I earned those Champion points.

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If you’re like me then you’ll regret seeing just one treasure chest reward while struggling in the Bronze League. That’s why I make sure I have a Quest Potion before I complete my Daily Quest. It will add 5 treasure chests to your reward. It’s not expensive if you pay with credits. You can also pay with DEC, but with these strong DEC prices today, you’ll pay way more.


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My dragons kicked ass! We didn’t lose a single monster in this battle! My Sea Monster was able to take most of the damage while my dragons got to work destroying the enemy.

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I chose this Dragon summoner, Delwyn Dragonscale, because he increases everyone’s magic attack power.

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The Serpentine Mystic can take away an enemy’s special power like self-healing, so I always choose him.

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The Dragon Whelp isn’t usually a strong card, but when his magic attack is increased by the summoner he can do some damage.

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I should’ve chosen more magic attack monsters to do the most damage, but I think this is a beautiful card and my battle would look cooler with the Fire Spitter. Thank you for checking out my battle today. Get in the game!

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Check out my battle:
https://steemmonsters.com?p=battle&id=sl_c4dfcf6c85e260124fd88cbe32d8eee5&ref=jeremiahcustis

Participate in this week’s challenge:
https://peakd.com/splinterlands/@splinterlands/share-your-battle-weekly-challenge-dragons

100,000 Splinterlands Spellbooks Purchased


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Splinterlands just saw the purchase of its 100,000th Spellbook, halfway through August.


Reaching Benchmarks at Unprecedented Speeds

It took us over four years to sell the first 50,000 Splinterlands Spellbooks.
Now, in just fifteen days, that number has doubled.

Referencing a graph of daily Spellbook purchases hardly makes sense anymore. The recent numbers so effectively dwarf the earlier stats that any daily sales numbers before July of this year barely register at all. Average daily sales in August are 100x what they were at the beginning of the year, and 200x what they were a year ago.

Graphing the Spellbooks purchased over time tells the tale of Splinterlands‘ slow and steady growth since its creation right up until last month when the influx of new players skyrocketed these numbers and literally put the game out of commission for a few stressful days.


As cool as it is to see these total numbers, it’s even more interesting to look at the Spellbook Purchase rates in context.

Free-to-Play Games

In free-to-play games, it’s customary for only a small fraction of the players to choose to purchase into the game. Usually, around 1% – 2% of all players end up buying into any free-to-play game, while the other 98% – 99% of players stick with the free version, or else leave the game entirely.

Splinterlands has always enjoyed a significantly higher buy-in rate than average, traditionally hovering between 20-25%. The fact that one out of every 4 or 5 new players sees enough value in our game to buy a $10.00 upgrade has always been a point of pride for us, especially considering that most games must sign up 50-100 players, on average, before they see one purchase.

More are Staying

However, lately even these note-worthy figures have been outdone. We saw the sale of the 100,000th Spellbook just two days after the creation of our 300,000th new account. As things stand now, over 32% of all accounts that have ever been created have continued on to Purchase a Spellbook and explore their full Splinterlands potential. A one-third buy-in rate is amazing, but it isn’t even the end of the story.

The August Spellbook purchase rate is now over 40%, meaning that this month more than 2 out of every 5 new player accounts decided that Splinterlands is too good to pass up. The past five days have seen an average buy-in rate of nearly 50%, which is just astounding.

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Data from Peakmonsters.com

New players usually try out the game in free mode for a bit before deciding if it’s worth actually paying into, so Spellbook numbers tend to lag behind sign-up numbers by a few days, at least.

Why Players Stay

Sure, Splinterlands has a lot to offer, even if you don’t already have an impressive Alpha pack. The continued release of new cards and the structure of the tournaments system ensure that new players will always have access to relatively inexpensive cards that can hold their own in battles. The new rental market gives card owners and card seekers even more options. SPS offers players the chance to have a real say in the future of the game, and the fact that it’s all built on the blockchain means that players genuinely own their Splinterlands assets and that every purchase buys you more than just a once-and-done half hour of playing fun.

But Splinterlands has something much harder to replicate than thoughtful design, interesting graphics, or addictive gameplay. Because Splinterlands isn’t merely a game: it’s a whole community. In Guilds and on Splintertalk blogs; on Reddit, Twitter, and especially in Discord, Splinterlands community members continue to make this an inviting environment for new players, and this effort continues to pay off.



The Splinterlands team is small. Even with all we can do, we still depend heavily on the community to answer questions, explain game features, and in general help direct all the new players who are pouring in. And let me tell you: the Splinterlands community has shown itself to be more than up to this challenge. So many of you are extremely knowledgeable and experienced, and freely share your gems of game wisdom with newer players, directing them to the resources that will help them and explaining the finer points of the game. Your passion for the game is by far the best advertisement Splinterlands could ever have.

Guilds offer enormous opportunities for players to connect with each other, form friendships, and grow roots in the community. You can find other games to play. You can find other assets to purchase. But the friends in your Guild aren’t available anywhere else, and it makes a difference.

If new players were pouring into the game only to discover cold shoulders, unanswered questions, and condescension, it’s a good bet that many of them wouldn’t stick around for long. The fact that 30-50% of those that swing by deciding to buy into Splinterlands and put down roots here is a testament to how awesome our community is, as much as anything else we have to offer.

We are so grateful. And humbled. And amazed.
Thanks for being phenomenal.

DARK HA’ON Legendary NFT battle challenge (rented)

Scholars of Khymeria have studied the shapeshifting, mystical beasts known as Ha’on extensively since their appearance ten years ago. At an early age, each Ha’on chooses a single power form, into which they can transform. Their time is then divided into their original humanoid form and the power form, which takes a considerable amount of energy to maintain for long periods of time. The Human forms of Ha’on are recognizable by their frightening single-colored eyes, a trait with which they are endowed when they realize their full shapeshifting potential. The Dark Ha’on is one of the strongest Ha’on, taking the power form of a large flying cat.

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I remember when this NFT Death Legendary card was less than a dollar. I even had one maxed out. I didn’t have the cash to buy it today so I rented it for a few cents. Don’t feel bad if you sold all of your cards or are just getting started. There will soon be a new batch of cards that will give us all another chance.

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I photoshopped and duplicated a copy of Dark Ha’on and enlarged it for dramatic effect. My enemy had a good strategy. They put out a strong tank, healer, sneak attacker, and some magic cards.

I used a summoner which gives all of my cards the ability to reflect magic back. Dark Ha’on absorbed most of the attacks while my two scary-looking archer and sniper ghosts helped my lead card wipe out the enemy.

Thank you Splinterlands for creating such a great game. The light years of advancement over the years have been truly impressive and I know there is a lot more where that came from.

If you are interested in getting started with NFTs, then I couldn’t imagine a better place to start than Splinterlands. Get in the game!

Check out my battle:
https://steemmonsters.com?p=battle&id=sl_64b15bb9c1f67a234629e62aab92361c&ref=jeremiahcustis

Participate in this week’s challenge:
https://peakd.com/splinterlands/@splinterlands/share-your-battle-weekly-challenge-dark-haon