Trading Card Games

Splinterlands Merges TCG and PFP With Runicore

Splinterlands Runicore banner

Yep. It’s yet another announcement from Splinterlands! This one involves a new project called Runicore, which will function as both a profile picture NFT, and a unique card in the Splinterlands trading card game. Players will have a chance to mint Runis, NFTs that function as PFPs on Ethereum, and also double as unique, playable, Splinterlands cards.

The Splinterlands team keeps hitting us with new announcements. The latest is for a project called Runicore. Runicore brings a new, limited edition promo card to Splinterlands. This card, called Runi, only exists as a level 4 legendary, and, every single copy of this card will feature unique artwork!

Runi is a neutral, legendary card. It costs 6 mana and comes with 4 attack strength, 1 speed, 1 armor, and 5 health. It also has four abilities — Opportunity, True Strike, Reflection Shield, and, a brand new ability called Rebirth. Rebirth is a self-resurrect ability that can trigger once per battle, and which also stacks with regular Resurrection (ie, Runi can be resurrected by another card, and also use their rebirth ability in the same battle)! Nice!

Well, now I’ll bet that you are wondering how to get this card. And here’s where it starts to get interesting. Runis will be minted on the Ethereum network, and cost approximately $500 USD in ETH.

Runi card

Runicore Mint

Splinterlands Voucher
more use cases for VOUCHERS

The mint is scheduled for October 25th, 2022 at 2pm EST. Only 6,500 Runis will be sold. Ever. Each mint has a 2% chance of generating a gold foil NFT.

In order to reward Splinterlands investors and players, the team plans to sell 2000 whitelist spots on September 22. These allow players to reserve a Runi, and purchase it at 50% discount. The spots cost 100 VOUCHERS each, which, at current prices, would cost about $65. (note: if a whitelist spot doesn’t mint their Runi within 30 days, they forfeit their opportunity and their VOUCHERS).

Runis are generative art pieces, much like a standard PFP. Each one will be unique, though aside from the one image, we don’t know much about the variations available. But now comes the next interesting part.

Players who own Runis can stake them to a special Ethereum contract. The owner still maintains possession of the NFT, but they are unable to sell or transfer it until it is unstaked. When a player stakes an Ethereum Runi, the Splinterlands system delegates an in-game Runi card to them which has their unique artwork on it! Every Runi in-game will be max level (4). And every one a unique card due to the different artwork.

Runis in Splinterlands

Splinterlands Runi NFTs cannot be bought, sold, traded, or rented. However, when the Ethereum Runi NFT is staked, players can choose to delegate the Splinterlands card to a different Hive wallet. And while Splinterlands won’t offer an official in-game rental market for this feature, it is likely some third-party site will jump on the chance to help manage Runi rentals.

But wait! There is still more! Runi holders receive a full, commercial use license for their unique Runi artwork! This is for the individual PFP art only. Nothing Splinterlands related. But it will still be very interesting to see what comes from this. Especially since we’ve had some famous PFP projects back out of commercial use licenses this year.

The sale for the whitelist spots will be through the Splinterlands store and the team will provide further details about Runi minting soon.

Splinterlands banner
Phil Hall has been a gaming enthusiast since birth and a crypto enthusiast since 2017. He enjoys new discoveries and sharing those with others via blogging and photography. You can follow him on Twitter or read his other articles on Medium.