Trading Card Games

Splinterlands Adds Runi Staking; New Promo Card

Splinterlands Arkemis banner

Just when I think that we’ve caught up with the Splinterlands news, they release more announcements. This latest wave of updates includes a bit more detail about lands, implementation of Runi staking into the game, and information about a new Promo card!

Despite their recent layoffs, Splinterlands seems to be progressing nicely with regular updates and improvements. And even when they aren’t adding new features, their weekly Town Hall meetings are often filled with great info about what to expect in the future!

In addition to the opening of land claims, Splinterlands has even more updates for us this week.

Runi Staking

Runi owners can now stake their Runis and play them in-game. Runis appear in game as level 4 Legendary cards. And though the stats for all Runis are the same, each Runi card in-game includes the unique appearance of the NFT on Ethereum. Which is pretty cool!

Players choose an account to delegate to when staking their Runi. That account gets to use the card in-game (until the Runi is unstaked). So though the Splinterlands system doesn’t support renting directly, players could negotiate with others for use of their Runi.

a Runi prepares for battle
a Runi prepares for battle

New Promo Card

Splinterlands also revealed a new, holiday, promo card. This card will be airdropped to every player who purchased or purchases a pack from November 29th through January 12th. Every pack purchased (this includes Chaos Legion, Riftwatchers, and Tower Defense Nightmare packs) receives one copy of this card. Each card has a 2% chance of being a gold foil version, with a guaranteed gold foil for every 50 pack purchased in a single transaction (ie, buying 150 packs at once will reward 3 gold foil promo cards).

Arkemis the Bear is a melee, neutral creature that costs 12 mana. With some beefy stats and the Protect ability at level 1, Arkemis will likely see quite a bit of gameplay. He also comes with the Halving ability, at level four and up, with is only available on one other card in the game!

Arkemis, new Promo card
Arkemis, new Promo card

Additional Land Info

Land claiming opened earlier this week, with most of the first Territory already claimed. In a recent town hall meeting, the team revealed some more tidbits about land gameplay, which looks to be the main priority for Splinterlands in the near future.

Soon, players will be able to survey their lands, revealing rarity, and the presence of resources and special buildings. Land owners will have the option of paying a fee in Dark Energy Crystals (DEC) to increase their chances of finding rare resources and plots. We don’t have the details about the feature yet. But this will create an additional burn utility for DEC token, which the Splinterlands team is trying to return to its expected parity (where 1000 DEC = $1).

We also learned a little about Keeps and Castles, special locations that players may find on their land. These will function as in-game markets, with the owning player receiving fees as players use their marketplace. The end goal for land gameplay is for players to create cards for use in the main Splinterlands game.

Splinterlands land
Splinterlands land
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.