"Steem Monsters" + "Drug Wars" - Power Strategy Tips #16

As I have now been playing Steem Monsters and Drug Wars for several months now, I have 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, Steemit is about ADDING VALUE to the social experience - that is the magic of blockchain technology. So, after some serious pondering, I decided that a weekly "Steem Monster + 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, and/or any other area of knowledge I end up exploring 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 nice, steady stream of Steem has been rolling into my Steem Engine wallet daily, as a result of the 100 SP delegation I made to @steemmonsters/@splinterlands. I have been using this IN COMBINATION with the Dark Energy Crystals I have been earning through active play (when I can find the time/motivation) to take advantage of the #steemmonsters bid bot. Basically, I have been depositing 500 - 1000 DEC into the bid bot, and getting some nice ~ $1.00+ USD upvotes as a result. This is a nice, and honest, way to monetize my active Steem Monsters playing activity, and build another nice stream of Steem income into the future. My new plan is to INCREASE the amount that I send to the bid bot, in a progressive and slow manner (perhaps + 100 DEC per post). I will report on the results of this into the future.

2 ) Drug Wars has now made the "simulator" more easily integrated into the battle section. Now, I can send in 1 "spy", and for SOME of the "lost" battles I can then use the simulator to catch those few battle opportunities where I am at a steep advantage, and so can earn some FUTURE by destoying opponents defenders AND raid their assets. Plus, this gives me more incentive to continue building my army. In a recent battle I lost only 16 "bouncer" amd 12 "rowdy" defenders, (which are EASILY replaceable in less than an hour, with the amount of assets I am currently producing. I also earned several HUNDRED THOUSAND assets of the opponent. I think this is a good way to START experimenting with battling opponents who do NOT have zero army. In time, of course, the goal will be to be able to raid larger opponents.

3 ) In general, I have been achieving the goal of "reading on #steemmonsters and one #drugwars posts per day. Interestingly, this week one player @ninjamike posted that he has decided to stop playing SteemMonsters and liquidate all of his cards, primary due to what he claims to be "addiction" to the game :

https://steemit.com/@ninjamike/i-sold-my-entire-collection-of-steem-monsters-cards

I found this post especially valuable (as you can see from my comment to his post) in that it confirms the effectiveness of the strategy I set for my overall SteemMonsters and Drug Wars playing activity (in combination with this post series), plus my blockchain gaming research series posts. That is, the way I have focused my approach from the "case study" perspective has given me some additional immunity to falling prey to the usual nasties such as "gaming addiction" and/or burnout. I have written about my experience with BOTH of these issues in past posts of this series, as well as the ADJUSTMENTS I have made to counter those issues. @ninjamike's post is one confirmation that my strategy is working, in terms of being consistent for the long haul.

4 ) Another interesting thing related to #3 is that I discovered @ninjamike's post on SteemFollower, which is the excellent upvote sharing dApp which I have been using since I opened my Steemit account back in August 2017. By upvoting SteemMonsters and/or DrugWars related posts there I earn some SteemFollower points, which then earns me some additional upvotes, and so it all works harmoniously together. Every day I must upvote AT LEAST five posts from within SteemFollower, and so I try to upvote ANY/ALL decent posts related to the games as possible.

5 ) I've been making LOTS of raids, and focusing the income on upgrading BOTH my drug production and storage. Since I also use a lot of the raid booty to buy additional recruits, and since those recruits DO NOT require any (or much) drug assets to purchase, I find my drug production level significantly exceeding my weapons and alcohol. What I have been experimenting with is waiting until a few minutes before the daily payout (which is around 7 am where I live in the world) and then doing a nice JUICY heist with all of my remaining drugs. This has been helping me build a progressively increasing daily payout of FUTURE tokens, which I am now intending on selling for Steem in 500 FUTURE token batches. It should be interesting to see how long it takes me to reach the next 500 FUTURE. As of publishing this update I am at 654 FUTURE, which is 154 FUTURE above the FIRST buy of 500 FUTURE tokens I did to test out the token. I will report on my FUTURE holdings in each post in this series going forward, so we can track my progress in earning FUTURE/Steem.

I hope you find some/any of these tips useful in increasing your understanding and/or skill level in the Steem Monsters (Splinterland) and/or Drug Wars game(s). More JUICY tips to come with each weekly update, as I become more experienced and successful in the game.

See you on the battlefield...

@transcript-junky