"Steem Monsters" + "Drug Wars" - Power Strategy Tips #24

As I have now been playing Steem Monsters and Drug Wars for several months, 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, 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 Monsters + 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 ) My experience with the Steem Monsters guild into the second season has deepened my appreciation of the value of this new feature in several additional ways. Firstly, membership in the guild has provided me more incentive to play daily, especially since I am now getting bonuses (currently 4% of DEC (Dark Energy Crystals)) for each battle I win). In addition, each completed quest steadily raises the "Guild Lodge" further up the levels (likely one level per season at our current rate), and so we are more incentivised to complete the daily quests. Also, knowing that my effort (and the benefits of that effort) are part of a larger team effort provides further morale-boosting. Finally, the guild leader has been quite strategic and generous in leasing some valuable cards to members - a few of which have allowed me to be exposed to, and experiment with, some powerful cards I had not been familiar with. In fact, I am now considering either buying these newly discovered cards on the market, or making a proposal to buy them from the group leader - or at least request an extended lease of the cards. This is a great way to improve your game when you aren't willing or able to commit to purchasing specific cards - especially the higher cost ones. This a very powerful benefit of the guild. Overall, membership in the guild has incentivised me to play more, and as a result of more consistent play, up my game significantly. I look forward to moving further up the levels to benefit from the increasing bonus of DEC, and discount in the store, all of which will lead to more reward cards, more powerful decks, and improved skill and experience overall.

2 ) When the last @steemmonsters season ended I suffered from a bit of "post-partum depression" due to getting a not-so-special reward card dump of 40 cards, and also realizing that when the season ends the guild simply keeps on going without much fanfare, except that the "quest lodge" level gets knocked back a bit. To my surprise, however, I then saw a message from our guide leader who congratulated the whole group for our performance in the first season, and encouraged us to focus solely on the quests to get the "quest lodge" back to Level 4, and "enjoy the bonus DEC for now". This was encouraging, and after thinking about it a bit I decided to stick with my original strategy of contributing 100 DEC to the guild, plus my completed quests. In addition, when I get some especially good cards in a reward dump I like to throw a bonus 100 DEC into the "Guild Hall" to help motivate the rest of the members. Another member decided to celebrate by giving all members a free beta pack, which was way cool. I definitely like the sense of comraderie which the guild provides, and the current 100 DEC per day, plus the completed quests, and bonuses are a SMALL price to pay for the numerous benefits of being in the guild (specifically the one I'm in - "DEC Hunters"). The best part is that we are progressively adding spots for additional members in the guild (through performance), and our guild leader is doing a good job of vetting potential new members. In time I look forward to the increased benefits of DEC per battle, and discounts in the store, as we progressivey move up the levels of the guild. I think it is well worth it for any serious player to join a guild, at this point in my experience. In fact, I would like to put the call out for any SERIOUS #SteemMonsters players who are interested to join a quality guild to contact @nicole-st (our guild leader) and request to join, and/or simply go to our main guild page :

https://steemmonsters.com/?p=guild&id=e0aacdadc6f8407c57c0db61568d877dc917ad04&tab=about

and submit a request the standard way. You can mention that you were recommended to the "DEC Hunters" guide by reading this post ( by @transcript-junky ). We just filled our new 19 (maximum) member limit, but that limit will likely go up by one by next season at the steady pace we are moving, and so if you contact us now you can have priority when a new spot opens up.

3 ) A new dimension has ALSO opened up (as a result of joining the Steem Monsters "DEC Hunters" guide last season) which expands my strategy of using the SteemMonsters bit-bot (where I have settled for now on investing 2,000 DEC per post in return for a substantial upvote by @steemmonsters, plus a spot on the trending page of the #steemmonsters hashtag). I mentioned in the last update that after experimenting by bumping my per-post investment from 2,000 to 2,500 DEC I found that the upvote percentage and amount fluctuated to the point that the 2,500 turned out to not be worth it (in terms of marginal increase in ROI), since that extra 500 DEC takes significant effort to earn, and one on one post the return on that 2,500 was actually LESS than the previous average upvotes (which I paid 2,000 DEC for). So I decided last week that I would drop it back down to 2,000 DEC per post, and contribute the additional 500 DEC to the guild. One of the main lines of reasoning for this is that as the guild moves progressively up to higher levels the bonus of DEC we earn per won battle increases. Right now, in only the second season of the guild, we are already up to Level 5 of our "Quest Lodge", which means that we are now getting a 4% bonus of DEC per won battle, in addition to 2% discount on shop items (which includes the TWO purchases of 2,500 DEC each which I make per season for the "+5 reward cards" potion. This potion has enabled me to earn some especially JUICY reward cards above and beyond the core reward card payout, ESPECIALLY in the beginning of the season when I start at a lower level than the previous season. Another important thing to consider is that the DEC I contribute to the group has a CUMULATIVE return, in terms of all of my contributions of DEC over time remain locked in the guild coffers, contributing to the growth of the guild, and the cumulative benefits of that growth. So, investing the extra 500 DEC in the bid-bot is actually worth MUCH LESS than investing that same 500 DEC into the guild. Ultimately, this means that over time the ROI on my investment/contribution of DEC to the guild will likely be HIGHER than anything above the current 2,000 DEC per post I invest in the bid-bot. In addition, as DEC becomes more scarce it is likely that the actual value of each upvote I spend 2,000 DEC on will gradually increase over time. I will be monitoring this in the coming weeks and provide updates on this strategy over time.

Here's a quick look at the @steemmonsters upvotes I have received on the past four posts. You can see that the third upvote from the down from the top (which was the 2,500 DEC investment paid out LESS than the 2,000 DEC investment on the post following it. This is what convinced me to drop the investment down to 2,000 DEC per post again.

24% - $2.99 [2,000 DEC]
29% - $3.59 [2,000 DEC]
28% - $3.37 [2,500 DEC] **
37% - $4.50 [2,000 DEC]

4 ) Drug Wars has been making some consistent and significant upgrades to the game, and putting out steady stream of valuable posts on their @drugwars profile. I have also now compiled a list of the most high-quality Steemians who have been posting on both the #drugwars and #steemmonsters hashtag pages, and have been successfully meeting my goal of "reading one post per day from both the #steemmonsters and #drugwars hashtags ). IN combination with the more focused and personalized feedback I am now getting in the "DEC Hunters" Steemmonsters guild, I believe this is an adequate amount of supporting data to move progressively forward in both games.

5 ) DrugWars announced in one of their most recent posts that they will be rolling out the "jobs" feature of the game, where you can earn DWD (Drug Wars Dollars - the new in-game currency) by completing "jobs/quests" using your army units. This announcement has come just as I have hit on a winning formula for looting assets (via battles) from other players and SIMULTANEOUSLY allocating some of the booty into upgrading my buildings, assets, and battle units for my other four bases. Last week I SET UP the bases, and this week I made good progress upgrading them. I have been successful in maintaining the strategy I laid out in the last post, whereby I keep a running log of players who I have provided a significant, and consistent, amount of booty when I attack them. Some of these players wise up to my regular attacks, and when they "go dry" I simply move their profile coordinates to the bottom of my running list (under a section titled "past lucrative opponents). The reason for this is that they may become quality opponents again, and since I have already spent the time finding them on the map, and recording their coordinates, then it only makes sense to keep those on record for the future. Sometimes players can't maintain their play for a few days/weeks, and so ALL players are potential prey at any point in time. I will send a spy in the previous "high output" players once a week just to check in. The second part of the strategy is to then take some time to transport booty from the battles to my other four bases and upgrade everything. I have found that spending 5 minutes on exploring the map, finding some potential prey, and sending out spies AND THEN spending 10-15 minutes transporting and upgrading everything in the other bases, is a good allocation of time/energy. I have also added the addition task of focusing on ONE specific territory at a time, since doing that ensures that I at least evaluate EACH base. If I just go randomly through the bases it is easy to miss some, and also get confused. I alternate these tasks with my other work, and my Steem Monsters game play. It seems to be working well as everything is being successfully and consistently upgraded. Once the "jobs" features is enables I will work on figuring out the most efficient, and safe, way of integrating the jobs missions in with this overall mix, in a way which minimizes loss of offense/defense units while maximizing gains of assets, which I can then use to recruit more units and go on more missions. I should be able to provide an update on that in the next post of this series.

( 6 ) Two days before publishing this post Drug Wars indeed launched the "jobs" feature of the game. I experimented by doing the first four jobs, and then recording the amount of battle units I lost for each. Since it requires time to replenish the battle units (time is less liquid than the assets I am generating right now) I decided to set a comfortable pace for embarking on the jobs, so as to at least leave time to replenish all/most of the lost battle units before losing more. In this way the result of the jobs is profit which can be allocated into building a larger army. I am also experimenting with doing repeated lower-level jobs with larger battle units to see if I can eliminate the losses of battle units completely. I am also taking the time BETWEEN jobs to work on finding new battle opponents on the map and raiding them. The booty from those battles can also be used to offset the losses taken via the jobs. All in all, the amount of assets and DWD earned through the jobs is certainly appealing, and a nice additional "spice" to the game to accelerate results overall. I want to have a strong production level across my empire for when the Drug Wards card features is rolled out, so I can gobble up a massive amount of those to further boost my overall results.

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