Splinterlands Game Introduces Soulbound Cards

Splinterlands game introduces soulbound cards
26 January 2023

Splinterlands the NFT game has announced the release of a new set of 43 soulbound reward cards. These cards will be available to players on January 31. The introduction of soulbound reward cards is a key element in the game’s overall goal of making the game more engaging for players. This encourages players to focus on growing their accounts over the long term, and is hoped to boost engagement. The set will feature 37 monster cards and six Summoner cards, one for each element except neutral. Each element will have two new legendary cards, one epic, two rares, and two commons. The cards will replace the current reward cards when launched.

These new reward cards are from the Chaos Legion and as such are limited to use with any ruleset that allows Chaos Legion cards. This card set will be soulbound, meaning they cannot be bought, sold, or traded, but players can still combine them to create higher-level versions. Once the set stops its print run, Splinterlands will provide an option to convert the cards into regular, tradable cards. This change is to encourage players both to participate and work on building their collection instead of cashing out. Having certain items that can only be obtained through gameplay rather than just being purchased on the market increases the value of playing ranked battles, moving up to higher leagues, and most importantly—combining cards. This creates a sense of accomplishment and pride for players who have acquired these cards through their own efforts.

Splinterlands new soulbound cards
New Soulbound cards coming to Splinterlands

Other changes coming to Splinterlands

This advent of new reward cards also brings a couple of changes to loot chests. First off, Splinterlands will re-enable the ability to use potions to increase the chances of receiving better rewards from loot chests. Potions will only be consumed when a loot chest is opened that contains a reward card, so players won’t waste potions on chests with tokens or other items. Additionally, legendary potions will increase the chance of receiving epic rarity cards, though only for reward loot chests (not for pack opening). And finally, there will also be a chance for reward chests to contain more than one copy of a card.

With this new set of reward cards come a new Summoner ability and two new unit abilities. The new Summoner ability is called Conscript, which allows the player to use one additional Gladiator card in battle, even in regular battles where Gladiator cards normally aren’t allowed. This is huge, as every Gladiator card comes with an ability called Bloodlust. The unit abilities are Martyr and Weapons Training. Martyr units provide a +1 bonus to all stats for all adjacent ally units when they die, and Weapons Training provides an attack on any adjacent unit that doesn’t have an attack. The Dispel ability will now remove the Bloodlust effect, as well as the new bonuses from Martyr and Weapons Training. 

The introduction of these new soulbound reward cards, changes to loot chest, and new abilities is expected to bring new excitement and engagement to the game, encouraging players to focus on growing their accounts over the long term.