What Is Splinterlands & How Do You Play?

Top NFT Games (Updated for 2022)

To learn more about this project, check out our deep dive of [Splinterlands](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/article/what-is-splinterlands-how-do-you-play).

## What Is Splintershards (SPS)?

[Splinterlands](https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/splinterlands/) is a digital, collectible card game based on blockchain technology and inspired by games like Magic the Gathering and Hearthstone, where players build a collection of cards with different attributes and battle other players in skills-based matches. It is a game where players can buy, sell and trade their digital assets just as they would with physical trading cards games such as Magic the Gathering, Pokémon and Yu-Gi-Oh!

Splinterlands was created as players lost the ability to truly own their assets (or trading cards) once games went digital. With blockchain technology, it allows players to own and trade their digital assets freely once again. It also allows the game to have true scarcity and transparency, which means all cards on Splinterlands have a verifiable supply and historical record. 

Players battle other players by choosing ranked or practice battles. With ranked battles, players can increase their rating. There is no downside to playing ranked battles as a beginner since players with a rating below 100 do not lose ranking points. Battles take place between players of similar strength. When matched up with an opponent, both players choose a set of six monster cards and one summoner card for the battle to destroy all their opponent’s monster cards and win the battle.

Although the game is free-to-play, players need to purchase the summoner’s spellbook for $10 if they want to unlock the game in full. With the summoner’s spellbook, players get access to their account keys and unlock the ability to earn Dark Energy Crystals, which can be redeemed for real currency. 

Splinterlands started in May 2018 and launched Splintershards (SPS) – its [governance token](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/glossary/governance-token) for the SPS [decentralized autonomous organization](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/glossary/decentralized-autonomous-organizations-dao) (DAO) at the end of July 2021. It concluded a $3.6M private token sale for 6.6% of the SPS token supply. After reaching 100,000 players in its first three years, it added another 50,000 in just over a month from June 2021. Splinterland plans to build out its game in the latter half of 2021, with oracle integration planned for Q1 2022.


## Who Are the Founders of Splinterland?

Jesse Reich and Matthew Rosen, who go under “aggroed” and “yabapmatt” on the Splinterlands Discord server are the two founders. Both are from the Pennsylvania area. While Reich is a former scientist and chemistry professor without any professional gaming experience prior to Splinterlands, Rosen worked as a developer for RockYou and Ryzing, both gaming projects, albeit not blockchain-based.

In total, the Splinterlands team consists of 12 employees as per their LinkedIn page.


## What Makes Splinterland Unique?

Splinterland aims to capitalize on the growing demand for blockchain-based games that offer the possibility to own unique digital assets. At the end of July 2021, it closed a private round for $3.6 million in exchange for only 6.6% of the entire token supply. 

Splinterlands runs on the [Hive blockchain](https://docs.splinterlands.com/hiveblockchain), meaning all actions in the game are recorded on the blockchain. That means anyone can join the game by creating a Hive blockchain address, making the game permissionless. It also provides Splinterlands with a transparent record of all actions in the game, including battle results, which ensures fairness and transparency. 

Players have a base set of cards and can purchase booster packs or specific cards from other players. These cards can be leveled up and used in battle against other players. In these ranked battles, players compete for Dark Energy Crystals (DEC), the in-game currency of Splinterlands. Players can also obtain DEC by converting unused cards in their collection. DEC can be used to buy in-game items or trading cards from other players on the Splinterland market. DEC are also tradable among players and on third-party exchanges. The utility of DEC will continue to increase as more features are added to the game.

The Splintershards (SPS) token will work as a DAO on the [Binance Smart Chain](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/article/what-is-binance-smart-chain) platform. The SPS token is a governance token that will be integrated into the Splinterland game, giving players the option to influence decisions about the game and the ecosystem. Players may also propose their own changes, such as changing the tournament schedule, modifying the battle settings, or a change to the DEC inflation pools.


#### **Related Pages:**

Check out [Axie Infinity (AXS)](https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/axie-infinity/) — a pet-oriented trading game incorporating NFTs.

Check out [AnRKey X (ANRX)](https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/anrkey-x/) — another highly popular NFT game.

Learn how NFTs work in our [guide to Non-Fungible Tokens](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/article/what-is-a-non-fungible-token-nft).

Get the latest crypto news and latest trading insights with the [CoinMarketCap blog](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/categories/blog).


## How Many Splinterlands (SPS) Coins Are There in Circulation?

The maximum total supply will be 3 billion SPS tokens. As per their [token distribution schedule](https://sps.splinterlands.com/distribution), Splinterlands plans to airdrop 400 million, or 13.33% of their tokens, over a year to players holding Splinterlands assets. This is to encourage players to accumulate and hold Splinterlands assets for longer. Players can earn airdrop points for different assets, which will be used to determine how many SPS they receive.

200 million SPS, or 6.66%, were allocated in the private sale in July 2021 for $3.6 million. Investors include crypto-native funds such as Animoca Brands, Blockchain Founders Fund, Enjin, Polygon, Yield Guild Games, and more. They will be unlocked over 10 months. 

The remaining token supply is allocated as follows: 10% will be controlled by the DAO, which is planned for Q1 2022; 9% will be held by the team and unlocked over 65 months, with 50 million unlocked on day one; 1% reserved for advisors, to be unlocked over 24 months; 60% reserved for staking and oracle rewards, as well as for play to earn rewards for players, to be released over a 65-month schedule.


## How Is the Splinterlands Network Secured?

Splinterlands’ SPS token will be set up on the [Binance Smart Chain](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/article/what-is-binance-smart-chain) (BSC) blockchain. The team decided against Ethereum because gas fees on Ethereum became prohibitively high, limiting the number of people who can participate. BSC has fast transaction times and low transaction fees, as well as the function to port smart contracts to Ethereum, making a future move possible.

BSC is secured through the [proof-of-stake](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/glossary/proof-of-stake-pos) [consensus mechanism](https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/glossary/consensus-mechanism). 21 validators are elected every 24 hours to validate transactions and maintain blockchain security. These validators have to stake a certain amount of BNB coins with Binance to be eligible to do so. Holders of SPS tokens will be able to stake their SPS in smart contracts to participate in governance voting.

While the SPS token lives on BSC, the game itself is on the Hive blockchain. Interactions between the two will be handled by oracles, who will be users or entities elected by SPS holders that are tasked with relaying relevant information from the game to the Binance Smart Chain. This is the technically optimal solution to minimize transaction fees while optimizing the gaming experience. In-game-related actions stay on Hive, but conversions to SPS tokens will be relayed by oracles.


## When Will Splinterlands (SPS) Trading Begin?

After its private round in July 2021, Splinterlands plans to begin its airdrop and liquidity incentives in Q3 2021.


## Can Splinterlands Hit $1?

[Splinterlands](https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/splinterlands/) is trading around $0.40 as of August 2021, so reaching $1 would be a little more than double the price. Given that Splinterlands managed to raise $3.6M in its recent private sale, it shows strong interest and backing from investors. With its new features and number of users growing considerably, it will be one to watch. Furthermore, considering that other popular NFT games accomplished 10X of their initial trading value and more, $1 might not be far.


## Where Can You Buy Splinterlands (SPS)?

As of August 2021, you can buy SPS on [Pancakeswap (V2)](https://coinmarketcap.com/en/exchanges/pancakeswap-v2/), [Gate.io](https://coinmarketcap.com/en/exchanges/gate-io/), [BKEX](https://coinmarketcap.com/en/exchanges/bkex/) and [Bilaxy](https://coinmarketcap.com/en/exchanges/bilaxy/). 

If you want to learn more about how you can start buying cryptocurrencies, you can read more in our guide [here](https://coinmarketcap.com/how-to-buy-bitcoin/).

Splintershards

Trust Wallet

MetaMask

Binance Chain Wallet

Splinterlands is a web3 collectible fantasy game that empowers Battle Mages via enchanted cards and the SPS token.

BNB Smart Chain (BEP20)

PancakeSwap

Trust Wallet Token

SafePal

BinaryX

Electra Protocol

Sakai Vault

Poolz Finance

TopGoal

YooShi

Ellipsis

Metahero

Venus LINK

Openfabric AI

Capitalrock

Ctomorrow Platform

King of Legends

Seed.Photo

Chappyz

Gods Unchained is a free-to-play tactical card game that gives players true ownership of their in-game items. Led by the former game director of Magic The Gathering: Arena, the game focuses on competitive play, which means players must strategically outsmart their opponents by building decks that are able to combat a wide variety of tactics. In Gods Unchained players completely own their digital items, giving them the freedom to trade, sell and use their cards any way they like – just like owning real, tangible cards.

GODS is an ERC-20 token used as premium currency within the GU ecosystem. The tokens will be used to:

Create an NFT.

Used within the marketplace and for in-game purchases.

Distributed as a reward to players.

To learn more about this project, check out our deep dive of Gods Unchained.

Gods Unchained

Alien Worlds (TLM) is a decentralized, non-fungible token (NFT) metaverse, where players compete for scarce resources, Trilium (TLM), in a stimulated economy centered around planetary worlds. Due to this, Alien Worlds also has a decentralized finance (DeFi) element to the game, as players advance by staking TLM and using TLM to vote in Planet Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs).

Play-to-earn (P2E) NFT games have seen an exponential rise in popularity and value this year. Alien Worlds allow the players, called “explorers” to earn monetary rewards through gameplay or participation in Planet DAOs. By mining in Alien Worlds, a user is rewarded with the native, in-game currency — Trilium (TLM) or NFT packs. Players can stake TLM to boost their rewards or battle with other users for NFTs.

To date, Alien Worlds has established a fair amount of its roadmap, having TLM on Binance launchpad and farming period of TLM on Binance Launchpool. A large portion of game developments have been forged as well. Moving forward, Alien Worlds aims to automate the claiming process of daily allocation to landowners in the game. Artifacts NFTs are soon to be released, and future plans include NFT interoperability.

Alien Worlds

WAX (WAXP) is a purpose-built blockchain, released in 2017, that is designed to make e-commerce transactions faster, simpler and safer for every party involved. The WAX blockchain uses delegated proof-of-stake (DPoS) as its consensus mechanism. It is fully compatible with EOS.

The custom features and the incentive mechanisms developed by WAX are intended to optimize the blockchain’s utility specifically for use in e-commerce, with the goal of encouraging voting on proposals.

To make this possible, WAX created a suite of blockchain-based tools which decentralized application (DApp) marketplaces and non-fungible tokens can be built upon.

Services such as WAX Cloud Wallet, SSO and OAUTH support e-commerce operations, the latter being a native RNG service and a developer portal. WAX’s blockchain architecture supports 500-millisecond block time and zero-fee transactions for customers. It also makes use of voting rewards to incentivize participation in the selection of block producers and improvement proposals.

Wilder World

Hive (HIVE) is a blockchain running on a delegated proof-of-stake (DPoS) consensus mechanism. It launched in March 2020 as a hard fork of the centralized Steem blockchain and as a gateway from Web 2.0 to Web 3.0. The blockchain claims to offer “lightning-fast processing times and fee-less transactions.” Examples of use cases include social media with monetized rewards for content creators, interactive blockchain games, identity management, micro-loans and more. The platform powers decentralized applications (dApps) like Splinterlands, PeakD and HiveBlog.

Hive is a social network of apps and services, where users discover the capacity of blockchain technology, connect to the platform and securely share content through equitable redistribution of value. Thus, the users are the proprietors of the network, and sponsors can contact communities and artists directly without intermediaries.

Hive is an open source blockchain that focuses on scaling through layer-2 sidechains, while still benefiting from a common layer-1 blockchain backbone to ensure distributed data integrity. The Hive ecosystem runs on two cryptocurrencies — the native governance token, HIVE and the USD-pegged HBD stablecoin.

Hive

Mines of Dalarnia (DAR) is an action-adventure game with a blockchain real-estate market. MoD is based on a simple and simultaneously captivating gameplay, where users can mine and combine in-game items, then utilize them to upgrade their characters (skills and equipment), thereby increasing their rank in the game. Players can go in search of rare artifacts / relics / minerals, complete quests, team up with other players to defeat monsters and unlock rewards.

Mines of Dalarnia

Efinity is a cross-chain NFT platform developed by Enjin and built on Polkadot. Efinity was created as the next generation blockchain for digital assets with the aim of adapting to the challenges of the world of non-fungible tokens (NFTs), according to the project.

The main specialization of the Efinity project is the NFT space. With the protocol, traders and gamers can create, distribute, transfer, sell and buy NFTs. Efinity aims to remove barriers to entry into the NFT space/decentralized gaming, and to simplify user experience and digital asset governance.

Efinity Token powers the entire Efinity ecosystem, EFI aims to prioritize the generation, transfer and purchase of tokens using an inter-chain infrastructure of protocols resulting in lower transaction fees. As for incentives, rewards on PoW blockchains with NFT functionality go to miners who create/trade tokens, thereby forming a community.

One of the long-term goals of Efinity is to become a hub for both fungible and non-fungible tokens, accepting tokens from any other chain, facilitating the pricing and exchange of NFTs, increasing transaction volume, and creating network effects.

In December 2021, the project won the Polkadot parachain auction, and in March 2022, Enjin launched their flagship parachain Efinity on the Polkadot Relay Chain — a blockchain platform that provides a decentralized parachain network where people havecontrol over their data and identity.

Efinity Token

Ultra is a publishing platform and ecosystem for video games and video game content. Ultra’s mission is to do away with the current monopoly held by publishing platforms like Steam and provide new opportunities to game developers, players, and influencers. Ultra promises a solution that is more equitable to players and developers alike. Players can benefit from immediately playable games, earn UOS by using the platform, and access platform-exclusive games. At the same time, developers benefit from access to more effective marketing tools and the potential for 20% higher sales revenue.

Besides content and game publishing, Ultra offers a demand-side and service-side platform for advertisers, the opportunity for players to resell their used games, and a platform-exclusive app.

Ultra

KardiaChain is a blockchain platform that aims to be fully interoperable and "non-invasive," meaning that blockchains can connect to the network without needing to make technical modifications to their own protocols. KardiaChain uses a dual-node structure to facilitate the connection between its own ledger and other blockchains, sharding for scalability and smart contracts for developers.

The platform relies on a native token, KAI, which is used for staking, transaction fees, participating in services and deploying smart contracts.

KardiaChain was first announced in October 2018, and its mainnet went live in December 2020.

KardiaChain

Aurory is a next-generation studio building a universe of interoperable web3 games. Two original IP’s were born from this universe, which are actively shaping the future of the Aurory player experience.

The first of these two IP’s are Aurorians. A collection of 10,000 anime style NFT characters that double as both a PFP, as well as a playable avatar with various in-game perks.

The second are Nefties. These magical creatures have been designed as non-fungible tokens NFTs with a unique set of stats that influence their performance in-game. They serve as companions on each player’s journey, and can be hatched, traded, collected, and used in battles.

Aurory currently hosts two playable games (both in alpha) which continue to evolve in a live-ops development format:

Seekers of Tokane: A JRPG, where players embark on a dangerous rogue-like adventure through the world of Tokane, collecting and battling fierce Nefties in epic turn-based combat.

Aurory Tactics: A PvP timeline-based battling game where players must learn how to best use their Neftie creature's abilities, competing against opponents to rise to the top of the leaderboard for rewards and glory.

The project proudly boasts one of the most experienced executive and development suites in blockchain gaming, with dozens of talents from established gaming studios, such as Ubisoft, Electronic Arts, Rovio, Warner Bros, and more.

Aurory

Polkastarter is a decentralized fundraising platform empowering Web3 projects to launch and raise funds through multi-chain token pools whilst significantly growing their communities.

The platform supports initial dex offerings (IDOs) across major blockchains, including Ethereum, BNB Chain, Solana, Polkadot, Polygon, Avalanche and Celo.

The platform enables investors to secure early access to IDOs, NFTs and Gaming Web3 innovation. It is most commonly used by early-stage blockchain projects that want to raise capital and easily distribute their tokens at the same time.

Through Polkastarter, blockchain projects can easily create their own fixed-chain swap pools, which allow them to securely raise funds, while users can invest without risks, since swaps are automatically executed by smart contracts.

POLS is the native utility token of the Polkastarter platform. Its main utility is gaining access to pools and giving projects the option to give priority access to POLS holders. Users are incentivised to stake POLS, rewarding the most loyal members.

In Q4 2022, Polkastarter will release new community utility features, such as governance and POLS Power Boosters (increasing your allowlisting success). The platform first went live in December 2020, and has quickly grown to become one of the most commonly used platforms for initial DEX offerings (IDOs) operating on the Ethereum blockchain.

Polkastarter

Guild of Guardians is a multiplayer fantasy action RPG on Immutable X. The game’s vision is to become the world’s most popular RPG, where players can assemble a set of Guardians and earn rewards in the process. By combining fun gameplay that will be played on mobile with play-to-earn mechanics, Guild of Guardians aims to build an in-game economy that will be compelling for players to participate in.

The game will initially be accessible on iOS and Android and will be available in 2022. The gameplay revolves around training a team of heroes to collect resources and engage in challenges. The collected resources will be issued and distributed in Gems, the game’s in-game currency that can be redeemed for real money, spent on minting new assets or secondary purchases, and used to vote on game decisions. 20% of all primary and secondary trading fees must be paid for in Gems.

Since mid-2020, Guild of Guardians has racked up over 220,000 followers across different social media channels in its short time of existence. It also sold out its first NFT Founder sale, netting over $4.6 million that will be used for game development.

Guild of Guardians

Illuvium is an open-world fantasy battle game built on the Ethereum blockchain. Often touted as the first AAA game on Ethereum, Illuvium looks to provide a source of entertainment to both casual gamers and hardcore DeFi fans through a range of collecting and trading features.

To learn more about this project, check out our deep dive of Illuvium.

The world of Illuvium is inhabited by creatures known as Illuvials, who can be captured by players that best them in battle and nurse them back to health. From then on, they become a loyal part of the player’s collection and can be used when battling other adventurers as part of Illuvium’s auto battler gameplay.

The game is a fusion between an open-world exploration game and a PVP battle game. Players can spend their time exploring the expanses of the game world or building up their team of powerful beasts.

Illuvium has been in development since 2020, and is being built by a worldwide team of more than 40 individuals, including the co-founders; serial entrepreneur and early cryptocurrency adopter Kieran Warwick, and experienced game designer Aaron Warwick, who are brothers. (And who are coincidentally also the brothers of Kain Warwick, the co-founder of DeFi platform Synthetix).

The ILV token has a number of uses within the Illuvium ecosystem. It’s the main token used to reward players for their in-game achievements, entitles players to their share of the Illuvium Vault and is used for participating in the governance of the game via the Illuvium decentralized autonomous organization (DAO).

Illuvium

Vulcan Forged is a blockchain game studio and NFT marketplace. They are the makers of VulcanVerse.

PYR  is the native utility token that is used for:

Fees for marketplace settlement

Staking in VulcanVerse land and other assets

Upgrading and sustaining game asset levels

Play-to-earn rewards

Access to our game developers and NFT dapp incubation program

Vulcan Forged Platforms and games include:

*VulcanVerse, a Grece-Roman fantasy metaverse made up of 10,000 plots of land

Anvil, a crypto-less and gas-free NFT engine for easy game and dApp onboarding

Vulcan Market, a gas free NFT marketplace for all Vulcan Forged games

Berserk, an NFT online TGG

Frenzy, a create-your-own tournament platform with PYR as it’s reward token.

Vulcan Forged (PYR)

Bloktopia is a decentralized metaverse backed by and built on Polygon. In Bloktopia, a decentralized virtual reality skyscraper made up of 21 levels (as recognition to 21 million Bitcoin) acts as a central hub for users to have access to crypto information and immersive content in one place. The so-called Bloktopias can educate themselves in the basics or more advanced crypto learnings, earn revenue by owning virtual real estate, play games, build networks and more. Moreover, advertisers and sponsors can monetize the platform’s userbase through a dedicated NFT mechanism. By providing a VR experience for the crypto community, users can engage in an immersive environment according to Bloktopia’s four core pillars: learn, earn, play and create.

Bloktopia

My Neighbor Alice is a farming-themed play-to-earn builder game built on Chromia. The game bills itself as a place where “players can buy and own virtual islands, collect and build exciting items while also making new friends.” Each player has their own avatar representing them in the game, which they can modify as they please. Players can buy virtual real estate from Alice, the game’s eponymous central figure, or the internal marketplace. All purchased land is represented as an NFT.

My Neighbor Alice aims to introduce blockchain to millions of players and targets a diverse gaming community within the traditional gaming market. Although the game is blockchain-based and integrates DeFi features, it does not require prior knowledge of cryptocurrency and blockchain. My Neighbor Alice takes inspiration from several popular sources. For instance, daily in-game tasks and social aspects are inspired by Animal Crossing, whereas Minecraft serves as a role model for building mechanics. The artwork was inspired by the Swedish children’s book Pettson and Findus.

MyNeighborAlice

Aavegotchi (GHST) is the governance token of the Aavegotchi NFT Gaming protocol. GHST token holders receive voting power in the AavegotchiDAO, which oversees all aspects of the protocol, Aavegotchi’s flagship game the Gotchiverse, and Aavegotchi NFTs.

Aavegotchis themselves are pixelated ghosts backed by the ERC-721 token standard. The Aavegotchi NFTs have dynamic metadata that changes over time through user interaction.

An Aavegotchi’s value and rarity is determined by its collateral stake, traits and wearables.

Collateral stake is based on the innovative ERC721 Aavegotchi NFT that manages an escrow contract holding Aave-backed ERC20 collateral or "aToken," which generates yield via Aave's LendingPool. Traits are based on random traits upon birth, kinship and experience (XP).

The protocol is called Aavegotchi as a nod to Aave, which translates to “ghost” in Finnish, and is powered by the Aave protocol, one of the leading lending protocol in DeFi. The token ticker also cleverly spells out “ghost,” minus the vowel.

Aavegotchi

Yield Guild Games (YGG) is the world’s first and biggest web3 gaming guild where players can find their community, discover games and level up together. Its mission is to become the leading community-based user acquisition platform in web3 gaming.

As a network of gaming guilds focused on web3 games, YGG is committed to providing opportunities for its members to achieve success in web3 gaming through questing initiatives such as Superquests and the Guild Advancement Program (GAP). These enable members to build their on-chain identity through its achievement-based reputation system.

From its roots in the Philippines to its global network of regional guilds and partnerships with over 80 blockchain games and infrastructure projects, YGG caters to an ever-expanding community of gamers and blockchain enthusiasts.

Yield Guild Games

MBOX is the native utility token that is used for:

MOBOX

What Is Velas (VLX)?
Velas is a pioneering solana L1 Fork with Full EVM blockchain bridging the gap between EVM familiarity and unparalleled performance.

Velas is an highly unique dual-chain architecture, seamlessly merging the best of both worlds: the robust security and established developer ecosystem of the EVM with the lightning-fast transaction processing capabilities of Solana. This hybrid approach unlocks a treasure trove of possibilities for Ethereum projects seeking to escape congestion and scale to new heights.

The defining feature of Velas lies in its full EVM compatibility. Existing Ethereum smart contracts can be migrated seamlessly with a single click, eliminating the need for costly code rewrites and preserving the valuable expertise invested in the EVM ecosystem. This one-click migration paves the way for a smooth transition, allowing developers to leverage their existing skills and tools on a platform built for speed and scalability.

It leverages the power of Solana’s parallel transaction processing to deliver lightning-fast speeds exceeding 75,000 TPS. This translates to near-instantaneous transaction finality and minimal fees, a stark contrast to the congested and expensive environment of Ethereum. For dApps and users, this translates to a smoother, more efficient experience.

But speed is just the beginning. Velas is also:

Decentralized: No central authority controls the network. Power is in the hands of the community through a secure Proof-of-Stake (PoS) consensus mechanism.

Carbon-neutral: Velas is committed to sustainability, utilizing a green PoS mechanism that minimizes energy consumption.

Accessible: Building on Velas is a breeze with its extensive developer tools and EVM/Solidity support.