Hello Splinterlands Summoners! Welcome to another edition of Community Engagement Challenge. Today we will discuss about one of Splinterlands' upcoming feature--Land.

What is Land Doing in a Trading Card Game?

Right, fair question. While other trading card games generally do not have land, Splinterlands introduced this feature to enhance the gameplay experience of Splinterlands. Land owners can produce various resources. For now, only grain is being produced but later on, as much as fifty resources can be accessed by land owners. These resources can be used to craft Items and Spells that can be used in battle.

What are Items and Spells?

These will be two new types of cards that will be minted by land owners that can influence the outcome of battles. At the moment, we have summoners and monsters cards. In the future, players can use Items and Spells after both players have chosen their teams. Players will have a fixed amount of time and mana to choose Items and Spells.

How many lands are there?

The map of Praetoria consists of 150 regions consisting of 1,000 plots for a total of 150,000 plots. These plots are organized into 10 different tracts in a region and the regions are grouped into 7 different territories of between 20 and 22 regions each. Just look at how massive the map is.

There are other things to know about land such as terrain type, category and rarity.

Terrain Type

There will be fourteen terrain types of land. Plains, Hills, Tundra, Swamp, Bog, Mountain, Canyon, Caldera, River, Lake, Forest, Jungle, Desert, and Badlands.

Categories

The categories are Natural, Magical, or Occupied. The category of land is similar to the "foil" of the existing Monster and Summoner cards and is indicated at the top of the card. Land plots will be mostly Natural lands, meaning that they will contain one of four natural resources (grain, wood, stone, and ore) which can be farmed from the land and will be used to build, upgrade, and maintain all of the various buildings that can be built.

Magical lands produce one of six magical resources of each Splinter: Life, Death, Earth, Fire, Water and Dragon. The magical resources will be one of two ingredients needed to mint Item and Spell cards.

Occupied plots are inhabited by wild monsters. Players can fight these monsters and extract their Essences, which will be the second ingredient needed to mint Item and Spell cards.

Where Do I Start With Land Play?

First you need to own a land plot NFT then you need to stake cards, items, and DEC to build worksites and start production of resources. However, at the moment players can only produce Grain, earn SPS and do research. Players can swap grain for DEC or vice versa. In the future, we are expecting to realize the full potential of land play which is to produce Items and Spell cards that will further enhance Splinterlands gameplay experience.

Conclusion

For a beginner, land seems to be a daunting task with the amount of investment in money and time. However, for some players, it can be another source of fun and enjoyment. Think of it as another game in the Splinterlands eco-system. Only land owners can create Items and Spells NFTs. These are not sold in packs, therefore this is another potential source of income for land owners.

Thank you for reading and have fun playing Splinterlands!