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How's it going SplinterGang? This week's Splinterlands Community Engagement Challenge theme is about sharing our learning journey. I've been here since the beginning, have quit the game and sold all my cards, and have started from scratch to crawl my way back up to 🏆 Champion level three times so I just may have a few tips that are hopefully useful for you today. Splinterlands is a wonderfully complicated and difficult game to understand let alone master and that's why the few of us who've stuck through the bear times love it, but that complexity can be overwhelming for someone new, so I'll try my best to answer this week's challenge prompts and I hope what I write is useful to you.

**What was the biggest hurdle you faced when learning Splinterlands?**

The biggest hurdle I've had in this game has been knowing when to hold em. Knowing when to fold em. Knowing when to walk away and knowing when to run. Just joking and shout out to Kenny, but seriously, it's been learning how to be patient and think slowly about market buys, sells, and riding out the chaos.

If you're getting your ass handed to you in this game it means the other players at your current rank are too strong for you and it's better to quit playing for a few days so you can recharge your energy and let those tougher opponents level up so you can have some weaker summoners to battle against. Patience comes in handy leveling up your decks as well. Maybe there's a badass and expensive card you think will help you win more battles and maybe it will, but it's better to wait until someone else loses their patience and puts it on the market for a steal than forking out a bunch of cash for it. People are throwing in the towel and quiting Splinterlands every day and when they do, you can pick up their cards on the cheap.

**Which feature or mechanic took the longest to fully understand?**

Getting information about the game from YouTube or Hive posts, especially the game's official hive account, @Splinterlands, is great, but it took me several years to learn that the real discussions and useful information can be found from the Discord server. Maybe you don't like or use Discord, but too bad, cause you're going to need it to answer your questions quickly and it's the best place to learn about new and or confusing mechanics of Splinterlands. If I had been more active on Discord from the start, I'd be in a much better position than I am now.

**What advice would you give to your past self—or a brand-new player—starting today?**

If I could turn back time. If I could find a way. I'd take back all those Beta and Alpha Gold cards that I sold for cheap and they'd still be in my deck ⭐. OK now we have to shout out to Cher haha. But yeah. If I had Doc Brown's time-travelling Delorian, I'd tell my younger self to never sell my cards because even if I have multiple copies, a use for them would eventually come along for it and If I didn't use it, I could at least rent it out or put it to work on my land. I'm not gonna say to never sell any of your cards, but I'll say you'll be happier in the long run if you hold on to them even if the long run turns out to be a couple of years. Now I'm gonna quote Master Yoda, "Patience. You must learn patience!"

**Are there any specific players, guides, or moments that helped you grow the most?**

I really like Dwayne: https://m.youtube.com/@DwayneCunningham and AfterSoundGaming: https://m.youtube.com/@AfterSoundGaming because they have great energy and are passionate about the game and they always are one step ahead of me and mention points of views I've never thought of. They both prefer longform talks so it can pretty Splinterly for new peeps. Well I hope my point of view was helpful for you new guys but most likely not to the OGs reading. Have a good one!