I've just listened to Tales' latest video on his predictions on the upcoming hardcore mode and how it may potentially be the catalyst to the long-awaited price surge of SPS. I highly recommend that you guys check it out as well. Link to the video here.
I found myself smiling upon hearing the clip from Blazekos' guesting at The People's Guild podcast where he just casually dropped an alpha on hardcore, saying that it will be about survival. Matt did mention that it will benefit players with multiple copies of cards. Tales made a prediction that when cards are defeated, they will be locked up and unusable for a certain length of time.
Personally, I have two predictions as to what exactly hardcore mode will be. First, maybe this game mode would be just like the wild format. The difference is that every card that is killed off from battles will be locked and unusable for the entire season! That would be considered hardcore, right? Players would need to be extra careful with their lineup or risk losing their key cards. This might also present an opportunity for land owners. What if dead cards can be revived with elixirs? And these elixirs can only be crafted using raw materials from lands? That would be nice.
Another option I can think of is doing something like a roguelike dungeon run, similar to other auto battler games I play on mobile. The idea is that players would challenge bots of increasing difficulty. And again, every defeated card will be unusable for the rest of the dungeon run. At the end of each level, there will be a boss fight. Defeating the boss would grant the player a chance to escape the dungeon with all the loot he acquired so far or venture deeper and risk losing everything. This would also be considered hardcore, in my opinion.
My Hope for Hardcore Mode
Whatever the actual mechanics of the hardcore mode may be, I think it is safe to say that it will bring demand for more cards, especially the ever-abundant Chaos Legion. This might spark renewed excitement for the game and find a new utility for older cards outside of land staking. Who knows? Maybe Tales is right and this triggers a 10x increase in SPS price. But we would need to make the reward structure enticing for players. There is potential for this to finally be the catalyst to a new golden age of Splinterlands and I'm keeping my fingers crossed.
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Thank you for reading and see you in the battlefield!
