A guide based on official sources. We have not installed, signed in or played. · As of 2026-10-16
01 / PLAYWhat do you do in the game?
Splinterlands is an auto-battler in which the decisive choices happen before combat. Read the mana cap, permitted elements and modifiers, then select a summoner, card roles and order. After the automatic fight, identify what failed and adjust the lineup.
Start with Campaign and its Foundations cards. The dedicated free-account guide specifies progression through Campaign, Frontier and a later Modern unlock; older general advice to jump directly into Modern does not replace those gates.
Rent or buy cards after choosing a format. Modern and Wild have different set rules, and passes and Spellbook rights are separate. Survival's revival conditions make it an advanced branch rather than a starter activity.
Read the mana limit, elements and modifiers.
Choose the summoner, card roles and order.
Review the automatic fight and the roles that failed.
Change one choice in Campaign or Practice and test again.
Read the match conditions before choosing favourites
Mana limits, available elements and modifiers constrain each battle. The same collection can therefore support different plans. Read those conditions first, then select a summoner and team within them. That gives composition a purpose beyond assembling individually impressive cards.
Automatic combat gives pre-battle team selection and order their importance. Consider which role is intended to operate from the front and which from behind, then read the actual card effects. Placement is a relationship between role and conditions, not a single layout rule that applies to every card.
After a battle, inspect where an intended role stopped working. Changing one card or position makes the next comparison easier to interpret than rebuilding everything. Campaign and Practice supply documented learning contexts, while set restrictions and new-account progression gates remain distinct across formats.
The Campaign guide teaches positioning through melee at the front, ranged behind it and magic from any position. Abilities such as Close Range and Reach create exceptions: check whether a unit can act from its assigned place instead of sorting only by damage. The archon determines elements and other team effects rather than fighting as a unit. These are instructional relationships, not a universally optimal lineup.
Campaign examples keep the lineup within its Mana Cap, check archon elements and match restrictions, then account for modifiers that change abilities or damage conditions. The illustrated 20-mana battle and poison exercise are examples, not a fixed cap for every match or evidence of a current event. Card acquisition, purchases, free-account progression, actual completion and received rewards remain separate checks.
Read preparation displays and the Volley correction
The October 13 notes add a toggle for adjusted-stat animations during team creation and improve the opponent-wait display during tactics selection. They also correct faster Ranged attacks preceding Volley. These are documented preparation changes, not a verification of every current card, authentication or a played match.
Removing a Binder page removes its cards from that Binder; this is not a claim that owned cards are destroyed. Old crafting-section claims move to the Claim Center, and a cooldown filter helps inspect cards. These management changes do not verify a completed trade, unrestricted transfer, fees or rewards.
Start Campaign with a free account and progress to eligible formats using Foundations cards. · [2]
Optional purchases
The FAQ quotes USD 10 for a Spellbook upgrade with additional rights; verify the final checkout amount. · [5]
Assets and trading
Buying or renting cards is optional; check set, rental term and fees. Selling and transfers require upgrade rights. · [2]
Ongoing costs
Other formats have separate gates or passes; Survival has revival conditions. SPS staking is not a free-play entry requirement. · [4]
A free email/password account has restrictions including DEC and SPS holding. Spellbook upgrades and Hive keys introduce separate ownership and transaction rights. Email/password app login is distinct from managing an active key for transactions.
04 / STARTOfficial entry and participation by edition
Japanese interface assessment: Not verified / Not verified
Japan service eligibility: Not verified / Not verified
Japanese-language evidence
05 / COMPARECompare gameplay and entry conditions
Where do you want to make decisions: hand or board?
Decisions in this game
Read mana limits and rules first, arrange a summoner and team roles, then watch automatic combat. For players who prefer lineup planning and review to playing cards during a match.
These are editorial selection points inferred from official gameplay descriptions. Display order is not a rating; upcoming access and unknown conditions retain their offering scope.
Why compare this game Compare deciding during a match whether to play or bank cards rather than selecting a lineup in advance.
Build future energy by deciding whether to play a card now or bank it. For players who want hand management during a match as well as deck construction beforehand.
Why compare this game Compare protecting a Hero and combining Spell and Building effects during play rather than submitting a lineup for automatic combat.
Keep the Hero alive while developing it, combining immediate Spells with persistent Buildings. Decide whether your board can survive until longer-term effects pay off.
Choose between free-account Campaign / Frontier and additional-feature conditions separately. The June 12, 2026 Google Play update date is an app update, not a new-game release date. The documented lineup rules help assess your fit; current retained-player counts were not measured.
What cost, language, wallet and Japan eligibility conditions apply to each edition?
Android app with a free account: Availability: Playable now / Entry cost: Free start / Languages: Supported language list not verified / Wallet at entry: No external wallet connection / Eligibility from Japan: Not verified
Must I buy cards first?
No. The official guide provides Campaign and Foundations cards as the free learning route.
Official support documents email/password login and says the separate Hive Keychain app is not mandatory. Key-based transactions are a separate branch.
Reviews praise short battles and deckbuilding depth, while one questions free progression and opponents. Only four written posts were returned, so a positive-share score is withheld. Check official sources separately for earnings and purchase conditions.
STORE STAR RATING
4.3 / 5★★★★★★★★★★
Rating count
15 ratings
Observed
US App Store · Splinterlands (iOS edition)
Store stars include ratings without written text. Their population differs from the written-review sample below.
Positive share of classified reviewsInsufficient dataToo few clear verdicts to score
4 written reviews classified
Reviews used for this score 3 posts · Quoted here 2 posts
2025-09-21 – 2026-04-15 (JST)
Observed 2026-10-07
REVIEW SNAPSHOTBreakdown of sampled texts
4sampled texts
Positive3 texts
Negative0 texts
Mixed1 texts
Neutral0 texts
Unclear0 texts
This chart includes every sampled text. The positive rate above uses positive and negative texts only.
Positive
3 posts
Negative
0 posts
Mixed
1 posts
Neutral
0 posts
Unclear
0 posts
Even the newest sampled post is over 180 days old. No current-state score is asserted.
Original voices, with context
MixedApp Store · Original rating 3/5
Short original excerpt (review title)
Solid
Context · editorial summary The review sees potential but objects to the free scope, so it is mixed.
PositiveApp Store · Original rating 5/5
Short original excerpt (review title)
Fun TCG
Context · editorial summary Praises auto-battles and deck depth; earnings claims are unverified.
Sample notes, scoring and all reviews
Posts concern the US iOS listing for Splinterlands, not other regions, PC, Android or other games. Historical bug, asset-value and earnings claims are unverified, and this is not an editorial playtest.
Separate metric: store star rating 4.3/5 · 15 ratings (including ratings without text) · A different population from this written-review sample.
Positive share = positive ÷ (positive + negative) × 100, rounded to an integer. Mixed, neutral and unclear posts are counted separately. This pilot withholds scores below 5 clear verdicts and marks fewer than 30 as provisional. These editorial thresholds do not establish statistical representativeness or an error margin.
Codex classified review titles and full text with recorded reasons; independent human validation has not been performed. Text sentiment can differ from stars or recommendation flags.
Up to 20 latest posts from the saved response are sampled, excluding future dates and duplicate IDs. Quotation selection does not determine the score. Source visibility and reviewer self-selection limit representativeness.
Written records returned 4 · Classified 4 · Outside the sample 0 (outside the latest-20 cap; none excluded for being negative)
App Store uses the latest-first feed for the stated storefront; Steam uses the English filter, all purchase types, recent order and the service’s off-topic filter. Returned text may be in another language. Scores are not pooled across platforms. Apple feed update times are shown in JST, not asserted as original posting dates. Recorded playtime can include loading screens.
Every classified post. Source links are listed at the end of the article.
Posted / updated
Text verdict
Source rating
Review ID
Mixed
3/5
13958632695
Positive
5/5
13202769010
Positive
5/5
13185302846
Positive
5/5
13162935987
These are reviewers’ experiences and opinions, not editorial playtests, reproduced bug reports or evidence of current price and access. They do not change the four existing rankings.
Read public player accounts
Google Play · Splinterlands (US display parameters); includes an explicitly web-version account.
Observed · Selected accounts; no positive-share score is calculated.
Selected accounts to compare enjoyment and concerns about continued play; their experiences have not been reproduced by the editors.
Three initially displayed posts, not a latest-first sample; not pooled with another edition’s score. These accounts do not establish Japanese access, Japanese support or current defects.
Google Play · account about web version · · Jose Vazquez (AiBLAST)
mainly use the web version
Translation: mainly use the web version
Explicitly uses the web version and praises battle depth; the author has not used the mobile app, so this is not Android interaction evidence.
Campaign instructional examples and attack/lineup relationships. No actual Campaign completion, current Ranked meta, full starter entitlement, free purchase or Japan qualification confirmation.
Used for gameplay or background context in this article. Current access, cost and language conditions are assessed separately through field evidence for each offering.
