Hello again everyone. Today I wanted to write a more brief post about an aspect of the game that I did not understand at all until recently. That aspect is card levels. While card levels themselves are quite straightforward, there are a few restrictions that aren't instantly apparent. If you're wondering how card levels work, this is the place to learn!
This post is intended for absolute beginners and those who have just got out of the bronze league and found a significant difficulty increase in silver. If you aren't already a Splinterlands player and if you appreciated this guide, please feel free to use my referral link.
Card Levels
Before going any further, let's briefly discuss what card levels are. Cards in Splinterlands aren't totally straight-forward. There are actually different tiers of each card, and each tier is slightly better than the last. Common cards have 10 levels, rare cards have 8, epic cards have 6 and legendary cards have 4. Upgrading a card's level will require an increasing amount of that card.
For example: Leveling a Gargoya Lion from level 1 to 2 will require 5 Gargoya Lion cards. Level 2 to 3 will require 14, level 3 to 4 will require 30 and so on. This means that while the increase in card requirements isn't exponential, the cost certainly increases.
For this reason, high-level cards will be VERY expensive. Especially when it comes to cards that are more scarce. It's far more affordable to rent these higher-level cards than to try and purchase them outright.
So... Why level up cards? I'm glad you asked! Let's take a new example.
The above card, Lava Launcher, has 6 upgrade as it is an epic card (indicated by the purple fire icon on the card). As you can see, from level 1 to 2, the card gains 1 HP. From level 2 to 3, the card gains 1 ranged damage. More interestingly, from level 3 to 4 the card gains a new ability (stun). The card will continue to gain stats until its max level, 6.
Compared to a level 1 Lava Launcher, the level 6 card has +2 ranged damage, +1 armour, +1 HP and a new ability. Considering that the mana cost NEVER increases, this is a massive improvement! There's literally no reason not to use upgraded cards... Provided you can afford them and actually use them. More on that in a sec!
Card Level Restrictions
At this point, I can already see a lot of people hitting the card market to purchase/rent some new, powerful cards. Hold up! Don't do that just yet. You can't go ahead and purchase a level 10 common card and use it straight away! Let me explain why.
The card levels that your deck is allowed to use is dictated by your hero. Let's take a look at the example below:
As you can see, a level 1 Owster summoner card is ONLY Allowed to use level 1 cards regardless of rarity. A level 2 Owster can use common cards up to level 3, along with rare and epic cards up to level 2. Only level 1 legendaries are allowed still, however. Level 4 is where you really want to aim for as this is when you can use level 5 commons, 4 rares, 3 epics, and 2 legendaries. Why is this level important? Well, those are the levels when all cards will have their second abilities.
But wait, there's more!
You can not simply go out and purchase a high-level summoner and use high-level cards. Why? Because there is a maximum summoner level that you are allowed to use. This level is dictated by your current league.
The image above shows the maximum summoner levels allowed in gold league. As you can see, gold league allows for common summoners up to level 8, rare summoners up to level 6, epic summoners up to level 5 and legendary summoners up to level 3.
Conclusion
To provide a summary (TLDR if you will) of this post: your allowed card levels are dictated by your summoner level. Your summoner level is dictated by your current league. Therefore, players in higher leagues can use higher-level summoners which will allow the player to also use higher-level cards.
Even after playing for a few weeks and doing a decent amount of research, I didn't fully grasp the card levelling restrictions until recently. Although I might have missed some good resources out there, I believe that this levelling system is not explained well at all to newcomers to Splinterlands. I hope this guide can help a few people out there who find themselves facing the same difficulties that I did!