Today in my @Splinterlands daily quest rewards I received one Essensce Orb, which itself contains 5 SteemMonster cards. The selection of cards in these orbs come from the Winds of Change expansion, and they are very powerful.

If you're an irregular player of Splinterlands, then you might not have known these orbs were newly among the possible rewards for daily quest and season rewards, but they are. While this is a welcome potential reward I am disappointed by the inclusion of DEC within this same reward pool.

What is the value of an Essence Orb?

These orbs have a cost of 2,500 DEC if you buy them through Steemmonsters.com. Less, if you are in a Guild. P.S. You should join a Guild.

And if you acquire your Dark Energy Crystals on the free-market, using Steem-engine.com, it will cost roughly $0.65 USD per 1,000 DEC, or $1.63 USD for one Essence Orb.

The cards available in this expansion set are in some cases very powerful. For a detailed review of some of these excellent cards follow this link to @byzantinist blog entry on SteemPeak:

Steem Monsters: DEC Winds of Change Promo Cards – New Abilities Revealed

The Problem with DEC Payouts

As I've already pointed out, DEC are really cheap, particularly if acquired on the free market: 1,000 DEC = ~0.65 USD.

So when I get paid 8 DEC for one of my daily rewards, I am extremely disappointed. Eight Dark Energy Crystals is literally worth half a penny, 0.0052 USD to be precise.

Before the reward changes the worst payout I could expect was probably a monster card which sold on Peakmonsters.com for about one penny. Therefore the introduction of DEC as a potential reward is certainly a reduction in the payouts expected by consistent players like me.

Conclusion:

I have mixed feelings about the recent reward changes in the Splinterlands. I am not entirely certain whether rewards have gone down on average or not, but it feels as though they have reduced. Its nice that occasionally I get an Essence Orb, but man does it suck to open one of my rewards and have 8 DEC staring back at me.

TL;DR version:

1. Steemmonster Rewards were changed.
2. The addition of Essence Orbs to the reward payouts is excellent and exciting.
3. The Winds of Change expansion cards are desirable.
4. DEC is great BUT DEC reward payouts may be too low.

If you're curious, here is what I got in that Essence Orb, not too shabby...

As always, thank you for your time and attention. I hope you have an amazing day and God bless.

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