Splinterlands' Survival Mode Launch and Daily Rentals Removal

Survival Mode, a new ranked format requiring no energy for battles and featuring card cooldowns, seems to have been released by early March 2025

Key Points – TLDR

Survival Mode, a new ranked format with no energy required for battles and featuring card cooldowns, seems to have been released by early March 2025. This mode, which aims to “revitalize” gameplay and is geared toward players with larger card collections, is a topic of discussion among the community, especially regarding its potential economic impact.

As of the March 18, 2025, update, daily card rentals have been removed, shifting the rental system potentially toward seasonal rentals and impacting how players can build decks without daily rental options.

The SPS (Splinterlands) token is transitioning to a validator network, with the handling of SPS shifting to validators, potentially causing delays in the SPS delegation market but enhancing decentralization. This process also involves license staking for rewards and public node operations.

The SPS DAO, managing community governance, appears active with updates to the Pools page showing additional external pools not rewarded by the DAO. While specific March 2025 actions aren’t detailed, the DAO continues to influence game decisions through staked SPS votes.

This note provides a comprehensive analysis of recent updates, research, announcements, and developments for the crypto card game Splinterlands as of March 2025. The analysis focuses on the SPS token, SPS DAO, and other major announcements, integrating recent online sources, community discussions, and official communications for a holistic overview.

Game Updates and Features

Survival Mode, a significant gameplay update, was officially noted in early March 2025 X posts from the official Splinterlands account.

Announced in late 2024, Survival Mode operates without energy requirements, allowing for nearly unlimited battles, but introduces a cooldown for cards that die in battle, rendering them unusable for a period. This format, similar to the Wild format, permits the use of any card (except Gladiator cards without a Conscript Summoner or specific rulesets) and supports automation tools.

An X post on March 3, 2025, confirmed the “Survival Mode MVP is out,” with another on March 5, 2025, emphasizing its competitive nature and high rewards, suggesting its launch has already impacted player engagement (Splinterlands X post, Splinterlands X post).

Community feedback, as seen in recent articles, indicates Survival Mode is designed for players with larger collections, focusing on collection management rather than purely competitive play. It aims to revitalize older cards, addressing economic incentives by increasing their utility, though some players express concerns about its financial focus over fun, noting potential price gaps between old and new cards.

Card Rental System Changes

A major announcement in March 2025 is the removal of daily card rentals, effective with the March 18 update, as per an X post on March 4, 2025. Daily rentals, introduced in mid-2021, allowed players to rent cards on a 24-hour basis, paying in DEC or Credits, facilitating seamless deck building without permanent purchases.

The removal, following a passed proposal, shifts the rental system potentially toward seasonal rentals, impacting players who relied on daily flexibility, especially at higher leagues like Gold, where renting multiple cards weekly was common. This change may increase reliance on owning cards or longer-term rentals, affecting accessibility for new or budget-conscious players.

Historical data shows Splinterlands achieved 2.32 million daily rentals in April 2022, highlighting its popularity. The removal could be part of broader economic adjustments, possibly to stabilize card prices or encourage ownership, though specific reasons weren’t detailed in recent updates.

SPS Token and Validator Network Transition

The SPS token, Splinterlands’ governance token, is undergoing a significant transition to a validator network, as noted in the February 2025 release notes. This move involves shifting SPS handling to validators, which may cause delays in the SPS delegation market due to off-chain processing.

The release notes, updated on February 18, 2025, mention ending existing license rewards, with plans to restart them on the validator side, and updating the License management page for staking and unstaking, though rewards won’t begin until public node operations are available (2025 Splinterlands Release Notes).

The validator network, part of a Delegated Proof of Stake (DPoS) system, aims to decentralize validation, with licenses purchasable using SPS and VOUCHER tokens, 80% of which are burned, adding deflationary pressure.

Recent community discussions, such as a Reddit post from February 20, 2025, suggest the network is live, with expectations of increased SPS utility and potential price rises, though exact March developments are less clear (SPS Validator Nodes Live Reddit Post).

SPS DAO Activities

The SPS DAO, set up as a Decentralized Autonomous Organization, continues to govern decisions via staked SPS votes, with weight