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^{This post was made as entry for xxx}
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There's a really good improvement now on Splinterlands and this one is something I'm sure a lot of players will appreciate. Splinterlands Practice Mode has been enhanced to Training Mode. This new improvement allows you to play against really good bots. This high expectation will certainly improve your gameplay overtime as long as you pay attention to what is happening on that Training game.

The Training mode is free to use and since you are playing against bots, you don't need to rely on another player willing to do practice with you. So, hop in and try this one out for yourself!

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How Training Mode works and how to access it.

For quite some time, Splinterlands implemented this game mode "Practice Mode" which allows players to test their cards and skill by doing matches with bots without resulting in change in their rating. After the changes in Challenge mode, the Practice mode has been improved and its name has now been changed to "Training Mode"

It works similarly to Challenges making you able to choose between using real cards or Ghost cards to a sample match. You can start doing Training Mode by going in this option on the upper right of your Battle window.

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The Training Grounds

The Training Mode has three options you can configure, Difficulty, Allowed Cards and Summoner Level Caps.

Difficulty:
You can adjust the difficulty of the bots to easy, medium and hard. There's really not much information about this but what I can say is that the easy is probably the same level as ones you encounter in Novice or when you create a new account. For the other ones, I am not sure.

Allowed Cards:
There are four options for this, All Cards, Modern, Ghost Cards and Ghost Modern. All Cards and Modern are self explanatory. It's just Wild and Modern format. For Ghost cards, it means all cards that has that has "S" on upper right of it (see items). These are cards borrowed from Splinterlands when you made an account and paid for Spellbook. Ghost Modern is the same but limited to only Modern Format.

On the Training Mode though, this meant differently. Ghost Card option allows you to use any cards in the game. You may not own them or rent them but you can still use them for that training which is good if you have specific cards in mind you wanted to try out. Ghost Modern is the same but limited to only Rebellion and Chaos Legion cards for now.

Summoner Level Caps:
Lastly, we have Novice, Adept, Intermediate, Advanced and Expert. For more veteran players, we all know these as the level cap from Bronze to Champion. New players don't need to worry. The image below that option will tell you what it is.

Now that everything's explained, let's try a few battles.

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https://splinterlands.com/battle/sl_e4034dcb56eeef8680750b4c313d1e21?ref=mavis-muggletum

As you can see, it's just a normal battle but against bots and no changes in rating as if you played the ranked mode. To review your training mode battle, just go to Wild and you can see it from there like when you do Challenge Mode. This was my first Training mode battle just to check if it's working. Let's try a few more.

Easy Difficulty:
https://splinterlands.com/battle/sl_8133bfd8213fc353aa197296bb2d999b
It's funny that I lost to an easy enemy. One thing I discovered is if you choose "All Cards" as an option, it will not provide you an Ghost cards. It's "all cards" which means you can use any units or summoners from any set provided that you own or rent them.

Medium Difficulty:
https://splinterlands.com/battle/sl_12fccfec4e2b86f9136c5e9e44bc221a
This is a medium level. Surprisingly that the bots are quite adept at the game. I still don't understand the difference between easy and medium difficulties though.

Hard Difficulty:
https://splinterlands.com/battle/sl_beb8a6f792226f56a3b9877b9810a04b
This is a hard difficulty level and like others, I don't understand the difference. This is just an assumption but there might be limitations on what units and summoners each difficulty can do but I have no proof on that and only the ones who created this game does.

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The benefits of playing against automated opponents at different difficulty levels

While I don't know what's the difference between the three difficulties, I think it's still worth to try out this feature. You can be free to experiment and try out your team and strategy without the risk of losing any rating.

There's a big disadvantage though when using Training feature on hard mode. It can make you competitive and might make you rent cards you don't need in order to defeat these monstrous bots. I know that first hand because I just did it even though I won't be using them on ranked. (Also, this last part about the disadvantage was a joke but me renting cards to defeat the hard difficulty isn't.)

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Tips for using Training Mode effectively to improve gameplay.

Training mode is certainly helpful especially when trying out new strategies. You can improve your gameplay by using Training mode and it doesn't really differ a lot from just playing ranked.

When you use training mode, set it to the hardest difficulty. You may lose a lot of times but what you can do is take note of the units and summoners they used and their formation. You just need to copy it and use it in ranked. It is that simple.

I got an idea of using double Forcefield from one of the training enemies which makes sense especially when a lot of players, including me, uses high damage units. This is the strategy I lost to most and I think is a direct counter to Lorkus.

Players who also play in tournaments a lot can really use Training mode. When I was searching around, I noticed that there are tournaments with options limited to ghost cards only. Since the Training unit has this specific option, then they can use that to practice their strategies.

The Ghost Card option is also really useful. You can use cards you haven't rented yet to try them out and see their interaction with other cards. I thought Heloise the Hollow will give other units Weary AND half their health after reviving and that's the only one. I was surprised Heloise also get half of her health which I probably misunderstood. Things like this can really help understood your own cards before ranked battle to make a better strategy in the future.

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How to experiment with Ghost Cards and refine new strategies.

Splinterlands Training Mode has the Ghost Cards option that allows you to use ANY CARD IN THE GAME. Just take a look at this...

While you cannot see it, that's actually all cards in the game at max level. You can practice with any cards or combos that you want. That is the advantage of using Ghost Card option in training. You can still not able to select the rules that you want or the mana that you want but you can try out cards you do not own or rent.

Here's the battle I did for that...

https://splinterlands.com/battle/sl_eb1425ef6ba8880f05f84a97054332d2

In this battle, I did not rent out any of these. I even got to try out Heloise the Hollow, a promo unit that I am planning to use on the next grind. This is a really good job from Splinterlands and I hope they kept this option on. This was a loss because I just put random units without thinking as I got overwhelmed by the choices.

Quick Tip: If you are going to use Ghost cards, set the filter to "Alphabetically" since you would have more than 100+ choices of the cards. There's no "Search" option yet so you have to manually find each card and each battle only have a few minutes for you to prepare.

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My Personal Suggestions

The state of Training mode is good as a start. Except for copying what hard bots use, I honestly don't see any good use for it. The other is the Ghost Cards option which is good for trying out expensive to rent cards before renting them like Heloise the Hollow. Using the Training Mode can make yourself familiarize with the card which saves you energy than just trying it out in ranked battles.

There's still no way to get specific rule sets, to set mana and others. I think it would be a better practice if you can set the stage specifically including what your enemies can play. I've seen on discord that they are having a hard time playing against Heloise the Hollow so if you can set the cards your enemies can play, you can give them Heloise the Hollow and try strategies that works against her.

This way, you can create strategies as to how to play against specific units or even a specific lineup. You can do practices where you put your own lineup as your enemy and you try to break it yourself to know your own lineup's weakness. There's a lot more but I think these are the important ones.

I hope they added a search function on the battle screen because choosing the unit that I want in that Ghost Card match was a mess. I was looking for Heloise the Hollow and it took me 2 mins to remember that the filter has an Alphabetical option and even with that, with more than 100 options available at once, it took me quite a lot of time to find her. The rest is just random units. This function will also help others who have been collecting cards from the start so they can play units that they want to easily especially in Wild Format. They have this function on the Market and Item section so it wouldn't be that hard to add that in battle.

Those are the suggestions I can think of at the top of my head and if I use this more in the future, I am sure I can provide more suggestions to make it better but that's it for now.

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I think I really improved on Splinterlands. By simply focusing on this game, I got a good grasp on what are good combos. I still lost quite a bit but I am winning more than I am losing. I can prove this by showing you this...

Tada! I finally reached Diamond III. I actually was overconfident and thought I could get to Diamond II easy but I got stuck recently. I still win more than I lose but I am now moving in between 2980-3050 rating. It's a little below Diamond II. Hopefully, by the time of my next post, I could get to this new uncharted land.

Disclaimer

Other photos and images that I used in this post can be found in these websites below:

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About the Author

<sup>Hey! I’m Mavis the Muggle, your friendly Splinterlands addict with a slight obsession for all things Harry Potter. 🧙‍
When I’m not immersed in gaming or wizardry, I’m busy learning new things. Recently, I’ve been having putting a lot of effort and having a blast creating content on Hive so relax!

You can support me by upvoting this post, reblogging, leaving a comment below or by using my Splinterlands referral link.</sup>

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Life is like a camera. Focus on what's important. Capture the good times. And if things don't work out, just take another shot.
- Ziad K. Abdelnour