Splinterlands sets Sept. 29 for Druid’s Golem, the fifth Escalation Conflict card

In Brief:

• Splinterlands (official site) puts Druid’s Golem live on Sept. 29 once maintenance wraps, making it the fifth airdrop card of the Escalation Conflict cycle.
• Eligibility runs through Mage Wagons: stake Escalation packs and cards in them and pass the contribution thresholds over the roughly 30-day conflict.
• Meredrool, Ghezira and Grimdave The Unbent came first, and this one arrives with the Escalation pack sale already shut, which limits how much staking material is still in play.

Druid’s Golem goes live on Sept. 29 after scheduled maintenance, Splinterlands said — the fifth card to come out of the Escalation Conflict run.

Stats were absent from the announcement. For abilities, lore and the conflict’s reward table, Splinterlands directed players to a post on its Hive blog.

Scale and target are the two things the teaser does pin down. The golem measures 60 feet, and the kingdom of Thanaloria lies in its path.

How players earn it

Mage Wagons are the engine behind conflicts. Contribution builds up as players stake Escalation packs and cards inside them, and each 100,000 Contribution turns into a single Conflict Chance when the airdrop lands. Anything short of a full chance is discarded.

A single wagon takes as many as five cards and 100 packs. Because one wagon is needed per copy claimed, the number of copies a player can walk away with depends entirely on how many wagons they have built and kept repaired.

A wagon kit runs 17,500 wood, 7,000 stone, 1,750 iron and 1,250 aura. Two kits build a new wagon; one kit repairs a wagon damaged during the Escalation conflicts. Splinterlands has also introduced Lustrous potions for Arcane draws on Escalation conflict cards, crafted at a cost of 100 aura apiece.

A restriction carried over from the Escalation reset still stings. Older sets, Conclave Arcana included, are ineligible for staking in these conflicts. Only Escalation material and Escalation promo cards qualify, and anything left sitting on a wagon from the Conclave Arcana conflicts — packs and cards alike — was swept out ahead of the cycle. Wagons damaged in that period were deleted entirely.

A conflict runs roughly 30 days. Once it ends, a 15-minute processing window passes before rewards unlock, Contribution drops back to zero, and any wagon still loaded with cards or packs rolls straight into the next conflict with no action needed.

What came before

Escalation’s opening conflict, “A Call to Arms: Snot on My Watch,” set players against Meredrool, a green sludge creature menacing the Shimmering Coasts.

Conflict two began June 22 at 12 p.m. EST — 4 p.m. UTC — and made Ghezira, a Feliform raider from the Drybone Badlands, the exclusive Archon.

Grimdave The Unbent, a Water legendary summoner, came out of the third.

A smaller set, a tighter supply

Escalation is a mini set, and the conflict cycle is scaled to match. The set launched with 43 cards: 12 common, 12 rare, eight epic and 11 legendary. Pull rates sit at 75.2% common, 20% rare, 4% epic and 0.8% legendary, alongside a 2% gold foil chance.

Pack sales are over. During the final stretch, a purchase of 20 packs came with a free Mage Wagon, capped at 20 per buyer, and the revenue was routed to the SPS DAO. Since no fresh packs are entering circulation, anyone going after Druid’s Golem has to work with inventory that is already out there.

The forest kingdom in its path

Thanaloria sits across the western expanse of the Blackmoor Basin, in the Broken Lands. The lord and lady of Thanalor rule it jointly as a constitutional monarchy, and its ancient forests underpin the kingdom’s economy.

The noble houses divide along predictable lines. Sorcerers come from House Morth’lana. House Erulen provides the priests and priestesses of Serathara, Goddess of the Wilderness. Most of the elven guard — the warriors and rangers — is drawn from House Arven’gileon, while House Le’vanthil’s nobles are typically beastmasters bonded to woodland creatures.

This is not the kingdom’s first war. During the Rebellion era, a conflict had players defending Thanaloria after they had backed the Gobson Family and rallied the fey.

“Sixty feet of timber and magic. Thanaloria in its path,” Splinterlands said.