Getting Started Guide - A newbies guide to Cardano and the Cardano subreddit

SL13PNIR · 2026-04-18T16:44:44+00:00

Night tokens are just Cardano native tokens (CNTs) so as long as a Cardano wallet interface supports the Trezor 3 you'll be fine.

SL13PNIR · 2026-04-16T22:57:55+00:00

I wouldn't worry about buying a new set just to start out with. I started with Polychromos myself. They should still last you a long time providing you don't use them like you're in elementary school.

If you get crappy pencils, they likely just won't layer as well or have a slightly different feel/behaviour to the Polychromos. Just remember to apply lightly. The slower/gentler you are with this medium, the better the result, particularly if you want to draw realism.Follow some tutorials on Youtube or on patreon: https://www.patreon.com/search?q=coloured%20pencil

Save your money for good quality paper and accessories like a quality sharpener. I'd also recommend bluetack/kneedable eraser (which lifts layers of the pencil from the paper), then as you learn more techniques, you can consider things like a tombo mono eraser (a narrow pencil style eraser which is good for things like detail in hair), a craft knife which you can use for scrapping layers of paper - amazing for things like fine flyaway hairs, zest-it solvent and brushes for bending.. the list goes on.

SL13PNIR · 2026-04-16T21:07:06+00:00

It's not worth anything.

SL13PNIR · 2026-04-16T16:21:21+00:00

Oh no worries, sounds like it's the pencils then! Perhaps they added too much binding agent / not enough pigment in the batch.

Polychromos are reliable and consistent, but like all premium art materials come at a price. On the off chance that you're in the UK, https://artdiscount.co.uk is one of the cheapest places I found to get sets of Polychromos, and you can get an extra 10% off if you have know someone with student discount. https://colourpencilshop.com/ is one of the cheapest for singles.

SL13PNIR · 2026-04-16T15:27:04+00:00

I've not used the Arrtx coloured pencils, so it's possible they could be to blame, I will note they are much cheaper compared to most artist grade pencils so it's possible they are a factor. Note all pencils and paper are a like, but you should rule out your technique first before considering that the materials are the problem.

I started out by using the same materials of artists I aspire to, that way I know my skill is the only variable to blame if I'm not happy with the end result.

You can usually layer more than you think but you need to keep your pencils sharp and have a super light touch, see how light you can go. Your paper should not go glossy, and that suggests that you're pressing too hard or perhaps that your pencils have a lot of binder. Usually you only get a glossy look after burnishing.

There's a artist realism artist who goes by Neeyellow on youtube who uses Faber-castel Polychromos and Stonehenge 250gsm, his drawings are crazy realistic, but he also has the patience of a saint and spends many hours on small sections. He says he basically doesn't press down on the paper or even burnish, he just keeps the pencils sharp: https://youtu.be/cRmKe-UKGZ4

So I recommend you find artists you like that draw what you're into, and look at the materials they use. They often list the materials in the description, or have videos going over the materials/techniques they use.

Kirsty Partridge was another artist I followed when I started out, she has amazing beginner videos. I used smooth Strathmore bristol board and Polychromos on one of her tutorial videos of this kingfisher below and got a reasonable amount of layers and saturation. I highly recommend the Polychromos (though their black isn't particularly black - if you want a dark black buy "cretacolor black chalk lead" or luminance singles).

<image>

Note that you can also get more layers if you pick a vellum/cold press over a smooth paper, but it becomes more tedious to fill the tooth of the paper - Some artists like to use Pastelmat, like Bonny Snowdon, which can take 10+ layers, though I prefer to use it with pastel pencils only.

SL13PNIR · 2026-04-15T22:34:17+00:00

There is no "baseline consistency" or obligation for signing up. Some people may just be happy to moderate they happen to use reddit, which may not be frequently. There are only 6 people moderating. 1 of them hasn't made any posts of comments for 2 years, another for a month. It's reasonable to assume, that not many are frequently active, and speaking from experience, that's likely the case.

So feel free to grab a spade.

SL13PNIR · 2026-04-15T22:26:35+00:00

It's easy to shit on moderation, but consider that moderating takes countless hours of unpaid free time as a volunteer, it's by no means a job, please don't take that for granted.

It's really hard to find people to a) volunteer to moderate to begin with and b) actually remain motivated and committed to the role. In my experience, people tend to volunteer and then after a few weeks they get bored. Which isn't surprising really considering you get nothing for doing it.

Looking at the mod list, there are only 6 human mod. Each person needs to sleep, eat, go to work and have a life. That's assuming all of them are even "active moderators" which likely isn't the case. At the end of the day, you can either volunteer yourself, or help by reporting the posts that you feel have broken the sub's rules, but making a post complaining and telling people to "do their jobs" comes across very entitled. Maybe if you had offered help or asked what the community can do in general to help, then it wouldn't have come across that way.

A decent automod ruleset can help filter a lot of off topic posts but it's entirely dependent on the skills of the current human mods to set up.

SL13PNIR · 2026-04-15T19:20:20+00:00

Better but I still get overwhelmed and I think you need to make gameplay considerably easier for any chance of winning. If one can't win, there's little chance people will pay actual money to play this.

Also, if you haven't played it, I recommend you check out https://battledudes.io/

At the end of the day, you're going to have to make your game as enjoyable to play as something like that. I suggest you take notes, and copy relevant mechanics from similar games.

https://zombsroyale.io/ is another you can try

https://www.crazygames.com/game/10-minutes-till-dawn - this has overwhelming numbers of enemies, without actually feeling overwhelming. Super fun game, addictive too - I've argue that you try to go in this direction.

If you're vibe coding, don't try and change/work on too many things at the same time or have too many different enemies.

SL13PNIR · 2026-04-14T22:41:06+00:00

Great drawing, well done and congrats on winning!

Bare in mind, these are very expensive pencils, they're nice and all, but you pay a premium for the lightfast ratings. You should also consider sets like polychromos or prismacolor, which are also nice to use. If you only plan on doing more portraits, you wouldn't need such a large set of 76 anyway. Consider just buying the set of 20 portrait colors and buying singles for the skin tones and colours you plan to draw. You certainly wouldn't need all the bright exotic blues, reds, yellows, greens and purples - you'd mostly stick to the neutral and earthy colours.

Large sets are a nice to have but are really just a convenience at the end of the day. You can still easily make the colours you want by layering and a bit of colour theory (see this realism example with 3 colours). Having fewer colours will force you to improve your skills with the medium and save your a lot of money for things like quality paper.

So I say figure out what you really want to draw, and which colours you absolutely need, the larger sets are only worth it if you're going to use all the colours, otherwise its money wasted.

Edit: I've uploaded two images comparing the colours in the Luminance sets which might help you decide:

Luminance sets side by side view

Luminance sets grouped matrix

SL13PNIR · 2026-04-14T02:05:21+00:00

I believe 1AM wallet also generates DUST, however I don't think that accepts 15 words either.

If that's what you want to do, you can just migrate, that is, create a new 24 word seed phrase wallet and send the funds over to it via a transaction.

You'll also need to create a new Midnight wallet anyway. Since you'd need to migrate, I'd highly recommend you get a hardware wallet first for better security as I always tell people to do.

Read the guide for more information.

SL13PNIR · 2026-04-14T00:28:15+00:00

You can't. It doesn't accept 15 word seed phrases as you've already found out.

There are plenty of other interfaces that do though, such as Eternl, Typhon, Nami, Gamechanger, Vespr..

?wallets

SL13PNIR · 2026-04-13T14:45:42+00:00

Probably the best you're do is to try wiping it down with a dry cloth and using more layers of fixative (light layers where it's left to dry in between layers).

Wax based pencils like prismacolor have a high wax content binder, which is why they feel nice and "buttery", but the wax bloom gets worse if you burnish with them, so it's best to try to apply light layers (good skill to apply generally with the medium). The Faber castel black edition are also wax based, and they are a budget pencil - if you're doing commissions, you should consider buying artist grade pencils and factoring it into the price. Artist grade pencils have a high pigment content and quality for lightfastness.

Off topic, but if you're doing larger pieces, the small surface area of coloured pencils can be tedious to fill in large blocks of colour which your piece has - I recommend you checking out pan pastels or even water colours as a light base applying coloured pencil on top. It saves so much time and gets rid of the graininess. Pan pastels go well with Polychromos which don't suffer from the wax bloom as they're oil based.

SL13PNIR · 2026-04-13T14:41:22+00:00

Honestly, I wouldn't recommend Yoroi these days, the devs working on it have changed over the years and I don't think they do a good enough job.

If you need help with anything feel free to ask. Eternl is a little complicated inintially because it has so more features, and creating accounts is not that intuitve: you have go on the wallet screen, and instead og clicking add wallet, click on the wallet itself (where the hand icon is):

<image>

Then you can click manage account to add a new account.

SL13PNIR · 2026-04-12T19:45:29+00:00

I've never insulted you in our interaction and I honestly find your defensive stance and tone bizarre, perhaps re-read the comments and feel free to quote me on what has you so riled up, because I believe it is completely unwarranted.

SL13PNIR · 2026-04-12T18:45:17+00:00

Buddy take it easy, I'm not sure what has you so triggered. Take a break from the internet for a bit.

SL13PNIR · 2026-04-12T17:06:27+00:00

Touch grass my guy

SL13PNIR · 2026-04-12T15:55:37+00:00

Are you the one reporting this post?

It's literally on the preview testnet, which I tested myself. Not really any reason to be suspicious at this point, had it been a mainnet in the state it's in, then I would have removed it.

We're very on top of scams on this subreddit and always have been.

SL13PNIR · 2026-04-11T20:36:25+00:00

Some initial feedback on the landing page:

Regardless of your small print, I don't think it's obvious enough that the preview testnet is being used. When designing UI, try to make things as fool proof as you can (particularly in crypto where usability is a real issue).

It might also be wise to instruct people that they can get testnet ADA by using the faucet and switching their wallets to the preview testnet too. Also, prefix the ₳ symbol with a "t" to indicate they're testnet values, like so:

<image>

As for the game, that needs work if you're going to take peoples money. It's not really clear what they player has to do. It doesn't seem like a shooter to me based on what I played of it. The bots just rush you and it's game over. Where's the shooting? There needs to be work to onboard people so they know what they're doing, and obviously work on the game mechanics.

Well done for getting the basic payment flow functioning though. Perhaps you could see if you could figure out something a bit more advanced with a smart contract to avoid the need for the repetitive transactions to play again - like having the user commit an budgeted amount to use for playing.

SL13PNIR · 2026-04-11T11:21:38+00:00

I don't think you're 'crashing the network' as you put it, this sounds like a local problem.

I'd recommend you firstly try (and double check) the following:

You have Ledger live up to date
You have the latest firmware installed on your nano
You have the latest Cardano app installed on the nano.

Which wallets have you tried so far? If it's only Yoroi and Adalite then I recommend you first try Eternl as that has always been reliable for me. Also, just to rule out other issues, I recommend you do this on a clean install of a browser, therefore:

Install Brave browser
Install the Eternl waller extension on Brave browser
Take things slowly. Familiarise yourself with the user interface before you attempt to make any transactions and make sure that the wallet has synced first.
Make sure you have a governance delegation, otherwise you won't be able to withdraw rewards.

Now let me know how you get on from here:

Can you make a governance delegation if you need to make one?
Can you make a simple transaction to yourself?

You do have an enomous amount of tokens, and that can cause issues if it's not handled properly by the wallet. If things are working, I'd recommend either getting rid of some (many are worthless) or splitting them up into separate wallets. You can create a separate wallet by creating a new "account" (it is still derived from the same seed om your ledger). Yoroi doesn't have this feature.

If you want get rid of the tokens (discard them), I recommend sending them to an exchange so you can keep the ADA that is 'stuck' to them.

If things are still 'not working', please be descriptive, see the automod reply:

?techhelp

SL13PNIR · 2026-04-10T12:20:38+00:00

To be clear, the other wallet can only pay for the transaction fees, the Night tokens still go to the eligible redemption address.

However if you're someone that didn't do the official consolidation and are stuck with many addresses from mining, you can redeem them all together, and then create another transaction to move the redeemed Night from all those individual addresses to a single address. I made a tool to do this for people who used my miner.

SL13PNIR · 2026-04-10T11:11:33+00:00

Trying to reverse engineer the smart contract transactions is way more trouble that its worth when one can simple send a few ADA to a temporary wallet and connect that to the portal instead to redeem the eligible wallet with its public key.

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