One Player Battledome Advice

[Nogitsune]

A non-colour-related post? Egads! Well I'm trying to prepare as best I can for the next war, but I'm not sure what weapon(s) might be best in a one on one battle. Various Hidden Tower items are often recommended (particularly Pirate Captains Cutlass and Sword of Skardsen) but other, less pricey items like the Scarab Ring are often heaped with praise. Right now I'm fighting the Meerca Henchmen. I have: The Astronomy Club, Bone Sceptre, Blue Scorchstone, Scarab Ring, Snowball Slingshot, Altadorian Practice Helmet, Warriors Rectangular Shield, and Evil Fuzzle Blaster attached to my battle pet. My battle pets stats are: Level 28: 386 hit points: 142 strength: 52 agility: 19 defense: 20 intelligence (labbed for robot until they FINALLY let us have those roboticizers).

Any recommendations?

[Cranberry]

I can help! I'm an IDB rater/mod and I've answered a ton of posts like this in our weapon advice forum. I need your budget before I can give you any real advice, but I can tell you to ditch icon-based defence like your helmet and shield -- your defence boost is too low for them to be of any use to you. You'll need percentage defence items like Downsize! instead.

I did a couple of posts at PPT a while back, and although they could probably use some updating, the advice is still sound. Read these (second and third posts on that thread) for some basics. Then let me know your budget and I'll recommend some specific weapons.

[varii]

Ooh, I have a BD related question and I only battle 1p so I think it still fits into this topic.

How important is training defence? Obviously having some is better than not, but I hear people say defence boost, but have never seen it spelled out exactly where each boost starts. Is there a point where training defence doesn't matter/isn't very important?

[Nogitsune]

I can help! I'm an IDB rater/mod and I've answered a ton of posts like this in our weapon advice forum. I need your budget before I can give you any real advice, but I can tell you to ditch icon-based defence like your helmet and shield -- your defence boost is too low for them to be of any use to you. You'll need percentage defence items like Downsize! instead.

I did a couple of posts at PPT a while back, and although they could probably use some updating, the advice is still sound. Read these (second and third posts on that thread) for some basics. Then let me know your budget and I'll recommend some specific weapons.

Hey, thanks! I'm training (slowly) to get my level up so I can increase my other stats as well. It's the one thing I hate about having to use the lab ray for colours. I have a friend who would let me borrow his Ylanas Blaster but I'd still like to have my own weapons.

I have 2 mil in the bank and a bit of change more outside that. Ever since they started having ads in the games I've lost interest in playing most of them and generally just visit for freebies and wars or plots.

[Cranberry]

Varii, check out those PPT posts I linked -- I explain how defense works (and list the boosts) there. I don't find defense all that useful in one-player because you're typically fighting opponents with a much higher strength boost than your defense boost (for example, in Defenders of Neopia or during wars), and they're going to be sending a LOT of damage through your shields -- so much that you'd be better off attacking them back than blocking a paltry amount of their damage. Better to use percentage blockers or reflectors (which don't rely on your defense stat) in one-player, for the most part. Defense does start to be really useful in one-player at about the 400 boost, I believe, because at that point you can block a fair amount of damage that any opponent can throw at you (their top strength boost is 700, no matter how many hit points they have). It costs a lot to get there, though. (If you still find all this confusing, check out IDB's Beginner's Guide to the BD, which explains everything fairly simply.)

Nogitsune, I'd go with the typical set of two strong attackers/freezer/bomb/healer/percentage defence item/stealer, plus one slot for situational items -- cheap stuff like reflectors or a snowball or whatever, tailored to whatever opponent you're fighting. Here are some suggestions:

First, sell your current set. You can get much, much better items for decent prices.

Attackers: Get a Ylanas Blaster of your own. It will eat up most of your budget, but it is absolutely the best value you can get (and a decent investment, as they're retired and the price has only risen since they were released). It does just about as much damage as a Wand of Reality or Bow of Destiny (long considered the top weapons for beginner/intermediate battlers) for a third of the price. It would be nice to have two blasters, but you can't afford that, so pair it with a 9-iconer. Icon types don't matter a whole lot in one-player, so I'd grab a Stone Club, Ice Club or Psellias Fighting Fan -- whichever you find cheapest (fan right now, I believe).

Freezer: Snowglobe Staff is the best you can do right now. Black Frost Cannon is a little better but quite a bit more expensive. The staff only freezes around 20% of the time, so if it doesn't freeze first try during a tough fight, you'll probably have to withdraw and heal outside the BD, then try again. Reliable all-species freezers cost a lot more -- the cheapest 100% freezers, H4000 Helmet and Freezing Potion, are 6-7 mil each.

Bomb: Honey Potion. The best bomb until you can afford a Ghostkerbomb (7.5 mil, heh). Freeze your opponent, then hit them with Ylanas Blaster, Honey Potion and fierce/berserk attack, and you'll win a lot of fights. There's no affordable alternative besides one-use snowballs or muffins, which are a real pain to replace all the time.

Healer: Hm. Your pet is a lab rat, so the Blue Scorchstone is pretty useless. So is the Greater Healing Scroll, which heals only 50 HP (although it is an improvement over the SS). If your pet is a gelert, elephante or kacheek, you're in luck, as they have cheap 50% (or better) healers. Some other species have 50% healers as well, though theirs cost a bit more. The only all-species 50% healer (and your only decent option if you have a lab pet) is Bag of Healing Dust, and it's 8 mil, unfortunately. The Regeneration/Restore/Healing Vapour faerie abilities (pick any one) can help a bit by healing 33% of lost hit points. I guess you can keep the SS or trade it in for the Greater Healing Scroll... neither will help much, but they're better than nothing.

Percentage Defence: Downsize! is great; it'll cut an enemy's attack in half.

Stealer: Purple Sticky Hand. Actually cheap and very useful.

Variable slot: This is where you toss in a one-use Thick Smoke Bomb (blocks all damage during one round), a reflector of some sort, a snowball or muffin... whatever. IDB has good suggestions for what kind of blockers or reflectors to use against each specific opponent.

Total cost of recommended items:
Ylanas Blaster: 1.25 mil
Psellias Fighting Fan: 45k
Snowglobe Staff: 45k
Honey Potion: 750k
Downsize!: 7k
Purple Sticky Hand: 6k
=2,103,000
(If this is way more than you want to spend, just get two 9-iconers instead of the blaster + one 9-iconer. I really recommend the blaster, though.)

You should also have these faerie abilities. They are really, really important. They can help you last a couple of extra rounds in a battle.

Burrow (blocks 97.5% of all earth, air, water, fire, phys)
Sink (blocks 97.5% of all light, dark, water, fire, phys)
Drain Life (drains 10% of opponent's hit points)
Regeneration/Restore/Healing Vapour (33% healers -- pick one; they're equal)
Fiery Gaze/Diamond Dust (freezers -- pick one; dust is slightly better)

To see which bottled faerie you need to buy for each ability and what level your pet needs to be at before you release the faerie (if your pet's level is too low, the faerie will just fly away instead of blessing it), go here.

Anyway. The thing about battling is that it's one of the most expensive hobbies on Neo, so you'll need NP if you want to get serious about battling. You should at least try to invest 15k per day in the stock market. Buy 1000 shares per day of anything that's at 15NP per share. Sell when it hits 60. It can take a while to see results, but this definitely works. I made over a million in sales just yesterday when two of my stocks hit 60.

[Nogitsune]

Varii, check out those PPT posts I linked -- I explain how defense works (and list the boosts) there. I don't find defense all that useful in one-player because you're typically fighting opponents with a much higher strength boost than your defense boost (for example, in Defenders of Neopia or during wars), and they're going to be sending a LOT of damage through your shields -- so much that you'd be better off attacking them back than blocking a paltry amount of their damage. Better to use percentage blockers or reflectors (which don't rely on your defense stat) in one-player, for the most part. Defense does start to be really useful in one-player at about the 400 boost, I believe, because at that point you can block a fair amount of damage that any opponent can throw at you (their top strength boost is 700, no matter how many hit points they have). It costs a lot to get there, though. (If you still find all this confusing, check out IDB's Beginner's Guide to the BD, which explains everything fairly simply.)

Nogitsune, I'd go with the typical set of two strong attackers/freezer/bomb/healer/percentage defence item/stealer, plus one slot for situational items -- cheap stuff like reflectors or a snowball or whatever, tailored to whatever opponent you're fighting. Here are some suggestions:

First, sell your current set. You can get much, much better items for decent prices.

Attackers: Get a Ylanas Blaster of your own. It will eat up most of your budget, but it is absolutely the best value you can get (and a decent investment, as they're retired and the price has only risen since they were released). It does just about as much damage as a Wand of Reality or Bow of Destiny (long considered the top weapons for beginner/intermediate battlers) for a third of the price. It would be nice to have two blasters, but you can't afford that, so pair it with a 9-iconer. Icon types don't matter a whole lot in one-player, so I'd grab a Stone Club, Ice Club or Psellias Fighting Fan -- whichever you find cheapest (fan right now, I believe).

Freezer: Snowglobe Staff is the best you can do right now. Black Frost Cannon is a little better but quite a bit more expensive. The staff only freezes around 20% of the time, so if it doesn't freeze first try during a tough fight, you'll probably have to withdraw and heal outside the BD, then try again. Reliable all-species freezers cost a lot more -- the cheapest 100% freezers, H4000 Helmet and Freezing Potion, are 6-7 mil each.

Bomb: Honey Potion. The best bomb until you can afford a Ghostkerbomb (7.5 mil, heh). Freeze your opponent, then hit them with Ylanas Blaster, Honey Potion and fierce/berserk attack, and you'll win a lot of fights. There's no affordable alternative besides one-use snowballs or muffins, which are a real pain to replace all the time.

Healer: Hm. Your pet is a lab rat, so the Blue Scorchstone is pretty useless. So is the Greater Healing Scroll, which heals only 50 HP (although it is an improvement over the SS). If your pet is a gelert, elephante or kacheek, you're in luck, as they have cheap 50% (or better) healers. Some other species have 50% healers as well, though theirs cost a bit more. The only all-species 50% healer (and your only decent option if you have a lab pet) is Bag of Healing Dust, and it's 8 mil, unfortunately. The Regeneration/Restore/Healing Vapour faerie abilities (pick any one) can help a bit by healing 33% of lost hit points. I guess you can keep the SS or trade it in for the Greater Healing Scroll... neither will help much, but they're better than nothing.

Percentage Defence: Downsize! is great; it'll cut an enemy's attack in half.

Stealer: Purple Sticky Hand. Actually cheap and very useful.

Variable slot: This is where you toss in a one-use Thick Smoke Bomb (blocks all damage during one round), a reflector of some sort, a snowball or muffin... whatever. IDB has good suggestions for what kind of blockers or reflectors to use against each specific opponent.

Total cost of recommended items:
Ylanas Blaster: 1.25 mil
Psellias Fighting Fan: 45k
Snowglobe Staff: 45k
Honey Potion: 750k
Downsize!: 7k
Purple Sticky Hand: 6k
=2,103,000
(If this is way more than you want to spend, just get two 9-iconers instead of the blaster + one 9-iconer. I really recommend the blaster, though.)

You should also have these faerie abilities. They are really, really important. They can help you last a couple of extra rounds in a battle.

Burrow (blocks 97.5% of all earth, air, water, fire, phys)
Sink (blocks 97.5% of all light, dark, water, fire, phys)
Drain Life (drains 10% of opponent's hit points)
Regeneration/Restore/Healing Vapour (33% healers -- pick one; they're equal)
Fiery Gaze/Diamond Dust (freezers -- pick one; dust is slightly better)

To see which bottled faerie you need to buy for each ability and what level your pet needs to be at before you release the faerie (if your pet's level is too low, the faerie will just fly away instead of blessing it), go here.

Anyway. The thing about battling is that it's one of the most expensive hobbies on Neo, so you'll need NP if you want to get serious about battling. You should at least try to invest 15k per day in the stock market. Buy 1000 shares per day of anything that's at 15NP per share. Sell when it hits 60. It can take a while to see results, but this definitely works. I made over a million in sales just yesterday when two of my stocks hit 60.

Thanks Cranberry! I intend to buy my own Blaster (I should have bought them when they first came out and were cheaper, but they didn't seem to be inflating too badly at first). I will be taking your advice and gain more NP. I've been investing in Faeries because I know that abilities like Burrow and Sink can be very useful. Like I said, I'm leveling as best I can since I know I need much better defense.

I frequent the IDB but different advice on different weapons lead to my current confusion. Things like the Sword Of Skardsen or Pirate Captain's Cutlass are often highly recommended but then again so is the Scarab Ring! I'm patient for saving, so if there are any weapon/items that aren't in my current budget (but you think would be good to save up for) please let me know.

[Cranberry]

IDB raters aren't really comparing Scarab Ring to Sword of Skardsen, is the thing. They're rating each weapon on how good it is for the level of battler who'd be using it.

Scarab Ring is an excellent weapon for a very beginner battler with a very small budget, because it offers a lot of firepower for its price, plus some nice defense. It's not something an advanced battler with a high budget would have in his set.

Ylanas Blaster is slightly -- slightly -- less powerful than Wand of Reality or Bow of Destiny, so they are technically slightly better weapons. However, I'd rate the blaster more highly (in one-player, based on icon number only, ignoring types) because it's much cheaper -- you get more value for the cost. Raters take all of this into consideration, which is why you can't really say, "Wow, Scarab Ring has a higher rating than Ylanas Blaster, so it must be a better weapon!" The ring has a better cost/value ratio, but you're going to deal a lot more damage with the blaster.

Let's compare some weapons. Like I said over on PPT, your strength boost determines how much damage you deal. The damage you do to an an opponent is the number of icons your weapon does x your strength boost's damage multiplier. You have the 125 boost, which has a multiplier of 3.

If your pet, with its 125 strength boost, attacked with absolutely nothing but a Scarab Ring, it would do this: 6 (icons) x 3 (damage multiplier) = 18 damage to opponent.

With nothing but a Psellias Fighting Fan: 9 (icons) x 3 = 27 damage to opponent

With Ylanas Blaster: 12.63 (icons) x 3 = 38(ish) damage to opponent

With SoS (average hit): 18.3 (icons) x 3 = 55(ish) damage to opponent

With Super Attack Pea: 32 (icons) x 3 = 96 damage to opponent

As you can see, each weapon is more powerful than the next. They're all rated around the same at IDB not because they're equals, but because each offers a lot of firepower for its cost. Each is excellent for the battler who can afford it, and most battlers will upgrade repeatedly until they get to the top weapon they can afford (for me, that's SoS at 11 mil and PCC at 16; the next attackers up the ladder are things like Ghostkersword at 160 mil, Skarls Sword at 300 mil and SuAP at 600 mil. Huge price jumps, yes).

Stick with the set I recommended for now; it's perfectly serviceable. If you end up liking battling and you make more NP, the very next thing you need is the Bag of Healing Dust, since a good healer is very important.

[mellaka]

Stick with the set I recommended for now; it's perfectly serviceable. If you end up liking battling and you make more NP, the very next thing you need is the Bag of Healing Dust, since a good healer is very important.

So you think BoHD is worth getting? In the past I was always advised to skip it and just save for a full healer. But with LEV around 40 mil-50 mil last I checked, the BoHD is looking better and better, despite all the advice I've gotten against it. (My 540-ish hp pet just went back to Velms Healing Potion after using a GHS since it was released. It's laughable, I know. Honestly, I rarely even bother wasting a turn to heal in battle anymore.) My battle pet is a draik, so I'm not willing to change species for a cheaper healer.

I know there's also the Crisp Blue Tunic, but it sounds too confusing for someone like me who is not good with strategy.

And sorry to jump on the topic. I definitely use IDB regularly but there's nothing like asking a rater directly since the opportunity presented itself.

[Wingsrising]

Heck, I'll pile on, too. (Sorry Cranberry.)

I have a battle pet and plenty of Stock Market earnings (although I should add I'm not necessarily planning on spending them all... or even most of them...)

My pet is an Eyrie:
Health: 293
Strength: 251
Defense: 253

Her weapons:
H4000 helmet
Ring of the Lost
Honey Potion
Bag of Healing Dust
Bow of Destiny
Downsize

Also, right now I've got a Patched Magic Hat and a Leaf Shield stuck on there. I could also get my hands on a Ylana's Blaster easily enough as I haven't spent my points from that plot yet.

I'm not sure whether I should get a new weapon (SOS, maybe... but BOY that's a lot of NP to spend), train more now that (I think) codestones are cheaper, or just give it up given that I never really battle except for DoN and wars. (I keep saying I'm going to battle more, maybe even 2-player... but I've been saying that for what, 5 years now? Probably it's not going to happen.)

[Cranberry]

Mellaka, I'm a big fan of the Bag of Healing Dust. There's really no other affordable option for a lab pet/pet without a species healer that has a lot of hit points. Crisp Blue Tunic is neat, but I bought one and quickly sold it because I just didn't find it useful in one-player -- I could see it being very good in two-player due to the drain, but it's way too hard to use it at the opportune time in the one-player BD, and your opponents will often have such high HP that a 100 HP drain isn't as great as it sounds. The Hidden Tower's Ice Scorchstone is laughably bad. It's a full healer, yes, but only works a quarter of the time. A freezer that only works sometimes (like Snowglobe Staff or Black Frost Cannon) can be okay, because you'll usually use it first round in the BD, so withdrawing and restarting if it fails isn't a huge deal. A healer, however, you'll want to use near the end of a fight. If it fails, you've wasted a lot of time.

As you know, Leaded Elemental Vial and Jade Scorchstone are the ultimate healers, and therefore cost 40 and 50 mil+, respectively. You could always buy the BoHD to use for now and keep saving for one of those, though -- the dust's price has remained pretty stable since it first came out, so you could always resell later for barely, if any, loss.

Wings, do you have any idea how much you could get for that Ring of the Lost? I'm often tempted to sell mine (especially since, like yours, my pet has balanced str and def and would do perfectly well with a Ghostkershield instead), but part of me worries that I'd be kicking myself if the price later rises even more, and part of me can't bear to part with my plot prize. It's also a great weapon. A great weapon currently worth 20 mil.

Your pet actually has quite a good set at the moment. Healer and freezer are covered; you're not going to do better than that without spending a ton, and you don't really need to. The only things I'd really suggest you change are your main attackers and your bomb.

Attacker option #1: Get that Ylanas Blaster and pair it with the Bow of Destiny. You seem to be using RotL as your second main attacker right now, and that's okay, but the blaster would be better. I think of RotL as more of a third weapon, something to break out mainly against dark-dealing opponents.

Attacker option #2: Get one blaster with your plot points, then sell the BoD for 3.5 mil and replace it with a second Ylanas Blaster (1.5 mil). You'd do .37 of an icon less (not even noticeable) and gain 2 mil. It's worth considering!

Attacker option #3: Shell out for that SoS and pair it with either a blaster or the bow (if you go with the blaster, you could get that for free with your plot points, and gain a full 3.5 mil from selling the bow, which would help fund the SoS). This is the option I'd go with. SoS is absolutely the top attacker for someone at your level/budget -- PCC is great for two-player because of its icon types, but not worth "upgrading" to in one-player.

Bomb-wise, it's almost time to ditch that Honey Potion. It does an average of 14.63 icons, which is very few more than the BoD (13) or the blaster (12.63). It would be fine to keep if you go with the two blasters or blaster/bow combo (you won't do a lot more damage on your bomb round than you would using the two attackers, but you'll do a little), but if you upgrade to SoS (average of 18.3 icons), then it's really time to ditch the HP. Ghostkerbomb is the next big upgrade there, and at 7.5 mil, it's quite affordable and worth every NP. It's an awesome bomb.... I mean, an average of 25.9 icons compared to HP's 14.63 (and even SoS's 18.3)? No contest.

So... yeah. I'd suggest you make the jump to the big leagues with SoS or Gbomb or both. Which you go with first doesn't really matter.

And I don't mind you guys piling on! Truthfully, I've been a bad rater lately (it hasn't helped that IDB's been changed all around recently and I don't think there even are professional IDB raters anymore, just "ratings mods" who are going to read and approve user-submitted ratings or something like that), and I haven't been giving much weapon advice in the forums. I miss doing it!

[mellaka]

Thanks Cranberry. I think the BoHD will be my next goal, after Christmas.

I also have a RotL but can't seem to part with it, even though I bought a GShield a few months ago. I get so attached to my Neo prizes - I still have my WoR from NQ2 Insane too.

[Wingsrising]

Seriously... 20 million? I had no idea.

Wow, I admit that is tempting... I don't know if I could part with it, though. I even still have my Ramtor's spellbook and my Staff of Righteous Fury from NQII that I haven't sold (although neither are worth much these days.)

I admit I sort of feel the same way about selling my Bow of Destiny, I was so excited when I bought it (mostly to make up for the Staff). I'll think about it.

Yeah, it sounds like SoS or the Ghostkerbomb are the way to go. I hadn't thought about a new bomb, but that makes sense. I'm not going to have the budget for both anytime soon though, even the SoS is going to hurt. (I mean, I'll still have money left, I just always hate to part with that much NP!)

I'm trying to decide if the money I'd save buying an SoS in auctions is worth the hassle. (Are auctions safe these days? Anyone know?)

Thanks for the advice, Cranberry!

So, you suggest holding off on more training for a while?

[Cranberry]

No, if you have the NP, definitely keep training. Codestones are fairly cheap now thanks to KeyQuest, and there are no battling events going on to drive up the price, so it's a good time to train.

Auctions are safe, far as I know. I'm sure there's always a chance that a glitch will eat your items or NP, but I haven't heard of any issues in a while.

I know what you mean about parting with that much NP! I always find it tough to even spend a mil, heh. SoS is so worth it, though -- I have never regretted buying mine. If you can't bear to part with 11 mil, though, you could always go with the blaster/BoD (or blaster x2) combo and get the gbomb. You will win a lot more fights during wars just with that bomb power alone. With your pet's 250 boost and a gbomb+BoD+berserk hit, you'd be doing 281-355 damage to a frozen opponent. (With BoD+HP+berserk, you can do 215-239.)

[Jamie]

I'm jumping on the opportunity as well ^^.

I'm not an avid battledomer, I usually only participate in Wars. But I know that my set is laughable, especially considering my pets stats:

Stats:

Draik Lenny
HP: 314
Strength: 311
Defence: 314

Equipment:

Greater Healing Scroll
Downsize!
Ylanas Blaster
Ylanas Blaster
Leaf Shield

Yes, I'm serious.

[edit] Also, I know that Lennies have much cheaper, amazing battledome items, how much could be saved by morphing him into a Lenny?

[edit 2] My Tyrannian Draik is now a Baby Lenny... yay for morphing/painting on a whim?

[Cranberry]

Lennies make awesome BD pets. They have TWO 100% freezers and a 50% healer, and you can pick up both for less than it would cost you to buy one of the all-species 100% freezers. Get out there and buy a Bag of Lenny Healing Seeds and an Entangling Lenny Lasso (or Lenny Ray Gun of Freezing) asap! (If you can only afford one for now, go with the healer; it's more important. You could use a Snowglobe Staff or Black Frost Cannon as a freezer until you can buy the lasso or gun.)

The blasters are fine, and the Downsize! is fine. The next thing you'll need after that good freezer and healer is a good bomb... can you afford/save up for a Ghostkerbomb?

Your eventual set should look like this:

Ylanas Blaster x 2
Entangling Lenny Lasso OR Lenny Ray Gun of Freezing (should cost around 3-3.5 mil)
Bag of Lenny Healing Seeds (unsure about price; they can be hard to find. IDB says around 2-3 mil)
Ghostkerbomb (7.5 mil)
Purple Sticky Hand
Downsize!
Variable/shield slot (as someone with balanced strength and defence and a fairly high def boost, you could make use of good shields like Ghostkershield and Faerie Tabard, or dual duties like Dusty Magic Broom and Mask of Coltzan. It all depends on how much you want to spend!)