Deciphering the Dome: Urban Legends and Ugly Rumors

You get to keep weapons that you steal from opponents.
You can steal a lot of neat and really valuable weapons from opponents and use them during that fight, but they go back to the rightful owner as soon as the battle is over. On the flip side of this, you don’t have to worry about other people permanently stealing your stuff. I highly recommend using a stealer on Evil Sloth Clone, the Black Pteri, and Mootix Warrior; it makes the battle a lot cooler when you get use their fancy toys, but sorry, you don’t get to keep them.

Withdrawing from 1-player battles will get you in trouble.
All of the warnings on the Battledome pages are to stop people from wasting other people’s time in 2-player fights. At one point in time, there seemed to be a problem with people withdrawing from fights when they thought they were going to lose, but it’s ok to withdraw as much as you want in a 1-player fight. A lot of people looking to win an avatar fight or defeat a tough Defenders of Neopia challenger will start battles and then withdraw if they don’t get a freeze or a steal on the first round. While I think this may get kind of boring, there’s nothing wrong with doing it in a 1-player fight.

Your opponent doesn’t exist.
This is just an error message that sometimes pops up in the Battledome when you’re trying to start a 2-player battle. The other pet still exists, so don’t worry about that. Whoever clicks ‘Enter the Battledome’ first after a challenge has been accepted will see this message until their opponent has clicked the ‘Enter the Battledome’ button too. Just make your way back to the status page and refresh; it will let you know when your opponent is ready and you can start the fight.

Can Boochi turn my pet into a baby when I fight him?
Nope, Boochi can turn your pet into a baby when you get a visit from him as a Random Event, but he won’t do it while you’re fighting him in the Battledome. Baby Paint Brushes are always available in the Hidden Tower or Trading Post, a little expensive but probably the best way to get a baby pet.

Darigan Sword of Death does 70 icons!
Keep in mind that there are two different Darigan Swords of Death out there. One is the sword used by the Spectre of Lord Darigan during the first Battle for Meridell war; the other is the prize given out to someone who participated in that war. Lord Darigan’s version did do 70 icons, but there’s no proof that the prize version does the same. Luckily for us, the war prize Darigan Sword of Death is locked away safely in a gallery where we don’t have to worry about it showing up in a quickfight.

There will never be another Neopets war.
I see this rumor a lot and it always mentions an alleged Neopian Times Editorial question where TNT told the Battledome to pound sand because they would never get to fight in a war ever again. Of course no one has been able to produce this alleged editorial and the evidence is slowly stacking against the conspiracy crowd as the Tale of Woe, Journey to the Lost Island, and Return of Sloth Plot all had decent war challengers woven into the plot. Yes, Return of Sloth was nearly two years ago and the pictures of the challengers are still up in the Battledome, but you can’t deny that Ylanas Blaster was an awesome plot prize.

Will my pets die if they lose a fight?
No. No. No. Other than my ego, nothing has ever been hurt in the Battledome. Nothing bad happens to your pet if they lose a fight; just go use a healing potion on them or visit the Healing Springs in Faerieland and they’ll be good as new.

OMG, your weapons are going to get downgraded.
Everyone was always telling me that my Neoquest II weapons were going to get downgraded, but I don’t think a downgrade has actually happened to a weapon since TNT accidently made the Golden Sun Chalice a mega healer back in Year 9 and quickly fixed it the next day. Neopoint01 wrote a good article on that crazy weekend and was published in the Neopian Times:

//www.neopets.com/ntimes/index.phtml?section=375983&week=319

That being said, downgrades are an uber rare occurrence and you can probably rest comfortably tonight knowing that your Sword of Skardsen isn’t going to do 2 icons when you wake up in the morning.

TNT doesn’t care about the Battledome.
I think the recent releases of the Grapes of Wrath and Kelpbeards Trident have stopped this nasty rumor for the time being. It’s nothing new; Battledomers have been griping about this since probably before the Battledome was actually created. Yes, we may have gone a long time without a new Battledome challenger, but TNT has been putting a lot of work into making lower league Battledoming more accessible. Where would we be today without Unstable Slimes, Ylanas Blasters, a 100% freezer in the Hidden Tower? Not to mention all of those spiffy new stat increasing potions and 8 to 14 icon range weapons stocking in shops. Codestones and neggs are plentiful, let there be peace in the Battledome Chat.

Sparkshooters!
They do nothing, don’t even bother.

If you have further questions about the dome, check out the other ‘Deciphering the Dome’ articles or go here: www.neopets.com/~projectbootcamp