My Puny Arms Can't Even Hold an Attack Pea!

So you’ve decided to start training your pet, this guide will help you get started. You can begin improving their stats without too much expense or commitment. It’s not as scary as it looks, I promise. In this guide, I will cover methods appropriate for training a pet under level 40.

First, let’s look at your pet’s stats:

Level – Level doesn’t really do anything, but you must train level to train other stats in the training schools.

Health (Endurance) – The more endurance your pet has, the more hits it can take.

Strength – Strength determines your pet’s attacking power.

Defense – Defense determines your pet’s ability to resist attacks.

Move (Agility)– Movement is only useful for specific weapons so we won’t discuss it in this guide.

Next, we need to get your pet into a trainable build:

In order to train your pet, no stat may be greater than twice the pet’s level. So head over to one of the training schools and train level until it the level is at least ½ your pet’s highest stat.

Swashbuckling Academy

The academy is a great place to start training on the cheap. It’s located on Krawk Island and taught by Cap’n Threelegs. Pets up to level 40 may train here. All courses are paid for in dubloons:

Sea Urchin Level 10 and under One Dubloon Coin 4 Hours

Deckhand Level 11-20 Two Dubloon Coin 6 Hours

Pirate Level 21-30 Five Dubloon Coin 8 Hours

Cap’n Level 31-40 Five Dubloon Coins 10 Hours

You must have exact change so better stock up on one, two, and five dubloon coins. This is the only school where you can cancel a course. You can also save some NP with free training on your pet’s species’ day and Neopets’ birthday.

Mystery Island Training School

I recommend waiting until later to train here, but I want to include this for the sake of completeness. The Mystery Island Training School is a bit more expensive than the Swashbuckling Academy, but it is also faster. Pet’s up to level 250 may train here.

Grasshopper Level 20 and Under 1 Codestone 2 Hours

Basic Level 21-40 2 Codestones 3 Hours

The courses are much shorter here, but keep in mind the cost is much greater. A five dubloon coin will cost about 1k NP whereas 3 of the most expensive codestone will cost 45k. You cannot cancel courses at the training school so it could get costly quick. You can, however, train endurance to 3 times your pets level in this school, but then you will be unable to train any other stats while endurance is more than 2 times your pets level.

Next, we’ll train up other stats:

Now that your pet has reached a trainable build. Some people like to train on stat at a time and others like to alternate between stats. It doesn’t matter which you choose. Train Strength, Defense, and Endurance until they reach twice the level of your pet. I heavily suggest ignoring movement. Only train movement if you are banking on using weapons such as “Heavy Robe Of Thievery” otherwise it won’t help you.

When training Strength and Defense, it is important to keep in mind that the effectiveness of these stats are based on ranges rather than the actual value.

Strength/Defense Boost

Less than 8: 0.5

8 – 12: 0.75

13 – 19: 1

20 – 34: 1.25

35 – 54: 1.5

55 – 84: 2

While you are waiting…

As you wait for your pet’s training to complete, you can still work on your pet’s stats. Here are some activities that can help complement your pet’s training.

Coltan’s Shrine

In the middle of the Lost Desert, stands a glimmering beacon of hope. Pay a visit to Coltan’s Shrine and your active pet’s stats may increase.

Deadly Dice

Count Von Roo is only awake between 12 am and 1 am NST. You can challenge him at dice for levels. If your pet is under level 2, you will not be able to play.

**WARNING** Your pet may lose levels.

Turmaculus

Awake this giant petpet and it may award your pet some stats.

**WARNING** This activity may result in your petpet being consumed by Turmaculus.

Secret Laboratory

The secret lab ray is expensive, but if you already own it, zaps are free. Zapping your pet will likely result in an increase your pet’s stats over time.

**WARNING** Your pet may lose stats, return to level 1, change species, or color.

Now it’s time to check out Aethia’s Ability Academy:

Abilities can help give your pet that extra edge in the Battledome. The first ability is FREE! So head right over and train now! I won’t go into too much depth here since there is enough here for a whole other guide, but I will give my recommendations for the abilities trainable under level 40. These are only recommendations; please don’t come for me with rusty pitchforks. Here, you pay in blessings. Blessings can be obtained from blessing your pets with weaked bottled faeries of the appropriate type. Each weak bottled faerie generally grants 1-2 blessings.

Level 1 Abilities: Static Cling, Halitosis, and Drizzle

I recommend Static Cling since it can be used during every round without any cooldown period unlike the options. Static Cling costs absolutely nothing!

Level 5 Abilities: Bandage, Meditate, Shade

I recommend Shade since the other abilities only provide minor healing, while shade can block icons. Shade costs 2 dark blessings.

Level 10 Abilities: Cranky, Meh, Positive Thinking

These are about equal, I’ll let you decide. These each cost 4 blessings fire, air, and light respectively.

Level 25 Abilities: An Icicle, Sear, Irritable Minions

I recommend Icicle since it acts over a single round, which is great for short battles. Icicle costs 10 water blessings.

Now that wasn’t so bad, was it? I hope you learned something about training your pet and that it seems a bit less scary. Your pet is well on its way to being a beast in the Battledome.