What's this? Al writing a BD Guide? Why?
During the
Return of Sloth
Plot, I, Al, finally realized that I knew hardly anything about the battledome. Users with lower-stat pets and lower-damage weapons than Vyksa were beating the 3rd level opponents, while Vyx was struggling. So I enlisted Deulwyn and her petpage to teach me about the battledome, and I offer what I learn here to you.
This page is a work in progress as I learn how to use the BD.
List of Terms
The Battledome has its own language. Here are some of the common terms and abbreviations you'll see:
-
BD
: Battledome
-
BDer
: Battledomer (i.e., one who fights in the BD)
-
DoN
: Defenders of Neopia
-
HP
: Hit Points
or
Honey Potion
-
Stats
: Statistics: your pet's level, HP, strength, defense, movement, and intelligence
For more BD acronyms, visit
xCombat's
,
ninjaekaj's
, and
juxtacrypt's
petpages.
Withdrawing from a fight
If you need to withdraw from a fight at any point, go to the
Status page
in the Battledome. Once you visit this page, you are withdrawn from all battles that you were in.
Finicky Faeries and the BD
When you're fighting in the Battledome, the faeries won't allow you to finish their Quests or use the Wheel of Excitement in Faerieland because these may give you an advantage in a fight.
Also, you can't use any healing items on your pet from outside the Battledome while your pet is still
in
the Battledome.
Types of Fights
There are two types of fights: 1-Player and 2-Player.
In a 1-Player fight, you fight against a standard Neopian character. For a list of all 1-Player challengers, see
Nangauta's petpage
.
In a 2-Player fight, you fight against another user and pet. You can challenge your friends to fights, or you can find random people to fight on the
Battledome Board
.
A Note on Stealing:
All stolen weapons are only stolen for that battle. They will return to you (or your opponent) once the battle is over.
Training for the Battledome
You need to train your pet so it has better stats. Better stats means a stronger attack, both for the basic attacks and when using a weapon. (To increase Intelligence, read books to your pet.)
Note:
Fighting in the Battledome does
not
improve stats. You must train to improve stats.
You can train a pet at the Mystery Island Academy or the Krawk Island Academy. Pets level 250 and above can be trained in the Secret Ninja Academy.
The school course name compared to your pet's stats:
-
Strength = strength
-
Defense = defense
-
Agility = movement
-
Endurance = max HP
-
Level = level
In the Mystery Island Academy, there is no specific codestone for a specific course. The Techo Master will ask for random codestones each time.
|
|
Krawk Island Academy
|
Mystery Island Academy
|
Secret Ninja Academy
|
|
Payment:
|
Dubloons |
Codestones |
Red Codestones |
|
Levels:
|
1-40 |
1-250 |
250+ |
|
Withdraw?
|
Yes |
No |
Yes |
On your
pet's day
, Cap'n Threelegs at the Krawk Island Academy will train your pet in any course for free. Your pet still has to be Level 40 or below, however.
Other Ways to Train
You can also train your pet by using the
Secret Laboratory Map
. The Secret Lab Map can send any statistic up or down (except for HP: it always goes up).
Certain Neggs will also increase a pet's stats. See
garmfry's petpage
for more information about stat-changing Neggs.
Random
Faerie quests
(except for the Fountain Faerie) will increase your stats, and usually for less than the cost of training. The timed
Kitchen Quest
sometimes gives stat boosts as a reward.
Coltzan's Shrine
may also give a stat boost as a reward.
Damage
Your Neopet and its weapons don't do "damage" in the Battledome as you would find in other battle-type games. Instead, everything does "icons." Icons look like this:
Those icons, left to right, are: light, darkness, air, water, earth, fire, and physical.
Each weapon or attack outputs a certain or variable range of icons. The resulting damage your pet does is calculated based on the total number of icons and your pet's
strength
stat. See
beatmetoapulp's petpage
for the actual
icon x strength
calculations. (However, your pet's defense and defense weapons defend against
damage
, not just icons!)
So since attacks are based on your pet's
strength
stat and the
icon output
of your weapons, focusing on increasing strength and getting high-icon weapons makes sense. Likewise, since defense is somewhat based on your pet's
defense
stat and the
icon blocking
of your defense items, focusing on increasing defense and getting high-icon-blocking items makes sense.
And, of course, increasing your Hit Points (HP) is also important. See
SilverCyanide's petpage
for a what-to-train-when guide (in addition to a fabulously-written guide to the BD).
Total damage for attack and defense is also based on which attack or defense you choose. Again,
beatmetoapulp's petpage
has the exact calculations. Using a faerie ability is equivalent to a "Cautious Attack" on the list.
Important:
The total damage your
opponent
does to you is
also
based on
your
attack. Oi!! (Again, thanks to
beatmetoapulp's petpage
. Go read that whole page. Seriously. Easy to understand, but highly detailed.)
Strength Boost
You may hear BDers talk about the "strength boost". Pets do different amounts of damage per icon based on their strength level. Levels are grouped in their damage per icon. For example, all pets with strength between 125 and 199 do the same damage per icon (3). When your pet gets to strength = 200, however, it's damage per icon goes
up
to 4.5 (Wow, that's a big jump!).
The difference in damage per icon gained by increasing to the next level of strength is called the "strength boost". See
garmfry's
and
beatmetoapulp's
petpages to see where the strength boosts occur.
Defense
Defense is making my head spin!
The first point of defense is that you need to defend against what you are attacked with. For example, if your opponent attacks with Earth icons, you need to defend against Earth icons.
The defense boost chart is the same as the strength boost chart. See
garmfry's
and
beatmetoapulp's
petpages.
However, you can't just defend exactly the
icons
that your opponent uses because icons are multiplied by the strength/defense boost. So now the strength/defense boost is important:
Let's suppose your opponent does 5 Earth icons and has the 55 strength boost (icons x 2); that's 10 damage (5 x 2). If you have the 20 strength boost (icons x 1) and defend 5 Earth icons, you're actually only defending 5 damage (5 x 1 = 5). Uh-oh. Instead, you have to defend
10 Earth icons
to cancel out the attack (10 x 1 = 10).
Got that? Instead of just defending your opponents
icons
, you need to defend the same
damage
based on your opponent's strength boost and your own defense boost.
Faerie Abilities
If you release a bottled Faerie, she will bless your pet with an ability. These abilities can only be used in the Battledome. Faeries will only grant abilities if your pet is a certain level or above. The
Abilities page
lists some of the abilities and the level your pet needs to be.
Once you bless your pet with a faerie, go to your pet's Abilities page and click on the ability to activate it. If the ability is not activated, it won't show up in the BD!
Faerie abilities for Healing (and pet's level):
-
Earth
: Regeneration (Lv 23)
- heals 33% (strong)
-
Water
:
-
Heal (Lv 1)
- heals 1-57
-
Healing Vapor (Lv 27)
- heals 33% (strong)
-
-
Light
: Restore (Lv 22)
- heals 33% (strong)
-
Darkness
: Drain Life (Lv 21)
- drains 11% of opponents' HP and heals you (strong)
Faerie abilities for Defense (and pet's level):
-
Earth
: Burrow (Lv 10)
- blocks all earth, air, water, fire, and physical
-
Water
:
-
Quench (Lv 9)
- blocks all fire
-
Steam Shield (Lv 12)
- blocks all light
-
Water Breathing (Lv 16)
- blocks all water
-
Fire
: Boil (Lv 24)
- blocks all water
-
Darkness
: Sink (Lv 30)
- blocks all light, dark, water, fire, and physical
Faerie abilities for Freezing (and pet's level):
-
Fire
: Fiery Gaze (Lv 6)
- 10-20% chance of freeze; also 1 light icon
-
Air
: Diamond Dust (Lv 28)
- 10-20% chance of freeze; also 1 light icon
The faeries will bless your pet with the next ability in the list. Even if your pet is level 100, and you use a faerie for the first time, you'll still get the Level 1 ability.
See Garmfry's
Abilities
and
All Abilities
sections for more information on faerie abilities.
Weapons
Previously, we discussed how damage is calculated:
icons x strength
. So even if your pet's strength is high, if you have weapons that create low icons, you'll still have trouble in the BD. (For instance, if you have to 200 strength boost (icons x 4) but use 1-icon weapons, you'll only do 4 damage!)
You want to find the weapon that gives the most icons and that is in your price range. Except for species-specific weapons (which are generally lame), all of the items on the following petpages can be used by all pets:
Remember that prices of all items listed in those guides are subject to change.
A Note on Stealing:
All stolen weapons are only stolen for that battle. They will return to you (or your opponent) once the battle is over.
NeoQuest II Weapons
You could win some pretty good weapons if you complete
NeoQuest II
on the Evil and Insane settings. (You have to play the game on Normal to access Evil and Insane modes.) These are generally very good weapons and are likely quite expensive normally, so finishing the game may be your best option to get them:
-
Halo of Devilpuss: 6 to 10 icons. Evil mode.
-
Scuzzy's Comb: 10 icons (5 light and 5 physical). Evil mode.
-
Ramtor's Spellbook: 10 icons (5 light and 5 darkness). Evil mode.
-
Staff of Righteous Fury: 7.5 to 12 icons. Insane mode.
-
Sword of Apocalypse: 8.47 to 13 icons. Insane mode.
-
Bow of Destiny: 13 icons (5 air, 3 fire, and 5 earth). Insane mode.
-
Wand of Reality: 13 icons (5 air, 5 light, and 3 physical). Insane mode.
See
SilverCyanide's petpage
for a guide to beating NQII.
Defenders of Neopia
For a list of all DoN challengers, see
Nangauta's petpage
.
Wars
When plots are released in Neopia, generally there is also a Battledome portion. The general workings of the BD change somewhat during wars:
-
Regular 1-Player Challengers are unavailable
-
Stealing-type weapons are disabled
Helping Players Beat Opponents Since February 2008
Last Updated August 23, 2009
