| BATTLEDOME - Welcome readers, to my 4th and most up to date Battledome guide.
This time I will not be teaching strategy. I will be telling you things that not
all Battledomers know. Some of these things are interesting. Some of them are
quite scary. But I know for a fact, most of you will read something you didn't
know. Two years of Battledome experience, the usage of near enough every hidden
tower weapon ever and some of the best Battledomers alive as good friends allowed
me to compile a list of really interesting things for you to read. They cover
totally random subjects.
Secrets of the Rods
As most of you know, around NeoPets there are quite a few nova related items.
Ranging from the pathetically weak nova, to the quite deadly ultranova. Each
of these novas can be bought separately to throw at your opponent, but as they
are quite rare it's not really a good idea to throw them as your wasting a lot
of Neopoints. The 4 types of nova in weakest to strongest order are: Nova, Supernova,
Darknova and Ultranova.
As it costs so much to throw singular novas bought from the wizard. NeoPets
created a line of generator weapons that at a cost of one turn in battle will
generate novas to throw on the next round. There are basically 3 lines of these
weapons: Wands, Staffs and Rods. Wands and staffs have a large chance of breaking.
Meaning they are not a weapon you really want to inject all your money into.
There is no such thing as a rod of ultranova on NeoPets, but Lisha's wand has
got a random chance of creating an ultranova and 0% chance of breaking.
The rods actually have added effects. The rod of nova heals on average 15
HP per round. It is therefore not worth buying. The rod of supernova and rod
of darknova are 2 of the best weapons ever created. But as few exist little
is known about them.
Things you maybe didn't know:
Rod of dark nova defends ALL dark and ALL fire. The icon defence doesn't show
up in battle, it just stops 100% of these icons. So if you ever have one, don't
expect to see the defended icons =)
The produced novas tend to be stolen by sticky hands. Protecting your real
weapons.
BOTH rods heal in the same range. Rod of dark nova heals 11 - 55 HP per turn.
Average 35. Rod of supernova heals 11 - 55 HP per turn. Average 28. I tested
both these weapons over 500 times each trust me, I know my stuff - rod of darknova
HAS got better healing.
IF you are lucky enough to have both of these rods equipped at the same time
as I did, you can shoot yourself in the foot quite badly. Most people click
the rodn first then the ros. If you do this rod of supernova will heal and rod
of dark nova will heal EXACTLY the same. So it is better healing wise to click
the rod of supernova first followed by the rod of darknova.
The trouble with ECA
A lot of people with everlasting crystal apples say that sometimes the item
cuts out their second weapon in battle. For example ECA + carrotblade, The ECA
would heal 30 HP as usual and scan your opponents weapons. But the carrotblade
wouldn't work. As a newbieslayer, I had a lot of contact with people using this
weapon and came to the conclusion that if you click ECA first and then the weapon
you want to use, ECA will work perfectly and just as importantly so will the
other weapon you pick =)
A weapons true minimum Icons
Did you know that pets with fewer than 8 strength may have the icons from
their best weapons cut up? I found this out when testing a teapot of doom out.
Its meant to do 3 water 3 fire and 1 - 3 physical. It didn't do any physical.
I also specifically remember throwing darknovas and having them deal only 8
icons. Just remember if your going to test a new weapon out, make sure your
pet has over 8 strength else the results are inaccurate.
0% power
A lot of Newbies may not have noticed that when you use all your power in
a battle, you can no longer use all your abilities. The only practical use of
your last 10% power is a last ditch attempt to freeze a newbieslayer. As you
know even without fierce attack you'll be able to take their 3 HP away no trouble.
Pet resistance
Many people don't read the NeoPets news -- they should. It provides you with
updates plus every so often a pet day will turn up. This means your pets get
more Battledome abilities and it may quote something about species resistance.
This means some pets take less damage from certain icons. If your a strong fighter
you may want to take this into consideration as a pet that was 10% resistant
to earth would stop quite a lot of an attack peas damage. I've found that Scorchios
and Kaus are the most resistant species so far.
He who moves first, laughs last
Thyoras tear is a very well known item these days. When I first started NeoPets
you could pick them up for around 100,000 NP and you could equip as many as
you owned. Not anymore. But still Thyoras tear does its job -- blocking 100%
of damage. Or does it? In fact, no. There is an obscure way to get icons past
it, but it involves the stupidity of the person with the tear. If for example
you use attack pea + Thyoras tear and your opponent uses ultra dual shovel.
There are two possible outcomes. If you are first to input your move, the tear
will block all of the attack. If you take your time making the move and input
your move after your opponent does you will take reflected damage. I figure
this happens because reflecting weapons are fairly new and burrow and tear are
old.
(Side note. The same applies with burrow blocking reflected icons; it will
only block them if you move first!).
Errors
Battledome errors happen quite frequently but can be avoided. The Battledome
server has to calculate one move, then the second. Process them both and then
return the moves results to both players. When there are a lot of people in
the Battledome, the servers are strained. This means if both players submit
their moves at precisely the same time it cant process and it makes you take
the move again. So if you have an error, wait 30 seconds and then submit your
move and it should stop it happening again.
Defence against freezing
People often ask me why I freeze to kill them and then say that I'm a coward
and can't fight without it. That's wrong -- I only freeze so that when other
people do it to me I wont loose. I often challenge people to none freezing battles
just to prove this point. The tip is as follows. If you going to cry about freezing,
learn to do it yourself. You'll both thaw out at the same time and be able to
fight as normal.
Steam shield, boil and quench
These are the 3 most overlooked abilities on NeoPets. Steam shield for the
cost of 10 power blocks all light icons. Boil blocks all water and quench blocks
all fire. It may sound stupid, but a simple steam shield can stop 100% of a
pumpkin stick or severely reduce the power of a Faerie slingshot/seasonal attack
pea (with an ultra dual shovel its great!). More importantly, you can mess up
people who use dual dark battle ducks with boil.
Improved defend, frost and psychic attack
A long long time ago when the Battledome was new, berserk attack wasn't the
only upgrade you could get to your basic moves. NeoPets had some sponsors to
sign up with, if you did you were given an extra attack. Frost/psychic attacks
were pointless. But improved defend to defend was like berserk attack is with
fierce. Very few pets have this move now, but those lucky people who found NeoPets
early have it. I wish I had it >=Î
Jace's ECA/RODN/RSH stunt
My own little strategy, works nicely with my set-up. I currently own a rod
of darknova, which produces 3 darknovas per turn. This helps to stop people
take my good items, as they get darknovas instead. A lot of people don't know
the stealing weapons take the first item in your inventory (The top left one).
You will need Rod of dark nova, rainbow sticky hand and ever lasting crystal
apple. First turn use burrow, your freezing weapon and ECA. Look closely at
the weapons they have. When ECA scans, you can tell which item your opponent
has equipped first as ECA displays it first. If it's a scorchstone or other
really good item, you'll want to grab it. Use rod of dark nova and the sticky
hand after both players thaw out. You should grab the weapon. But that's not
where the fun ends, 90% of the time I find my darknovas appear first in my inventory
on the turn I use the rod. So when they try to steal their weapon back, they'll
get a darknova and you'll get the hand back. Steal another weapon from them
with the hand. If they try to be cheeky, do it again and again. It's bags of
fun. And remember rod of darknova blocks all fire and dark, so the novas they
steal will not hurt you at all.
Glowing cauldrons; scary
The magical glowing cauldron was once even scarier than it is today. It was
recently downgraded. It now does 10 fire icons using you opponent's strength,
fail for a turn, or drain HP from your opponent. Before, it could reduce your
stats. Once upon a time, somebody with a cauldron thought it would be funny
to reduce their pets stats to 0 HP, 0 strength etc. These people discovered
that negative stats instantly jumped from the bottom of the scale to the top
(to the equiv. of having 700 strength!). I heard a rumour that a pet had done
500 or so damage with normal weapons. I fought the pet with newbzilla and won.
But only because their weapons never penetrated my defence. He mailed me and
said congratulations and I talked to him and found out how he had done it. Turns
out if you have negative stats it boosts you up to full strength! I reported
it to abuse@neopets.com and so did a few friends. The glitch was cleared up
eventually =)
Dual hypno helmets
You'll find that if your in the dome for a long time like I am, that occasionally
some old dude from many months ago will pull out hypno helmet after hypno helmet.
You don't stand a chance against these people so don't even try - withdraw and
report them. Their hypno helms will be deleted. So they'll play fair. As a rule
I always message them and ask them to remove it first. But it's probably right
to report them straight away. The reason these people can have two or more hypno
helmets is not because they hacked them on -- but because back in the old days
when the Battledome was new, you could have as many hypno helmets as you liked.
And probability says they just stayed in hibernation for a while and have just
started playing again. But if this was a calculated little scheme, report them.
Critical hits
It's strange. For every icon you do, you deal more damage. Critical hits happen
rarely but the more icons you do the stronger the difference is. For example
my attack pea and honey potion used to deal around 130 damage while my opponent
was frozen. In about 10 freak instances they did just over 200 damage. This
is just an observation I have made, but the damage never seems to be in-between.
It's either 130 or just over 200. Never 170. So they do exist but are rare.
This subject needs research. Remember the hits are more apparent the more icons
you deal.
What's the most powerful weapon?
Punchbag Bob's chives of death. Adam thought it would be highly amusing to
give Punchbag Bob (usually no weapons) the most powerful weapon he could think
of. These chives did 160 icons (80 earth 80 water). I promptly used a sticky
hand to grab them for the battle! How fun.
Fierce attack
A lot of people haven't yet realised that your pets defence stat only comes
into play when you choose the defend command. As that's the only one that stops
icons. Fierce attack uses your strength power obviously, but while it's doing
that you take a LOT more damage from incoming icons. I never use fierce or berserk
attack unless I plan force a draw. Pets with higher HP can risk it, but a large
attack like honey potion could take you out. The strategy is to weaken your
opponent's defence and wait until their big guns have been used up. Then use
your scorchstone to heal to full and use all your most powerful weapons to take
them out in one sweep.
Attack rotation
I've noticed that players tend to follow the same strategies these days. Drain
life, an attack weapon and hypno helmet on turn one. Once both players thaw
out, its the good old burrow + honey potion + dark battle duck. If you use dark
battle ducks you should look at your strategy closely. Lets look at icons.
Burrow and sink are used by near enough everyone just after freeze. It's usually
burrow then sink, because people fear honey potions.
Physical is blocked by burrow and sink
Fire is blocked by burrow and sink (and quench)
Water is blocked by burrow and sink (and boil)
Air is blocked by burrow
Earth is blocked by burrow
Light is blocked by sink (and steam shield)
Dark is blocked by sink
As you can see, any weapon that uses physical, fire or water is quite useless.
This is because it will do no damage for 2 turns while burrow and sink are used
up. So make sure you avoid these if they are used for the main part of your
damage.
Attack rotation is a psychological attack, if your going to do it right you
need a LOT of an easily blocked icon. Light is the best choice, as you can make
your opponent use steam shield or sink. Example.
After both players thaw out from a freeze fire 2 pumpkin sticks at them. If
they used burrow you'll carve past it. And by using defend you should be all
right. The next turn is when the rotation kicks in. Your opponent will see your
pumpkin sticks and instantly use the sink or steam shield ability. This is where
you smash them with earth from honey potion and battle potato. Chances are you'll
be pretty badly hurt, but they'll be worse off.
This is just an example. This strategy is easily overcome. But it can be mutated
to fit your own weapons.
A Good weapon to get your opponent to use sink is sword of skarsden. Followed
through by an attack pea, carrotblade or sword of the air Faerie. But most people
will never have these weapons =)
How to avoid newbieslayers
Have you ever fought a pet with really low HP but with weapons that cost millions?
In quick fights you find them all the time. If you have a problem of continually
encountering them, don't moan to the owners of being unfair - simply set the
minimum HP for QuickFight to find as one above their HP. This will filter them
out. This could be considered cowardly, but for some people who don't stand
a chance it's the only way of finding an opponent of similar skill. Usually
setting HP as 0 - 10 will do the job. But be warned there are pets that exist
with 10 - 20 HP that can easily beat pets with 50 - 200 HP. An example is my
pet danger that usually fights 60 - 150 HP pets.
Psychological Fighting
A Battledome fight is not a fight between two pets. It's a fight between the
minds of two people. You are constantly trying to outwit another person. Your
weapons can be used to fool them into making mistakes. But how else can you
trick them? You can type them a nice little message. A taunt such as, "next
turn your going to see my full power, hope your ready, hahaha". Will instantly
have your opponent using burrow, Thyoras tear, sink or a scorchstone, etc. You
can seriously deplete and opponents defence by doing this. And if you do a weak
attack on that turn. They will think that that was your best. So they will attack
full out. This is where you use burrow and honey potion and watch them get hurt.
You could also bluff with weak weapons such as sparkshooters. I've done this
a few times to try and fool people. It works, but I find it's too much of a
risk. If anyone finds time to test this strategy please feel free to contact
me and tell me if you managed to pull it off or not =)
Saying something on the turn your frozen can make somebody take time to reply,
therefore moving second. This means if you use the attack pea + Thyoras tear
move and they do use ultra dual shovel, the tear will block the reflected icons.
So just ask them how they are, or if their guild is good. Anything that will
prompt a reply will work fine.
I would like to thank all my friends for being supportive of my articles
and all the people that have complimented me over Neomail. It is really a kick
in the right direction when people do this, as it inspires me to write more!
If you want to communicate with other fighters about the Battledome, I'm going
to start a guild to help people to fight. It should be open quite soon so keep
your eyes open =)
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