Beginner's Guide to L54 Battling: Part 2

     The previous article in this series introduced readers who may be new to the Battledome to the L54 battling community, who wish to welcome the fresh meat — er, enthusiastic competitors — with open arms. In this installment, we will go over information needed to train up a Pet for L54.

     For most people, if they have trained a Neopet for the Battledome, they likely have overtrained some statistic: either hit points, strength, or defence. The L54 journey usually begins with an untrained Pet. But before that, we are met with a question: are certain species of Neopets better in L54?

     The answer is: maybe! Certain Neopet species have access to weapons specific to them. And here is the dirty secret of the Battledome: some weapons are better than others! An weapon that deals 8 icons and blocks 5 will almost always be better than a weapon that deals 7 icons (the only way its not is if the 7-icon weapon has icons which are harder to block). However, there is also a metagame within the Battledome: a game beyond the game. That is, if everyone chooses the same weapon to use, people will begin to choose the counter for that weapon, and the likelihood of seeing that good weapon used goes down. The alternative is that battlers continue to use the good weapon, and it becomes very easy to predictably shut down by using the weapons that counter it. In the same way, some species have better weapons than others, and based on the metagame, the strength of those weapons will wax and wane.

     The two strongest species and their weapons are: Korbat (with the Silver Korbat Amulet), and Kiko (with their Kiko Battle Legs, Ultra Supreme Kiko Walker, and Kikovision Goggles). Other less commonly used species with powerful weapons include Gelert, Flotsam, Jetsam, Kau, Buzz, and Mynci. Sometimes, the element of surprise is best! If you are constantly being shut down by a Korbat with a Silver Korbat Amulet and a Frozen Wave Scimitar, you could easily counter them with Full Scorchio Armour, and no one would be expecting that.

     In summary, certain species open up new strategies, including making your opponent think you are carrying a species-specific weapon when you are not, but the impact of the species is likely to be minimal. Choose whichever species is your favorite (or, perhaps whichever one you can customize to be the most fearsome in the Battledome!)

     Training Level, Endurance, Strength, and Defence

     If you have never fought in the Battledome before, you may not know how to reach the required 54 HP (endurance), 13 Strength, and 35 Defence (and, ~25-27 levels). There are two main answers: spending dubloons at the Swashbuckling Academy on Krawk Island, or codestones at the Training School on Mystery Island. Dubloons are slightly cheaper, but the training takes longer. At the training school on Mystery Island, every training session for L54 takes only one codestone and two hours: a Neopet can be trained up in 2-4 weeks, depending on how committed you are to training.

     You must first train up level, because other statistics cannot be trained if they are already more than twice a Neopet's level (however, at the Island Training School, HP can be trained to thrice a Neopets' level. Because of this rule, level 17 is the minimum required to reach a defence of 35 while also reaching an HP of 54). After that, you can begin raising strength, HP, and defence in tandem. Strength (13) will be reached relatively quickly. You want to be sure you do not go over 19 strength because that will cause you to do 1.25 damage per icon, which is too strong for this league.

     Continue to raise level and other stats until you reach close to 13 strength, 35 defence, and 49 HP. This will take just a few weeks. The reason why 49 HP is so important is: sometimes, while training at a school, you will get bonus points (instead of one point increase, two, or three, or four!). In this league, it is OK if strength or defence are a little higher. However, HP must be exactly 54. You can try to get lucky and not get any stat increases between 49 and 54. Or, you can plan ahead to avoid that possibility. If you are making a new Neopet for this league, visit their Pet Lookup on the day of their birth and collect a Starry Pink Birthday Cupcake (if you are creating multiple Pets to train, be sure to create them on different days, since you can only collect one cupcake even if you have multiple Pets with the same birthday). If you give this to them when they have 49 HP, they will gain 5 HP, and have the perfect 54 HP.

     During this year celebrating the 25th anniversary of Neopets, you will instead get a Deluxe Starry Pink Cupcake when visiting a Pet's lookup. This will increase HP by a massive 10 points, meaning instead you will train them to 44 HP.

      If something goes wrong with this plan, and you gain a bonus HP when you are trying to train from 48 to 49 HP, here are some other options:

     1) At 51 HP, a Dark Faerie quest will cause your active Pet to gain 3 HP

     2) At 52 or 53 HP, you can do Kitchen Quests which can randomly reward stats to your active Pet. Be sure that Strength and Defence do not go above into the next boost.

     3) At 52 or 53 HP, Faerie Queen Neggs will cause the Pet who eats them to gain 1 HP (though this is the most expensive option)

     After the training is done, be sure not to keep your L54 Pet as your active one because random events, Faerie Quests, and Kitchen Quests, which affect your active Pet, can cause stat changes.

     If all else fails, one final option has also been recently released: the Sickly Negg! This can be obtained at the Neggery, the Battledome, and various quest-givers around Neopia. Now, you do not need to overly worry about overtraining HP. If you do, simply give your Neopet a Sickly Negg and try again.

     Training Faerie Abilities

     This is fairly easy since there are a limited number of abilities to learn.

     Shade is available at level 5, and requires 2 dark faerie blessings to unlock. Use 1 or 2 Weak Bottled Dark Faeries on your Pet to achieve these blessings. Shade blocks 4.5 damage of three random icon types, so introduces a bit of luck into L54 battling, and this luck is something that the most skillful and experienced battlers will try to manage in their favor.

     Positive Thinking is available at level 10, and requires 4 light faerie blessings to unlock (use Weak Bottled Light Faeries). Positive Thinking heals 5% of current HP, so is strongest (mathematically) when used near the beginning of a battle, or just after using your healer to regain maximum HP.

     Halitosis and Static Cling are free (no blessings required) and available at level 1, but a decision must be made (and as above, the decision can change match by match, and change based on the metagame). Halitosis is selected on one turn and deals two icons (two damage) of earth. The next turn, it also deals two icons of earth, even if it is not selected again. In fact, a different ability can be selected (Shade or Positive Thinking) and the two earth icons will still go through. On the third turn, Halitosis cannot be selected (but either Shade or Positive Thinking can), and it becomes available again on the fourth turn. So, Halitosis deals 4 icons every 3 turns, for an average of 1.3 per turn.

     In comparison, Static Cling deals 3 icons every turn it is used, and there is no cool-down to using it. It can be used every turn. This means Static Cling deals 3 icons per turn, higher than Halitosis' 1.3. Why would you use Halitosis, then? There are some reasons. Halitosis deals earth icons while Static Cling deals light, and because it seems worse, opponents may be less prepared to block earth. There is also the benefit that a defensive ability can be selected on the second turn of the Halitosis attack, making a very powerful turn, indeed. A negative of Halitosis, besides the lower average attack, must be considered: since Halitosis can be used every 3 turns, and Shade can be used every 5 turns, and Positive Thinking can only be used once per battle, there are many turns where a functional ability is not available. Just never forget the metagame! If an opponent thinks Halitosis is completely useless, and does not have a plan to stop it, over a 12 round match, they have let in 16 unopposed damage, which is quite a lot when Neopets only have 54 HP.

     Anything else?

     Historically, agility has been used only for activating Heavy Robe of Thievery, but stealing is not permitted in this league. Intelligence activates additional functions of some Brightvale Armour; most notably, Lightweight Black Tunic deals 5 dark damage if your Intelligence is greater than 150, and your opponent's is less than 150. Finally, a fearsome customization will inflict great psychological damage on your opponent.

     I hope by the end of reading this article, and with a few weeks' time, you have a fighter ready to take on other L54 battlers! Be sure to read the next article where we will discuss the top 10 weapons you must know!