Reasons to Speed-Train into the Secret Ninja School

Do you think the Secret Ninja School is only for super strong pets and it's too early for you to think about it? Well, that's not true. It might be the best option for your pet as well! Read on and I'll explain why you should get him or her into Ninja as soon as possible.

For years the Battledome had been a niche activity in Neopia. Some users were quite passionate about it but many more completely ignored it, except maybe for the avatars and a few battles for a plot or event. The recent revamp of the Battledome, with the addition of prizes and new faerie abilities, the rumors and then the start of an actual war, though, have completely changed that reality. Now the Battledome seems to be all that everyone talks about. With so many players wishing to join the Obelisk War excitement as well as take part in a new daily activity, the concerns about BD pets and the questions about training abound.

One thing people soon realize is that their pet is not strong enough. Another easy realization is that training is expensive and takes a lot of time. However, you shouldn't rush into training because, in your impatience to train your pet, you might find yourself a bit lost and make unsound decisions that will cost you time and neopoints. You might lack BD-savvy friends or be unlucky with guides and follow outdated information or advice. After all, training your pets can be tricky, especially with all the changes the Battledome underwent. Oh, you think you just have to enroll them in the codestone school and that's it? Well, you're not the first to be quite mistaken.

Talking to my guild members I've realized most people don't know about a new training strategy that's really awesome and that saves you both neopoints and time in the long run. So I'm here to tell you about speed-training into the Secret Ninja Training School. But let's first review the ways by which you can train your pet's stats with absolute control – that is, no lab ray.

There are currently three training schools: Cap'n Threelegs' Swashbuckling Academy in Krawk Island for pets up to level 40 and paid with dubloons, Mystery Island Training School for pets up to level 250 and paid with regular codestones, and Secret Ninja Training School, which is just behind the regular MI school, only for pets level 250 and higher and paid with red codestones.

In the old days – well, actually, until late last year. Heh – it was very simple to decide where to train. If your pet was a beginner, your budget very tight but your patience abundant, the Academy was your choice until your pet became too strong for it. It is very slow but also very cheap. Most people simply opted for Mystery Island Training School right from the start or once the courses in the Academy became too long for their tastes. That would be your training method for a very long time, and not a bad one either. Until you reached, say, Advanced (levels 101-120), the courses were not particularly expensive or long. After that, it became more painful but you just had to either endure it or stop training, because the Ninja School was just way too expensive.

You see, back then, regular codestones averaged 4.7k, with most of them costing around 3,000 NP. Even as a MI School Grand Master (levels 201-250), with courses taking nightmarish 24 hours and eight codestones, you often paid around 24k. People always got a lot of codestones from site dailies and random events, so even if you got unlucky with codestone types, it was very unlikely you'd pay more than what the Ninja School could ask from you. For its part, Ninja School's entrance level only asked for one red codestone, but those were a lot rarer to find and cost a lot more: an average of 45k, with types ranging from 25k to 70k on Super Shop Wizard. So Ninja School was not really an option – your pet went to it when it was inevitable since they had outgrown the MI School or perhaps when you were a Grand Master and decided faster was better than cheaper.

Well, with the current prices of regular and red codestones, the entire training game has changed and the Ninja School is a whole new player. More and more users did what I did for my BD pet and decided to stop training all other stats and focus only on level so they could reach the Ninja School faster and never look back at MI School. Sounds crazy? Not at all. Check out why you too should skip MI School and speed-train into Ninja:

Reason #1: Neopoints:

The recent price change since the new Battledome went live means it is now much cheaper to train at Ninja than at ol' Mystery Island Training School. Red codestones have deflated dramatically and now cost between 5k and 11.5k, while regular codestones have inflated a little and now cost between 3.5k and 12k. That's not much of a difference, you say? Yes, but while the entrance course level for Ninja School (Intermediate, for pets level 250-299, in which you'd be for a long time if you level your way into it) requires only ONE red codestone, the MI School asks you for multiple regular codestones from early on. If your pet is level 81 to 100, four codies; 101 to 120, five codies; 121-150, six codies; 151 to 200, seven codies; and 201 to 250, a whopping eight codestones. So unless your pet is a complete beginner, you are indeed paying a lot more for his or her stats than you would be at Ninja. And who doesn't want to save neopoints?

Reason #2: Time:

For pets above level 80, the Ninja School is simply a lot faster! Every Neopian who trains their pets knows it takes a lot time and wishes they could just get stronger faster. Well, for Adept-level pets it already takes six hours per course, and between levels 101 and 120, MI courses take painful eight hours! For the next course levels, it takes twelve, eighteen and then twenty-four hours. It feels like your pet is going nowhere. However, entrance level at Ninja School takes only four hours! So you're paying more AND it is taking longer! Ninja School offers you better service. Let's not forget that if you speed-train into Ninja, you're going to have to make your other stats catch up once you get into it, so the entrance course level will be your very comfortable spot for a while. Even so, you'll only have to deal with 12-hour courses again once your pet reaches level 600.

Reason #3: Faerie Abilities:

With the release of the new faerie abilities, level is now a lot more important than before. In the old days, your pet only needed to be level 50 to have berserk attack – after that, you could just leave it alone and lab or negg or potion the other stats. Well, now there are some very useful – and as the Obelisk War and its ability-spamming opponents showed, necessary and game-changing – abilities for high-leveled pets such as Warlock's Rage (full blocker) for level 200 and Rejuvenate (full heal) for level 300. Therefore, training level into Ninja standards is now a lot more rewarding and beneficial for your BD pet.

Reason #4: Your perseverance will pay off:

You might be thinking of all the time you'd have to spend training only level when you could be raising other stats and wondering if the cost and time saved in the future would make up for the cost and time spent getting there. Yes, yes it will! Let's use a training calculator and see what it tells us, keeping in mind it can't count your quests and bonuses and believes you could engage a course after the other as if you didn't have to sleep, work or study. If your BD pet is now level 100 with a 600 HSD (even 200s hitpoints, strength and defense), it would take you around 1 year and 10 months to reach level 250 and a 1500 HSD (even 500s) by training all stats in MI School. If you only trained the same pet's level in MI school until he or she reached 250 and then evened out their stats to a 1500 HSD in Ninja, it would take you only 8 months and a half (three months and a half only for level, 5 months to even out)!! That's what Ninja speed does for you. And don't forget you'd be spending a lot less time paying more for each course too. So don't lose your courage and keep grinding through to Ninja.

Reason #5: Training Fortune Cookies:

Another new addition to training is the Training Fortune Cookies, which cost 125 NC on the NC Mall. They grant you five days of training time discounts on all your courses. The thing is, these discounts vary from 30% to 75%. If your courses take 12 hours and you get two 30% discounts, each of them will last 8 hours and 24 minutes, totaling 16 hours and 48 minutes. Chances are you'll end up doing the same two courses per day most of the time, and sometimes three. Not much value for your real money, right? But if your pet is doing 4-hour courses in Ninja, you might get to do, say, three or four courses a day. If you use a Training Fortune Cookie and get only the minimum 30% bonus every time (unlucky you!), they will take 2 hours and 48 minutes and you might get to do six courses in a day even without better bonuses.

Reason #6: Secret shop:

Many people don't know but those that have access to the Secret Ninja School also get access to a secret shop, called Ninja Weaponry. Every 30 minutes you can buy items like the Jade Elixir (one-use full healer) and Thick Smoke Bomb (one-use full blocker) from a cool ninja Aisha for prices unaffected by war inflation.

Reason #7: Simply cooler:

Now this is a subjective one, but the Ninja School is just cooler. It has a great look, complete with four ninja guardians (a Grundo, a Lenny, a Kyrii, and a Blumaroo) and your master will be the Techo Master's Master! You can visit its statue for pieces of wisdom such as "Believe in yourself, for no one else will" and you will receive a lot of random advice from the Wise Ninja, such as "React with life, don't react to life."

Reason #7: Profit!

Training is very expensive and getting my main BD pet into Ninja was sometimes especially disheartening to my bank account. However, once he finally got there, not only were his courses cheaper and faster, but I could finally start selling regular codestones from the BD, random events and KQ again. Believe me, getting codestones and being able to sell them for profit like you did before undertaking training will be very rewarding. Think of your future shop till!

Now after all those reasons, you might be wondering not whether but when level speed-training will be right for you and your pet. Well, my advice is that it makes sense as soon as MI courses begin taking too long and costing too much for you. Even if your pet is still an Adept (81-100), it is not too early to take this leap into ninja greatness. Without further ado...

Hang on and speed-train into Ninja School!