Top 10 Uses and Tips For the Lab Ray

I myself am a Lab Ray user, and after speaking to several others I found it necessary to create a simple guide for all to see, outlining how to make the most of the Lab Ray. I do hope you find it useful:

1) Interesting, Expensive or Rare Colour Changes

Now, I know the Lab Ray is pretty expensive for most of us, but not as expensive as buying a cool paint brush for each of your pets. The Lab Ray is most commonly used for changing your Neopets into colours that you normally can't afford or are unavailable. These expensive colours could include such as island, grey, orange and Darigan, and the rarer (and weirder) ones include sponge and snot. These are VERY rare to get via the Lab Ray, but can make your pet look fantastic, and are worth waiting a while to get.

2) Avatar Neopets

For those avatar collectors out there, the Lab Ray is an easier way of getting the certain colour/species combinations that are needed to obtain certain avatars. It can be VERY expensive buying Paint Brushes for all of these colours (and some are only available through the Lab Ray, such as the Coconut Jubjub) so using the Lab is the best option. It can be a slow process, but if you're patient enough you can get all of the avatar pets from the Lab Ray.

3) Limited Edition/Other Species'

For those of you who never manage to be able to create a limited edition pet, or if you can't find one in the Pound, then the Lab Ray is an easier way of getting them. If you aren't sure which are the limited edition pets, they are: Poogles, Jetsams, Kois, Tonus, Kikos, Cybunnies and Draiks. These can be very hard to find, and the morphing potions are very expensive, so if you're very lucky you'll be able to get one from the Lab, and maybe even get it changed into a cool colour.

4) Higher Battledome Statistics

Most of us know that codestones and dubloons are needed to train your pets and make them better fighters. Well, this IS true, but there is also another way. The Lab Ray quite often alters your Neopet's statistics, and half of the time these changes are increases. This could be level, defence, strength, movement, or maximum HP, which are all very useful. The Lab Ray could save you thousands of Neopoints that would be wasted on codestones and dubloons if you're lucky.

5) Excitement Of Randomness

One of the most beloved things about the Lab Ray is its utter randomness. You never know what might happen when you click the "Continue with the Experiment" button, and that excitement is one of the reasons why people use it. What's better than never knowing what might happen? Will it be good or bad? It could be an amazing or terrible colour change, or perhaps nothing at all, and the thrill when it's something good and the frustration when it's not is simply addictive. Although you need to remember that the Lab Ray is COMPLETELY random so don't think you're GUARANTEED that something good will happen, because it probably won't.

6) Fruit, Vegetables....and Sponge?

Some of the weird colours you can get from the Lab Ray are hilarious. Of course, these are very rare and require you to use a certain species to be able to get them, but are completely unique and look very funny! These include: Msp Poogle, Coconut Jubjub, Garlic Jubjub and Kiko, Sponge Pets and Chokato pets. Perhaps the funniest of all, are the variety of edible forms of Chia. Chias, when zapped by the lab ray, can become all sorts of fruits and vegetables, including Thornberry, Tomato, Pea, Grape, Orange, Blueberry and many others. If you have one of these pets, the Lab Ray can turn them into unforgettable colours!

7) Risks

I'm not going to pretend that there aren't big risks involved with zapping your pet. You're pet can be changed into an extremely cool and rare colour/species, and the next day be turned into a red Korbat. It's that unpredictable. The best tip I can give you here is that if you really like your pet’s species/colour or it cost a lot of Neopoints to make it that way, then don't risk zapping him/her. If all you want is colour changes or higher statistics, then use a paint brush or codestones, because you have to understand that your pet could come back looking completely different.

8) Undo Nasty Changes or Liven Your Pet Up

If you were unfortunate enough to have your pets changed into mutants by a potion that you didn't mean to give them, or by some nasty random event, then the Lab Ray could help. The most common problem is that someone uses a morphing/transmogrification potion to get an avatar, or just change their pet because they were bored, and they didn't like the results. It's not guaranteed, but the Lab Ray could make your pet look nice again and perhaps even change it back to how it was originally. Also, if you're starting to get bored with your pets, you can use the Ray to liven them up a little bit by either changing them completely or just making a little difference. The change that does happen is completely random, but you may be happy with the results!

9) Charity

Some kind Neopians out there like to adopt regular pets from the Pound, zap them with the Lab Ray and then put them back into the Pound for a lucky owner to find. This can be very helpful for poorer players, and is a very generous thing to do, as it is time consuming and prevents the user from zapping their OWN pets. There are a few things I must outline about this: I don't agree with pounding pets, but if you know that someone will adopt them and you are giving them away for FREE then I suppose it’s okay. NEVER try to make people BUY your freshly zapped pets, as this is against the rules and isn't really fair (plus it gets rid of the whole point of it being charity). If you are trying to lend pets for avatars etc. do bear in mind that there is a chance that, no matter how fast you try to be, someone else might take the Neopet. As Neopets say on the Adoption Page: "Once you disown your Neopet absolutely anybody can adopt your Neopet, there is no guarantee you will be able to get your Neopet back again if you change your mind." - this is an important notice that you should pay attention to when thinking of abandoning one of your "Lab Rats".

10) Confuse Other Players or Simply Amuse Yourself

The Lab Ray can provide weeks of entertainment for you, in two (or perhaps more) ways. It’s always funny when you receive a Neomail, from someone who you haven’t spoken to in a while, saying: “What happened? Didn’t you have a Jetsam? How did all your pets change so fast? O_0 weird….” You’ll probably still be laughing as you reply with either something like this:

“Lol, I’ve used the Lab Ray on them, that’s how they changed. Lol sorry I didn’t warn you.”

OR like this (which is much funnier for you, but maybe not for them):

“OMG what happened? Where did my Jetsam go? O_0 This is so weird I can’t believe it!!! It must be that random event where Sloth takes over your pets and turns them into other species’. CURSE YOU SLOTH!!!”

Although, with the latter reply, I strongly suggest you send another Neomail informing them that you were joking (unless you’re feeling REALLY evil). However, if you don’t have any Neofriends/you were thoughtful enough to warn them that you got the lab ray/your Neofriends are just ignorant, you’ll have to amuse yourself with the lab ray – and this can be equally as funny. Randomly pick your “lab rat” for the day and see what will happen! If you’re one of those “I-find-everything-funny-even-if-it’s-a-bad-thing” kinda person, you’ll find it hilarious when you’re Faerie Korbat is zapped and turns into a Blue Yurble, and will laugh REALLY hard when one of your pets is changed from Snot (which you rolled around laughing about when that happened the previous week) to Dung. Even bad changes can be very funny, and gender changes will be hilarious if you had a female Usul called something along the lines of “Princess_lovely” and it’s changed into a male! Unless this greatly upsets you, you’ll find it hilarious like the rest of us! If this happens on a regular basis, you’ll forget that you were hoping for a Darigan pet and laugh your head off every time it changes into a Green Uni!

The most important thing to remember about the Lab Ray is that it's supposed to be FUN. The Lab is random, but should still be enjoyed and you should take all bad zappings in good spirit - just remember, there's always next time! The Lab Ray will never suddenly stop you from using it, no never be disappointed when something you weren't expecting happens! So, if you've read all of this and are still thinking of using the Lab Ray, good luck, have fun, and remember - Prepare for the Unexpected!