Lesson Two: Training

January 6, 2008

Making a new pet is cool, but there is one problem with new pets … they’re wimps! Seriously, don’t take one of those new dudes into the battledome or they’re gonna get kicked around like an old tin can. So, you have to make your pet stronger. How? There are a number of different ways. Some are expensive, but then again, others are … also expensive.

Method 1 – Training Schools

Personally, I think training your pet is the best way, but not everyone thinks so. There are two training schools. One is on Krawk Island and is run by Cap’t Threelegs, a pirate Eyrie. It’s called “Cap’n Threelegs’ Swashbuckling Academy”. Courses are paid for in dubloons and you can train your pet there up to level 40.

The other training school is on Mystery Island. It’s called “Mystery Island Training School” … I’m not sure where that name came from … but anyway, it’s run by some sort of zen nimmo dude. Courses there are paid for in codestones and you can train your pet up to level 250.

Where’s the best place to train? Well, that depends. Prices go up as your pet gets to higher levels. And also, the course lengths vary, so which training school you choose depends on how much you want to spend, etc.

At the Swashbuckling Academy, courses are as follows:

Level 10 and under – 1 dubloon coin – 4 hours
Level 11-20 – 2 dubloon coin – 6 hours
Level 21-30 – 5 dubloon coin – 8 hours
Level 31-40 – 10 dubloon coin – 10 hours

At the Training School, courses are as follows:

Level 20 and under – 1 codestone – 2 hours
Level 21-40 – 2 codestones – 3 hours
Level 41-80 – 3 codestones – 4 hours
Level 81-100 – 4 codestones – 6 hours
Level 101-120 – 5 codestones – 8 hours
Level 121-150 – 6 codestones – 12 hours
Level 151-200 – 7 codestones – 18 hours
Level 201-250 – 8 codestones – 24 hour

In general, training at the Academy is cheaper up until level 20 and training at the Training School is cheaper at level 21 and up. This kind of depends on the cost of codestones, though. For example, training at the Academy when you’re level 25 will cost you a five dubloon coin, or about 9600np per course. At the Training School, the same course will cost you two codestones. What KIND of codestones are completely random. It could be two Bri Codestones (would cost about 6200np right now) or it could be a Main Codestone and an Eo Codestone (would cost about 12,200np right now – tho prices are a bit inflated at the moment). It could go either way. At level 35, it will cost a ten dubloon coin (14,500np) at the Academy or two codestones at the Training School (again, 6200np to 12,200np depending on how lucky you are).

One good thing about the Academy is that once a year your pet can train there for free. If you have a yurble, for example, your yurble can train there for free on Yurble Day. But if your yurble has reached level 41 or above, you can’t train at the Academy for free or even if you pay, so fugedaboutit.

pssssssst – listen carefully – shhhhhhhhh – there is a third training school, too, but it’s top secret - once your pet gets to level 251, you can’t train at either of the above training schools, so what do you do? – hey, is that shoyru listening to us? – you have to find the Secret Ninja Training School – your pet can train there, but it’ll cost you a red codestone for each course – but you didn’t hear this from me, ok?

Now, you need a few tips on HOW to train. There are a few things you can train: level, strength, defense, agility/movement, or hit points. Of these, agility/movement isn’t very important. So far as anyone knows, it doesn’t effect how your pet works in the battledome. However, in the future it might. At the moment, there are a few weapons you can only use if your intelligence (which you increase by reading books, not training) is at a certain level. There are only a couple of these weapons, but there you are. In the future, there may be weapons that require a certain agility/movement score to use. Does this mean it’s a good idea to train agility/movement now when it’s cheaper rather than waiting until you’re a higher level and it’s crazy expensive? Well, that’s up to you.

Anyway, you really have to train level, strength and hit points at least. Defense? As noted in Lesson One, that’s up to you, but I would recommend that you do train defense. Agility/movement? I don’t worry too much about it, though I am pretty quick if I say so myself.

Why do you have to train level? You may well ask. Go ahead … ask …

Good question! You have to train level, because you can’t train anything else if any of your pets stats are more than double their level. For example, if your pet’s level is 12 and your strength is 25, you won’t be allowed to train anything except level until your level is 13 or higher, ie. more than half your strength level.

So, your pets level has to keep up with your other stats to some degree.

The one exception to this is hit points. For example, if your pets level is 12, your pets other stats are under 25, and your pets hit points are at 28, you can continue to train hit points (but only at the Training School, not the Academy) up to three times (3x) your pets level, or 36. You won’t be able to train strength or defense until your pets level is up to half of its hit points again, but you can train hit points.

Method 2 – Lab Ray

The next most popular way to increase your pets stats is by using the Lab Ray.

If you zap your pet, some of the things that can happen are that you gain a level or gain strength, defense, or hit points. Of course, you can have your stats go down, too. Sometimes, your level can even be reset at one, which is a real pain if you had worked it up to 50 or 100 or 200 or whatever. Other things can happen, too. Your pet might get painted or change species or change gender.

The main reason people like the Lab Ray is that you only have to pay for it once. You spend your 450,000 NP and then you can ‘train’ all you want without any more cost. That seems good (and it is), but there are some problems with it.

In my case, for example, I am a Pirate Lupe. Well, I like being a lupe and Bellagio even named me Loopy because I am a lupe! (Don’t smile like that, that’s really why!) And he paid 1.7 million NP for the pirate paint brush that he painted. So, I don’t want to get zapped and end up a pink Jubjub or snot Koi or something like that.

Also, the Lab Ray doesn’t train your pet’s stats evenly. The Lab Ray tends to increase hit points a whole lot, strength quite a bit, level less, and defense very little. If you ever decide to switch to one of the training schools or train defense to use one of the really cool defensive or dual use weapons, you may have to train your level up 200 points just to be able to start to even things out. This means you will have to pay much more for codestones at that point than you would have if you’d trained evenly at the training schools in the first place. Not much fun.

Like I said, though, I prefer the training schools, but some people like the Lab Ray. They just happen to be wrong and LoopyBellagio is always right. Do yourself a favour and say that three times quietly to yourself, “Loopy is always right. Loopy is always right. Loopy is always right.

Well done. You are making remarkable progress.
Method 3 – Neggs

There are some neggs that will increase your pet’s stats. The benefit of this approach is that it can be a very fast way to increase your stats. The problem is that it’s invariably very expensive.

Here’s a list of the neggs that will increase your stats:

Faerie Queen Negg – around 150k – will increase your pet’s HP by one (yes, just one)

Ferocious Negg – around 375k – will increase your pet’s strength by 1-3
(and give you a random disease)

Power Negg – around 250k – will increase your pet’s strength by 1

Silver Knight Negg – around 250k – will increase your pet’s defense by 1-2

Snegg – around 380k – will increase your pet’s HP by 2-3 and agility/movement points by 2-3

Spiked Negg – cost?? – will increase your pet’s HP by 2-3

Super Negg – around 750k – will increase your pet’s level by 1, HP by 1-3, and agility/movement by 1-3

Method 4 – Faerie Quests

Some faerie’s will increase one of your pets stats if you complete a quest for them.

The Water Faerie will ask for Books and give your pet +2 Defense

The Fire Faerie will ask for Clothing Items and give your pet +2 Strength

The Light Faerie will ask for Collectible Cards and give your pet +1 Level

The Dark Faerie will ask for Toys and give your pet +2 HP

The Air Faerie will ask for Beauty Items and give your pet +2 Agility/Movement

The Faerie Queen will ask for random items and give your pet +1 Level, +3 HP, and +3 Strength

The Space Faerie will ask for random items and give your pet +4 Levels

The problem with using Faerie Quests as a ‘training method’ is that they’re random. You have no control over which quest you get and when you get it. Also, the reward is given to a random pet. If you have just one pet, you know which pet will get it. If you have four pets, it could be any one of them and not necessarily your battle pet.

Method 5 – Kitchen Quests

On the other hand, you can do kitchen quests whenever you want. Sometimes – but not always – you will get a stat boost as a kitchen quest reward. Again, though, if you have more than one pet, you have no way of knowing which pet will get the reward. Kitchen quests aren’t a very good ‘training method’ unless you only have one pet.

And even if you only have one pet, some kitchen quests are quite expensive, so if you get an expensive quest, you’re better off just skipping it and hoping for something cheaper next time.

Method 6 – Coltzan’s Shrine

Like the quests above, this isn’t really a training method. However, visiting Coltzan’s Shrine daily is a good idea because sometimes he gives you good stuff. Every once in a while he’ll increase a stat for one of your pets.

Posted in Battledome Tutorial