How do you start training?

[MedEx]

I never really focused on battling and now that I want to I don't know what stats, abilities and equipment to focus on. I see a lot more endgame stuff on here but I was hoping someone could help me out. Thanks 

[Kute]

Start with  Cap'n Threelegs' Swashbuckling Academy .  You pay with dubloons here. 

You will want to train your pets level first because your other stats cant be more than 2x your pets level. 

http://www.thedailyneopets.com/battledome/index/ . look at this page, its a good starting point.  There is a beginners section as well as a basic battledome  weapons set section  

 

[emily_speck_15]

When you are training, only three of the four stats matter.  Movement currently has no effect on battledome performance so skipping training that is ideal.  

[Duma]

Yup, what the people above me said. Focus on level, HP, defense and strength starting at the Swashbuckling Academy. For the abilities, you need to bless your pet with bottled faeries and then pick one out of the three options. The guide Kute  posted has an article about the abilities as well. Read carefully what their effect is and pick one based on that. You can always learn another one or go back to the one you had for half the cost. Only once per day tho.

For weapons and healers, there are a lot of really cheap ones out there. I would suggest to check out the beginner sets as Kute also mentioned.

You could start battling Chia Clown,  Mr. Chuckles or Boochi for starters and see how it goes. They will drop items that you can sell or use (they drop codestones and bottled faeries)

For defense weapons it is recommended to have more than you would take with you eventually. So you can switch them around depending on what kind of icons the opponent throws at you. If you can afford the more expensive sets, like the advanced set you could skip all previous sets and just go with major damage dealing or major defensive weapons. They will last you a long time and will keep doing more damage as you train. (read article Strength and Defense Boosts). And make sure you have a heal item!

[jellysundae]

Did you participate in the plot and get any of the nice weapons from that?

I too recommend fighting the Chia Clown, he's a good starting point, I stuck with him WAY after I should have braved tougher opponents because the weapons he uses don't do anything especially nasty to YOU. Though he does use Downsize Power Plus and then gets pretty sarcastic with you when your go has no impact on him. I basically stuck with him until my pet was level 50 and could use the Lens Flare ability so I felt brave enough to try someone stronger. In the meantime I fought him on hard and my pet could K.O. him in one go with a negligent flap of his paw.

I guess you need to decide what you'll do with the codestones you win as you won't need them until you've hit level 40 at the Swashbuckling Academy. Some people sell them, some stockpile them for their own later use. I used to sell the red ones I got but I sock them all away now for the dizzy day that I reach level 250 and move up to the Ninja Training School, I've got  a nice stockpile now. 

Oh and if you're wondering WHY people say don't bother with movement (I know I did and no-one ever said, lol) it's because the BD now is turn-based so speed is pretty redundant, doesn't matter how quick you are when you can't do anything until it's your go, lol. The BD is like action movies, with those carefully choreographed fight sequences where a bunch of baddies stand politely waiting for their turn to get their behind's whooped by the hero.

[midnight_spell360]

13 hours ago, jellysundae said:

The BD is like action movies, with those carefully choreographed fight sequences where a bunch of baddies stand politely waiting for their turn to get their behind's whooped by the hero.

I actually spray my wash when I battle to get it ready to run through the Washer!  But I  Jellysundae's Description of the Battle                                            !

[jellysundae]

10 hours ago, midnight_spell360 said:

I actually spray my wash when I battle to get it ready to run through the Washer!  But I  Jellysundae's Description of the Battle 

                                          !

It's so true though! In movies fights are only EVER one baddie at a time, it always makes me laugh. xD

I ADORE that fisticuffs Gnorbu pose.

[Rayd1978]

There are a few movies where the hero takes on several opponents at once, but it's uncommon.   Jackie Chan springs to mind, and it's not even in all of his movies.

As for training, can also do thing like run the Kitchen Quest and some Fairy Quests to help speed things along, or if you have a ton of neopoints, neggs can add a boost.   Take a look at where you want to end up, and then look at what needs done to get there.   Some powerful items need Intelligence to get the full effect.

[Aquamentis12]

Such good advice! But don't forget to train your HP (Endurance). While HP CAN be trained to 3x your level, you will NOT be able to train any other stats until it is back down to 2x your level. It's an odd rule, I suppose it was for those pets that reached the maximum strength and defense boosts (multipliers), where training Strength and Defense no longer mattered. Anyway, it's just simpler to keep it 2x your level along with your Strength and Defense. Movement only really comes in useful for one piece of equipment and that item isn't working right now.

Rayd1978, good to see people are using Kitchen Quests AND suggesting them to others as another way to augment their regular training!

MedEx, if you'd like further advice, perhaps you could post your current equipment? If you have a lot of equipment in your SDB, then just start with what you're currently using, and if there is a certain opponent you are trying to beat, maybe we can figure out what the best equipment would be. If you've got a budget, how much NP you're willing to spend to strengthen your equipment, figuring out some good equipment would be easier. I've done a lot of budget battling in my time on Neopets. And there are some pretty decent "cheap" pieces of equipment that, while not terribly strong can be effective with a little luck and figuring the right timing. Hope you have a good time battling! Good luck!

[BrassOtter]

Kitchen quest raises the stats of a randomly selected pet, not necessarily your active pet. If you only have one neopet this won't be a problem, but if you have two or more then you'd probably want to move your non-battle pets to a side account when doing Kitchen Quest.

Here's a tip I don't often see people give out: You receive a +5 stat-boosting cupcake when it's your pet's birthday and you view their lookup. You get to choose which cupcake (blue= defense, pink= health, yellow= strength) and then feed it to your battle pet in your inventory. Obviously you can't depend solely on this to train your pet, but it's a nice freebie boost to know about.

[Aquamentis12]

Good advice BrassOtter! As far as "stat-stealing", it happens with earning levels while scratching the Scratchcards too. My vandegyre's levels were all from scratchcards I scratched with my peophin as my active pet.
And you're right, I don't see the birthday-cupcake tip around much either. I tend to forget mine. Even if I'm online on my pet's birthday, I tend to forget to check for it. lol I know when it's coming up, sometime in later November, but I'm not great at keeping track of dates like that. Especially since I created my peophin a couple of days after I started playing. lol

[jellysundae]

On 7/19/2018 at 2:18 PM, Rayd1978 said:

There are a few movies where the hero takes on several opponents at once, but it's uncommon.   Jackie Chan springs to mind, and it's not even in all of his movies.

As for training, can also do thing like run the Kitchen Quest and some Fairy Quests to help speed things along, or if you have a ton of neopoints, neggs can add a boost.   Take a look at where you want to end up, and then look at what needs done to get there.   Some powerful items need Intelligence to get the full effect.

Ah but you see, you need that special martial arts training to be able to manage more than one at once.

I forget about Kitchen Quests, I might check that out again. 

1 hour ago, Aquamentis12 said:

Good advice BrassOtter! As far as "stat-stealing", it happens with earning levels while scratching the Scratchcards too. My vandegyre's levels were all from scratchcards I scratched with my peophin as my active pet.
And you're right, I don't see the birthday-cupcake tip around much either. I tend to forget mine. Even if I'm online on my pet's birthday, I tend to forget to check for it. lol I know when it's coming up, sometime in later November, but I'm not great at keeping track of dates like that. Especially since I created my peophin a couple of days after I started playing. lol

I hardly EVER remember the birthday cupcakes, got to say.