For the uninitiated, getting started with training can be very confusing and intimidating. This guide is meant to demystify training and provide a sample training roadmap.
Stats
It’s important to know who’s who when it comes to your pet’s five trainable stats! They all vary in usefulness and purpose, so it’s important that you know which stats you want to train and which you want to skip.
Level
Level is useful primarily for two things: training other stats further, and unlocking faerie abilities. You cannot train your pet’s other stats without also training their level.
Level does not inherently impact your pet’s performance in battle in any way, other than unlocking abilities. For example, a pet with 750 strength at level 1 will do the same amount of damage per icon as a pet with 750 strength at level 1000.
Endurance (HP/Health)
A pet with more HP will be able to take more damage before being knocked out, so training it up is a good idea. HP is also the only stat that’s useful when trained past 750 points.
Strength
The amount of damage your pet does depends on its strength, as described on the second page of our Beginners’ Guide to Battling. No matter what you’re training your pet for, you’re going to want to train its strength.
Once your pet reaches 750 strength, training it more will not affect the amount of damage you deal to your opponents.
Defence
If you’re absolutely certain that you’re only going to want to train your pet to fight in 1-Player battles in which you can just Lens Flare your way to victory, you could get away without training defence if you want to save time and money. Beware: if you change your mind about this later on, the training courses that your pet will enroll in will be more expensive, so catching up your pet’s defence will be costlier than if you trained your defence alongside your other stats.
If your goal is to break into UC trading, to train a pet for 2-Player battling, or just to train a pet to be as strong as possible, skipping defence is a bad idea.
Like with strength, defence in excess of 750 doesn’t currently have any effect in battle.
Agility (Movement)
Stealing has been broken since 2013, but if it’s ever fixed, then Heavy Robe of Thievery will become useful again, as a pet needs 201 agility to use it to steal an item.
Beyond that item, agility is virtually useless; don’t train it. Some other weapons have an agility requirement, but none of them are any good. You can safely skip training agility.
Training Schools
Anyone training their pet will be visiting these schools many times, so understanding the differences between them and the advantages to each is important.
Swashbuckling Academy
The Swashbuckling Academy accepts low-denomination Dubloons as payment for training. This school is slower and cheaper than the Island School, and it only accepts pets up to level 40.
Here, you can only train any stat (endurance, strength, or defence) up to twice your pet’s level.
This is also the only school in which you can cancel lessons without penalty.
You can read more about the Swashbuckling Academy in our Swashbuckling Academy article.
Mystery Island Training School
The Mystery Island Training School accepts regular tan codestones as payment for training. It’s faster than the Pirate Academy, but it’s also more expensive. It only accepts pets up to level 250.
In general, you can only train a stat to twice your pet’s level, but there is one exception in this school: health (endurance).
The stated rule on the school’s courses page isn’t quite correct: you can actually train your pet’s health to thrice its level plus an extra three. However, in order to train any of its other stats again afterwards, you will need to train your pet’s level up to half its health again first.
Clever use of this rule is key to saving time and money.
Another quirk with the Island School: you are still allowed to train your pet’s health if its strength and/or defence are higher than twice its level. This is worth keeping in mind if you decide to use lots of strength or defence boosting items.
Beware: this is the only school in which you can’t cancel lessons, so don’t be careless when signing up for a training session here!
You can read more about the Mystery Island Training School in our Mystery Island Training School article.
Secret Ninja Training School
The Secret Ninja Training School is inaccessible unless you have a pet of at least level 250. This exclusive school only accepts red codestones, and it’s faster than the previous Island Training School. Because they are given out by the Battledome as prizes, red codestones are not as expensive as you may expect!
Like the Island School, this school has the same special rule about training health.
While you can cancel lessons in this school, if you cancel a lesson here, you will have to wait 24 hours before you can sign up for another, so cancel lessons sparingly.
You can read more about the Secret Ninja Training School in our Secret Ninja Training School article.
Alternate Training Methods
Whether you’re looking to augment your training routine or the training schools just aren’t cutting it for you, these other methods of raising your pet’s stats are worth considering. If you’re just starting out, these won’t be very cost-effective, but past a certain point these methods may actually save you money!
The Lab Ray
When it’s not changing your pet’s appearance or gender, the Lab Ray can be a boon or a bane to your training regimen. The Lab Ray, in the long run, is very positive for HP (as it will never take HP away) and positive for strength, but somewhat negative for defence and, importantly, quite negative for levels. Very big pets that don’t care much about their species/color or that are of a species with a cheap morphing potion available will want to use the lab for its HP gain, but pets of all sizes should be wary of the lab’s strong tendency to take away levels.
If one zap per day isn’t enough for you, you can gain extra zaps by using one Lab Ray Fortune Cookie every week.
You can read more about the Lab Ray in our dedicated Lab Ray article.
Faerie Quest Fortune Cookies
A popular method of alternate training is the use of Faerie Quest Fortune Cookies. Most of the quest rewards the Faeries will give you will be a few points of a trainable stat. Just be sure not to be carrying any Neocash items when you accept your quest, or Kaia might show up and your daily quest will be for a Neocash item.
If you want to know more, you should read our article about Faerie Quest Fortune Cookies.
Kitchen Questing
Whenever you complete a Kitchen Quest, you have about a 38% chance of being awarded a stat: either a level, a point in attack or defence, or a hit point. For a very long time, Kitchen Quests awarded these stats to a random pet on your account, but ever since TNT updated the Kitchen Quest page to use the new mobile layout in May 2021, Kitchen Quests have started awarding stats to only your active pet! You no longer have to banish your non-battle pets to a side account in order to get stats on your battle pet; just be sure to keep your battle pet as your active pet.
There’s a lot of variance in Kitchen Questing, and completing your full ten per day can be expensive, so they’re still only worth doing if training your pet in one of the training schools is slow, expensive, or both. As a result, this method of training is more popular with users whose battle pets are already quite strong, or who are stuck in the slowest courses in the Mystery Island Training School and want to try getting to the Secret Ninja School sooner. If this sounds like you, give Kitchen Questing a try!
You can read more about Kitchen Quests in our dedicated Kitchen Quest article.
Huh? What’s this I keep hearing about keys?
Stat-Boosting Items
Certain items, ranging from books to food items to potions, may raise or lower a pet’s stats when used. There are a lot, but I’ll briefly cover a few of the most economical ones you can buy here.
Bubbling Fungus is cheap because you have a chance of winning one from the Giant Space Fungus when you defeat it on Mighty/Hard. While it ranges from -3 to +5 strength per use, the average strength gained is around +1.8, so it’s a gamble in your favor over the long run.
If you’re really averse to the prospect of losing strength, Jar of Forest Earth can work too, but it has a chance of doing nothing. You may want to consider shopping around somewhat to see if one is significantly cheaper than the other.
Armoured Neggs are a guaranteed +1 defence item, but despite being a rare drop from the Neocola Centre, they’re rather expensive, so unless you’re in a hurry or just want a quick point, you’re better off selling them.
Scroll of the Warrior is a book that, when read, will increase the reader’s defence by 1 to 3, while decreasing their agility by the same amount. It’s about the same price as an Armoured Negg, but can only be used once in most cases.
Bomberry Elixir and Cooling Balm of the Warrior both have low chances of giving your pet one or more points of defence as well.
Rare Cyber Neggs (not to be confused with Rare Cyber Neggs 2.0!) were given at the end of the 2021 Festival of Neggs. Each one will increase your pet’s defence by 1 to 3.
Sneggs are the most popular HP-boosting item, but since they’re in high demand because of very big pets that use them, they’re not economical for pets without four-digit HP totals; they often sell for around 1,100,000 NP each!
Mummified Scroll is a scroll that increases the reader’s maximum HP by 1 to 3 at the cost of 1 to 3 agility and potentially 1 intelligence point.
Purple Spotted Shrooms have a chance of raising your pet’s maximum HP by 1, but there is also a chance it will increase your strength by 1 or heal your pet for 3 HP.
Rare Cyber Neggs 2.0 are the new kid on the block, released by TNT after the first Rare Cyber Neggs healed instead of increasing HP. Each one will increase your pet’s maximum HP by 1 or 2.
There aren’t really any items that increase level cost-effectively, but the item that comes closest is Irritable Genie-in-a-Bottle. It can raise your pet’s level by 1-3… at a cost of around 1,000,000 NP. A few other items that increase a bunch of stats all at once also happen to increase level by one, but those items are even more expensive than the Genie.
Not all is lost, though: you can sometimes win levels as prizes from certain scratchcards. Scratching your daily 5 Terror Trove and/or Faeries Fortune scratchcards can be a good way to gain a few extra levels. Be aware that the levels are awarded to a random pet on your account, so this might not be a good idea if you have more than one pet on your account.
Certain Haunted Woods scratchcards can also award levels, but they tend to be more expensive than the level-giving Terror Mountain scratchcards.
Finally, if you’re curious about what other items can modify stats, you should check out our list of stat increasers.
Where to Start Training
So you’ve got a pet that’s just starting out, looking to break into the world of battling. Already, you’ve got an important choice to make: will you start out training using Dubloons at the Swashbuckling Academy, or will you start using Codestones at the Mystery Island Training School?
The best answer to that question will depend on which you prioritize: time or money. If you want to train your pet faster, use Codestones. If you want to train your pet less expensively, use Dubloons.
You can also train using Codestones during the day and with Dubloons at night before you go to sleep, and you can alternate between the schools as you please.
A Word of Warning
Sometimes, when you finish a training session, you’ll get a Super Bonus, and when you do, the stat will go up by 2 to 5 points instead of the usual 1. This is usually fantastic, but sometimes it can force you to a more expensive training bracket sooner than you may like. Train accordingly, and train carefully! Near the end of a training bracket, I would suggest leaving a buffer of a few stat points before training in on the target numbers.
The Training Ladder
Level 1-10 (Sea Urchin/Grasshopper)
Getting your level to 10, then your HP, strength, and defence to 20 (unless you’re ignoring defence, in which case you can skip it) will be your very first training goal. You can do this in any order, though a newborn pet will usually need to train its level a bit first. Simple enough, right?
Level 11-20 (Deckhand/Grasshopper)
Next, train your level to 20, then your HP, strength, and defence to 40 in any order.
At level 20, you have the option of using Codestones to train your HP to 60 if you want to save time, at a higher price.
Level 21-30 (Pirate/Basic)
Train your level to 30 and your HP, strength, and defence each to 60. If you trained your health to 60 in the last step, then you’ll need to train your level to 30 first, but otherwise, you can do this in any order.
As a side-note, if all you really want out of the Battledome is to farm Koi Warrior or Jetsam Ace and you’re annoyed that you don’t have Lens Flare yet, you can rush your level to 50 after you get to 55 strength. You can beat either challenger 100% of the time with a pet that strong in a single shot with Lens Flare, Lightning in a Bottle, and Jhudoras Potion (both of these weapons are buyable). Be careful: this will make further training more expensive than it needs to be.
Level 31-40 (Cap’n/Basic)
Train your level to 40 and your other stats each to 80. The Pirate Academy gets really slow at this point, but it’s not really worth cracking an NC Training Cookie yet (if you’re using them, you’ll want them later).
After you’ve done that, it’s time to say goodbye to Cap’n Threelegs for good… but it’s not yet time to raise your level.
Level 40 (Basic)
Before you train another level, head on over to the Island Training School and train your HP to 120.
Level 41-80 (Intermediate)
Since your pet should have 120 HP now, you’ll need to train your level to 60 before you can train anything else.
After reaching level 60, you can train your level to 80, and your strength and defence each to 160. After doing all that, train your HP to 200.
Level 81-100 (Adept)
Train your pet’s level to 100, then train your other stats each to 200. Finally, train your pet’s HP to 240.
Level 101-120 (Advanced)
Your average red codestone and your average 5 tan codestones are approximately the same in price (though the 5 tans are usually a little bit cheaper). Also, training times are starting to get very long, very quickly, and training at the Ninja School will be a lot faster than training at the Island School – Advanced Island courses are 8 hours, while the first Ninja courses are only 4 hours.
Because of this, if you want to save a little bit of time in total at the cost of waiting longer for your stats to go up in the short-term, you might want to start grinding your level to 250 now.
Otherwise, you can train your level to 120, then your other stats to 240, and finally your HP to 360.
Level 121-200 (Expert, Master)
Since the price of 6 tan codestones on average exceeds the price of 1 red codestone, grinding your level straight to 250 is both the time-saving choice and the economical one, so that’s what you should do.
Need more levels and don’t mind banishing your non-battle pets to a side account? Scratch five Terror Trove or Faeries Fortune Scratchcards per day for that level-up chance. This is also the point in time when Bubbling Fungus starts to be worth using depending on how cheaply you can buy it; if you can get it for 30,000 NP or so, it’s cheaper per strength point on average than 1 red codestone or 6 tan codestones. Of course, it’s random, varies in price somewhat, and can take away strength as well, so don’t be too careless…
Level 201-250 (Grand Master)
This is it; you’ve just entered the most painful part of the training ladder. Keep training to level 250!
If you’ve been saving any Training Fortune Cookies, now is the time to use them, because these 24-hour training times are the longest in the entire game.
If you’re bored of waiting for your level to rise, you may also want to consider other alternative training methods: Faerie Quest Fortune Cookies and Kitchen Quests can help with random stats (including levels), and Bubbling Fungus can potentially help with strength if you’re itching to get to the next strength boost early without being too overpriced. Otherwise, just be patient; training will get a lot easier soon…
Level 250-299 (Ninja Intermediate)
Congratulations! You’ve made it to the Ninja School, and you can say hello to 4-hour training times again. Conveniently, there’s a lot of training to be done in this bracket: you’ll want to get your level to 299 and your HP, strength, and defence each to 598. After that, train your HP to 750. You can train it up to 798 if you really want, but stopping at 750 will allow you to train your strength and defence to 750 sooner.
While you could train at both the Ninja School and the Island School at the same time if your level is exactly 250 and you want to save just a little bit of time, this leaves you vulnerable to random events that subtract levels.
It’s worth mentioning again that Bubbling Fungus may be worth using, again depending on how cheaply you can buy it.
Level 300-399 (Ninja Adept)
Train your pet’s level to 375 (or to level 399, if you trained your HP up to 798) first. Then train your strength and defence to 750.
After that, give yourself a major pat on the back! 750 is an important number because it’s the game’s current maximum boost, which means that we don’t have to train either defence or strength any further. Congratulations on reaching the maximum boosts, and welcome to the endless grind for HP!
Now that you’re all big and strong, train your level to 399, and your HP to 1197.
Level 400-499 (Ninja Advanced)
Train your pet’s level to 499, and then its HP to 1497.
At this point, if you aren’t already, you should start doing Kitchen Quests to augment your training.
Level 500+ (Ninja Expert, Ninja Master, Ninja Grand Master)
From here on in, you should keep your HP at 3 times your level. HP is the only stat that matters now, so you should definitely be scratching your daily scratchcards (if your battle pet is the only pet on your account) and doing your daily Kitchen Quests.
If you haven’t been zapping your battle pet, you might want to consider starting, because it can never take away HP and thus can help out a lot with the endless grind for more.
This article was written by: macosten
