Weapon Recommendations
Many Neopets players ask the question: "Which weapons are worth wielding to wallop my opponents?" Whether you're looking to simply farm your daily drops from your challenger of choice, prepare for a plot, or just to test the limits of you and your Neopet, the weapons you choose to use can be the difference between sweet victory and agonizing defeat.
This guide is written with 1-Player battling in mind. If you're looking to get into 2-Player battling, check out our League 54 Home!
This guide's pages are roughly divided by budget and how strong your pet is expected to be given that budget. Outliers will be noted when they appear.
Beginner
You don't need to be deep-pocketed to start your journey to Battledome greatness. These weapons should all be friendly to almost any bank balance, and between Trudy's Surprise, your dailies, a few games, and the Battledome itself, you should be able to afford most of these without much difficulty.
Weapons on this page will generally each be cheaper than 80-100k Neopoints (roughly the price of a Turned Tooth), and are tailored for pets ranging from a pet you just created up to one with roughly 50 HP. Many of these weapons can be found for 10k or less! If you're following the Training Ladder on our Beginners' Guide to Training, you'll know that corresponds to a pet that's about Level 25 or lower—you are following our training guide, right?
Weapons
Constant Attackers
A "constant" is a multiple-use weapon that does damage. These constants will be your main sources of damage, turn after turn. Since you can use up to two weapons in one turn, it's usually best to buy the strongest two constant attackers you can afford and use those most turns.
If your best or second-best weapon would do less than 13 icons, you should go to the Grundo Warehouse and redeem the code CRESTA - you will get a free The Omelette Sceptre, which does 13 icons while healing 5 HP with each use.
We don't know when this code will expire, so go redeem yours quickly if you haven't already! You can only equip one, so it's still worth looking at your other options here - and you won't be able to use a second one you may buy.
Brambled Lance is the latest dirt-cheap 13 icon weapon, dropped as a free comic prize for viewing Chapter 13 during The Void Within. Make sure you have your free The Omelette Sceptre from the Grundo Warehouse before you get your first one of these.
Poisonous Mushroom Tea does a full 13 icons, is restockable in the Battle Magic shop, and has gotten a lot cheaper recently. Is it better than Brambled Lance? Only if it's cheaper! Compare their prices and check before buying.
Void Needle was a common drop from certain The Void Within battles. It does 14 icons, a full extra icon over what the above 13 icon weapons do, but it's noticeably more expensive. You should still easily be able to afford it by earning Neopoints around the site.
Healers
When your pet's HP is getting low, you can use one of these to restore your pet's HP. Each healer has a certain amount that it can heal your pet by, though most healers won't heal more HP than your pet is missing. A healer that can heal more HP than your pet is missing is called an overhealer.
Magical Healing Potion is almost always going to be under 10 Neopoints. Since it heals 15 HP, anything weaker isn't worth using.
Faerie Healing Dust is an interesting case: for some reason, it doesn't abide by the "one healing item per set" rule and can be equipped alongside another healer. Otherwise, it's just a 15 HP heal, once per battle.
Cursed Elixir is a unique weapon: it "drains" your opponent for 20 HP (it deals exactly 20 unblockable damage) and also heals you for 20 HP. 20 HP happens to be more than many of the weakest opponents have, while also being much more than they can damage you for in a single round. This will make it impossible to lose against those opponents, but there is one big caveat: it counts as your healer. That 20 HP heal also starts looking pretty meager once you really start seriously training. However, for weaker pets just starting out, it's incredible. It's especially great now that The Void Within has reduced its price to a mere few hundred Neopoints, thanks to being a plot opponent Battledome drop! (Also, beware—Cursed Elixir is not the be confused with Cursed Elixir of Neovia! Those two items are very different!)
If pet has such a high maximum HP stat that these other healers seem too weak, then Feel Better Soup will be better than any of them. It will heal your pet for 50% of their maximum HP, rounded up, with a bit of extra air defense to boot. This means it scales as you train your pet, as no matter how much max HP your pet has, it will always heal 50%!
The Void Within brought us Gold Sefira Feather, which is a 65% healer that also costs very little - only a few thousand Neopoints at the time of writing. Similar Feel Better Soup, it will grow with your pet. Usually you will prefer the extra healing to the air defense, but you may want to decide for yourself based on which is cheaper and what challenger you are battling.
Defensive Options
Downsize! is a very strong yet very cheap once-per-battle item that blocks 50% of all incoming damage the turn you use it. There's nothing else quite like it for the price, and it's good regardless of your pet's defence stat. Don't be surprised if it stays on your set for a very long time!
Hanso Charisma Charm deals "only" 10 icons of damage, but it also defends against 100% of all incoming dark icons the turn you use it. It's known as a dual-duty because it does dual duty: attacking and defending. That dark defence won't do anything if you're Lens Flaring your opponent, but if you don't have access to Lens Flare yet, it could be nice to reduce the damage you take a little bit... but not as nice as just doing more damage and beating your opponent in fewer turns. It's a solid bit more expensive than the other stronger attackers here too, but it's still cheap enough that you should easily be able to afford one by earning Neopoints around the site.
You may notice that there are no shields listed here; that's intentional. With the power of offensive options these days, shields (weapons that predominantly defend rather than attack) are of limited usefulness, depending on the challenger involved. Therefore, it's very difficult to make blanket recommendations on which shields are good until we reach the upper echelons of expense, because it's very dependent on who you're fighting.
Sample Sets
Beginner Set 1
Is this really all you need to get started in the Battledome? Yes! Even a newborn pet on a newbie account should be able to beat at least the Chia Clown on Easy most of the time with these weapons. With how cheap this set is, you'll recoup your investment in no time!
To win pretty much every time against beginners' opponents, even if you haven't trained much, Cursed Elixir is your go-to. Its 20 HP drain also heals you by 20 HP, keeping you at full HP from battle to battle. Combined with another constant attacker, like your Brambled Lance, it will be more than enough to knock out any of the easiest opponents in one turn while leaving you unscathed.
Expect your battle to last more than one turn? You'll want to use your Omelette Sceptre alongside your other attacker (a Brambled Lance here) most of the time to start, then if you're running low on HP, use that Cursed Elixir for that mighty HP swing. So long as you're not up against anything particularly strong, this set will serve you very well.
Beginner Set 2
A natural evolution of the set above. With this set you've got a bit more firepower and a couple of nice defensive options in Downsize! and Hanso Charisma Charm. Feel free to stuff more Bottled Holiday Cheer or Faerie Healing Dust into your set's empty slots if you've got the spare cash.
Beginner Set 3
Have a long-time lab rat, for whom Cursed Elixir isn't healing much? Try using a Sefira Gold Feather or a Feel Better Soup instead!
This article was written by: macosten
