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.
Now that Ring of the Sway is available as a quest prize in the Daily Quest Log, it has crashed in price—all the way down to only a few Neopoints at the time of writing! It's now by far the cheapest 11 icon constant—a step up from a Scroll of Ultranova while still costing only a pittance, and stealing the crown for best sub-1000 Neopoint constant (for the time being, at least).
Hanso Charisma Charm deals 10 icons of damage—one fewer than Ring of the Sway—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. Still, it's so incredibly cheap now that it's a Daily Quest Log prize, and the 100% dark defence means that your defence stat doesn't impact how effective it is at blocking, so you may still find one helpful.
Like a sinister but festive Scroll of Ultranova, the extremely-fractional 12.8-icon Bundle of Burning Birch Branches is a compelling option for beginners. Shop around a bit—you may find that it saves you a bundle for only a 0.2-icon difference compared to the full 13-iconers!
Similar to the Bundle of Burning Birch Branches, the similarly-fractional almost-13-icon Power of Friendship is a compelling new option for beginners. The correct choice between this and the Branches probably the cheaper one since the damage difference is minimal.
Poisonous Mushroom Tea is a fair bit spendier than Bundle of Burning Branches, but it does a full 13 icons, and is restockable in the Battle Magic shop.
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.
Bottled Holiday Cheer and Faerie Healing Dust are an interesting case: for some reason, they don't abide by the "one healing item per set" rule and can be equipped alongside another healer. Otherwise, they're both 15 HP healers, so the cheaper one is the better buy.
Cursed Elixir is a unique case. It "drains" your opponent for 20 HP 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%!
Bombs
A "bomb" is a weapon that can only be used once per battle, but (ideally) does more damage than your constant attackers. Many of the best bombs are limited to one per set, but that's not true with all bombs—be sure to double-check its Battlepedia entry to be sure!
With how strong constant attackers are, there aren't many bombs worth using these days, but there's one that stands out for its low price and decent performance:
Twenty years ago, Honey Potion was a coveted item for many an intermediate battler, commanding a hefty price. Since then, many powerful constants have pushed the envelope of power far past what Honey Potion could keep up with... but now it's so cheap that it's actually price-competitive for the low-end battler! It's always going to be stronger than a Poisonous Mushroom Tea, so if you're looking for that little extra kick, this could be a good choice.
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!
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 Ring of the Sway, 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 two Rings of the Sway 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 Feel Better Soup instead!
This article was written by: macosten
