A Battledome to Unconverted Trading Guide

To Begin

With all things, there is a beginning. With BD to UC trading, this starts with a VWN pet. This means 7 letters or less in the name. Most traders these days prefer something that is easily pronounceable, or can be easily nicknamed. If you want to create a pet yourself, or pick one up from the pound, species does not play a huge role as users who want a BD pet may ask for a custom pet (i.e. you morph the pet to the species they desire). However, that being said, you might want to pick a species that you can own for quite a while and be happy with it. Training takes a very long time (now that values have changed) so be prepared to own this pet for months to years. Be prepared for training to be extremely expensive and time consuming.

Start Training

Once you have chosen your pet, it is now time to start training. There are many guides around the basics of training both onsite and on recommended fan sites. A key tip is that you should only stick to even stats, not lab stats. This means keeping stats at a very similar level throughout the training process. The Lab should only be used to zap for Health, once the maximum boosts have been reached (i.e. stats are 750 each). The 3 stats that are currently valued are: Strength, Defence and Health. Codestones are to be used at the Mystery Island Training School and Secret Ninja school. Dubloons are used in the Swashbuckling Academy. Make sure you keep up your supply of these items, which can be obtained through some of the dailies, RE’s and shops around Neopia. It does not really matter which school you use to train. Increase your pet’s stats evenly, and make sure you try to stick to the training timelines (i.e. be ready to commence a new course almost immediately after one finishes). This is to make sure that the training takes the least time necessary for you. If you do not stick to the training timelines, it may make training become very tedious and you may lose some motivation to keep going.

Key Tips During Training and When trying to trade

Here are a few key tips to keep in mind when training, as they can help you immensely:

• If you can, use stat increasers. These will become very important in the later stages of training. Once training becomes very expensive (up to around 70K per stat point) it might be easier to use stat increasers such as Bubbling Fungus and Armoured Neggs. A single Bubbling Fungus is able to award 5 Strength points for approximately 30K NP. This is all pure luck though, with -3 to +5 Strength points being awarded. Armoured Neggs increase Defence by 1 point. Instead of buying numerous codestones that are more than the price of these stat increasers for only 1 increase in stat point, consider the increaser items which can give more than 1 point. Some of the recommended fan sites as well as pet page guides list all the stat increasers and what they do. Become familiar with them, especially if you are aiming for a very high UC.

• Two NC fortune cookies help immensely with training: Faerie Quest Fortune Cookies and Training Fortune Cookies. If you are able to purchase NC these two items can shorten training time by months or years. The Faerie Quest Fortune Cookie can also grant Fountain Faerie Quests, which are very handy when offering a custom when trying to trade your BD pet. These include some colours that can only be done by the Lab Ray.

• Mystery Island Kitchen Quests are very handy as well, in gaining stats quickly, especially when training is super expensive for you. For this to be beneficial, your BD pet should be the only pet on your account. This means that all the stat rewards from these Kitchen Quests go to only your BD pet.

• Stay motivated. This seems like a silly thing to say, but with BD values going down, it may be more difficult to reach your goal than it would have been in the past. BD training (even up to 3000 HSD) is most certainly worth it, so no matter how frustrated or tired of training you become, keep at it. Training is a very nice way of ‘skipping’ the tiers. Many users trade for an UC and then become stuck, as almost all UC traders are trying to work up to their goals. With BD training, you can work up without having to worry about spending months stuck with an UC of a certain level.

• Be able to offer a custom! This is key with the final stage of training a BD in order to be able to trade for an UC. Some traders will want a particular pet species and colour combination in addition to the stats so be prepared to offer it. This is why a Fountain Faerie Quest comes in handy in this particular instance, offering most colours.

• Keep your Neopoint income flowing. Whether you are particularly good at restocking, a game or competitions that give NP rewards, make sure you have a steady income. Training costs a lot, particularly as you are trying to reach Level 250 (7 codestones per stat before this Level cost quite a bit!). Every little bit of NP helps, so make sure you complete your dailies, games and use the Battledome if necessary.

Trading

At the point where you are ready to trade, make sure your pet has slightly higher stats than necessary for the UC pet you want to obtain. This way, you should be able to get a nicer name for the pet you want, if names matter to you. If not, it should be relatively easy for you to find a trade. If necessary, you can trade for an UC in a similar or higher level (tier) than yours and trade down to the pet you want. However, this being said, sometimes the supply of BD pets is higher than the demand. Be prepared to spend a bit of time advertising your pet. Do not rush trading, and if you feel unsure about any of it, make a board on the PC asking for advice. There are many kind users out there ready to help. It may take weeks or months to find the perfect trade, or it might only take a few days. Sometimes you can just get some good luck. You must be prepared to wait, and advertise wherever you can. Make your own board on the Pound Chat, or post in a communal UC trading board. State how much of a custom you can add and if you have a FFQ available for use. If you are unsure of the necessary stats for the UC you want, there is a nice and recent guide available at /~Nitali for you to use. That being said, this is a GUIDE only, and not law. Some UC owners will offer higher level UCs for a certain HSD and the other way around. Trading is all dependent on the users themselves.

The last piece of advice

The very last piece of advice I can give is don’t get too stressed out by the entire process. If you ever feel like you might need a break from training, trading or advertising, take it! Training and trading up to UCs can take a very long time, be very expensive and frustrating, but it is very worthwhile! I have achieved my long term pet goals with this kind of process, so I know you can too! Finally achieving something you have wanted for a long time with hard work and dedication is a fantastic feeling. Good luck to all trying to obtain their dreams!