Battledome Strategy 101
Written by Jadeasahi

Lesson 9: Rarity and Battledome Gear Prices

There are some that say the damage from a weapon like the Cake Bomb (a Smuggler's Cove item, less than 100 in existence, damage 11 to 15 is worth its high price tag of anywhere from 3 million to the sky is the limit. Then there are those that say why spend those kind of neos on that kind of weapon when you can get a Battle Potato for around 800,000 neopoints, it does 8 to 14 damage, just slightly less than the Cake Bomb at a fraction of the price, and as a game giveaway that you can't buy in a store, it's just as rare and unusual. The difference in damage between the two is barely noticeable.

Then there are those that would say why buy a Battle Potato when you can buy Illusens Earth potion? The Potioin hits for 7 to 9, just over the minimum of the Potato, and only costs 7,000 neopoints. It's not very rare, a fairly low level quest reward from Illusen, which is ongoing. In practice, you probably wouldn't even notice much of a difference between the Earth Potion and the Potato.

This is the kind of thinking that goes (and rightly so) into the purchase of Battledome gear. Personally, I can't tell much of a difference between a Cake Bomb and a Battle Potato, or a Battle Potato and an Illusens Earth Potion, but I can tell a big difference between a Cake Bomb and an Illusens Earth Potion! The only people in Neopia that have neos to burn are those that got in on the ground floor, before there were millions of Neopets, when games could make you real neopoints, and then there are the cheaters, hackers and scammers. Those are the only people that can afford Mono Claws and Faerie Slingshots, to burn money on frivolous weapons like the Eraser of the Dark Faerie and then actually use them. Those people aren't Joe Neopia on the street.

The rest of us have to deal with the reality of the Battledome on a budget. Doing so means only spending an ungodly amount of neopoints on a weapon that you know will never be worth what you paid for it if you must have it to win some critical Battledome match or League Tournament that will forever write your names in the annals of Neopets and change your life forever. If you aren't laughing by now, you've played Neopets too long. It is NEVER worth paying more for a weapon than it is worth.

So what are weapons worth? A couple of variables come into play in the value of a weapon. The first and foremost is demand, followed closely by rarity. Rarity is a factor effected by two things: the actual Neopian rarity of the weapon (how often it will show up in shops, or if it can even be bought in a shop) and how long a weapon has been available.

A good example of this is shown with the Grand Lightning Beam and the Dark Battle Duck. The Grand Lightning Beam has been around forever, it is rarity 95, it has a high demand among those that can afford weapons in its price range, and that range is around 30,000 neopoints. The Dark Battle Duck has a massive fan following among those that can afford its often half a million neopoint price tag. The Dark Battle Duck has a rarity of 94. Essentially same rarity, essentially same demand, but a major price difference.

The explanation is simple: Dark Battle Duck hasn't been around long enough for supply to meet demand, but it will, and when it does Dark Battle Duck will trade for somewhere between 30,000 and 75,000 neopoints (this range is actually probably closer to 30,000).

New and rare weapons often represent potentially dismal investments to the Battledomer; new weapons because they are often overvalued and misunderstood and rare weapons because people often believe them capable of abilities which they are not. The latter is represented by the Winged Scarab. The former by the Snowball Slingshot.

The Jewelled Scarab has been around for a long time. It's very rare and you can't get it anymore. The rumor was that this weapon acted like a Jade Scorchstone, healing to full hit points, but that unlike a Jade Scorchstone the effect wasn't applied until after damage was dealt; essentially making the Scarab an item that would bring one back from the dead to full hit points, a combine Jade Scorchstone-Thyoras Tear. The price of this weapon had inflated (and may yet be) to over 25 million neopoints. No one that owned one was willing to say different, but the Scarab does not and did not act as advertised. It turns out that a Jewelled Scarab really is nothing more than a fancy Jade Scorchstone, which, by the way, sells for a fraction of the Scarab's cost.

The Snowball Slingshot, as this is written, is an area of some controversy. Initial reports claimed that this weapon could do up to nine or better icons of damage (one advertisement in the Trading Post claimed 15 constant icons). Those kind of statistics would make this Slingshot very attractive in the Battledome, and demand skyrocketed. Those kind of statistics would also have made the Slingshot unique as a weapon with a mere rarity index of 91. IF SOMETHING SOUNDS TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE IT PROBABLY ISN'T! Whatever this weapon does, it isn't constant, and those who possess it have purposely misrepresented it in order to make millions on the handful that currently exist. As more of them enter the economy, the scams will be exposed and the weapon will drop in price to a reasonable figure, and more will be known about the abilities of what is probably a halfway decent weapon, but certainly not what speculators would have the Neopian public believe.

Continue to Lesson 1: The First Turn Freeze, Lesson 2: The After The First Turn Freeze, Lesson 3: Trading Punches, Lesson 4: Faerie Abilities, Lesson 5: Drain Life, Lesson 6: Grenades, Lesson 7: Weapon Generators, Lesson 8: Healing Items, Lesson 9: Rarity and Battledome Gear Prizes

Lesson 1 through 9: all right reserved 2002 Jadeasahi Communications