Both, really. If you lab as you train, you'll only have to pay for two stats, defence* and level, while the lab will give you tons of hit points and enough strength that you won't have to bother manually training it (plus movement points, which can come in handy, but aren't -- in my opinion, anyway -- worth manually training). Sometimes it will take away defence and levels, yes, and you'll have to retrain them, but the amount of free stats vs. the ones you're paying for more than makes up for it. Just stop labbing for a few days and train def and level if your pet starts getting unbalanced.
As for your set, in 1-player you should be concerned with getting the most power for the cheapest price -- icon types aren't as much of a concern. You can keep most of your set for now; the only pieces that won't help you much in 1-player are the ship's hammer and the frozen wand of crystals. You'll want a
Honey Potion for freeze/bomb attacks, but can make do with one-use snowballs or muffins until you get it. Your eighth slot will depend on the opponent; maybe you'll want a thick smoke bomb for one, a 50% earth reflector for another, an extra muffin for another, whatever.
*If you're serious about giving up 2p battling for good, you wouldn't even need to train defence (it can be useful in 1-player, but it's not necessary). I'd still suggest training level and keeping it above 50 so you can always use berserk attack. Make sure you get all the useful faerie abilities as well; even if you slack off on level training and drop to level 1, any abilities you've taught your pet will remain.
Thanks for the training advice
I think I'm going to get dual scuzzy's combs or dual Essence of essophagors, is the price difference worth the two extra icons dual scuzzys would be doing? Would the 400k I'd be saving could go torwards the lab ray/training/honey potion
I don't think the two extra icons is worth it right now, no -- save the NP and get the lab and the Honey Potion instead.
I'd probably go with a
Stone Club and
Ice Club over the Essence of Esophagors, though, because not only do they do the same amount of icons for less NP, but they give you a bit more icon variety (some 1-player opponents can block a lot of a purely earth/water attack).
Another neat weapon I forgot to mention in my first post is
Prickly Potion -- it attacks with six icons (that work like reflected icons), but it attacks with those six icons using your
opponent's strength boost, making it a useful little weapon when you're going up against a 1-player opponent who's a lot stronger than you.
Thanks again,
Maybe ice club+ golden compass if variety is better?.
And with the prickly potion, if my opponent is strong enough for it to do more than what a 9 iconer would do, wouldn't my opponent be able to deal more than 6 icons (or 12 if I had 2)?
Nah, because 1-player opponents aren't very bright.
I checked with rabid_schnauzer to be sure, and he said:
Quote:P-PotX2 + Sink, P-Potx2 + Burrow, P-Pot + D!, P-Pot + TSB, P-Pot + Healer, all generally come out ahead
And yeah, I'd keep the Golden Compass, because you already have it, you're not going to be saving a whole lot by exchanging it for another 9-iconer, and it's a very nice weapon. It doesn't really matter which other 9-iconer you pair with it. You could even keep the staff if you don't mind not hitting for a known constant amount every turn.
Ok, so I'll keep the Golden Compass and get a club, a prickly potion, and the lab ray, and save up a bit to get a honey potion.
Thanks for the help!