I'm fairly new to the BD, so I have a few noob questions.. Is there a difference in the costs of training a lab rat to 700 strength/700 def/proper level in comparison to simply training a pet to the same stats, but without a lab ray? Secondly, is there a level that guarantees that the lab ray will not reduce a pet's level to 1? Or is there always a chance (so a level 200 pet could go back down to 1)? Thirdly, would a pet with 700 strength/700 def/proper level/proper HP be more useful in 1P or 2P? Fourth, how competent is a level 50 lab rat in 1P? Would it be able to defeat the Space Faerie and The Drenched? Thanks for any answers! ^_^;
Welcome to IDB.
The labray is both good and bad for your pet. i honestly d not xap my pet because I like its color. etc. If you start zapping you also ruin your chances of training it farther along the line as your level and defence tend to drop dramatically. the advantage is that the labray is only 1 million np.
Training your pet means you can build it how you want and have even stats that you will appreciate later on in the battledome when building a big set. The disadvantage is that it ends up costing tens and maybe even hundreds of millions to train your pet.
I honestly stick to training and not zapping though.
You can try both at once if you can afford it. Zap to get str and hp up and train to keep your lvl and def equal...
Lab ray generally decreases Level, DEF, and increases STR, MOV, and highly in HP.
We don't know, however, at what level it is guaranteed that it will not go back to level one but I hear it is level 50.
A 700/700/700+ pet will do better in 2p. In 1p, all you really need are 700 STR, Level 50, and LOTS of HP. Then, of course, you would go buy percentage shields as opposed to icon shields.
A Level 50 Lab Rat, depending on its HP and STR, may be able to defeat teh Space Faerie and The Drenched. Actually, any pet with high HP can defeat Space Faerie and The Drenched, with the right equipment.
If i can recall correctly the lab ray can't decrease your pet's level to 1. this is what happen. If you pet is close to level 1 your lab result can so big that it should move the level to a negative but as that can be posible it says that it goes to 1.
if you don't want to change your pet's look you can try the kitchen quest when they are cheap, the downfall is his randomness, which means it can do nothing to improve your pet stats or add a level when is not needed. Also you can add levels with some scratch cards but they are not cost efficient until certain level, a small one (again those are random).
If you're a 2p battler I'm not really sure if it matters that much what you do... since you'll always be battling against people who are equal to your stats anyway. If your interested in 1p, then there's no reason not to lab. It's free stats, and you don't want to pass that up. It's not really that hard to keep your other stats caught up with HP. If HP is getting too high compared to the others you can always take a break for a little while. You might not even want to train defense for 1p anyway, I chose to pass it up. Also do KQs. How many you do per day will depend upon how much you're willing to spend. I do virtually every KQ I get, and my stock market portfolio plus food club is basically enough to finance this.
BTW, I'm not really sure that the lab drains defense very much. I hardly lose defense from it and my defense is steadily going up thanks to KQs, which are enough I guess to more than counteract the lab ray's effects.
I have the kind of pet you were asking about, and I think while it's useful to have the 700/700 strength and defense (obviously), in BOTH types of fighting, it's a tad more useful for two-player in my view. As for training, what I'd recommend (assuming you're not locked on having a particular species or colour pet) is to use the lab, but to train defense and when needed levels. Hit points are the easiest of the "Big Three" stats to get both from the Lab Ray and Kitchen Quests, so I wouldn't bother training those. The lab ray adds to strength (unevenly over time), but in my years of playing it does have a modest negative impact on defense (hence you train it), and it massively reduces levels, which is again why you train those if you need them to continue your defense training.
Both the Lab Ray and Kitchen Quests are random, but the ray can both add or subtract stats, while the K-Quests will either do nothing (you get an item or a small amount of nps), or add, but not subtract stats. So my advise is TRAIN at the schools defense (and levels when needed), use the lab ray AND do affordable Kitchen Quests (remember there's no penalty for NOT doing one when the chef wants EXPENSIVE items).
How could I forget... Also, scratch 5 Terror Troves scratchcards a day for levels. You don't get them very often but it will save you money and time since each level you gain from the TTs is one less you have to do at the training school.
700 defense boost pets are amazing for 1p and are much better than a pet without the defense. The 700 defense boost allows you to win infinitely against a lot of challengers given the right shields and ussually even just with GShield and the 700 def boost you can infinite win against a lot of opponents.
If you don't make it to around the 550 boost though defense is pretty bad in 1p and could probably even just be ignored. The only thing about getting the defense boost up to 700 that may make it seem kinda worthless is that against the opponents that you can infinite win against using the shields you can already probably win several thousand times against them so it will take a long point to even get to that point and chances are with a 700+HP pet against the flaming meerca or another easy opponent you will get bored long before you need to start shielding.
For 2p the defense boost is also very important and would definitely be better to have than not to have.