The Colourful World of Neopets Battledome: A Guide to Painting Your Neopets

This article assumes you have an understanding of Neopets basics. You can get the rundown here:

Neopets How-to-Play

Neopets Rulebook

Welcome to the Battledome

Whether you are a TCG master, a casual card game connoisseur, or just looking for a new experience with friends, the new Neopets Battledome Trading Card Game has something for everyone!

Take the adorable Neopets you know and love (or not) and bring them into the heat of battle! This article goes a bit deeper into the colours of your Neopets, and how painting can change how you build your deck.

The Magic of Neopets Colours

Neopets come in four primary colours: Green, Red, Blue, and Yellow. Each colour enhances a specific attribute:

• Green = Hitpoints
• Red = Attack
• Blue = Defence
• Yellow = Agility

Let’s take the Kacheek as an example:

– Base stats: 3 Attack, 2 Defence, 5 Agility, 8 Hitpoints

Each Kacheek has a 1-point boost to the corresponding colour, except for green, which gives 2 Hitpoints. 

Choosing a specific colour can significantly impact your Neopet’s performance in battles. For instance, opting for a Blue Kacheek fortifies its defence, while a Red Kacheek maximises its offensive capabilities.

Each Neopet offers different colour options, allowing for diverse gameplay styles. 

Players favouring a defensive strategy might lean towards a Blue Jubjub or a Green Scorchio to increase defence or hitpoints. 

Those preferring agility might opt for a Yellow Xweetok or Moehog to gain additional rerolls over your opponent. 

Want to be aggressive early in the game? Play a Red Eyrie or Kau!

Exploring Painted Neopets

Beyond the base colours, painted versions of Neopets introduce additional strategic dimensions. When a brush is played, your Neopet transforms! Each painted Neopet gains not only enhanced stats but also a universal health bonus.

• Ghost and Faerie: These painted Neopets possess unique abilities that can be activated during combat, providing bonuses to Attack and Defence. For example, a Ghost Jubjub can send a card from your inventory to the discard to gain 2 Attack and 2 Defence, synergizing well with specific equipment cards like Jhudora’s Cursed Sword. Faerie Neopets, instead of sending a card to the discard, send a card to the top of the deck. This synergizes well with Blade of the Battle Faerie for a heavy equipment Faerie deck.

• Starry and Fire: While lacking activated abilities, Starry and Fire painted Neopets offer additional stat bonuses. Starry gives your Neopet 2 Defence and 1 Agility, while Fire gives your Neopet 2 Attack and 1 Agility. A Starry Jubjub is ideal for defensive strategies with a total of 7 Defence. Conversely, a Fire Eyrie is great on offensive with a base Attack of 7!

• Rainbow: Rainbow painted Neopets receive a boost to all stats, making them versatile additions to any deck. Unlike the other painted versions, all Neopets in the Defenders of Neopia Set can be painted Rainbow, offering a total of 20 different options for players seeking balanced attributes across the board. 

Not every paint type is available for each Neopet, as some Neopets cannot be painted in certain versions:

Kacheek can be Faerie or Starry, but is unable to be painted Fire or Ghost.

Jubjub can be Ghost or Starry, but not Fire or Faerie.

The rule is each Faerie is unable to be a Ghost, and each Starry Neopet is unable to be painted Fire.

Here’s a quick graph to showcase how each Neopet can be painted:

Even if you have a painted Neopet, and decide you want a change of scenery, you can still repaint your Neopet. So, if you want your Faerie to be Fire you can!

You want your Starry to be Rainbow, do it!

Decide Ghost isn’t what you wanted it to be? Well you can’t un-paint your Neopet.

Strategic Considerations

Choosing the right colour and painted version for your Neopet is crucial for crafting an effective Battledome deck. Factors to consider include:

• Playstyle: Determine whether you prefer a defensive, offensive, or balanced approach.
• Synergy: Select colours and painted versions that synergize well with your chosen equipment and strategy.
• Versatility: Build a diverse lineup of Neopets to adapt to different opponents and scenarios (Ex. 1 high attack Neopet, 1 high defence Neopet, and 3 balanced Neopets).

Building Your Neopet Deck

A well-rounded Battledome deck typically consists of five Neopets, each strategically chosen to complement your gameplay style. For example:

• A defensive deck might include Blue Jubjub and Green Scorchio for high Defence and Hitpoints.
• An aggressive deck could feature Red Eyrie and Fire Eyrie to maximise Attack power.
• Players seeking agility might opt for Yellow Xweetok and Moehog to gain strategic advantages in battle through rerolls.

Just like your Neopet colour choices, your Codestone choices will factor into your deck-building. There are 9 different named Codestones currently; Bri, Eo, Har, Lu, Mau, Orn, Tai-Kai, Vo and Zei.

Eo, Lu, and Mau all provide a plus 1 to your attack.

Har, Orn, Vo all give plus 1 defence.

Bri, Tai-Kai, and Zei provide 1 agility.

The Codestone buffs can also change which Neopets you want to use! For your aggressive deck, maybe you just play Attack and Agility Codestones. For your defensive deck, Agility and Defence Codestones. Or you might choose a mixture of all of it, having some Red Neopets, some Blue, some Yellow, and some Green. If that’s the case, then maybe you’ll end up with an even split of Codestones in your deck.

Don’t neglect your Codestones!

Remember, you get to see your hand before you select your Neopet, so use that to your advantage! If you’re going second, you can use Attack Codestones and a Fire Paint Brush strategically. For example, you might choose an Eyrie as your first Neopet, add the Attack Codestone, paint it Fire, and then attack for 8!

The Impact of Painted Versions

Painting not only enhances your Neopet’s stats but also adds a layer of strategy through their additional abilities. You might build your deck completely around the Ghost archetype, so your deck is built to work off the Ghost ability of sending things to the graveyard. Playing cards that interact with your graveyard and play off from being sent to the discard. There are some cards you might not play in a Faerie deck, but will work great with Ghosts.

You could choose to play a Freeze-based strategy. Freezing your opponent’s Neopet prevents them from attacking next turn. You may play only Starrys for the stat bonuses that heighten your defence, agility and hitpoints to stall out the game, wasting your opponents best cards and resources while saving yours until the end.

Integrating painted Neopets effectively into your deck can turn the tide of battle in your favour.

Conclusion

As I said at the beginning of this article, whether you are a master of card games, or just starting out, Neopets gives every type of player something to dig into: doing a mathematical deep-dive into dice odds, colour choices, and synergies for your deck, or just having fun playing your cutest Neopets, and maybe equipping a sword onto them when you want to be a villain.

Try out new ideas, explore different strategies, buy that dice tray you have been looking at, but most of all, have fun!