To Lab or not to Lab?

[Daze]

Thanks Pickles! (Unfortunately my health hasn't improved much. Some extremely high blood pressure is leaving me dizzy and extremely lethargic).

Good news on the battle-front, I can now fight without stopping to heal against the 35 HP Obelisk Challengers. Thanks to the 3 musketeers (Blue, Siniri, Pickles), I have had a great start to training up a new pet.

Had a good couple of days again with some KQ stats and FQs, even Coltzan's Shrine has been good to me!

Now with the Daily Faerie Quests going on, training will have another huge leap forward.

ETA:

Big Update.

Doing at least 2 faerie quests a day has really sped up the training but at the same time unfortunately took me into a new training bracket before I had capitalised on the cheaper sessions.

At level 41, I am out of the Swashbuckling Academy for good and on 3 codestones/4 hours at the Training School.

I am almost at the 85 strength boost (holding off as I will have to train level again) but will be there for the start of the next skirmish.

Update 2

Raised Intelligence from Int: Clever (8 books read, about 58 points) to 591 (191 books read), due to the book boon from the last skirmish.

[Pickles]

Doin' great, Daze! Looks like you'll be in that next bracket sometime today!

[Daze]

Thankyou Pickles. The lab and Coltzan's Shrine have been giving great stats, which has helped a lot as well as the Faerie Quests.

Got both 85 Strength and Defence Boost today.

[Siniri]

Wow, Daze, you're really cranking through. I forget, how decent are your weapons? Are you saving up to upgrade them too, or are you just focusing on training for now?

[Daze]

Weapons are just basic at the moment -
Scroll of Ultranova x2
Gilded War Hammer
Parasol of Unfortunate Demise
Greater Healing Scroll

I don't even use the Parasol anymore. I have no problems fighting all the lower opponents on Average and I can fight some on Mighty without having to stop and heal.

I am not in too great a hurry to upgrade weapons just yet, so I am trying to save nps for training and when I need to upgrade, hopefully I can go straight to a big weapon when I am ready.

Update
Just trained 3 quick levels to reach Level 50 and now have the Ability, Lens Flare.

Update
+5 Levels from the lab today!! That is the biggest bonus I have received.

[Pickles]

+5 Levels from the lab today!! That is the biggest bonus I have received.

I didn't even know it was possible to get 5 levels from the lab? I thought it was only in + or - 2's. +5 HPs, yeah, but never seen it on any other stats - so congrats!!

Also, congrats on Lens Flare! That's got to have made a huge difference in battling!

[Blue]

Yep. Back when I was tracking all of my zaps, I had 7 out of ~410 zaps, which would be roughly a 1.7% chance of getting a +5 HP zap.

[Daze]

Oh yeah! Lens Flare rocks!!

I can now beat the 80 HP Obelisk Challengers on Average in 2 turns and without having to stop to heal (and all the lower ones on Mighty).

Small Update:

Traded in my neggs from KQ and had enough to buy a Cool Negg and gained 2 levels, 2 strength points, 2 hit points, and 2 movement points!

Sad Edit:

Lab Ray has taken 11 Stat points off this week and DD took 1.

All up 12 Stat points lost in 7 days and a whole lot of neopoints spent on re-training.

* I knew the good run on the Lab Ray had to end soon!!

[Blue]

Oh yeah! Lens Flare rocks!!

Yep

* I knew the good run on the Lab Ray had to end soon!!

aaand, yep again

[Daze]

Update:

Just hit the 125 Strength Boost.

Just waiting for hunger levels to drop as I have 2 Armoured Neggs ready for the Defence Boost.

[Siniri]

Daze, I know you're not quite there yet, but at what point do you think you'll speed-level to 250 to take advantage of the cheaper training prices and faster training times of the Ninja School? (I saw one calculation that speed-training from 150 to 250 would save 3.6M NP and 2 years to get to the same boosts -- I didn't double-check their math.)

[Daze]

I hadn't really thought about speed training as I hadn't done any research on what point to start. With your post, I think I will do as suggested and start when I get to Lvl 150.

Update:

125 Defence Boost gained.

[Siniri]

I think the tipping point for most people is when the current average cost of the regular codestones needed for training exceeds the current average cost of 1 red (though some start earlier because they care more about time than NP). Some people exclude the cost of zeds (and others) in the average cost calculation for the reds since you can cancel a course. Because these averages are constantly changing and different people calculate them differently, the answer might be slightly different than 150, but it seems to be most popular (at least for right now).

[Daze]

Small Update:

3 months of training completed!

I am currently in the longest training bracket (125-199) with 75 points needed for the next boost. Then it is all 50 points between boosts.

I have suffered quite a few setbacks in the last 30 days, with the lab, deadly dice and random events taking away multiple stat points, but overall training is progressing well.

Hopefully if this progress continues, in another 3 months I will be at Lvl 150 and start speed training for the Ninja Academy. I am already hoarding my red codestones from KQ and the 'dome, in anticipation.


UPDATE:

About 4 1/2 months of training and I just reached 200 Strength Boost.

[Siniri]

Congrats, Daze! Training feels like such a long, slow haul at times. Can you fight the Giant Walein in the BD yet? It gives out more red (and regular) codestones than anyone else -- it's even better than the Koi Warrior.

P.S. I'm really jealous of your red codestone stockpile. I bet it will be pretty significant by the time you get to the Ninja School. (I know my regular stockpile is ridiculous -- I keep waiting for prices to rise, but I don't know if they ever will. I almost feel like I should train another pet as my back-up -- maybe even one on my side account, just in case something happens to my main...)