jaydeed

Duma's post is an awesome place to start out if you're not familiar with how to prep and battle. And Gypsyknees has some great tips! Jaydeed has a good point too. If you are looking for certain prizes, like stamps or books, etc. TDN's pages on the 1p challengers has prize data too! And boy did it take a long time to collect! lol
If you post your battle pet stats, and available equipment if you have some already, people can also help you out with different builds (ways to train your pet) for a style that works for you.
Just don't go into battle with nothing equipped! LOL When I first joined Neopets, many years ago, I figured there would be a default action to attack without any equipment. there wasn't. lol This was in the old battledome of course, but still, go in with something, even against Punchbag Bob, or you'll have to withdraw, which will count as a loss. That was my experience anyway. lol
As for opponents. Before the prices dropped so much, I liked to battle the Jelly Chia. He drops some stamps and a book. Jelly Pop Stamp, Jelly World Stamp, and Jelly Mysteries which is a book. Made some nice NP on the stamps back when I was trying to figure out all of Jelly Chia's prizes. 😉 Not sure what they sell for now, but the last time i checked they were both still very much under 100k np on the shop wiz.
Different domes lend to different prize types too. If you take place in the Obelisk Skirmishes, those are all in the Ugga Ugga Dome. The prizes as I recall from there are so common in the user market because of this. There might be a few decent rare prizes there. I usually battle some other opponent in a different dome before I do the battles for the skirmishes. Rattling Cauldron Dome, basically the Haunted Woods Arena, you'll get lots of spooky foods. A lot of which is not as valuable as it once was because they are common prizes in that arena now. Neopia Central Dome has a lot of regular food items. If you're lucky you might get Chocolate Ice Cream, worth about 40k the last time I won any. lol Again each opponent also has some pretty unique stuff, as well as codestones of course. Shadow Usul, for example, has a plushie that sometimes drops, and sells for around 15k-20k.

Anyway, depending on your budget, stats, and the opponent(s) you'd like to battle, post that info either here or in a new thread, and I'm sure you'll get lots of tips. I spent my time budget battling for as long as I've been on Neopets. I'd say that my battle set is still in the low-intermediate to regular intermediate range. I've a few weapons from plots I earned. The majority of my NP spent for battle gear was on my healer, and a Ghostkerbomb. So I consider budget-battling my specialty. 😉
 
I recommend training over expensive weaponry. I mean, I've got my Strength and Defense stats maxed, but my weaponry is not terribly great, as I said above. If you read about "Boosts", those are basically the multipliers for the amount of icons a weapon attacks or defends. If you have a 10 icon weapon, and you've got the highest strength boost, 16, which you get when your strength is 750. Then that attack, if nothing is blocked by your opponent, will do 160 damage.
I also recommend balanced training between Strength and Defense. But that's my training style. lol Movement/Agility is pretty useless except for a couple of items. If you have agility of 201 and an intelligence of... I believe it was 37+, you could consider a Heavy Robe of Thievery to steal a random item once per battle, but stealing is not working right now, so the point is moot right now. Though it might be a good time to buy a Heavy Robe of Thievery for the future, because when stealing gets fixed, the price will probably go back up a bit.
Intelligence, it's useful for some higher-end tunics from the Brightvale Armory. But reading books and visiting Coltzan's Shrine should yield you some decent INT increases. 😉 I think the most Intelligence you need for a pet in the BD would be 1000 for one of the tunics. Again though, not something to worry about if you're just starting out. The USEFUL tunics sell for some millions mostly.
Phew! I haven't pulled a post this long in awhile. Sorry, i hope it all makes sense and wasn't too much at one time.
Happy battling!

You might also want to consider what prizes you're after; if you want to train or make a profit, Koi Warrior drops a lot of codestones. I battle with weapons, no defence items and trained so I could get Lens Flare with faerie abilities which gives you one go where your opponent does nothing; very useful! Now I'm at the point where I have two goes like that so i can win pretty easily.

The Halloween bags are great! Usually one has a stamp/charm/coconut in and everyone wants it so the price sky rockets. This year for some reason they didn't, but the bags were still cool and free, so no complaints. They're all out there to be bought still but some older ones are expensive.

Amazing! Sometimes Neo is like that and so glad it happened to you.

Thankfully they did go away during yesterday as I'd hoped!

For pinatas, you definitely have to use the /x version. Otherwise, you'd break it by throwing your computer against the wall in sheer frustration ::g::
(Don't actually do that, lol)

What about the two Neoquests? You can get avatars, trophies, cool prizes, NPs, lots of Random Events... Time consuming but fun.

What about the two Neoquests? You can get avatars, trophies, cool prizes, NPs, lots of Random Events... Time consuming but fun.

SSW is a tiny icon at the top of the page that gets hidden when you scroll down; NOT helpful! But yes, it is still there.

SSW is a tiny icon at the top of the page that gets hidden when you scroll down; NOT helpful! But yes, it is still there.

Well done! It's an epic journey and so frustrating at times.

Did the shoes arrive ok? Not even sure why I had them, lol; maybe from spinning the Archives wheel?

Probably because the game ends soon. so it'll be unavailable? I got the final one ages back -- and it didn't arrive in my inventory. Sent tickets, nothing. Ended up buying it, fuming, but back then it was only a few hundred thousand.

Probably because the game ends soon. so it'll be unavailable? I got the final one ages back -- and it didn't arrive in my inventory. Sent tickets, nothing. Ended up buying it, fuming, but back then it was only a few hundred thousand.

QUOTED. FOR. TRUTH!

I've got into the habit of giving each pet 5 whacks at it, and have got to the last one before it finally breaks xD
Initially I wondered if your pet's strength had any impact; but seeing as it's taking my BD pet over 20 attempts on his own, but for another one my weakest pet took just 3, I've since changed my mind about that, LOL.
 

They really are a great way to boost CC points. Once you get the hang of quick opening that is...and even then some just will not break for ages, lol.

I'm up to 30k of items already so I hear you! I have a huge list of cheap r80s and r90s, pared down to about ten really well known ones in each category that I concentrate on. Plus, Pawkeet Pinatas! Ten a day are easy to crack and the payoff in points is great. 6 in 10 have an r90, plus a few r80s guaranteed, and the pinata itself is only an r80 so it's win/win!

I have many spreadsheets for it too, lol. I am taking a small gamble and mass buying the blue hairbrush from the general store. You can get 100 in a minute if you get the refresh/enter tapping correct. If they disallow those items, well, didn't cost that much and I currently have thousands . I donate 1 pointers, sell the 6-8 ones. I find six sells better than 8 so that's what I hoard.

I sympathise! That one took me a while. I think it's luck as to where the petpets show up. Always starting at the top helps and getting your fingers to know how to move around the corners without snagging on them. good luck!
Currently, I'm down to 4 game avvies; Volcano Run, Typing Terror, Extreme Potato and being on the top 50 for math Nightmare. Working on them and slowly improving on TT and VR.

It is super frustrating to restart a zillion times to get the fish negg then freeze and panic (me) or have it be impossible because of where it is but I have this avvie and it is doable; just keep trying! Good luck. Currently trying for Assignment 53 or whatever the number is. HS creeping up slowly and I'm now halfway there at around 11000 of the 20,000 needed, lol.

It is super frustrating to restart a zillion times to get the fish negg then freeze and panic (me) or have it be impossible because of where it is but I have this avvie and it is doable; just keep trying! Good luck. Currently trying for Assignment 53 or whatever the number is. HS creeping up slowly and I'm now halfway there at around 11000 of the 20,000 needed, lol.

It's really, truly, seriously down now. Kind of worrying but maybe they've doing it to fix the multiple CC errors?

i didn't find out about it for years but now I use them quite often and always grab them in the shop. Sometimes the lab zaps just don't work for me and it's refreshing to go back to a simple green, red, blue or yellow. My Bori was green when I created my account so it makes me nostalgic.

I am like a sprinter on the start line, ears strained to hear the starting pistol, lol. Bored of swapping Staff tournament prize points for Comfort Rocks, ready to donate.

Don't forget that the Deaver is your friend during CC.
This little guy can be bought for 8 dubloons from Little Nippers with those (1 CC-point) dubloons that you get for free from Anchor Management, and he's worth 4 CC-points. I've been getting one any time I need to make change from larger dubloons for training, and have a little pile of the furry guys now. xD

During the current CC accumulation period I made the very important discover that (special) does NOT automatically mean r101. That was quite a 🤯 moment for me let me tell you!
There's a slew of 4-point (r102-r179) items that you can get from various dailies:-
The older omelettes bar the plain and rotten ones.

The mutant plushies from the Wheel of Misfortune apart from Headless Von Roo.
These are the two I see most often on the money tree so I'm guessing they're the ones won the most frequently?
Weapons from Coltzan other than his basic gem and the Serf Lens
these two fairly often on the Money tree
Battlecards from Cheat
This is the selection I've got from the Tree in the past 15 months
Anything apart from the Yellow Growth on Buried Treasure.

I'm always THRILLED to nab me some rancid old meat from the good ol' MT. 😆
Looking on the list of r102 to r179 items Cheeseroller and Brain Tree quests can net you 4-point items too, and the Deaver isn't the only 4-point Pirate petpet, it's just the best value for money dubloon-wise :3
I bet all of you will have some of these items in your SDBs already.
Also don't forget your shed and closet! Some furniture has high rarity, I know I've ended up with needless multiples of some items in my closet without even realising.
OHH, AND... open any Pawkeet Pinatas that you have! Yes these are a rare - worth 2 points themselves - but what you get out of them is almost guaranteed to be worth it. I opened 13 with a CC points total of 26, and the items within them gave me 82 points! This recommendation comes courtesy of @jaydeed 👍
Hope all this is helpful.