What happens if you activate a loyalty ability from a creature instead of a planeswalker?

Question

An answer on another question tells of a way to give loyalty abilities to creatures:

Basically you start by playing the Mycosynth Lattice which turns all your permanents into artifacts, this includes Planeswalker.

Then you play March Of the Machines turning your Planeswalker into an artifact creature with power and toughness equal to it's casting cost.

Then you use the ability of an Experimental Kraj to put a +1/+1 counter on the Planeswalker artifact creature.

Now since the Planeswalker artifact Creature has a +1/+1 on it, the Experimental Kraj can use all of the Activated Abilities of the Planeswalker without any of the restrictions of a Planeswalker.

Since creatures don't have loyalty to add to or deduct from, what happens if you were to use a loyalty ability from a creature, rather than a Planeswalker?

More specifically:

• In the case of using a (+) loyalty ability from a creature, what happens?
• In the case of using a (-) loyalty ability from a creature, what happens?

Answer 1

Loyalty is not the same thing that loyalty counters. Non-planeswalker creatures don't have loyalty, but the can have loyalty counters. So, if a (+) loyalty ability is played, then we add that many loyalty counters to the creature. If a (-) loyalty ability is played, then we remove that many loyalty counters from the creature.

Remember that we can only play activated abilities if we can pay the cost, and loyalty abilities are activated abilities, so we can't play a (-) ability if we don't have enough counters.

306.5. Loyalty is a characteristic only planeswalkers have.

306.5a The loyalty of a planeswalker not on the battlefield is equal to the number printed in its lower right corner.

306.5b A planeswalker is treated as if its text box included, “This permanent enters the battlefield with a number of loyalty counters on it equal to its printed loyalty number.” This ability creates a replacement effect (see rule 614.1c).

306.5c The loyalty of a planeswalker on the battlefield is equal to the number of loyalty counters on it.

306.5d Each planeswalker has a number of loyalty abilities, which are activated abilities with loyalty symbols in their costs. Loyalty abilities follow special rules: A player may activate a loyalty ability of a permanent he or she controls any time he or she has priority and the stack is empty during a main phase of his or her turn, but only if none of that permanent’s loyalty abilities have been activated that turn. See rule 606, “Loyalty Abilities.”

As we can see, the loyalty of a planeswalker on the battlefield is linked to the number of loyalty counters on it. But nothing stops a non-planeswalker permanent from having loyalty counters or loyalty abilities.

However, as rule 306.5d indicates, all permanents with loyalty abilities, not just planeswalkers, may only use their loyalty abilities at sorcery speed and once per turn.