"To be, or not to be..."
--The famous Sir Phamlet Shoyru in 89BN.
Use what? The Neolodge of course! Being a part of Neopia, Neopians are generally
classified into two types: Pet Lovers and Money Makers.
But why these two categories? If you love your NeoPets, obviously you'd leave
them around you at all costs and most probably wouldn't send them away except
when you're really too busy or if you're off on holidays. Also, you'd feed them
daily, and play with them often. If you're a Money Maker, you'd most probably
be putting your pets into the Neolodge. The lodge would then feed them, so you
don't have to look after them and can concentrate on earning NP.
However, have you ever thought of who benefits most in Neopia? Pet Lovers or
Money Makers?
Remember there are lots of "free services" around Neopia, now just to list
a few:
Completely free + fast services
Island Tombola - chance to get some rare items (e.g. Codestones, Paintbrushes,
Faeries), if you don't win, you still get some island merchandise in return
Desert Fruit Machine - chance of getting a kind of desert fruit! Depends
on your luck for the day
Desert Shrine - now that it is open, King Coltzan's shrine may increase
pet's stats, or maybe something else...
Snowager - if you know its sleeping times, then you have a chance of running
away with a rare item :)
With a little bit of NP, Time, and Effort
Switch-A-Roo - if you 've been on NeoPets for a while, this game is easy
NP-making :)
Grundo's Gym - you can complete one level in every 24 hrs. Get a membership
card each time you complete 5 levels, then after that, you 'll get 1000 times
the number of membership cards you have as bonus! (i.e. if you have 15 membership
cards, that's 15000 NP per day!)
Wheel of Excitement - bet 100 NP, you have chance to win 10000 NP (ie earn
9900 NP), or have an item stolen by the pant devil, or even a lava ghoul burning your pets, so watch out
Wheel of Mediocrity - bet 50 NP, the max NP you can win is 200 NP (i.e.
earn 150 NP), or you might even win a PetPet--who knows?
The best free service I can think of...
FREE OMELETTES from the Tyrannian Plateau! You can get one omelette for free
each day~ but one only (don't get greedy and attempt to get more than one slice!
Sabre-S will stop you!) Each omelette feeds 3 of your pets (i.e. can be eaten
3 times before it disappears)
Ok, now, I'll use an example to decide whether using the Neolodge is better
off or not. Say we now have 3 NeoPets to take care of...
Neolodge as Costs
- If you put your pets in Cockroach Towers with no extensions, each pet will
cost you 5 NP per night.
- Putting all 3 of them into the Neolodge would cost you 15 NP per night.
- For 14 days, you have to pay 210 NP in total. This way, you don't have to feed your pets at all (i.e. they wouldn't starve) and you can still play with them anytime you want
Omelettes as Costs
- Get one free each day from the Tyrannian Plateau
- Omelettes cost around 12-18 NP, depending on which types of omelette you have
- Some might cost more than others (e.g. cheese omelette cost hundreds of NP)
Analysis:
If you use the Neolodge to take care of your pets, it will cost you 15 NP per
day. If at the same time you take an omelette every day and sell it, you will
probably earn around 15 NP in return per day. In other words, omelettes and
the Neolodge would cancel each other out.
If you decide not to use the Neolodge, and sell your omelettes, you 'll earn 15 NP
per day from your omelette However, you will then have to find external food
source for your pets.
Comparing Profit: Regular foods (from the food shop or marketplace)
such as carrot and broccoli cost at least 7 NP each from the main shop, and
up to 35 NP from the marketplace. The cheapest foods nowadays are probably can
of prune juice and tin of olives - the booby prizes you get from the Island
Tombola. Comparing to regular foods, canned foods are obviously much more cheaper.
They range from round 1-2 NP each and you can feed them to 1 pet at a time (feed
once and food will disappear).
If you feed your pets regular food, food will cost you around 21 NP each day (3 x
7 NP) Whereas if you feed them canned foods, food will only cost 3-6 NP per day
(3 x 1 NP or 3 x 2 NP)
Therefore, when using the Neolodge and selling omelettes, both cancel out to
give you zero profit (no profit). With Neopians not using the Neolodge and selling
omelettes, firstly they earn 15 NP, and they can still earn around 4 NP economic
profit (7 NP - 2 NP) from food consumption.
Now, who's better off?
Remember, whether your pets are in the Neolodge or not, you can still actually
play with your pets or give it toys or an Usuki doll, or even feed them luxury
foods. However, when you think about the about living standards, I strongly
believe your pets would prefer to live with you at your NeoHome instead of the
Neolodge!
As mentioned above, Pet Lovers might have to spend lots of NP on feeding pets,
buying toys etc. Whereas Money Makers tend to save money by putting their pets
into the Neolodge, then find rare items (unbuyables etc.) to earn lots of NP.
What do you see from this information?
It is your decision - to be a Pet Lover, or to be Money Maker. Thus,
"to use, or not to use", that is the question.
(Thanks go to our greatest Shop Wizards from the various worlds for providing
price figures for my analysis ^_^) | 
