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FAERIELAND EMPLOYMENT AGENCY – Picture this scenario. You, the Neopet, had just
opened the doors to Faerieland’s own Employment Agency when you are suddenly sucked
into a crowd frantically making its way to the bulletin board. You push and shove
and inch your way closer to the front of the crowd in hopes of getting a job offer.
But all of a sudden, the entire crowd rushes into the other direction, and you’re
soon covered with paw prints after an incredible trampling. Undergoing great physical
pain, you crawl the rest of the distance to the board only to find it devoid of
any offers (save for those jobs that require those uber-rare coupons).
Depressing, isn’t it? However, it can be a lot worse. Picture yourself rushing
to the Agency carrying (Fyora forbid!) four Dung Chairs. You make it to the
front counter to turn your stuff in, only to find that you’re three seconds
late! That will teach you not to stop at the Pizzaroo for a short snack during
a job! Because you’ve failed your mission, you’re stuck with these abominable
pieces of furniture and a burning hole in your pocket. It’ll take you nearly
an eternity to sell these disgusting items in your shop (and it’ll take you
4 months to get rid of that smell!).
Okay, show of hands. Have any of you Neopians out there ever experienced a
variant of these two horrific scenarios? If so, then you’ll definitely need
to continue reading this article! I, Masarabu, spotted Aisha and gaming expert,
shall guide you on the road to becoming an expert job surfer in a matter of
a few paragraphs!
First of all, you’ll want to be carrying an adequate amount of Neopoints in
hand when you first stop at the Employment Agency. You’ll find it very inconvenient
and very annoying when you run out of NP in the middle of buying items for your
job.
Secondly, if you seriously want to get a chance of plucking a job off the board,
you’ll want to be at the Agency EXACTLY when the faeries working there start
to post the offers. Thanks to a certain punctual system that they follow, the
faeries always post offers every 10 minutes (i.e. whenever the clock’s minute
hand reads :00, :10, :20, :30, :40, and :50). Make sure that you get to the
agency about one to three minutes early so that you’ll be prepared to make a
rush to the board when the jobs start pouring in. You don’t want to get sucked
into a rampaging crowd like that in the first scenario!
Now comes the hard part of getting a job. You’ll have to compete against other
pets who are also snatching offers off of a board that starts to become more
and more empty with each passing second. The trick here is to notice that the
faeries always post the jobs in sets of tens. The jobs that are posted in the
first two sets will be immediately taken, whereas those jobs in the later sets
will last for a slightly longer time. Therefore, you’ll want to skip the first
20 jobs (the first two sets) and start looking at those jobs in the third and
fourth sets. Go a bit over this range, and you’ll risk seeing a set devoid of
any offers. Go for one of the first 20 jobs, and you’ll risk having some agile
Mynci snatch the offer right underneath your paws.
If you want to make a profit out of the Employment Agency, you’ll need to carefully
analyze the job that you are planning to take. Try using the following two steps
when considering which job to take.
Step 1: Look at the item that you need, the quantity of the item you need,
and the reward you’ll get for completing the job. Think whether or not you’ll
make a profit from doing this job (this may require you to have a basic understanding
of the general prices of the items in Neopia). Don’t worry if you think you’ll
end up spending more NP than that posted in the reward. If you do your job quickly
and if the difference is only a few hundred NP, you’ll receive a bonus that
will most likely compensate for the excess NP spent! And speaking of bonuses,
this leads me to the next step…
Step 2: Take a look at how much time you are given for your job. There are
time bonuses given if you can complete the job quickly, but take note that the
bonuses are based on the percentage of time you have left. For instance, you’ll
receive a larger bonus for completing a 60-minute job in two minutes then if
you completed a 10-minute job (with the same rewards as the other job, of course)
in two minutes. Also, don’t forget to consider whether you can complete the
job in the given amount of time. Generally, it should take you 2-5 minutes to
complete a job (provided that you aren’t distracted by the delectable smells
at the Pizzaroo!). If you take a job that needs to be completed in about 20-60
minutes, you’ll be able to receive a substantial bonus when you complete it.
Attempting a job that requires 6-15 minutes may risk not getting a bonus at
all. And unless you’re as fast as a Mynci, I’d advise you to stay away from
the jobs that only allow 1-5 minutes of completion time. It’s likely that you’ll
end up getting a ‘failure’ stamped in your résumé immediately before you step
out of the Agency after taking up a short-on-time job!
Got those two steps in your head? Good. Now look at the job offers and think
of these steps in two to five seconds. Yes, you’ll need to be quick in your
thinking process! Take too long thinking and that job will disappear right in
front of your eyes. However, don’t be too quick, or you might carelessly jump
into a hard-to-complete job.
If you’ve followed my tips correctly, then you should have a job with a substantial
reward and a fair amount of time. The rest should be a piece of cake for you
now! Make a mad dash to the Shop Wizard’s tent without being lured into the
other miscellaneous shops at the Central and the Bazaar. Now just tell him what
you need, and that Jubjub will helpfully provide you with the list of shops
that stock that item. Just remember that the Shop Wizard only searches a small
section of all the user shops that exist in Neopia, so you may have to ask him
to show you some more lists in case you don’t like the prices on the first list.
There are three types of user shops that you’ll want to target when doing a
job.
Type 1: Shops that carry the item you need at a low quantity, but a very cheap
price.
Type 2: Shops that carry the item at a high quantity, but at a medium price
range.
Type 3 (the best one): Shops that are a mixture of types 1 and 2, having the
item you need at high quantities at a very low price.
Do some quick shopping, return to the agency, and turn in your items to get
a very handsome reward! If you followed my advice correctly, you should have
made a profit of about 500-1500 NP (maybe a bit less/more). And that’s just
for one job! Don’t forget that you can attempt a maximum of five jobs a day.
Thus, if you play your cards right, you can make a ton of NP from just taking
up jobs at the Employment Agency!
Of course, if you’ve failed to follow my advice and have received a job that
allows only two minutes to complete the job or will cause you to lose a significant
sum of NP, you can always cancel the job for 200 NP. It’s a small price to pay,
but it’s better than getting a ‘failure’ stamped in your résumé.
I hope that all my tips will help you utilize the Agency to your advantage.
I bid you good luck in job surfing!
~Masarabu
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