Fantastic Trick-or-Treating

*SLAM*

Ah, looks like you didn’t properly trick-or-treat there, my candy loving friend! Yes, while Halloween poses a good example of a ‘free for all’ scenario, there are some serious tricks to getting the best treats. In order to get the best treats, without having to endure any tricks, you must perfect your Halloween plans! You can’t just go out there all willy nilly, expecting to get bag after bag of goodies. No! You must be skilled, cunning, and ready to go. Proper trick-or-treating takes planning, it takes talent! Both of which I guarantee that you don’t have. So what can you do? Read on, fellow trick-or-treaters, read on! For this guide will teach you everything you need to know to gain the maximum candy result you can.

Halloween is the one day in the year that you can be anything you want to. Fyora could be a farmer, Illusen could be Jhudora, and Jelly World, well, it could be real. While you could shell out tons of neopoints to transform your color, or species, the best way to do things is to make, or buy, your own fabulous Halloween costume.

Uni’s Clothing already provides an assortment of costumes for you to browse through. The list is long, and includes some of the best; the Blue Wocky Costume, a classic for the pet who wants to be someone else, the Jazan Costume (Ooo, scary!), the Scarblade Costume, and many more. All costumes are hand crafted and ready to go! Each costume varies in price, providing a spectacular range for neopets of all walks of life.

Of course, buying your Halloween costume might not be your thing! The creative neopet knows that you can turn almost anything into art, and the same goes for costuming. All you really need is a pocket full of change, and a few hours to browse through the market place. Can’t think of anything good to create? I’ve listed a few ideas below!

You can turn yourself into anything with just a blanket and a mask! Masks range from battledome equipment to toys, try strapping on some of the following; the 100% Fake Uni Mask, the Mask of Coltzan, the Uni Face Shield (for that dramatic masquerade look), and the Happy Chia Mask. Are masks not your thing? Sew up your blankets and strap on a Fake Uni Hat for that one of a kind ‘I Failed Neoschool’ look!

For the classic country look, grab yourself a Straw Hat, a Yellow Aisha T-shirt, a pair of Denim Coveralls, some Garden Gloves, and a pair of Wellington boots. Stuff your clothing full of copies of old issues of the Neopian Times, and manage yourself a pair of Hedge Shears. Congratulations! You’ve just turned yourself into a scarecrow!

Alright, so you’ve gotten yourself the best costume you can possibly find. It really should be good; Neopians don’t give out candy to bad costumes! (You want candy, right?) Yes, the real point here is candy. Candy makes the world go round. It provides endless jobs for Dentists and gives shopkeepers joy when shoppers buy in bulk. Candy is important, but to get the best candy you must choose the best route. Take a moment to look around yourself. Where do you live? Your surroundings gravely reflect your candy intake. They tell you exactly where you can go, and what you’re going to get when you go there! Take Faerieland for example: you aren’t going to find any chocolate bars there! No, you’ll most likely receive things such as Lemon Nova Pops, and Gummy Fyora Wings. The area you choose defines the treats you will get, so choose wisely. It’s rare that you’ll be able to visit every location in Neopia, so choose the places you want to hit the most! If you’re interested in just the old favorites, choose Neopia Central. If you’re intrigued by other taste sensations, places like Tyrannia would be just fine for you! Whatever you want, choose up to three places and plan your desired route. You have better things to move on to now!

Now that you know exactly where you are going to go for your candy experience, gather a few essentials. A fun Halloween is a safe Halloween, and don’t you forget it! Keeping yourself safe and secure is important, so make sure you are well prepared and ready to go. Always have with you a source of light! Neopia has an assortment of great lanterns to light your way, so look carefully to find the best one for you. Try out the Shadow Lantern to add some ghoul to your evening, or the classic Apple Lantern Lantern for something simple.

Always go trick-or-treating with a friend! There is safety in numbers, and you can always count on your friends to trade you the good stuff for things that you don’t like. Besides, what’s a better way to introduce your petpet to Halloween than going in a group with other assorted little friends? You wouldn’t think of leaving your little buddy behind, would you? If you do plan on taking your fun and fuzzies along, always make sure to bring some supplies for them too! Don’t forget a water dish, and a carrier for when they get tired.

Yes! Add another checkmark down on your list!

“Excuse me, but we were supposed to have a list?”

List? Oh, well I guess I never mentioned that. Take a moment to create a list now and add a check beside ‘Safety’! We are now well on our way to the perfect trick-or-treating scenario. The only thing left to cover is the candy. Mm, candy. *drool*

Now I’m sure that you’ve been trick-or-treating before. You step up the door of your neighbors, ring the bell and sing your rhyme, “Trick-or-treat, smell my feet, give me something good to eat!”

*SLAM*

Yes, here we are again, back at the starting point where I found you. How could you possibly sing that horrible song!? Let’s take a clean look at trick-or-treating etiquette; no matter what you do, don’t sing that song! That age old rhyme is an automatic deal breaker. No one wants to hand out candy when they are faced with such a bold and crude attempt at a request. Try it again, and this time, remember that you only need three little words, “Trick-or-treat!” When you say them, try and sound enthusiastic! You’re getting candy for gosh sakes, and it’s free!

As you go from house to house, you will always get treats you don’t like. Over the many years I’ve handed out candy to trick-or-treaters on my doorstep, I’ve seen all sorts of things in their bags. You have your regulation candy, your spooky foods, sugarless (yuck!), toothbrushes (weird...), and the dreaded apples. Who would give anyone an apple on Halloween!? Have no fear! I have a plan for every treat on the menu!

Let’s start with the Chocolates; delicious solid chocolate candies, often decorated with exciting new flavors. Most items in the Chocolates category are pretty easy to identify by their sweet savory scents, and designs made in Neopet shapes. Chocolates come in white, milk, dark, mint, orange, and mixed. All Chocolates are delicious, and it is my personal recommendation to keep them all and eat them. Chocolates are the best kind of Halloween treat, and often, the most plentiful.

Our second category is the Gummies; soft, squishy, and often fruit flavored, Gummies stick to your teeth and can melt in warm climates. While Gummies are delicious to eat, I would avoid them if you had large sets of teeth with crevasses that are hard to get in. The flavors of Gummies are all over the map. They cover every known fruit, sodas, and come in shapes ranging from pets, to Battledome equipment. Gummies are nice, but I would suggest taking a ruin proof bag along with you to sift out the Gummies from the rest of your candies. After a few houses, go through your sack and pile these chewy treats into your separate designated bag. This may seem like a lot of work, but you’ll save yourself some trouble when you go home that night.

Our third delicious category is Lollypops; these hard candies on a stick are handy to eat and last longer than other candies. Lollypops are definitely keepers, but I wouldn’t suggest them for Lennies, Pteris, or pets that are painted Baby. Lollypops come in hundreds of exciting shapes and flavors. These are easy to grab and store well with the rest of the candy in your bag.

Our forth scrumptious example of candy life is the Hard Candies. Like Lollypops, Hard Candies last a long time, and are easy to keep in your bag with other treats. Unlike Lollypops though, Hard Candies have no stick, and are sometimes very small. Keeping track of these treats is sometimes tricky. After trick-or-treating is over, always make sure you are watching the younger Neopians when they are snacking on these rough delights. Hard Candies include items such as a Handful of Humbugs, Sour Candy Hearts, Gemmy Beans, and the ever favored Grarrl Gobstopper line.

Our fifth category isn’t that great, for who really wants Sugarless candy? The Sugarless line isn’t always easy to tell. The best way to find a Sugarless candy is to sniff them out. Do they smell sweet? Or do they smell bitter and listless? If you can’t figure out from the smell or looks, take a tiny bit of the treat’s corner and taste it. Sugarless candies taste bitter, or simply like the item they are shaped as. Sugarless candies really are a waste. If you don’t want them try giving them to your parents, or pawning them off on a friend!

Hmm, what can you say about the Spooky Foods? Halloween is one of the best times to be out and about and find Spooky Foods everywhere. Many Neopians often load off their Spooky Foods on unsuspecting trick-or-treaters. I, however, keep my Spooky Foods, and you should too! It has come to my attention to never waste a Spooky Food, no matter what it is. If you can’t eat it, then you could always use it for a quest, or even sell the item. There are some Spooky Foods, though, that you shouldn’t overlook, these are actually very delicious, and provide sometimes awesome sustenance for the on the go trick-or-treater. Some of the safe candies would include the Ghost Puff, Pink Spooky Floss, Ghost Marshmallows, and the Chocolate Covered Peanuts. Always take the looks and name into consideration. While there is tons of Spooky Food I’d never eat, a lot of it is pretty good. Another couple good items you might get are the Spooky Shake and Chilled Eyeball Custard. Both of these delicious drinks should be accepted and sipped as you walk from house to house.

Finally, our last category is the Apples. Apples, well, what can we say about apples? Not much really, except that we don’t want them on Halloween. Don’t throw your apples away, though! Save them for school the next day or for a healthy snack when you are on the go.

The key rule here is to never throw away any treat you receive on Halloween! All these treats can be used to some extent. When you get home, take a moment to look through your treats carefully. Is there anything that is strange, unusual, and something you haven’t seen before? Store these items away safely in your fridge, and check the shop wizard the next day to find out their prices. You may just get a few good sellers on your hands!

Any apples you receive are to be kept as well. Give them to your parents, health conscious friends, and teachers. If no one will accept them, just sell the things. You don’t have to eat your apples every day!

Now comes down to the real reason you brought some friends along; trading. Trading your candies for candies you like better has been a favorite trick-or-treat pass time for ages! Let’s take a moment here to look at the candy hierarchy, though; when dealing with candy, it pays to scrutinize. Take a simple Chocolate Bar, for example; a Chocolate Bar is one item. It has nothing special about it, making it worth one candy point. If you were to say, want a mint filled chocolate, you would need two Chocolate Bars to properly trade. What if you had a gummy that was covered in chocolate and filled with nougat? While it’s an unlikely combination, this treat would be worth three candy points, giving you the rights to three Chocolate Bars. Always consider what is in your candies before trading for another candy. You don’t want to end Halloween with less than your worth, do you? No way! Halloween is about getting, and trading to get more! Forget everything you were taught in school, Halloween is truly about free candy, the best ways to get it, and how much you can get in one night. I hope you enjoyed this guide, and will take my knowledge into consideration when trick-or-treating on that fateful night. Have a safe and happy Halloween!