A Great Guide to Birthday Gifts

Well, you get my point; what will you do about gifts? Typical birthday gifts include codestones, bottled faeries, Battledome items, petpets, paintbrushes; the list goes on and on. However, these items can run you up over 100,000 + neopoints! Per birthday boy/girl! This is a poor person’s guide to making your friend’s birthday gifts special and unique (not to mention cheap).

If you have:

0 Neopoints to spend per person

First, you’ll want to play some games to make about thirteen to eighteen thousand neopoints. Good games to play are: Kass Basher (commonly known as Whack-a-Kass - 3,000 neopoints, if you score above an 869 while the neopoint to point ratio is 1.15 or greater), Meerca Chase (3,000 neopoints if you score above a 518 while the neopoint to point ratio is 1.93 or greater), Caves and Corridors (3,000 neopoints if you score above a 322 while the neopoint to point ratio is 3.10 or greater), Math’s Nightmare (3,000 neopoints if you finish the first level or score above 319 while the neopoint to point ratio is 3.13 or greater) and the Featured Game of the day (up to 6,000 neopoints!). If these games don’t ‘work’ for you, you can always try and find some games that do suit you. After you gain about 13,000 neopoints or greater, proceed to the next section. Onward!

13,000+ Neopoints to spend per person

You’re really not that poor! :) You cannot even eat from the Soup Kitchen! Your assignment is to find a certain ‘category’ that your friend really likes; a gallery topic or just a random infatuation.

After you have earned your neopoints, and done your research on your friend’s interests, we are going to do a little shopping.

There are so many good birthday items and presents scattered throughout Neopia. You’ll want to try and aim to buy:

1. At least 1 ‘cake’ item – this is just kind of like the traditional birthday cake. Cake items are colorful, and will make your gift shine.

2. At least 2 ‘balloon’ items – these are just fun, and add a signature ‘birthday’ touch to your gift.

3. About 1-2 ‘training’ items – this is the most expensive part; it’ll probably cost you around 2000-11000 neopoints to buy a codestone/bottled faerie/dubloon (depending on which types you buy). These are helpful to anyone; even if your gift receiver doesn’t train their pets or their pet’s level is too high to be trained with normal codestones, a person can always sell them.

4. 1-3 ‘unique’ items – these should be items from your friend’s wishlist, gallery-themed items, or items you just think your friend would like. Lots of times there are items that you can find that your friend doesn’t have in their gallery, or a cheaper gift from their wish list. Also, if you see an item your friend would like, that’s not on their wish list and isn’t gallery-themed, get it for them anyways.

5. 1 Happy Birthday Card! – This is a must-have for every birthday! A Happy Birthday Card is a must-have. It is like the icing on a cake.

Pretty and colorful inexpensive cake items are: “Slice of Neopets 7th Birthday Cake” (approximately 125 neopoints each), “Large Slice of Neopets 5th Birthday Cake” (approximately 900 neopoints each), and “Neopets 7th Birthday Cake” (approximately 215 neopoints each).

Cheap but pretty balloon items are: “Spotted Neopets 7th Birthday Balloon” (approximately 100 neopoints each), “Xepru Balloon” (approximately 900 neopoints each), “Blue Birthday Balloon” (about 500 neopoints each), or just the traditional “Balloons”, available in ‘Gifts Galore’ or in many Neopians’ shops for the meager fare of approximately 5 neopoints. Each of the balloon items can be substituted with a ‘birthday blower’ (“Yellow Birthday Blower” is approximately 300 neopoints each) or a ‘party hat’ (“Yellow Party Hat” is approximately 2000 neopoints each).

Good training items range from Bottled Faeries (2200-5000 neopoints each) to the more expensive codestones (5900-11000 neopoints each; Har and Tai-Kai are the cheapest at 5900 neopoints and 7600 neopoints respectively) and dubloons (approximately 3000 neopoints per 2 Dubloon coin).

Wishlist items are often somewhat expensive (if they were so cheap your friend would just buy them whenever he/she wanted to, they wouldn’t be wish list items, now would they?), so if you can’t find one or two items that are inexpensive enough, go ‘window shopping’ in Neopia’s market place and find a couple cute items you think your friend would like a lot. After that, just use your best pal the Shop Wizard to find yourself the best deals on those items you selected, and you’re set!

Last, but certainly not least, you need the traditional ‘Happy Birthday Card,’ which is available in Gifts Galore, and in many shops for the small amount of approximately one hundred neopoints.

Assuming I bought the cheapest item(s) (per category) off this list (1 “Slice of Neopets 7th Birthday Cake,” 1 “Spotted Neopets 7th Birthday Balloon,” 1 “Balloons,” 2 “Bottled Earth Faerie,”), it would total cost me 10730 neopoints, assuming your unique item(s) cost(s) a total of 6000 neopoints.

So there you have it! It’s not impossible, you can give a great assortment of birthday gifts for 18,000 neopoints or less! And even if you end up only able to make 5,000 neopoints and give a cheap birthday gift, a One Dubloon Coin among Royal Paint Brushes, as long as it comes from the heart, your friend will enjoy it.

If you have any questions about gifts, you need help regarding neopoint ratios, or you have comments about this article, feel free to neomail me!

This is my first (and hopefully not my last!) guide, so I hope you enjoyed it!