Hungry Pirates Equal High Payouts?!

As a proud and devoted Neopian, you know that you always want the best for your pets! You want to be able to dress them in the best clothes, paint them the coolest colors and equip them with the strongest Battledome items. However, if you can’t bear another game of Meerca Chase and restocking just isn’t your thing, it's time to get more creative with your neopoint collecting methods!

This is where the ‘Food Club’ comes in! Many users are oblivious to this wonderful money-making tactic, so I have decided to step in and raise awareness about this fun competition.

What is it?

The Food Club is a competition between pirates to see who can eat the most per match. You bet on the pirate that you think will eat the most in his designated area and if the pirate that you have placed your bet on wins, you can win yourself a hefty sum of neopoints!

When and how can I play?

Matches are held once a day. The time and date of the next match can be found in bold letters at the top of the main page of the food club. Every match is divided into five sections, with pirates competing against each other in each section. You can see these five sections as well as the pirates competing in them by clicking the ‘Next Round’ link at the top of the page. These five sections are: Shipwreck, Lagoon, Treasure Island, Hidden Cove and Harpoon Harry’s. You can choose to place a bet on a pirate in one, two, three, four or all five of these sections. You will see that in each section, there are four pirates and ten possible courses. These are two key parts of the competition.

How do I choose which pirate to place my bet on?

It is very important to not only think about which pirate you want to place your bet on, but also what courses may be served during this match. Every pirate has certain favourite foods, which they will eat much more efficiently than other pirates. However, every pirate also has allergies. If the pirate that you choose to place your bet on is allergic to the food being served during the match, chances are, he won’t do too well. It is also important to take into consideration the pirates’ strength and weight, but their favourites and allergies are the most important factor. You can see all the required information by clicking the ‘Pirates’ link at the top of the page and then clicking the name of the pirate you’re interested in betting on. For example, if I was interested in betting on Sir Edmund Ogletree and I saw that the courses in my match consisted mainly of dairy foods, I would click on his name and it would come up with this information:

Don't let this blueblood's manners fool you; when it's time to eat, he's as tough as they come.

Strength: 79

Weight: 177

Favourites: Dairy

Allergies: Breads (pastries, pancakes, etc.)

Wins: 602

Losses: 1607

Now I know that Sir Edmund Ogletree’s favourite foods are dairy products. I also know that many of the foods in my match are dairy foods, so I would be sure that I want to place my bet on this pirate.

Help! How do I know which foods fall under which category?

To see which category foods fall under in this competition, you can either click the ‘Courses’ link at the top of the page, or you can click on the course names when you’re looking at individual matches. Clicking on either one of these links should bring you to a page which has a picture of the course, its name and its type. Some courses can fall under more than one type. For example, the ‘Broccoli and Cheese Pizza’. This falls under three type: Vegetables, Dairy and Pizza.

But what happens if a certain food’s type is both a pirate’s favourite AND his allergy?!

This can happen with many pirates. I’ll be using Lucky McKyriggan as an example. His favourites are gross foods and his allergies are pizza. Now, let's say that we have ‘Fungi Pizza’ as one of our courses. Fungi Pizza is a gross food AND a pizza. In this case, we’ll have to look at the other courses being offered. If there are many gross foods as possible courses in this match, I’d suggest sticking with Lucky McKyriggan. However, if you see that there are lots of pizzas being offered, it would probably be wise to place your bet on somebody else.

What if two pirates in a match both have the same amount of favourite courses in a match?

Alright, let's take the scenario where you’re betting on a match where Lucky McKyriggan and Sir Edmund Ogletree are competing against each other. Now, let's say that half of the possible courses are Gross foods and the other half are Dairy products. The first thing you should do is check out who has the most allergies on the board. Lets say that there is one pizza and three breads. In this case you should go with Lucky McKyriggan. He is allergic to pizza, while Sir Edmund is allergic to breads. There are many more breads in the possible courses so it would be a smarter choice to stick with Lucky. However, assuming that there are equal amounts of both pirates’ allergies, this is where you would compare the two pirates’ strength and weight. Lucky has a strength of 82 and a weight of 182 while Sir Edmund has a strength of 79 and a weight of 177. In this case, judging purely by strength and weight, you should place your bet on Lucky McKyriggan.

So I’ve decided which pirate I want to place my bet on... Now what?

Now that you’ve thoroughly researched each pirate in the match(es) that you want to bet on, as well as the possible courses that may be offered in each match, you are ready to click on the link at the top of the page that says ‘Place A Bet’. On this page, it will tell you the highest amount of neopoints that you are allowed to bet. To calculate this amount yourself, use this formula:

50 + ( 2 * the amount of days you have been playing )

Now, by checking off the little boxes next to the name of each area, you can specify which areas you want to place a bet in. In the ‘winning pirate’ column, you will be choosing the name of the pirate that you want to place your bet on. You will see a ratio next to your pirate’s name. This ratio pretty much means:

Chances of this pirate losing : Chances of this pirate winning

You can use these ratios to help you choose the pirate that you will be betting on, but these ratios are not set in stone and they may fluctuate throughout the day.

Alright, well, I’ve researched, made an educated guess and crossed my fingers! What now?

Once you’ve clicked the ‘Place this bet!’ button at the bottom of the ‘Place your bet’ page, all that is left to do is wait for the match to take place. Once this has happened, you can press the ‘Collect Winnings’ button to see if you have any winnings to collect. Hopefully, you’ll be pleasantly surprised at this point. Good luck!

But Remember!

Like with any other luck game, you can win big, but there is a good chance that you will lose as well. Know that you might not have any winnings to collect after your first, second or even third try! Do not spend all of your neopoints betting on pirates, unless you are sure that you can afford to lose them. I would suggest starting with small bets of 5 or 10 neopoints until you are sure that you really understand the concept of the game. Most of all, remember that its all for fun!

If you have any other questions or comments about this guide, feel free to neomail me. Happy gaming!