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Perfecting Your Neopet


by kspare2

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Many times I have come across a Neopian whose primary goal was to make their pet look fantastic. Now this is of course a great goal, and pets do look nice when they are customized, painted, and have a matching petpet/petpetpet. However, it seems that point is where the goal to create an acceptable Neopet ends for many users, and it is my opinion that such Neopets are seldom more than simply mediocre.

Some of these users save up many millions to get their Neopets to where they want to be, but the truth is that neopoints come and go. You may spend years saving up for your Draik, or you may easily restock the morphing potion, or even get it free through some lucky venue. That is to say: I can create a pet right now, and within five minutes, he or she can be painted an expensive color, be fully clothed, and have a Mootix attached to their Krawk petpet. These are instant Neopets, as is evident by the fact that it isn't uncommon for one of these pets to be less than a week old.

But what about those of us who do not aspire to have extremely expensive pets? Take my Greggzor, for example. Currently she is a White Peophin – a color that can be easily created for only 600,000 using a morphing potion. Compared to many of the elite colors, this is a fairly cheap price, but if I had the option to turn her into a Krawk or a Draik of any color completely free of charge, I would still opt to keep her a White Peophin. It is primarily for this reason that I believe creating "Super Neopets" is the way to go. Anyone can have a nicely colored and decorated Neopet at the snap of their fingers, but it takes time and dedication to build up a Neopet in such a way as to maximize his or her potential.

So with this, I bring to you a list of things that I believe all owners should do with their Neopet(s). Admittedly, these things may not be easy to do for those owners who have four pets, and for those I would recommend following through with these steps to a certain degree with all of the pets but going as far as possible with the favorite Neopet.

1. Train your Neopet.

This is definitely the most useful enhancement that you can make to your Neopet, and I would go so far as to argue that a Neopet with great battledome statistics is worth more than one that may be a restricted species or have an extremely expensive paint job. You have a few different options as far as training your Neopet goes. If you have access to laboratory ray, you can make your Neopet a lab rat and zap for stats, but you need to know ahead of time that doing this will most likely result in extremely uneven stats in the long run. There is absolutely nothing wrong with a pet that does have lab stats, unless you change your mind later on and decide to even out the stats. In short, it will be expensive! Also, having your pet as a lab rat could mean that it may be something cool like an MSP Poogle, but it could also be stuck as a Red Ogrin for months. Zap at your own risk.

If you would like to actively train your Neopet, you can take him in for training at Cap'n Threelegs' Swashbuckling Academy in Krawk Island, where you will be given the option to train your Neopet in exchange for dubloons. Alternatively, you can also opt to train at the Mystery Island Training School for codestones. Training with dubloons is slightly cheaper, but there is a greater waiting time in exchange for the bargain training. Additionally, the Academy can only train your Neopet up to level 40, so even if you start off with dubloon training, you may find yourself heading over to the Training School soon enough.

While I do encourage you to actively train your Neopet, lack of funds may come into the equation, but don't worry as there are still other ways to make your Neopet super strong! For example, completing Faerie Quests can increase your Neopet's stats. You may also get lucky and earn increased points randomly from such places as the Kitchen Quests and Coltzan's Shrine. You may also use certain items, like Armoured Neggs and Altador Strength Potions to gain increases, but these are only recommended for those who already have fairly strong battledome pets as they are quite pricey. If training seems expensive, that is because it definitely can be. But think about the plus side: If you train your Neopet enough, they will eventually reach the point where their trade value is worth as much (if not more) than a Draik, which is currently the most expensive Neopet to create.

2. Make your pet smart.

Intelligence is attractive. There are currently over 500 books in existence that cost under 1,000 neopoints, with some as low as 1 neopoint! With such affordable prices, there is no reason to not read to your Neopet. If you read your Neopet enough books, you may even find yourself with one of two reading trophies, although those trophies definitely do require many millions so they are not attainable by every Neopian.

3. Enter the Beauty Contest.

Beauty Contest trophies look awesome. Their prettiness and shininess easily attract attention. Even if you cannot draw nicely, I do encourage you to enter the Beauty Contest as it is more of a popularity contest than an art contest. This is a controversial topic as there are many Neopians who do not believe it is fair for those with inferior art to win the Beauty Contest. However, as the current Beauty Contest rules stand, users are the determining factor in who wins and who doesn't win. Most of the submitted entries are accepted into the contest. Even the worst of all artists stand a chance, as I can personally tell you that I have won with entries that I thought were terrible when I was up against others who clearly devoted a great amount of time and effort into their entries. If you do not win the first time, then keep on entering until you do! There are some species that have insanely difficult competition all the time, while others seem to seldom have any. Even with the same species, there is usually some variety week by week. I have seen some species have ten entries one week and only two the next.

4. Complete jobs.

Take your Neopet to the Faerieland Employment Agency where he can do some quick jobs to increase his job rank. Doing a few jobs a day only takes a couple of minutes, and you may even end up making a few quick neopoints. Jobs consist of finding a certain number of a particular item rather quickly and then returning to the job page to turn in the items. It is possible to make a large amount of neopoints if Super Jobs are completed, but I would highly recommend that beginners start off with Basic Jobs as it isn't always easy for beginners to get the hang of Super Jobs.

5. Take frequent trips to Ye Olde Fishing Vortex.

Along with increasing your pet's fishing level, you may also luck out and pull an unbuyable item, like the Flask of Rainbow Fountain Water, out of the water! However, if you are only trying to advance your Neopet to increase their tradability, then fishing isn't important as fishing levels reset once a Neopet is transferred to a new owner.

6. Look for other ways to get trophies on your pet's page.

Aside from the Beauty Contest, the other ways to get pet trophies are difficult, but they certainly aren't impossible. You can get another pet trophy by doing things like winning the Customization Spotlight or making it on the high score table for feeding Gourmet foods to your pet, reading books or by having a super old petpet that is chosen for spotlight by the Petpet Protection League. Now of course many of these are impossible unless you are extremely lucky or have an extreme amount of neopoints to spend, but you never know!

This officially marks the end of my guide, so I believe it is time for you to go on and start working on your Super Neopet! Training, drawing for the Beauty Contest, reading... The possibilities are endless.

 
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