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5 things to do AFTER you get your dream pet


by _mg

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     So you have spent months or even years working hard to get that special pet that you have always dreamt of. You might have played thousands of games and lived your Neo life on a tight budget to save for that paint brush or morphing potion. Or you were constantly on the Neoboards, trying to trade for your "dreamie". Maybe you were even lucky enough to be able to adopt the perfect pet. It sure feels good to accomplish our goals! But. . . now, what?

     It is common to feel lost without a clear goal to pursue. Because of that, I suggest 10 activities for all different types of Neopians to spoil their dream pets and keep you occupied!

     1 - Train your pet

     

     What if your pet is a fighting type? In that case, training him for the Battledome might be the perfect activity. This is a long term activity that requires a lot of dedication and money! In the beginning, your pet can study in the Swashbuckling Academy. There, you pay for his training with Dubloons. Later on, your pet will have to move to a higher-level school, and you will have to use several codestones to pay with it. The stronger your pet gets, the more NPs you have to use for his training!

     And what are the benefits of that? First of all, you will be able to beat some pretty tough Battledome challengers, which can get you NP and item prizes, as well as some avatars. You can also participate in the Obelisk Skirmishes, a Battledome event that happens every 15 days. The stronger your pet is, the more opponents you can beat and the higher are your chances of you team winning the Skirmish, and then you can get some very nice boons.

     But most important, you will prove your love for your pet providing him with extensive care and transforming him into a rare, strong pet!

     

     The Battledome is not for everyone, though. What about training your pet’s intelligence, then? That is also a type of training that will grant your pet amazing rare stats!

     There are some items that you can use for that. The most common and better valued ones are the Elixir of Intellect, the Genius Negg and the Sparkle Potion.

     Besides, you should read your pets lots of books! Book in Neopia can range a lot in price, from a cheap couple NPs to insanely rare ones that could cost over millions. Nonetheless, all of them will increase your pet’s intelligence in either 1 or 2 points. If you read books enough, you might even get a shiny trophy! Which leads us to our next topic. . .

     2- Pet trophies

     

     There is a variety of pet trophies available. Unlike user trophies, they are not displayed in your userlookup, but in your pet lookup. They involve many different types of activities, from expensive ones to artistic ones to random ones.

     If you are willing to spend some Neopoints, you can seek either the Neopian Book Award or the Booktastic Book Award by reading lots and lots of books to your pet. Or if he is not an intellectual type, you can feed him many types of Gourmet Foods and hope for a Gourmet Award.

     If you like developing characters and writing, you can submit an entry and, if you are chosen, you can receive a Pet or Petpet Spotlight Trophy.

     If you are into either NP or NC customisation, you prepare a stunning look to your pet and submit him to the Customisation Spotlight. If other Neopians agree with your fashion choices and vote for you, your pet might get the Customisation Spotlight Award.

     And if you love art and drawing, a very fun activity is to enter your pet in the Beauty Contest. If your art receives enough votes, your pet will get a shiny trophy for his cabinet.

     A pet lookup full of trophies sure is impressive, and will make you feel very accomplished.

     3- Art/design

     

     Maybe after trying the Beauty Contest you might feel in the mood for a little more drawing. In that case, a popular and rewarding activity is to make art of your Neopet, showcasing him in a variety of poses, situations, outfits… your imagination is the limit!

     Many users even enjoy creating unique character designs for that pet. That means that they create special visual elements that are trademarks of their pet, and there will be no other pet like theirs! For example, maybe your pet has a favorite hat, so in all his artwork he is depicted using that hat. Or, let’s say your pet is very shy. In that case, you could portray that visually by drawing him blushing, or looking to the ground. It’s even possible that your pet has their own special marking. For example, suppose you had a Gelert that fought in The Wraith Resurgence. You could add a nice scar to his art to symbolize that, so in every drawing he would have the same scar in the same position. This can make your pet truly stand out from the crowd!

     Furthermore, you can then display your art in your pet lookup or pet page, showing everyone how cool and unique they are. This activity can be for everyone, regardless of artistic abilities. What matters is having fun and putting effort into your pet!

     4- Writing

     

     Another activity for people with artistic tendencies is writing about their pet. In order to do that, first you have to build a character for your pet. Ask yourself basic questions about him, such as: where does he come from? Where does he live? What are his goals? What is his personality like? What are his relationships?

     Then, with that information in your mind, you can start thinking of a plot! Maybe you can start with a story that introduces your character. Then, he might go on adventures, or have to solve some problems. Start introducing the situation, rise the emotions in a climax, and then resolve everything -- sounds simple when I say it, right? Your story can be as short or as long as you feel like it. If you feel very inspired, you can even try things besides prose, such as a comic or a poem.

     One very cool thing to do is to intertwine two or more of your pets stories! Maybe they live in the same city, and are best friends who have adventures together. Or no, they are terrible rivals who want to prove themselves better than the other. Either way, this is a nice way of adding more characters to your plot.

     And then, you can display your writing in your pet lookup or pet page. Maybe you can even submit it to the Neopian Times!

     5- Pet page

     

     And lastly, you can create an awesome pet page to display what your pet is all about! There are many different ways to do that, as a pet page is basically a blank space where you can do whatever you want.

     The first thing to consider is the CSS and layout. If you are not into CSS and webdesign, you can just take a layout from a premade layout site and move on. There are many of those in Neopia with incredible designs!

     But it can also be very satisfying to build your own page from scratch and personalize it to your needs and ideas. You can either start learning it with a simple but clean and useful design or challenge yourself with more elaborate and complex coding ideas. Both styles can look very good! Besides the coding itself, you will also have to choose decorations such as a color scheme, fonts and images. It would be ideal to try your best to match those with your pet, so it really feels like his own page.

     After considering the layout, you will have to insert the actual content. For that, you can add both art and writing related to your pet. So, if you have done activities 3 and 4, this will be a piece of cake for you. Otherwise, it is never too late to start! It is also nice to think of an introduction and summary of your pet, so that other people can easily understand what your pet is all about.

     No matter what type of pet owner you are, certainly at least one of those activities will fit your style! I hope that you can spend time with your pet, give him everything he deserves and, most of all, have fun!

 
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