Navigation

Welcome

Are you new to Neopets? Back from a hiatus? Or is it simply your first time venturing into the wild world of the Pound Chat? Either way, you'll find all sorts of help regarding what you need to know here. I realize that this guide is.. fairly long. I go into so much depth so that all of your questions are answered before you even have to ask them. I promise that if you take time out to read through this entire guide the benefits will be well worth it. However, if you come across a question that hasn't been covered here or you want to suggest something for me to add, please neomail me! I really don't mind neomails at all. Best of luck!

**Drag any condensed images into your address bar or tab to enlarge it.

Update - 11/3/09

Thanks to the help of a wonderful user the red Navigation buttons are back in their place. I love PCers (:

The Latest PC Scam

Before we talk about the basics, the most important thing anyone surfing the Pound Chat needs to know is the steps one should take in order to avoid a scam. The most recent scam involves users creating false Tarla alert boards. To find out who/what Tarla is, go here and here. The first post of these boards contain fake Tarla links; always be sure that whatever link you're clicking has NEOPETS in it. These links will take you to a FLP (fake login page), tricking you into thinking you've somehow been logged out and now need to enter your special information again. As of now we are all unsure whether or not these FLPs are also CGs (we'll learn about CG's in just a moment) so be sure to take the steps mentioned in the next few paragraphs as a precaution.

CGs are also being added to places we Neopians visit the most: userlookups, shops, petpages, trades, and more. As of now there is no way to fully avoid all of the areas that may contain them. Unfortunately if you want to be 100% safe you'll have to refrain from going to anything vaugely interesting on the site. x3

Another common scam amongst the PC includes the advertising of "Free Neocash" with a link provided to where people can obtain it. Do not click on the link under any circumstances. The title to these boards typically say: QUITTING/DONATING PB'S AND POUNDING MY DRAIK. These sites are CGs (short for cookie grabbers), which means it is a site that will trick your browser into sending them your "cookies". Cookies are small files that contain information on your computer such as your username and special word.

IF YOU ALREADY CLICKED THE LINK TO THE SCAM WEBSITE: Immediately change your special word and add pins to all areas of the site. If you already have pins, change them here. Clearing cookies does nothing. The CG site already has your cookies, therefore clearing information they've already obtained is fruitless.

IF YOU SEE A SCAM BOARD: Please do not post - this only bumps the board and increases the amount of innocent people who see it. Simply report the message containing the link to the scam website and move along.

Be aware that a good deal of the people who make these scam boards are users who have already fallen for the scam and had their account stolen from them. The site that steals your account then uses them to continue advertising the site even more - you'll notice that all the boards have the same title and the same first post.

A much more in-depth and accurate guide dedicated solely to CGers is here:

pound_release

PR = pound_release

The user account "pound_release" is owned by TNT themselves. Although at first glance the account appears to have no pets, it holds hundreds (perhaps more) of pets that were dumped into the pound last year right before and during the time it was down for maintenance. It is filled with oodles of amazing pets that would make any Neopian drool at the sight. Some users are "stalking" certain pets, meaning they know the name(s) of a pet on the account and are hoping to adopt it when he/she is released. The latest rumor is that pets from the account are released at 9:47 a.m. NST on some days. TNT finally acknowledged that the account existed in Issue #383, located here (the second question).

A user recently discovered that pound_release pets are released by "string". Basically, a "string" is a group of letters/numbers in the name, so there could be an "xx" string or a "cute" string. If you're on at release time and you see a bunch of pets with similar names in the Pound, and you're stalking one with a similar name, odds are it will be there. There are a few petpages that list the names of some of these pets for all to see; however, if you want to find a pet in pound_release by yourself all you have to do is type some random pet name into the search engine on your left hand sidebar. Then, check out who the owner is (pound_release). This is a slow strategy, but the only way to find PR pets on Neo.

Pound Surfing

Users on the PC pretend the Pound is sort of like an ocean. When the pound is wet, it means that there are a lot of painted, WN, and LE pets. When the pound is dry, it's the opposite - filled with BN basics. Other terms such as damp can be defined as a few painted pets here and there. The vocabulary for pound surfing is very loose and widely understood. "Surf" refers to refreshing the pound with the F5 button and trying to adopt nice pets. Sometimes people say other things, such as, "Pound Skiing" or "Pound Sledding" when the weather is cold.

A common term used concering adopting/abandoning pets is "The pound is fair game." This means that if you adopt a pet and interrupt a pound trade between two users you have the right to keep the pet or return it to the user who was supposed to catch it. On the other hand if you pound a pet and the wrong person adopts, they have every right to keep the pet if they wish. If you're uneasy about the thought of using the pound just stick with safe transfers.

back to top

Lingo

If you're new to the actual PC boards, then there are a few abbreviations you'll need to know so that you can decipher all of the topic titles.

Let's start off easy. If you have a pet named Haley, you would consider that a nice name, right? However, most people would consider a pet named djaokjoi____78oyggads_____ to be badly named. So, if you see someone advertising a pet they will commonly put one of these:
VWN = Very Well Named (ex. Nuv)
WN = Well Named (ex. Parlotte)
DN = Decently Named (ex. Juliet__)
ON = Okay Named (ex. Juliet__) **same as DN, not used often
BN = Badly Named (ex. Kasandra_1046)
VBN = Very Badly Named (ex. djaokjoi____78oyggads_____ )

Okay, now you have a basic concept of what pet names are called on the PC. It gets a little more complicated, though. I own a pet named Bookseller, and she is considered a RW pet. RW pets are named after items in real life, such as You, Me, Lamp, Ocean, etc. Names that are real, such as Ashley, Carly, Samantha, etc. are also popular. If these names are nice enough, users will offer very highly for them.
RW = Real Word (ex. Shoe)
RN = Real Name (ex. Emily)

Here's a simple one: when a pet has really nice stats, such as PapillonAquatique, they are also highly sought after because people can use them in the Battledome to defeat tough opponents.
BD = Battledome

The entire purpose of the Pound boards is to give Neopians a place to advertise the pets they have up for adoption and/or the pets they'd like to trade for others. Trading pets can only be done through a 1:1 ratio, which means only one pet can be traded for one pet. Pets cannot be traded for anything besides another pet, meaning you can't offer neopoints or items for one.
UFA = Up For Adoption
UFT = Up For Trade
HTT = Hard To Trade
UFQA = Up For Quick Adoption

MSPP (sometimes MSP is used) stands for Malevolent Sentient Poogle Plushie. THEY ARE NOT THE SAME AS A PLUSHIE POOGLE. Since they can only be obtained from the Labray, they are considered fairly rare. For more information on MSP Poogles, go here.

Plushie Poogle

MSP Poogle

MSPP = Malevolent Sentient Poogle Plushie

There are some pet that cannot be created any time you feel like it; some have special days where they are released at certain times by TNT. For example, on Cybunny Day, Cybunnies may or may not be released. It all depends on if TNT released them last year and if anything else special is going on. They can also be released the day after their special day as a surprise. This was the case on Poogle Day of '08. These pets are called Limited Edition. Limited Edition pets include: Chomby, Cybunny, Hissi, Jetsam, Kiko, Koi, Poogle, and Tonu. Draiks and Krawks ARE NOT LE pets because they aren't released on a special day. They have to be bought and hatched or morphed, so they're actually restricted pets.
LE = Limited Edition

These next two are easy. Let's say we have two basic Lupes: one is male, one is female. Both are then painted Royal. Like a few other colors, since they are different genders even though they were both painted the same color, they'll look different. Example:

Royalboy Lupe

Royalgirl Lupe
(also called Lupess)

RB = Royalboy
RG = Royalgirl

Back in the day pets didn't always look the way they do now. They used to be quite a bit larger, they were all drawn very differently, and they couldn't wear clothes. This was roughly over a year ago now. We called this the "conversions" or the "redraws". Some peoples' pets were left the way they used to be, and they were given the option of converting them. A lot of people kept their pets in the old form because they were so beautiful. This could only be done with certain colors, though. There is no way that a pet today can be turned into one of the old pets, hence their rarity. For a fantastic guide on UC pets go here:

UC = Unconverted

Converted
**"C" is rarely used to describe converted pets.
All you say is "such and such pet is UFT", and people will know it's a regular pet.

back to top

When trading, people obviously want the nicest pet they can get in return for the one they have UFT. If someone gets a nice offer they want to consider, they'll use that offer to show others that they expect that kind of pet or better. They call it the offer to beat.
OTB = Offer To Beat

There are a few pets that closely resemble animals in real life, so they are sometimes called by those names. For example:

Nightsteed = Halloween Uni

Flamingo = Pink Lenny

Peacock = Faerie Lenny

Werelupe = Halloween Lupe

People often search for "avvie pets" because by owning them they can add an avatar to their collection. To get the Werelupe avvie you must own one and view its lookup.

OG = Orange Grundo
To get the avvie, you have to own the Grundo and view its lookup.

FB = Fire Blumaroo
To get the avvie, you must own a Fire Blumaroo, have a Fire Petpet attached that is 30+ days old, and view its lookup.

IQ = Island Quiggle
To get the avvie, you must own a Island Quiggle and view its lookup.

MR = Mummy Ruki
To get the avvie, you must own a Halloween Ruki with a 58+ day old Mummy Baby and view its lookup.

**Please note that there are several other pets that give you avatars. I have just mentioned the ones here that have acronyms. For a complete avatar guide, go here.

When you offer your pet for someone elses', they're not always going to accept. A lot of times it takes a while to find a good trade. Traditionally on the PC we say, "No thank you" to offers we don't like.
NTY = No Thank You

However, it's also common to wish people good luck even after you've said no to their pet. Some people randomly go around the PC and post "Good luck!" on any board they feel like.
GL = Good Luck

Have you ever gotten a Faerie Quest? A Fountain Faerie Quest is a rare quest that most users only get once (sometimes twice) during their entire stay at Neopets. There have been cases, however, where lucky users have gotten them early on during their Neo experience. After you get the item the Fountain Faerie has asked you for, your reward is the ability to paint one pet almost any color you like (see colors it CANNOT do in the FFQ section). When you put an FFQ up for trade, just remember you have to create the pet and paint it. The person you are trading with is not allowed to send you a pet that already exists for you to paint.
FFQ = Fountain Faerie Quest

back to top

UFA Pets

First of all, account age determines what sort of color users can adopt. The only age restriction concerning this is accounts that are younger than four months. If you're new to Neopets, there are only certain colors you can adopt until then. These include: Blue, Brown, Checkered, Glowing, Green, Invisible, Orange, Pink, Purple, Red, Shadow, Silver, Skunk, Speckled, Split, White, and Yellow. (**When someone says, "painted" pet, it means a pet that is any color aside from Red, Yellow, Blue, and Green, because those colors can be created. Grundos can also be created in the basic colors and Brown, Purple, and White at the Virtupets Space Station) Accounts younger than four months also cannot adopt LE/Restricted pets or pets that have a level higher than 2.

Keep in mind that no matter what your account age is you can create any type of pet if they are released on their "special" day. For example: on Poogle Day, if Poogles are released, you can create Poogles if you've been on Neo for 95 months, one week, 3 years, etc. There are a few ways in which users adopt out pets to other people. One way is your typical, POUNDING.. board. These boards consist of a user wanting to quick adopt out a pet to someone. Depending on the owner, they may post the time on the actual thread for all to see or neomail a select few people. Either way, since the pet is going to the Pound there is no telling where it will end up. No matter who adopts the pet, they have complete and full rights to owning him or her. It is also common to see what I and many other PCers consider to be a very annoying thread which reads: POUNDING (INSERT PET HERE)..if no offers. These threads make some people particularly irritable because most of the time they are UFT threads in disguise. Occasionally the owner will actually pound, but the chance is iffy. Don't get your hopes up when visiting these boards.

Due to the extremely fast pace at which the PC threads run, people have to constantly bump their board to keep it on the first page for people to see. This also leads to false topics, which are topics that are created with a noob title such as, "OMG LOOK WHAT I FOUND IN THE POUND!!1!1!!111". Once you click on the topic, however, the user goes on to say something along the lines of, "Haha, just kidding(: I do have these pets UFT, though.." The purpose is to draw attention towards themselves in hopes of increased amounts of trade offers.

The last type of UFA pet are ones that require applications. TNT declared that users who have UFA pets may no longer ask for specifically petpage applications, therefore it is now optional. Keep in mind, though, that depending on what type of pet he/she is, how WN they are, and what the owner is looking for doing a petpage and going that extra mile might just be a good idea. For instance, for an UC pet if you send a neomail application you have a much smaller chance at being chosen as the owner than someone who put a good deal of time and effort into a petpage. However, there are some instances where owners want to adopt nice pets out quickly so that they can keep zapping more. I was chosen as the owner of Dovn (Grey Kau) with a neomail application that was three messages long and contained the links to my writing and pet lookups. Once again, it all depends on what the owner wants. Here is the most modern guide on how to create a wonderful petpage application:

UFT Pets

When entering the world of trading be sure to pace yourself; many users find themselves regretting a trade they made or an offer they didn't accept. When offering on a pet or looking for offers make sure that you're positive you're ready and willing to trade your pet. The majority of the time your pet will be re-traded unless the owner is looking for a permie pet. Basically what I'm trying to get at is know the pros and cons of giving up your pet to another person before going through with it. The first thing you need is a pet to have UFT. VWN/WN/RW/RN basics and painted pets work just fine. Obviously nicer pets will get nicer offers. Once you have this, create a thread on the PC with a title that resembles: "WN Faerie Ruki, UFT". Then, after you've gotten some offers you like (or an offer you really like), you need to decide which offer you'll accept. If you are completely unaware of whether or not the offer you like is a nice one, try making another thread.

This time your title should read, "I'm new to trading, is this a good offer?" Be aware: you might be greeted with a few flamers who say something about how pets don't have value, you need to decide for yourself, etc.

However, I support users asking others for advice trading-wise so that they are not tricked into trading for a pet that doesn't meet the standards of their own. Also keep in mind that you don't have to find a good trade in one day. Some people (like me) will spend months looking for the perfect pet to trade for. I mentioned earlier that you should be sure that you want to trade before you do it: I can't stress this enough. It is considered very rude and inconvenient for the other person if you have accepted their offer and suddenly pull out because you've changed your mind. The closer you get to the end of the month, the more ruder backing out becomes, because that's when transfers are renewed. So, if someone saves their transfers for the trade and you've decided to do something else, they've wasted their time and transfers.

back to top

Transfers

Transferring is a tool that TNT created to provide us with a safe, easy way to send pets to other accounts. It is only because of transfers that TNT finally agreed to allow us to trade pets. Before I explain how to use transfers and their benefits please be aware that you can't transfer or accept pets on an account under 4 months of age if they aren't the colors mentioned in the UFA Pets section!! For example: if someone has a side account that is only one month of age and decides to morph/hatch a Draik on that account, the user will not be able to send the Draik anywhere until the account has aged. This also applies when pets are painted on underage accounts. Likewise pets such as Draiks and the aged account colors can't be transferred to an account that is underage.

Transfers are pretty simple to use, it's just explaining the process that gets complicated. First of all, you get two transfers each month. One for an incoming pet, one for an outgoing pet. For example: this month I can send a pet to someone and someone can sent a pet to me. This applies to all accounts, even sides. Transfers are renewed on the 1st of every month. If you're using "plain" transfers, at least one party must have a spot open for their incoming pet. This way there is freedom for both people to trade. If everyone has four pets on their account, then there is no room for the pets to be moved around. This can be solved simply by asking someone to send their pet to a side account where you may have room. Make sure that if you are using plain transfers you screenie all neomails between you and the owner of the pet you are trading for. By doing this if you are scammed out of your pet you will have full proof that the pet belongs to you. Screenie the pet on your userlookup, too.

It would also be very wise to create a witness trade thread on the PC. This is simply a thread that says, "Witness a trade?". This way other users can watch as you and the other party switch pets and prevent any funny business. Which leads me to scamming: oftentimes you will come across a user who wants you to go first, meaning you'll send your pet to them, then they proceed to send your new pet to you. As mentioned earlier, this can lead to a scam. Not that you should automatically be untrustworthy of the person, just use the precautions mentioned. PETS CANNOT BE SENT AT THE SAME TIME WHEN USING PLAIN TRANSFERS. This is due to the fact that once a pet is sent, it needs to be accepted. It costs 1000 NP to send a pet through transfers to someone. Depending on what sort of stats the pet has, the cost varies when accepting an incoming pet.

A fairly new feature to transfers is called the exchange option. This was an attempt by TNT to reduce scams when trading. It works well because instead of each person having to send a pet somewhere, one person can "exchange" the pets, meaning the pets literally swap places. If someone ever sends you an exchange request and you had not agreed to trade with them (or you've never even met them..) simply reject it. You can also reject plain transfers if needed. Completely and utterly confused? That's okay! Just check out the following step-by-step screenies.

First, go to "Pet Central", then click "Neopian Pound", then the middle door with the Robot Hissi that reads, "Transfer". You'll end up with a page showing all of your pets and a Transfer button below each one. I've taken out the name of the pet I'm transferring for these screenies because I no longer own him. No matter what type of transfers you're going to use (safe option or not) click the button under the one you want to trade.

The box shown in the screenie below pops up after you click the button. Here you will type in the name of the user you're going to trade with. Be very careful when doing so - if you send a pet to the wrong person they have the right to accept the pet and keep. After you're done, click OK.

At this point you're going to choose either to continue transferring the pet to someone or you'll click the "click here" in blue near the bottom. Since I had no need to switch my pets around personally, I don't have a screenie of the exchange page. Once you get to the exchange page you'll see a list of the user's pets that you entered into the box previously. Choose the pet the both of you agreed on and click OK.

Once you've sent your pet over to the other person, you should get this message:

Go here to see if you've used your transfers for this month or not.

back to top

Customs

Now that you know what trading is and how it works, lets talk about customs. A custom is a type of offer that is in the form of neopoints. I know you're thinking, "But I thought pets couldn't be traded for items or neopoints..?" You're right, they can't. A custom is different; lets say that I have a WN Faerie Uni UFT. Someone comes to my board and says, "How about a 600k custom?" I accept, and the user proceeds to neomail me. I would tell the user what name I want the pet to have, what color I want, gender, etc. They then create the pet using the name I requested and paint him/her, then we trade. It's called a "custom" because it's a custom pet! The only problem that arises dealing with customs is the fact that pets must be at least 7 days old to be traded. So, if you're the person who is doing the custom pet, make sure you create him or her a little over a week before you're supposed to trade. Don't morph or paint the pet until RIGHT BEFORE you're going to trade so that you don't get stuck with a pet that other people may not like!

Also please note that putting customs UFA is against the rules. It's okay to create and paint a pet (or even adopt a pet from the pound to paint) and then put it UFA. However, offering a budget such as "1 mil" and making users apply for the custom as an UFA pet is not tolerated. This was stated in the Editorial here.

FFQs

Technically, FFQs are a type of custom. They work the same way as a custom aside from the fact that they are in the form of a quest rather than neopoints. In the Lingo section you learned that FFQ stands for Fountain Faerie Quest. Just like any other quest, the Fountain Faerie will ask you to get her an item. The difference is that the item will cost much more than regular quests would. Your reward will be the ability to paint one pet almost any color your heart desires. Almost. The colors that an FFQ cannot do are: MSP, Sponge, Royal, Robot, Ice, Usuki, and Quiguki. You can paint a pet for yourself or offer it as a trade. Please be wise when choosing a color - why use something like White when you could have a chance at Plushie, Pirate, etc.? FFQ's are a rare occurance and will most likely only come around once, if you even get that lucky.

back to top

PB vs. NC Mall Clothing

Ever since pets were converted to the way they look now they have been able to wear clothes. This also means certain PB colors (ex. Royal, Pirate, Halloween, Usuki, and others) give your pet a set of clothing to go with their new look. These clothes can be removed and used to customize pets of the same species.
PB = Paint Brush

This is an example of using another color PB clothes on your pet:

(Rainbow Usul Bow and Rainbow Usul Headband on an unclothed Usuki Boy)

The only way to transfer PB clothes from one account to another is by having them on the proper pet. For example: you need a Pirate Gelert to transfer Pirate Gelert PB clothes from one place to another. It doesn't matter if it's not the same Pirate Gelert who originally got the clothes or not. You can't put Pirate Gelert clothing on a Shadow Gelert and then transfer the Shadow Gelert somewhere; the clothes will come off before the transfer and be put into your closet.

If you pound a pet with the correct PB clothes on (such as an Island Zafara with Island Zafara clothing) then the clothing will also come off the pet and go into your closet. The only time you'll see clothed pets in the pound is when there is a glitch or if the pet is unconverted. When zapping a pet that is already a PB clothing color, if he or she changes color you get to keep the PB clothing from the previous colors. In the closet on my main account I have many colors of Usul PB clothes.

This is my Usuki Boy Usul, Venvito; he has all of his PB clothes on.

This is what an unclothed Usuki Boy Usul would look like:

Another form of clothes for pets can be bought with Neocash at the NC Mall, located here. Neocash must be bought with real money in places like grocery stores and gas stations. For more information on how to get Neocash anyone at the NC Mall boards can explain how. Like PB clothes, NC Mall clothes will not go into the pound with your pet. The only way to transfer NC Mall clothes from one account to another is by using the boxes (called giftboxes) given to you when you redeem your Neocash card(s).

No type of clothing, whether it be PB, NC Mall, or bought with neopoints will stay attached to your pet when pounded. However, wearables bought with neopoints (a list can be found here) will stay on your pet when transferred to another user. Be sure to remove them before trading/adopting out pets if you would like to keep them.

Paarlei is a wonderful example of how users use all three types of clothing for their pets:

Link Back!

**FF (Mozilla Firefox) textwraps these codes, so make sure you right click in the box and click "Select All" then copy them to get the entire thing(:

*sigh* of course Janice made this awesome button.
88 x 31

This nifty one was done by Brian (:
50 x 50

Thanks so much Kadsy!
160 x 80

Affiliates

NEOMAIL TO BE ADDED! c:

back to top

Credits

All content by Blue unless otherwise stated.
Layout by Janice for Blue only.

Guide started December 28th, 2008

NEOPETS, characters, logos, names and all related indicia
are trademarks of Neopets, Inc., © 1999-2009.
® denotes Reg. US Pat. & TM Office. All rights reserved.
PRIVACY POLICY | Safety Tips | Contact Us | About Us | Press Kit
Use of this site signifies your acceptance of the Terms and Conditions