The Map Sets

When you first start playing world challenge, you will most likely be completing the FIRST picture/map set for that world. ie: Space station 1 world challenge. If you decide to turn your completed picture/map in for a prize, any further pieces that you earn from games in that world will be set 2 pieces. If you complete and turn in set 2, you then work on set 3. Once you have turned a set in (or converted it) you can no longer win the pieces from that set. If you complete and convert set 3 from a certain world (ie Krawk Island), you will be unable to earn anymore picture/map pieces from games in that world.

To go to the main Neopets WORLD CHALLENGE page click here

HOW TO PLAY WC

Each new challenge starts just past the hour and goes on for 57 minutes. I recommend entering the challenge as soon as you can once it begins- this gives you more time to play over and over until you get a score that is good enough to submit. Choose a game that you know fairly well and are relatively good at-blocked- the world challenge for this game and then click 'play and send score'. You will then be taken to the usual game page for your chosen game and can play it as usual (except that you can send more than 3 scores now and all scores that you send automatically count towards your world challenge round). The scores are put onto the board in twos. Say you have someone called Faerie and someone called Cat playing. Faerie submits her score, then Cat submits hers. These two have submitted after each other and are their scores are therefore compared, with one winning and raising their tally by one number, and the other losing (and lowering their tally by one number). Therefore you may submit an EXCELLENT score, but lose a number on your tally because the person who submitted before (or sometimes after) you had a better score. (This is why it is not always simply the people with the highest scores above the line on the scoreboard! Because sometimes two great people's scores go against each other and sometimes two not-so-good gamers battle it out! There is an element of luck involved there, but try to send the best score you possibly can and you have more chance of winning.
Once you have played a round or two of this game in challenge mode, you will be able to see the sorts of scores that other users are submitting. This will give you a better idea of what scores are good enough to 'send' and what scores aren't. You do not have to send every score- if you play the game and end up with a score that isn't your best, DO NOT send the score. Restart the game and play it over and over until you obtain a score that you are happy to send. Sometimes this takes a while, but it saves you having to fight for your points later on!

WINNING A PRIZE

You can win the prize if you place in the top 2 (sometimes 3) for ANY of the following catergories. You do NOT need to be the best in all of them. Being on the scoreboard (above the shown line) for any ONE will get you a prize:

Tally: Your tally is the number of wins you have for that round of the game. You CANNOT win any prizes if your tally falls below 0 . (0 is alright though!). *If your tally falls to -2 or below, I would recommend giving up for that round, as it is often difficult to catch up from that point.*

High Score: Your high score is the highest score that you have submitted so far for that round. *The higher the score you submit, the more chance you have of staying well in the lead. If you submit an excellent score, you may not need to submit any more for this round!*

Score Total:Your score total is all of your scores added together (including both your winning and losing scores).
TNT (theneopetsteam) will NEOMAIL you to let you know if you have won a prize (although you will probably be able to see this yourself from the challenge scoreboard). The map/picture piece that you win will have been selected RANDOMLY and placed into your inventory (once I received the same piece 3 times in a row!). If you receive a piece that you already have, there are many people on the trading post who will be willing to trade 1-for-1 on pieces.

I recommend storing these pieces somewhere safe & out of the pant devils reach until you have completed the map!

SNAPE's BASIC TIPS & TRICKS:

* If you play the same game frequently enough in world challenge mode, you may begin to recognise the other users that you sometimes see on the scoreboard. This is good- because it means that if you see a few users there who you know ALWAYS get the highest scores, you know that perhaps you should come back and try later, once they have already won their 3 daily pieces (and are therefore finished playing WC for that day). This means you may then be able to join a challenge against people who do not submit such high scores, therefore allowing you more chance of winning.
* With more users entered into a challenge, you have the chance to win a few hundred more neopoints. However I recommend playing in the early hours of NST (neopets time), as usually there are less players then and again, in my opinion you have more chance of winning.
* If you arrive at the world challenge screen and see that there are already some really high scores listed on the board, and you are unsure if you could beat those scores, I recommend coming back later in the day, when there may be lower scores posted.
* If you lose once or twice don't be put off. I have played a couple of challenges and not won a prize. Although you need skill, it is sometimes luck too, so simply try again later and don't get upset!

SNAPEs TIPS & TRICKS FOR NON-BEGINNERS

Once you have a decent understanding of world challenges and the game you have chosen to play, you can begin to be a bit more crafty! Here are a few tips for those of you who haven't thought of them!

* Attempt to get a head start as soon as possible. The first score you send is the most crucial one and determines whether you are in an immediate good or bad position. If your score is higher than someone elses and you tally gets raised to 1 or 2, then it puts you in a better place to take (sometimes) necessary risks towards the end of the challenge when the competition may get more fierce. This way, if you are unsure whether your tally or high score is likely to win towards the end of a challenge, you have another chance with your score totals! Even if you are risking losing 1 tally, you can still knock others off the score totals scoreboard and nab that prize for yourself at the last minute! You can send a final score near the end, without risking going into a negative tally (ie no prizes!) and then will hopefully win something from the score total scoreboard. Yay!

* Say you have played over and over and now have a second or third excellent score waiting to be sent. If you are already in a winning position, but the challenge is almost over & it is clear that you are going to win something, do not send it and waste it by winning an extra tally etc when you dont need to! World Challenge lets you carry scores over! So hold onto your top score, join the challenge again in the next round and send your great score then. Hopefully, you will be put almost immediately onto the top of the scoreboard again (as usually the first people to send are those with lower scores and you can therefore beat them).

* Sometimes, you may be in a challenge with someone who is submitting SUCH high scores that you fear your score being paired against their score! In this case, get a good score and send it JUST AFTER this users tally has been updated. This way, you are less likely to be paired against said user, as they will have just submitted a score. This does not always work of course and you still may lose, but if you are afraid of a particular gamer, then perhaps this is worth trying.

This page will be updated when Snape has time :-)