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Becoming a Well-Rounded Neopian in 7 Days


by suixx

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Everyone experiences Neopia differently, and there is definitely no right or wrong way to enjoy this world. But unless you try it all, you never know what fun and exciting areas you might be missing out on. Each day looks at a different area of the site, and suggests multiple ways to enjoy that feature. You can pick as many or as few options as you want, as long as you try something new each day! This challenge is designed to get even the most beginner Neopian familiar with the most popular areas of the site. So, clear your calendar, and let’s get started!

Of course, the more experienced Neopians may have already covered most of this list, but we aimed to include a bunch of possibilities of varying skill levels, so choose the option you don’t often participate in, or would like to improve on. :3

Sidenote: We will be referencing many fan sites during this challenge, as they contain a goldmine of resources that will help you in nearly all of these activities. If you aren’t familiar with fan sites, please check them out here!: //www.neopets.com/fansites/index.phtml

Extra sidenote: When a guide is listed in a /~Xxxxx format, you can type www.neopets.com/~Xxxxx to find the guide.

Day One: Games and the Battledome

Let’s start out simple. Games are something virtually all of us have tried, with varying levels of success. So, today, you’re going to play as man games as you can stand! Feel free to just pick one of these options, or dabble in them all, as long as you try something new!

The first and most common option is to play games for Neopoints! Many games are quick and easy ways to earn NP, such as Kass Basher and Fashion Fever. Jellyneo.net (one of the fansites previously listed) has a guide called “50k a Day Guide” you can follow, but you can also just play through games on your own. Click the heart in the upper left corner of the game to save it under your favourites, which are displayed on the lower right side of your screen in the Games page, making it easy to revisit these games day after day.

Another option is to play games for avatars. Collecting avatars is a great way to force yourself to get to know unfamiliar site areas, so of course we strongly support it! To see all the game avatars, visit thedailyneopets.com and select “NeoAvatars” at the top, then “Avatar Solutions,” and finally, click “Game.” If you’d like to start with the easiest options, you can visit the Avatiers petpage, a guide located on /~Avatiers which sorts avatars by level of difficulty. Tiers 2-4 contain all the game avatars (scroll down to the heading labelled “games”) and try your hand at all the Tier 2 avatars. Once you’ve completed those games, move up to Tier 3, and finally, Tier 4. Hover over the avatar to see how to obtain it! Don’t forget to save games you want to practice in your favourites.

Another option is to play for the trophy. If your game score is in the top 17 players (at about 12:10am NST when trophies are awarded—beware, you can be knocked off the High Scores table!), you’ll earn a shiny trophy for your userlookup. This is easiest to do at the beginning of the month, as scores are reset, but you can practice games at any time. If you’ve never gone for a trophy before, try it! Select a game, practice it until your score is about as high as current high scores, then wait until the beginning of the month. This is usually much more difficult than the avatar score, so it’s more of an option for experts, but don’t let that stop you if you’re up for the challenge!

There are also non-flash games you can play. Neoquest and Neoquest II are fun strategy roleplaying games that will give you trophies and avatars, and games like Solitaire, Cheat!, Pyramids, Snow Wars, Cellblock, Armada, and more are fun games that some people find relaxing and could get you a shiny trophy as well! If you usually only play flash games, give these ones a shot, you might be surprised!

Finally, we come to the Battledome. Given that the Battledome is such a beloved feature, some may feel it deserves a day of it’s own, but a basic introduction to it shouldn’t take long. If you aren’t currently playing the Battledome every day, start now! It’s a quick and easy way to earn neopoints, as well as other advantages, due to the Obelisk Boons. You earn neopoints, codestones and other items each time you defeat a challenger in 1-player battles. If you fight in Obelisk Skirmishes and win, you can also temporarily gain advantages such as a 3% rise in your bank interest, or the ability to equip 9 items to your pet instead of 8. For more information on the battledome, you can visit Jellyneo’s In-Depth Battlepedia. They specifically have a guide for beginners here: http://battlepedia.jellyneo.net/?go=beginners

Once you’re more experienced with 1-player battles and the Skirmishes, you can continue on upgrading your weapons, training your pets (something we’ll get into later), and playing 2-player battles against other Neopians!

Day Two: Collecting

Did you earn lots of neopoints yesterday? Good, time to put those to work! If you saved any games to your favourites, play them first for a little extra practice and funding, then let’s get down to it. Collecting is one of our favourite things to do on this site, and with over 48,000 unique items on Neopets, it’s easy to see why. On this day, your challenge is to start at least one collection (but please feel free to get ambitious!). We’re going to use Jellyneo’s Wishlist feature, so if you do not already have an account on Jellyneo.net, it’s recommended you sign up now!

There are a lot of different kinds of collections. If you’re after account improvement, Stamps and/or Neodeck cards are a great option. You can use Jellyneo’s Stamp Checklist and Neodeck Checklist, listed (along with other tools) here: http://items.jellyneo.net/tools/

Once you’ve created a checklist of every item you still need, you can then add all those items to a wishlist using the “Add to Wishlist” feature at the bottom of the page (you have to create the wishlist first, before you can add any items to it). It’s a way to save the items you need, and you can delete or check off items as you obtain them, so you can stay organized and avoid missing any items or buying the same thing twice. Just remember, Neodeck cards can be removed from your Neodeck, but stamps cannot—once you’ve put them in your album, they’re there forever!

Another option is to start a gallery. Your gallery can be as normal or strange a theme you want, and as broad or specific as you want. You can collect Usuki items, or you can collect pink items, or Petpets, or scary items, or gross things, or whatever you can dream up! Jellyneo’s Item Database and Wishlist feature are also wonderful tools for planning out your collection. If you already have a gallery, or have multiple ideas you like, remember you can create galleries on your side accounts as well. You can then enter your completed/nearly-completed galleries into Gallery Spotlight (even on your side accounts, just make a note in the description what your main account is, so that account will receive the trophy). Just be aware that certain gallery types cannot win spotlight, such as vague galleries like “Items I Like” or galleries based on television shows or movies, as it risks copyright infringement (but don’t let that stop you, if it’s what you like!).

The other option with collecting is just hoarding. This is something one of the authors (suixx) loves. Filling your Safety Deposit Box with 1,000 unique items will get you a packrat avatar, but the benefits don’t just end there. Hoarding clothing, toys, grooming items, collectable cards, magic items, and books will make completing faerie quests much easier, as you’ll already have the item they want with you. You can also hoard kad food, which will help you with one of tomorrow’s activities. You can see a list of kad food here: http://items.jellyneo.net/search/kadoatery-food/

Hoarding items can get expensive, and, for most, can seem like a cluttered waste, as it does not visually improve your account. However, if you’re the kind of person who loves to collect, it might be right up your alley!

You can also collect one specific item. If you’re a particularly big fan of Peppermint Snorkles, then why not buy as many of those as you can? It’s recommended you choose an inexpensive item for this kind of collection, but limitations aren’t what this guide is about. Pick what you like. :3

Day Three: Restocking, Sniping, Reselling and Kadding

Today is our least favourite day, so we’ll mostly be linking you to guides rather than offering our own expertise. We should listen to our own advice and work harder at improving on these, but, UGH, we don’t want to. Don’t let that scare you—many Neopians actually LOVE these site features and will insist they’re the highlight of Neopets. You might just find you’re one of those weirdos.

The first thing we’ll talk about is restocking. It’s a simple premise, buy an item in a Neopets shop (not a user shop) and sell it for more than you bought it for. A very brief beginner’s guide would be to go to Magical Bookshop with at least 20k on hand, refresh until the shop restocks, then buy any books you see priced at 2,500, 5,000, or 10,000NP. However, there are many exceptions to the rule, and the rules change based on which shop you want to restock in. It may take a while to make a profit, as you may have to learn by trial and error for a while, but if you’re quick, you can end up making huge profits in no time! If you manage to restock an item with a rarity of 90 or higher at the Chocolate factory (any item priced 5k or higher), then you’ll also gain yourself an avatar!

Auction sniping can be a bit safer, if you stick with what you know, but it still may be some time before you’re turning a profit. There is an auction sniping guide located on /~x_vaca, but the basic idea is that you go to the Auction House, look for an item up for auction way below the standard price on the Trading Post, then put in a bid right before the auction ends, obtaining the item for a discounted price. Amy (the author of the aforementioned guide) recommends aiming for easy-to-sell (abbreviated to ETS) items, such as morphing potions, paint brushes, petpets and nerkmids, but if you see any item you’re confident you can resell for a higher price, go for it!

Reselling is a similar idea, buying items for a cheaper price than what you think you can sell them for, but it’s done over the trading post so you can haggle prices down. There is a great guide located on /~Mavry which can tell you much more about it than we can, and if reselling is something you’d be interested in doing, you could find yourself making big profits!

And, finally, kadding! The reason we’ve put kadding in these categories is because restocking, auction sniping and kadding all require quick fingers, so you can improve on all three by working on your speed. Plus, kad feeding happens on 7 minute cycles, so many people will try to fit restocking in between kadding. The premise is, again, simple enough—at the Kadoatery, located in the Neopian Plaza, a bunch of poor Kadoaties are hungry, and need you to feed them a specific food item they ask for. Every once in a while, the kads will refresh, asking for a new lot of items. It’s at this refresh that you want to look for a kadoatie to feed, and quickly! The times the refresh will happen are explained in a guide on /~endlessswim as well as other kadding tips. There will generally be a board up on the Games chat listing kad times, but remember, they’re only possible times, as it’s somewhat random. There are several methods to kad feeding, known as invent, SDB and SW feeding. Inventory feeding is when you have 49 unique kad foods in your inventory, and when the Kadoatery refreshes, you can see if any of the kads are after a food you have. SDB feeding involves waiting to see what the kadoaties want, then checking your Safety Deposit Box for those items. This is where aforementioned hoarding comes in handy! The third and final option is Shop Wizard feeding, where you simply buy whatever food items they want on the Shop Wizard. This takes slightly more time, so you need to be quick, but it saves you from having to buy large amounts of items. Read through the guide, and decide which method works best for you!

    Day Four: Coding

Time to switch gears and flex that creativity. If you don’t have a lot of creativity, don’t worry about it, there’s still lots you can do.

If you’re new to coding, it’s going to be a little bit overwhelming at first. The best thing you can do is jump in with both feet, open up any area which can be customized with coding (petpages, petlookups, userlookups, shops and galleries), and just start testing things out mentioned in the upcoming guides. You can also use a premade coding, such as the graphics found on Sunnyneo.com, and edit bits of coding to learn what changes what. If you choose to do this, however, remember that you must always give credit to the original creator no matter how much you change, and always respect the rules posted by the creator. This is also a good rule of thumb for any content you did not personally create.

Now for guides! You can obtain some raw codes from /~Kaikuto and /~demioxy and /~_earth_griffin_ and some basic layouts for you to edit at /~Accury. You can often find additional affiliates on those pages that can help you discover more coding pages, but I find those to be more than enough, especially for beginners.

Once you have enough practice and become advanced enough, you can always go for the Userlookup Spotlight—just make sure that most of the coding is your own, and anything not created by you is properly credited.

Now, what about those with no creativity? It is not our personal belief that anyone has NO creativity, and we think coding can be a great form of expression for anyone, but if it’s still not your thing, never fear. You should still learn a little bit about coding for a few reasons. First of all, basic HTML is helpful when writing just about anywhere. You should know how to bold, italicize, and centre your fonts, as well as creating tables and lists. This sort of information is actually provided by Neopets on this page: //www.neopets.com/help/html1.phtml

Additionally, it never hurts to know how to, say, change backgrounds. If you choose to use a premade for your Desert Krawk’s petlookup, but the premade’s background is a neon green that just doesn’t match, you should know how to change that background. It may not entirely be your own creation, but it should still represent you, and most premade sites will allow you to make small changes to their codes (again, provided you leave credit!).

One last thing, before the day is over, and that’s fonts! If you’ve never created your own font before, you have to try it, right now. A great font guide is located on /~Valtreya and you can find lots of great font resources on Sunnyneo. As long as you’re not using any neon yellow fonts, there’s no wrong answer.

If you’re already experienced with fonts, give picture fonts a try! /~BoardPaint is a great resource for understanding how to put the font together. If you want to create your own design, I recommend opening up an art program, setting the canvas size to 20x20 pixels, and drawing a single-coloured design. Having it planned out in front of you will make the creation of your font much easier, and you can also see how much size it may take up. Note that 20x20 pixels is a suitable size for fonts with a NeoBoard pen, you may need to make your canvas size smaller if you don’t have an NB pen!

Day Five: Art and Writing

Like coding, this is one of the more open-ended and creative aspects of Neopets. However, like coding, it requires a lot of time, skill, and creativity that does not come easily to many of us. But the most important thing is that you try it; you never know where a bit of practice might get you!

This section is, perhaps, a bit less structured than previous days, as there’s no one direction to go. You can use a variety of art programs, Photoshop or Gimp being the most popular, or even just traditional art you drew on paper. You can draw Neopets, Faeries, Petpets, Characters, or even your own original designs (just remember that anything you submit as part of a Neopets contest has to be Neopets-related). You can then enter your art into the Art Gallery, Beauty Contest, Neopian Times Comics, Pet Spotlight, Petpet Spotlight, or use it as part of your layout in Userlookup Spotlight and Gallery Spotlight. Just remember that any art which has won in the Art Gallery cannot be resubmitted into the Art Gallery or Beauty Contest, but can be used in things like Pet spotlight, as that feature is based more on your writing than on your art. Or you can use your own art to decorate your userlookup, gallery, petlookup, or petpage. It is not recommended you put any art in your shop, as it slows down that page for any kad feeders hoping to buy an item quickly. I recommend starting small, just drawing pet art for the Beauty Contest or your pet’s lookup, but again, this guide is all about trying new things. Just try to draw one thing, and you’ll have done well for the first half of today’s challenge, no matter how it turns out—but going above and beyond is always supported, of course!

You can also learn to create backgrounds, buttons, icons, and more—not just drawings! The guide /~ilvira has a variety of information, but under Tutorials is a guide for “Buttons” which will teach you how to add borders, animation, and more!

The second have of today’s challenge is writing, and this is just as open-ended. You can write stories for your pets on their petlookups or petpages, create NeoAdventures, role-play on the boards, or you can enter the Poetry Competition, Storytelling Competition, Neopian Times, Pet Spotlight, or Petpet Spotlight. You can create characters for your pets, build worlds, take your reader through a journey, or express yourself any way you want. If you’re interested in writing but not character creating or storytelling, consider writing an article like this one in the Neopian Times, or writing a guide or other things of interest for Site Spotlight. Rather than reading a guide, just go around Neopets and see what other people are doing. Don’t copy anyone’s work, of course, but seeing the types of writing others participate in can inspire and guide you in a way that written instructions can’t.

Day Six: Pets

We’re nearing the end of the week, and it’s time to take everything we’ve learned and apply it to the main reason we’re here: our pets!

On Day 1, we mentioned the Battledome, and training your pets. By making your pets stronger, you’ll be able to defeat stronger challengers, gaining access to a greater variety of prizes. There’s a variety of ways to do this, by training at The Academy on Krawk Island, or the Training School on Mystery Island. The Academy is a cheaper option for those pets under level 40, but for stronger pets, the Training School is a faster option, plus you can use all those codestones you’ve been winning from the Battledome! You can also buy Faerie Quest Cookies from the NC mall, which give you 9 days of faerie quests, guaranteed to raise your stats. There are also items you can buy to raise stats, but they tend to be quite expensive, and aren’t recommended.

You should have gotten familiar with Jellyneo’s Checklist and Wishlist features during Day 2, if you weren’t already. Now it’s time to use those to work on Gourmet, Books, and Booktastic Books! Gourmet is only recommended if you intend to feed your pet a LOT of gourmet foods in order to get a trophy, otherwise, feeding gourmet foods to your pet doesn’t really do anything aside from making them a little less hungry. But if you’re interested in going for Gourmet, use the Checklist and Wishlist features to create a list you need, and get to work! You can also try your hand at restocking at Neopian Foods to try to restock some of the items yourself, which might save you some neopoints.

However, Books and Booktastic Books will raise your neopet’s intelligence, so even if you never end up getting your neopet a trophy, it’s still worth doing. Given that restocking at the Bookstore is a great place for beginners, you can buy a great deal of books yourself, at a discount.

Now that you’re proficient in coding, art, and writing, you’re probably ready to create petlookups and petpages for all your pets. :3 If not, a premade and a small blurb is more than fine, but as always, ambition is encouraged!

And, finally, our favourite part of pets: customizing! This, too, is an open-ended creative adventure. The fansite Dress to Impress, often shortened to DTI and located at impress.openneo.net, is a great way to find looks for your pet. It’s recommended you spend some time getting used to the different commands—for example, “-is:nc” will remove any Neocash (NC) items from your search, if you’re from a country that does not have access to the NC mall. “occupies:background” will return only backgrounds. In order to understand the commands, click “Advanced Search,” set your parameters, and see what comes up in the item search. You can then use those commands to find the specific items you’re looking for. You can then create an account on DTI to save your customizations, and even create wishlists or tradelists for your wearable items.

Day Seven: Community

So, now, you know a little bit more about different features of Neopets. You’ve discovered what you enjoy, and what you don’t. It’s time to find like-minded people who enjoy the same things, so you can learn from and support each other, and maybe just make some friends.

One place to start is just by finding the right Neoboard for you. If you want to pursue drawing your pets, consider checking out the Art Chat. If you want to write about your pets, you can check out the Neopian Writers Chat. If you’re unsure how to join the community, look for designated chat boards and introduce yourself. But never be afraid to just create a board, most Neoboards are quite friendly and always happy to help out someone interested in their favourite hobbies.

If you’re still not finding the right community for you, consider checking out guilds! You can typically find guilds based on anything discussed here, as they’re all popular activities. Another great option is block guilds, as they are often based on account improvement and sort their members into blocks, such as Art Block, Pet Block, Avatar Block, Restocking Block, etc. It’s a great way to talk to people about your newfound specific interest, like art, but still remain open to other areas of Neopets, and really see the site from a variety of perspectives.

If you’ve found you prefer to lurk, rather than post, that’s okay, too. While posting can be a much more interactive experience, you can still learn a lot just by reading what others have to say. Don’t be afraid to shape your experiences to your own preferences!

    Congratulations, your week is over, and you should now have at least a base knowledge of many (but not all!) things you can do on Neopets! It’s okay if you didn’t enjoy some of the days—restocking is not our favourite, as you may have guessed—but it’s important to try everything once. From here, you can pick and choose your favourite activities, and continue to look into them and build on all you have learned. You could also continue to cycle through the week again, trying things you did not get a chance to, or continuing to practice and improve on your skills.

Remember, your Neopets experience is your own, so feel free to customize it as you will!

 
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