A million NP in a month, how feasible is it?

     In Neopia, many Neopians value their prized neopoints, as it can help them buy things. It runs the economy; it's true that money makes the world go around. And the variation in prices is immense, from the dirt cheap obsidian shards to the astronomically pricey Hidden Tower items.

     A goal many Neopians both old and new alike hope to achieve is to reach a million neopoints; becoming a neomillionaire if you will. Why a million? A million is a neat round number that's deeply rooted into our psychology, it comes off as an epic but not insurmountable milestone. It is also partly influenced by the fact that the Neopian bank has different account packages that grant greater interest rates when hitting a certain NP milestone. This urges people ahead to want to hit that fabled 1 million NP mark.

     One poll in the Community Central asks "What's the most Neopoints you've EVER saved up?", and about 19.56% of respondents have answered over a million. Another poll asking "Do you have any single item worth over a million Neopoints?" shows that only 11.34% of users have at least one item valued over 1 million NP. With a small degree of uncertainty, it is safe to say roughly 20% of active Neopians have been or are currently neomillionaires.

     So it raises a question; how long does it take for an average user to earn a million NP? The answer most people would say is a month, because it is a neat round time frame. But let's reverse engineer the situation; if you wanted to earn a million NP in a month, what does it take? Would it be difficult or would it be easy? This article is to delve into analyzing it.

     Let's assume a month here is 30 days, not 31 or 28. To earn a million NP, the daily quota that needs to be hit is 33.4K (K signifies a thousand, so 33.4K denotes 33400) NP. If earning that much daily is easy, then yes, a million NP in a month is feasible. We are about to find that out.

     Here's a daily feature that hits a good chunk of the quota already, Trudy's Surprise. Trudy's Surprise is a machine that guarantees a minimum payout daily, and the rewards increase for each consecutive day. Using Trudy's machine for 25 days consecutively will give a ludicrous payout of 100K NP. Afterwards, the streak resets and you start back from the lowly 1.5K NP. In a month. According to calculations, the minimum average payout for Trudy's surprise daily (factoring in the streak reset and final reward) is 15.6K NP. With 15.6K NP guaranteed in hand every day, only 17.8K NP is needed to hit the quota.

     The next stop is the Battledome. Fighting in the Battledome will earn you Neopoints and items. You can win a maximum of 1.5K NP a day from the Battledome. Don't think you need a very strong pet to fight in the Battledome; they can just fight easier opponents like the Chia Clown or Kreludan Defender Robot. Note that fights in the Battledome on hard difficulty (the red angry face) will grant more neopoints. You can also win up to 15 items daily from Battledome fights. Now only 16.3K NP needed to hit the daily quota.

     The next step is to sell items. Many items can be gained from daily activities in Neopoints such as the Forgotten Shore, Anchor Management, Fishing Vortex, Discarded Grundo Plushie, Tombola, and many more, so please take advantage of these features. Items can be sold in user shops for NP. The best items to sell come from Battledome prizes, which are usually codestones. Codestones have an extremely high demand and if you fight in the Battledome everyday, you're bound to get a few. This figure is an underestimate (Good Battledome prizes are that frequent!) but it can be assumed that an additional 5K NP can be earned daily by selling items. It helps to advertise your shop in the Neoboards (but not in an obnoxious way), to help the shop get recognition. It also helps to price the items fairly, around the same as the other items in the Shop Wizard. Now only 11.3K NP is needed to hit the quota.

     The last step is to hit the quota is to play games. The flash games have always been an integral part of Neopets and a poll asking "How do you make Neopoints?" has a whopping 75.83% of Neopians saying their main income is from games. Game scores for a game can be converted into Neopoints for a particular flash game 3 times a day, so take note of that and don't just quit as soon as you play once. As there are many games to play, these games can be divided into a few subcategories.

     There are the 'easy and short games'. Games like Fashion Fever, Turmac Roll, Meerca Chase, Tunnel Tumble, Darigan Dodgeball and Catch the Petpet can be won in an extremely small amount of time; although the NP payout isn't high, it still inches you closer to the quota and is essentially zero effort. Playing these games 3 times each will grant you at least 4K NP. If any other game here is low effort enough for you to place in this subcategory, that's even better as that means more NP. In this specific case, now 7.3K is needed left to hit the quota.

     Now there's the '3K games'. They are called 3K games because these are the games with a great NP ratio that pretty much guarantee 1K each time you send a score (hence playing them 3 times grants 3K NP). Note that every month, NP ratios fluctuate to balance out the economy and game popularity for that time being. For example, games like Marblemen, MAGAX II and Chariot Case have NP ratios that wildly vary every month such that it can range from 'easily get 1K NP' to 'barely any NP for that effort'. So ALWAYS familiarize yourself with the NP ratios and check monthly for which games currently have a great value. Some games however ALWAYS have a favorable NP ratio such as Kass Basher, Nova Defender, and Wrath of the Snowager. Either way, it is very easy to use those games to hit that last 7.3K to hit that quota. But why stop there? The more excess NP you earn, the better. So feel free to play to your heart's content!

     But wait, it helps to be thrifty too! Just because you can earn Neopoints doesn't guarantee you can accumulate it easily. Some people feel tempted to spend their hard earned NP on things and you can't blame them; certain items really are alluring. However, it is advised that spending should be minimal because obviously profit is earnings minus expenses, so it helps if the expenses are as small as possible. A helpful tip is that most chance games tend to equate to a loss rather than a gain, so it's best not to take your chances with those.

     Now it is shown that 33.4K NP is easy to hit in a day, but is it feasible? Yes, if you are diligent. It requires a bit of hardwork and perseverance in playing games and getting on daily but overall it is a far cry from a painful slog. Back then, the amount of neomillionaires was much smaller due to less site features that enabled lucrative methods of earning NP. But now, it becomes something that's very much possible if you put your heart into it. Just keep reminding yourself to play every day and you get one step closer.

     To summarize, to be a Neomillionaire in one month, one should earn 33.4K NP a day, which can be done by:

     - Using the Trudy's Surprise machine every day to earn NP

     - Fighting in the Battledome until 1.5K NP and 15 items are earned

     - Doing your dailies to collect items and occasionally earn NP

     - Selling the valuable items in your user shop to earn NP

     - Playing flash games; the 'short and easy' ones and the 'good NP ratio' ones

     Have a good day Neopians, and hope you enjoy your million NP after this spot of motivation!