You're New To Neopets?
You are probably wondering how you are going to go about winning battles, collecting awards, and even getting a pet with a rare color.
The bad news here is that you are probably not going to do many of the things you want to do.
Some Hard Facts About Neopets
- It has been around since 1999. Many players have been around since day one, so chances are they are so rich and awesome, you'll never come close to beating them.
- Many rare items and not-so-rare cost too much.
- Bad news if you want to have your pet compete in the Battledome - the best items are very expensive.
- Random events that give you great things are very rare.
- Maybe you want to collect things on Neopets - stamps, books, avatars, gourmet food, et cetera. Did I mention how expensive these collectibles are?
- You want to win trophies in the games? Good luck beating the high scores. Seriously.
- You want to enter pet beauty contests? Good luck. Unless you are a very political person in a guild with many friends to vote for you, you will have very little chance to win anything there. These popularity contests are heavily slanted toward prominent members in big guilds.
- An open secret that nobody dares to acknowledge is that there are a sizable number of users who use cheats and hacks to buy the best (rare) items from shops and get the best scores in games. You will very rarely beat them using legitimate means.
So What Can You Do In Neopets?
Simply put, have fun.This may seem like a contradiction, but it isn't. The key to enjoying Neopets is to do so at your own pace, without being pressured into either spending real money in their Neocash shop or to drive yourself into a heart attack trying to collect every rare item in this game.
So take your time, poke around the Games Room to discover your favorite games to play, and slowly build your way up from there.
You do not have any money to waste at this point, so avoid dabbling in stamp collecting or rare item collection for now. Wait for random events or daily activities to reward you with Codestones, Bottled Faeries, and the occasional rare items that you can sell to build up your fortune.
The only thing you should save up for is the set of Secret Laboratory Map. This map allows you to access the Secret Laboratory, where you can zap a pet daily. This is a random but definite way to get some pets in rare colors. The set will cost you about a million Neopoints, but if you are lucky, you may get it cheaper. Trust me, it's worth it. My lab rat OnoKaboob had been a Maraquan Chomby, Island Moehog, Faerie Grundo, and Glowing Shoyru, among many other rare colors, during its time under the Lab Ray!
Always use the Shop Wizard to determine the current market value of the items you want to sell in your store.
Also, remember that you can virtually feed your pets for nothing thanks to the Giant Omelette, Giant Jelly, Lunchables freebies, and Soup Fearie. Don't bother buying your pets toys or grooming items unless they cost below 10 NP (use the Shop Wizard). There are enough toys and grooming items you can get for free from games, random events, and more.
Pick a single good Neopets resources website and always check out the latest news about Neopets on that resources website before you log on to the Neopets website. There will be news about free or cheap stuff, which you do not want to miss out on.
I also strongly discourage you from posting on the Neoboards. The moderators have what seems like an automated warning system - I was given an official warning after making my first post on that place, and it was a warning for "linking to and promoting third party websites". My post was actually about the Neopets site itself. At any rate, getting onto the radar of moderators is never a good thing, especially when the moderators are known to be a bit... unpredictable, shall we say. You will also stay out of the radar of scammers and jerks if you lay low.
Remember, Neopets is just a game. Try not to spend real life cash on the game (most pets look like crap when you dress them up anyway), do not pressure yourself to try to collect or obtain rare items, and do not force yourself to spend any longer on the website than you want to. If you feel burned out, take a few days or maybe a few years off (I took a three years hiatus once) to recharge. Your pets won't die - when you log back in, just resume feeding them and you'll be good to go all over again!
