World Challenge

However, I discovered that World Challenge is something I can win at and YOU can too!

Imagine this: It is as exciting as a AAA challenge.

You can win map pieces which can be sold or turned in for a rare prize.

It can be played daily—24/7, in fact.

It really gets those competitive juices flowing!

Neopian Worlds

It is called World Challenge, because the different Neopian Worlds are the game categories—Kreludor, Neopia Central, Haunted Woods, Faerieland, Krawk Island, Mystery Island, Virtupets, Meridell, Tyrannia and Terror Mountain. Each World has two to five games listed each day; some games are available 100 percent of the time as in Faerie Bubbles for Faerieland and some only show up occasionally as in Edna's Shadow for the Haunted Woods. When the game shows up, it is available all day.

How to Find WC

There are a couple of different ways to find the World Challenge (WC) games. You can go to the main WC page:

//www.neopets.com/challenges/world_index.phtml

and browse through the available games each day. Another way is to open up a game that you are interested in playing and at the bottom right of the game overview is a world icon. That will take you to the WC page for that specific game. If the game is not part of the WC, the icon will be grayed out.

Time Frame

Each WC competition takes place over 57 minutes. It starts at three minutes past the hour and ends 57 minutes later. For example, play would begin at 10:03 and end at 11:00. In order to end the competition, at least five people must have submitted scores; if not, the play will continue into the next hour. There is a 100 neopoint entry fee for each game for each hour.

Ways To Win

There are three ways to win! You can have the highest tally, the highest score for that hour or the highest score total. In order to earn a prize, there must be five players entered and your tally must be 0 or greater. You will also win a percentage of a jackpot which is generally fairly small. Now, let’s take each winning category separately.

Tally: After you submit a score it is randomly compared to another submitted score, the highest of the two gets a win under their tally category. The other score gets a negative 1 (-1). You can submit a virtually unlimited amount of scores; however, you are limited by the 57 minute time period and it is of no use to submit scores that are so low they cannot earn a tally. You will earn neopoints from the game as usual for the first three scores sent, but you can play more games and submit the scores to the WC. At the end of the hour, if there are at least five players, the one with the highest tally wins. Reminder: You can only win one piece per hour and three times per day. Those three pieces could all come from one game or three different games from three different Worlds.

High Score: This is self-explanatory. At the end of the playing time, if there are at least five players, the one with the high single score wins. When you are on the WC page for that game you can click on each category name to see what the standings are for that category.

Total High Score: You generally win this category by submitting two or more good scores that are often not the highest of the hour. However, you still need at least a 0 for tally, so at least one of the scores must be high enough to record a win as it is randomly compared to another score.

Luck and chance are often involved as the scores are randomly compared. Occasionally a very good score will not win a tally (because it was compared to an even better score) and a mediocre score will earn a tally. This is why you do not have to be amazing at games to win at the World Challenge. You just have to pick your spots and be relatively good at the games you choose to play—and lucky.

Strategy/Tips

If you are in a winning category and your tally is 0, do not send another score. Your tally could go down to -1 and put you in a position to lose.

If you are not confident in your ability to get a really great score and you get a medium quality score, send it. Many times, I have skipped sending a medium score to keep trying for a really high score and I never get even a medium score again that hour. Sometimes the medium score will win.

Another tip is don’t score too high, sounds silly I know, but if your score goes for review you will not win the WC.

Map Pieces

The map pieces themselves are part of a 20-piece map set and correspond to the World in which you win. For example, Faerieland has different map pieces than Haunted Woods. The pieces sell for an average of about 20k each. Or you can put together a set of 20 and turn them in for a prize and 2000 neopoints. The prizes can range from a codestone to a really nice paint brush (such as Fire) so you are taking a chance when you turn in your pieces.

Some of the prizes include: a Paint brush (Ghost, Brown, Pink, etc.) a Petpet (Gallion, Symol, etc.) a Potion, a Codestone, a Negg, or a Dubloon.

Nickt666 reports that he has received a paintbrush 80 percent of the time. He has a more comprehensive guide as well as screen shots on his pet page: //www.neopets.com/~Death_knightX

There are also threads on the game boards for trading map pieces and where people advertise for more players for one game or another. It is against the rules to post your score, however.

There is no excuse for you now! You know all about this exciting game challenge and all you have to do is get out there and give it a try. You’ll be hooked, just like me. See you at the WC!