Improving Your Neopets Account

     You’re an actual Neopian now - you’ve started to get your account set up and you feel pretty comfortable. What are the next steps to Neopian Domination? The answers lie in improving your account.

     Account Improvement is the key. Either in a single area (like earning neopoints) or in multiple areas (training a pet, earning avatars, participating in competitions). Account Improvement will lead you to not only enjoy your time on Neopets, but also to have a successful account.

     So where do people start in order to get these great accounts? In this article I’ll share some thoughts on where to begin on improving your account. A word of caution. There are no shortcuts. It does involve an investment of time and work.

     To start, one of the great things about Neopets is that it does offer various areas for people to pursue. You can pick which areas you want to explore and which you might want to set aside and think about choosing for later. Others you may never be interested in pursuing. That’s what always has made Neopets stay fresh for me - there is always a new corner to try.

     #1 Earning Neopoints: There are several ways to earn neopoints depending on your style and can be divided into a few categories, those that are sure bets and those that can be a bit of a gamble. Earning neopoints is a cornerstone of a neopian account so it is #1 on the list.

          No Risk Neopoint Earning: Playing easy flash games can net you between 5-10k for approximately ½ hour of time. There are many players who aren’t a big fan of flash games. However, this is a great way to start building up your bank account and a wonderful way to supplement your income if you don’t have the know-how yet to move into other areas. You can of course use a game cookie (through the NC Mall) to double your points for a 24 hr. Period. Also the 5-10k could be doubled fairly quickly with some good game choices. Play Ghoul Catchers at a low level 50x to earn 50k (this is an application that can be played on your smartphone, tablet, or FB)

          No/Minimal Risk (requires patience):

     Neopian Stock Market: Every day you are able to buy 1000 shares. Buy shares everyday that are at 15 - it will cost you 15,000 neopoints per day. If there are none that are at that price don’t buy any. If you have stocks in your portfolio that are at 15 - buy more of those. Check your stocks to see if there are any in your “sell” range. You can set your own sell range. I started my sell range at 35. However, as my portfolio of stocks has gotten a little bigger I have raised it from 35 to 55. If one of your stocks raises up to that price you can sell some or all of your shares of that stock.

     **Note: there are some perks occasionally that will enable you to purchase stocks at 10 if you are lucky ;) - watch for those

     Minimal Risk (Educated Guessing)

     Sniping is often just about getting lucky enough to catch an item in a user's shop that is priced low and then resell it at a higher price. Typically it is “sniping” because it is significantly underpriced. Easy to sell items, morphing potions, collectables can often be good items to search for. Premium members have access to the Super Shop Wiz (SSW) that does allow them to search for items with more accuracy and sniping is easier this way.

     User Shops: Restocking and then reselling basics from your own shop can be profitable. A good way to start is to look at lists of items such as for certain faerie quests etc. and stocks those items. You would stock from Neopian shops at a discount and then resell in your own shop. *Important to note here is to make sure that you are making a profit. Always make sure to double check prices that an item is being sold at before buying it from the actual Neopian shops because sometimes you can’t make a profit from them.

     Restocking for NP: Neopian shops do restock the most rare and valuable items. This is its own treasure hunt by itself and certainly requires skill, patience, and speed. Choose a few specific shops and make sure you are very familiar with the items you are trying to catch.

     Moderate/High Risk

     Food Club: Food Club can often be overlooked by new players. Food Club is betting on which pirates are going to win a food eating contest each day. If you are just starting out there are multiple players who post their daily bets so that you can follow theirs. It’s important that if you are going to use someone else’s bets that you really should place all 10 since they work together. “Playing” Food Club daily can net quite a nice profit.

     Keep in mind some of Food Club’s rules. The amount you can bet is based on your account age - so what everyone can bet will be different based on how long they’ve been playing.

     You can only hold a maximum of 8 days of bets - make sure you collect before midnight on the 8th day or you’ll lose your neopoints.

     #2 Collecting: There are many ways to collect in the world of Neopets. Some of the below involve spending neopoints and some involve skill for games. Both of them, however, make your account look good because it does show that you spend time on your account. Keep in mind though that if you aren’t interested in stamps it isn’t necessary to spend neopoints on them. Focus first on what you enjoy.

     Avatars: Avatars are a big part of Neopets and are used to chat on the message boards. My guess is that you’ve already figured this out, but I’ll go over the categories. Some of Neopets approved partner sites have good checklists that you can use to figure out which you need and how to get them.

     Clickables (97 avatars): I’m sure you have all of these already, but if not …. Why? So easy. Get them.

     Pets/Petpets (30): These involve looking at a lookup of a pet or a pet with a petpet attached with certain parameters.

     Items (79): You need to have a certain item(s) in order to achieve these particular avatar. Some of these items are SUPER expensive. This category includes the stamp avatars.

     Battledome (16): all Battledome related

     Games (92): Game avatars

     Other (44): These are varied from random avatars to contest avatars

     Annually Available: varies

          Trophies: Earning trophies can occur either from participating in site events or from gaming. There are multiple levels to earn gaming trophies that I won’t go into here. However, earning shiny trophies can be particularly rewarding. Some trophies are easier than others and while it can seem daunting there is RESET day. Glorious. There are also loads of Easy Trophies that you can start with.

     Feeding Kads: Feeding a hungry kadoatie earns you a trophy on your lookup. If you feed 75 of them you earn an avatar. The trick however is that LOTS of people are feeding them so you have to be quick. There are boards that keep track of when you might be able to catch these tricky petpets and get a chance at feeding one of them. You can find these boards typically on the Games Boards.

     Stamps: Stamp Collecting can become VERY expensive. Like mentioned above there are avatars available now for many of the album pages. The early stamps can be quite inexpensive and you can find stamp checklists on approved fan sites. Note: Once you put a stamp into your album you may not remove it.

     Neodeck: Neodeck Card collecting adds to your total on your lookup and can put you in the running for a possible trophy. Unlike Stamp Collecting you can remove a Neodeck Card from your collection if you want.

     Gallery: Galleries are very individual. It’s someplace to keep items of a specific type that you really like or just a variety of different things that you think are really unique. Many are themed. To get ideas you can look at Gallery Spotlight winners.

          #3 Pets: Sure Neopets, pets … so let’s talk pets. There are a ton of things that you can do with your actual pets. When you started you had to make a pet. If you were like most people you made a pet and ended up with a name that wasn’t so awesome. If you were creative or lucky maybe you did … good for you.

     Tip: Choose a primary pet to focus on for improvement purposes. Make sure it’s a pet whose name that you like. Don’t worry about the species or the color of the pet since you can change that.

     Training your pet can be important for a few reasons. If you are interested in the battledome training your pet is how you can participate. The battledome does now give out prizes and is a great way to earn some extra income. You can train your pet through the academies and through Faerie Quests or both. Using both at the same time is the best in my opinion.

     Books: Reading books to your pet raises their and intelligence and can earn you a trophy.

     Booktastic Books: Booktastic Books are in their own category and can earn a separate trophy.

     Gourmet: Feeding gourmet foods to your pet can earn you a trophy. Official fansites have lists of gourmet foods that can help you keep track.

     EA Jobs: Employment Agency (located in Faerieland) Jobs. These can be an neopoint generator if you pick the right ones. You can do 5 jobs per day. Three jobs can be done in a row, the fourth and the fifth have to be spread slightly apart. Be sure to price check the item in question prior to applying for the job. You do get a time bonus so be quick!

     Petpets/P3s: Improving your account can mean adding a petpet or a petpetpet to your pet. Be sure that you like your pet first though since sometimes adding a petpetpet can be time consuming.

     #4 Dress It Up:

          User Lookups: A user lookup is the first impression people have when they see your account. There are lots of templates out there if you don’t know how to do your own coding (which I don’t to be honest). Take the time to find one that you like and add your own description to it.

     Customization: Some Neopians can take this or leave it so this so it is a personal preference. However, you can take the time to fancy your Neopets up or put a background on them either using neopoints or neocash.

     #5 Motivation: Motivating yourself for Account Improvement can come from all sources. Yourself obviously, but sometimes that isn’t always enough. You can also find boards occasionally that are geared towards a specific goal. For example, kad feeding. Getting to know that community and joining in their board (even for a little while) can help motivate you towards your own goals. Guilds can sometimes be a good source of motivation as well. There are many good Account Improvement (AI) guilds out there if you need motivation from an outside source.

     #6 Personalize It: Focus on the areas that you are most interested in. Love checking things off your list? Start there. Make your lists and start checking them off. Leave customizing your pets until later. Love customizing and don’t want anything to do with training your pets? That’s fine. It’s your account and only yours.

     I’ve only touched on some of the areas of Account Improvement and only lightly at that. Account Improvement is vast and largely personal. Feel free to contact me with questions if you have them. I hope that you have been able to gain something useful from this Neopian Time article. Happy Neopetting.