One of the more enjoyable aspects of Neopets is the involvement of the community in Neopets-specific events. These events often come in the form of wars and plots ranging in complexity and depth of storyline. Despite controversy regarding how well planned they are (such as the lateness in delivering plot and war prizes), it is certain that the coming of a plot or war heralds much excitement among the Neopets populace and is often accompanied by a surge in activity in message boards such as the PPT Forum.
What is the difference between a Neopets plot and a Neopets war?
Both Neopets plots and Neopets wars involve story lines that revolve around Neopia. However, recent plots at Neopets have had a common theme of being shorter in length and making way for the release of a new feature on Neopets.
Often when Neopets plots become complex such as the Altador plot (which was delicious in complexity), they can tie into an all out Neopian war, which brings the Neopets Battledome into play.
It is quite rare to find a Neopets war by itself; in fact I dont believe there has ever been a standalone Neopets war. Take home point? The relationship between a Neopets plot and a Neopets war is quite close. Neopets plots can exist by themselves, Neopets wars dont often exist by themselves, and both often exist together when Neopets puts in the whole nine yards.
What is involved in participating in a Neopets plot?
Neopets plots often encompass complex puzzles that require brainpower, a keen eye and a lot of trial and error to solve. A simple perusal through past plot solutions and puzzles will show a myriad of puzzles the Neopets staff have employed in the past.
However, dont feel overwhelmed. Often communities such as the PPT Forum form a working group to collectively solve the puzzles by having each member contribute any clues or solutions they have discovered either through their own merits or by other means.
Despite the community effort in solving the puzzles, you will often find that Neopets has formulated the puzzles in such a fashion that you will still have to invest a significant portion of time to solving them. Neopets has done this in the past through randomizing things for every player (such as the search for the constellations puzzle) and by making solving a puzzle a manual effort (such as making it mandatory for the Neopets player to click their mouse hundreds of times before a puzzle is solved to ensure that a good faith attempt has been made).
What is involved in participating in a Neopets war?
To make a valuable contribution to a Neopets war, youll want to train your pet in the Battledome. Specifically, youll want to increase your neopets strength and hit points. To do so, youll also need to focus on training at some point or other.
A great way to increase your neopets stats are through the laboratory ray. Complete the entire lab set to start zapping your neopet. Be warned however that your neopets colour, species and sex will constantly change so be prepared for this. Over the long term, your neopets stats will increase significantly at a very inexpensive rate.
Finally, youll want to invest in some decent Battledome items. This should include a good offensive weapon, another good offensive weapon if you can afford it, a healing item and if possible, a freezing item.
You should also verse yourself in how to heal yourself inexpensively after every battle which you dont win. By default, if you win a battle, your neopets hit points are restored to 100%. If you dont, then youll need to replenish them depending on whether you lost the battle or you withdrew.
If you lost the battle, visit the Healing Springs to hopefully have the water faerie heal your neopet some hit points. If this doesnt happen, buy an inexpensive healing potion to heal your neopet. Then fight Punchbag Bob and use the ability drain life to heal your neopet. Note that you will be required to have achieved this ability through having the minimum level required and blessing your neopet.
If you withdrew from the battle, then visit Punchbag Bob and do the same as above.
Youll be good to go! Apart from this, be prepared for a bit of lag during war times, which often makes it difficult to complete any battles. A great time to rack up some quality war points is to battle when the majority of the players (North American) are asleep.
What time involvement is expected of me when I participate in a Neopets plot of Neopets war?
The amount of time you want to invest in a war or a plot is completely up to you. Another determining factor will be the complexity of the puzzles involved and whether Neopets will require you to complete one puzzle before advancing to the next.
From experience, Ive invested about 5 hours for each plot/war Ive participated in with the greatest time being approximately 10 hours for the Altador plot.
Are the prizes worth participating in a Neopets plot or a Neopets war?
Unless you spend A LOT of time participating in the war or plot racking up those points, then the prizes will not be worth it. Basic rule of thumb, if many people can obtain the item, the value of the item decreases. Only the top 1% will be able to obtain the top prize but even then the usefulness of the item to generate neopoints is questionable.
For many people such as myself, the trophy alone is enough reason to participate in a plot of war. It should also be noted that for the last few plots, Neopets has also awarded limited edition avatars and Neopets themes.
So why do people like participating in these plots or wars anyway?
People like participating in these plots of wars because theyre basically a lot of fun. Regardless of what type of game youre usually into, the ability to interact with fellow Neopets players and to feel like youre contributing to a cause is something that makes the game extend beyond mere pixels on an online interface. Mindless fun with some problem solving requirements? Sounds like a heck of a lot of fun to me!
Im looking forward to participating in the next Neopets plot of Neopets war. What should I do?
Ask yourself the following questions: Do I want to participate in a plot only or a war only or both? If youre looking at the war only, then train your pet pronto or complete the lab map to start zapping your neopet! If you havent already, start procuring Battledome items which will help you during the war.
If youre looking at the plot itself, join communities like the PPT Forum so you can share and stay up-to-date with all the latest findings.
The next step is just to wait it out until Neopets releases the next exciting plot, war or plot and war.
Now you should be completely prepared for a future Neopets plot of war so get cracking and make some Neopian friends. Best of luck to you – Kym Huynh