siniri

The lag is killing me. Expellibox won't load; I couldn't pick up my black worm because I couldn't load the required 2 pages in less than 5 minutes (or any other worm besides 1, for that matter). I think I'm making the lag worse by doing things in 5 different tabs, and I'm still spending most of my time elsewhere waiting for all the pages to load.

 

So far it's still bug-squashing for me. I hope I don't get a timed faction challenge because I suspect I'd fail it.

PILFERS (0, 2, 5)

LOAFING (0, 3, 4)

MYSTERY (0, 2, 5)

TERRORS (1, 1, 5)

ORANGES (1, 2, 4)

VARIANT (1,3,3)

THAWING (1,3,3)

Last one before bedtime:

 

PILFERS (0, 2, 5)

LOAFING (0, 3, 4)

MYSTERY (0, 2, 5)

TERRORS (1, 1, 5)

ORANGES (1, 2, 4)

PILFERS (0, 2, 5)

LOAFING (0, 3, 4)

MYSTERY (0, 2, 5)

TERRORS (1, 1, 5)

PILFERS (0, 2, 5)

LOAFING (0, 3, 4)

MYSTERY (0, 2, 5)

Thanks for keeping the updates going! It's nice not to have to SW each day.

PILFERS (0, 2, 5)

LOAFING (0, 3, 4)

PILFERS (0, 2, 5)

I used to go through my SDB and clean out some of the "junk," putting 10 different items in trade lots, and then advertising them on the trading boards. I didn't care if people offered me a single scrawnyfish (though 1-10NP was fine, too), just so I could get rid of them. I'm pretty sure I got the idea from someone else, so you may want to check the boards for packrat trade advertisements.

A new battery for my car. $120. Now I have to be ultra-careful with my money for the rest of the month. Rice and beans!

I've gotten a few bottled faeries, and I don't get to battle the Seekers (seeing as I am one). I think it's random; I've battled them in order, but the prizes seem relatively evenly distributed. I wish they'd drop more red codestones and light or unidentifiable faeries, though.

Well, I figured you may already know, but maybe there'd be something you didn't know. I remember how hard it was to get traction in Neopets because it was so big and I never looked offsite for guides, and it takes money to make money.

 

Ridiculously heavy battle hammer does 9 icons for ~2k (unless it's gone up).

Scroll of the scholar does 10 icons for ~15k.

Scroll of knowledge does 11 icons for 53k.

Battle muffins do 15 icons, but they're one use (you may get some for free from drops, but you could also sell them to others and get one or two of the above).

Depending on what defenses the opponents have, one of these might be superior to the others (and it will change for each opponent). No one knows what the opponents will have until the new wave is released. But often people will share recommendations based on a specific opponent once the new wave is released.

 

All of the above are "inflated" right now, but they were previously deflated anyway because TNT gave away a ton of them. I paid 15k for one scarab ring back in the day (inflated plot price), and Ylanas blasters (13 icons) sells for 1M during non-plot. So 11 icons for 50k is still a decent deal. I regret not investing in training and better weapons for some of my earlier plots. It cost me plot points and kept me from some of the better prizes. Even when I overpaid for my scarab rings and leaf shield, I made the money back in additional plot prizes, despite having not-very-trained pets. But I also didn't completely decimate my bank account because I wanted the higher interest rates. We also don't know what's coming -- we know there will be harder baddies, but we don't know if TNT will allow weaker pets to still complete each wave's bars by just doing a megaton of battles against weaker opponents. So you could do a wait-and-see on weapons while you train (the downside is that if the baddies do get harder, prices might inflate even more).

 

You've just got to do what feels comfortable for you -- I'm more of a saver, so it's tough for me to spend a lot of NP on anything, whereas I treat training like a daily. It doesn't hurt nearly as much when it's just a few thousand NP every day -- even though if you add up how much I've spent training, it would probably be several million NP (over several years). There are many ways to play NP, and no way is better than another. So just do what feels right for you at the time. Even though I mentioned "regrets" earlier, it was all part of learning to do better in the game, so it's not a strong regret.

 

Regarding when to use which weapons, I think you'll have to experiment and find a strategy that works best for you. Some like to play it slow-and-steady, using dual-duties. Others go in with both guns blazing. I usually start off conservatively (using shields, etc.), and then decreasing my usage of them (replacing them with more offensive weapons) until I start to struggle, just to make the battles go quicker. In TFR, I had dual Ylanas blasters, and found myself doing much better attacking with both each round than if I ever used my leaf shield (until TNT gave me downsize! and some of the reflectors, which helped me cap out against all the baddies). But I can't remember what my strength and defense boosts were, so I can't say that would always be the best policy.

Yay! I started with the hypothesis that the "d" in "stupid" was in the correct place, and if that were true, through process of elimination, the word must be "-e-end." Defend was the only word I could think of that didn't use letters that were wrong.

 

New word: 7 letters.

Expert lens is non-fragile and cheaper than the identical-effect dual battle mirror. Reflectors are awesome for low-defense pets.

 

I highly recommend Downsize! if you can afford it; it will probably block more for you than a shield would. If you can't (and I only offer these suggestions because you're a new player and may not know about them yet), you could start a Habitarium game; if you can leave it running in the background while doing other things, checking in on it every hour or so, you'll gain a lot of NP fairly quickly. If you have a bit more time, try playing 2-player Keyquest, aiming for gold keys -- they can drop paintbrushes, codestones, and neggs, which can be sold for decent NP on top of whatever you win in the game -- though your goal should be to end games quickly for the prizes (sometimes you'll get all junk prizes, too -- but I average at least one good prize per gold key). And/or play the following daily games 3 times each, listed in order of time taken to play: AdverVideo (let it run in a window off to the side with the sound muted so you can see it while you play the other games, and tend to it whenever the video stops), Fashion Fever (send 3 cards before sending your first score for more NP), Catch the Petpet, BTR Crowd Patrol, Splat-a-Sloth, Kass Basher (this one takes a bit more skill and can take more time to wait for the wind -- unlock the bat before sending any scores -- you'll have to unlock it once per computer, but it will stay unlocked and you can start with the bat the next day), and any easy sponsor games, just to get to 1000 NP/play (without the sponsor games, today I made 12k in less than 5min., and actually I usually play while waiting for the battle animation to play, so it costs me no real time). Right now the sponsor games are Rock the Vault (quit at 1000 points, ~15s/play -- the characters are wildcards worth 500 points each, so try to use them in combos when you can) and Get Slimed (quit at 500 points, ~40s/play) -- that's another 6k NP in 3min.

 

If you get Downsize! and/or the ability Lens Flare, you'll want to use stronger attack weapons instead of dual duties (or if a certain baddie doesn't use any of the icons of one of your dual duties, there's no point in using it), so you can hit as hard as possible. The battledome is dropping stone muffins, and some of the other 15-icon muffins are cheap right now, too. Or if you'd rather have repeat-use, the 11-icon scroll of knowledge is 53k (10-icon scroll of the scholar is under 15k).

 

Regarding training, train as often as you can. The Swashbuckling Academy costs 2 dubloons (~1500 NP) but takes 6 hours. You can train every 2 hours in the Training School, but it takes 1 codestone (which have inflated, ranging from 4k to 13k+ each). If you can afford it, I'd suggest training in the School at least a few times a day when you'll be able to start a new training after the 2 hours. If you're going to be away longer (for sleep/work/school), use the Academy. You'll need 17 trainings to get to the strength boost (you'll need 2 levels because you can't train str beyond 2x level, but hopefully fewer if you get some bonuses), so you could reach it during the next wave if you train often in the School. I'd recommend focusing on HP after that.

... and he loses 3 movement points!!!!

 

So glad it wasn't strength or defense; I'd have lost my 600 boost in either (they're at 601 and 602 respectively). Back to the ninja academy to bulletproof them for tomorrow.

DEFEND

I have a scroll of freezing up for trade:

http://www.neopets.com/island/tradingpost.phtml?type=browse&criteria=id&search_string=392058525

 

Please note that the scroll is a 100% freezer, but it's fragile (breaks permanently ~20% of the time). Mention that you're from TDN (with your TDN username, so I know you're active) and I'll consider a slightly lower bid than I'm asking.

I think the BD glitched on me - I thought I had met my item prize cap after 12 wins...and after my last fight for today, I got another prize. What should I do with it...I think it's a glitch.

The casks don't count as items. You may have gotten a random event or picked up a similar prize for a daily (causing you to miscount). Or if you had a faction challenge, the prizes from those are in addition to regular loot drops. I would assume you miscounted and just keep it. Much more likely than TNT's server miscounting (unless you got, like, double, or something -- but if it was only one or two, it's more likely that you overlooked something than a computer did).

Does anyone else keep thinking of the mermaids' song from Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire because of our faction name?

 

Come seek us where our voices sound;

We cannot sing above the ground.

And while you're searching, ponder this:

We've taken what you'll sorely miss.

An hour long you'll have to look

And to recover what we took.

But past an hour, the prospect's black:

Too late, it's gone, it won't come back.”

Just an uncouth Seeker crashing your party to let you know how your Amateur Insider behaves in the battledome. She sneers, taking her sweet time to drawl, "Wait! You can't mean to fight me..." and then tries to whack you with her purse. Funniest thing I've seen since the double-ended spear was the prize for the "Stick 'Em With the Pointy End. What if both ends are pointy? WHAT THEN?!?" achievement.

Yeah, I've gotten most of my challenges on the BD page by exiting rather than on the obelisk page. But its been hours since I've gotten one (not that I'm trying that hard), so I may not have the best advice.

 

Grapes? Oh. I spent 15 minutes because of "accumulated" once. Another time it was the word "kill" (in the context of someone killing prices or some such) -- "murder" was okay. TNT won't bust you for inadvertently setting off the filters, but they do monitor everything that's said in NM -- my friend got warned for referencing drinking (not binge-drinking; he works as a bartender).

I think refreshing might increase your chances, but TNT has changed its tone on refreshing for things. What I do is have the battledome and obelisk pages open in separate tabs, and I'll refresh once (or thrice) at the obelisk page to check my stats while I'm battling. I also make sure to exit each battle since the challenges don't show up on the battle pages.

 

I just noticed that according to the news, the next wave will start sometime on Sunday! (Maybe midnight Saturday night/Sunday morning?) Yay! I'm not going to be home much tomorrow, so that suits me just fine. I'll at least get my dailies in, but the later waves will matter more, I think.

I was given two boxed sets for Christmas: Divergent (2 books) and Matched/Crossed/Reached (which I'd never heard of -- apparently my sister told my brother I really wanted them for some reason). I haven't started either of them yet because I have too many library books and keep reserving more. I just watched the ALA award announcements and reserved the Newberry winner The One and Only Ivan, Bomb: the race to build and steal the world's most dangerous weapon (which was nominated for a bunch of stuff, and I think it won a few, too), and Aristotle and Dante discover the secrets of the universe (which also won at least a couple of things).

TRACED

I accidentally drew because it let me go into battle with zero HP (because of Snowie + a wheel). I had another tab opened and double-checked -- it really was already at 0. I could have used my bag of healing dust, but I was too impatient with the lag to notice. Oops. Yay for embarrassing BD stats!

 

I think the extra wins will count towards the team score if not the individual score. I only battled to get my daily loot, and then I've been trying to even up my wins against everyone, completing challenges as I get them (making sure I check the stats page after every battle to increase my chances of getting one). But so far I've only had 2 today.