discobiscuit

I know you said funds weren't the issue but I was curious about the prices, so I checked.

Regular codestones are basically 3k, 7k, or 19k while red codestones are basically 9k, 22k, or 39k. Since you have to use 8 codestones for each level, even the best random cost of 8 of the 3,000 np codestones will cost you 24k np, which is higher than all but 3 of the red codestones.  I've never gotten all cheap codestones, so the odds of getting away with spending "merely" 24,000np is low.  Only having to buy 1 red codestone is going to be cheaper -  or at worst about the same - and it only takes 4 hours?

If I were so close to level 250, I'd jump to it.  You will be spending less np but more importantly a lot less time getting all your other stats up.

5 hours ago, Rayd1978 said:

Maybe I'm not looking at the right place, but do they have details on how many times you can play each game and when the Staff Dream Team is going to be up?

You can play as many games as you want per day, though you stop earning np after 3.  You move up the ranks by playing more games and at the end of the cup, you get points to spend in the prize shop based on your rank.  So, limiting the number of games you can play would mean everybody would stay at rank 2 or something.

I just figured out mine last month!  I too recommend making a grid with a spreadsheet and entering the time you test each and every time.  

The times you're usually by your computer is easy to do.  You just have to remember to actually check every 10 minutes, and the spreadsheet will help with that.  You'll find reasons to stay up late to watch TV and check the pool, so those hours will get filled in pretty quick.  The hard part is in the deep slumber times you shouldn't be up if you were a normal healthy person.  I had a sick dog that needed to go out randomly, so that helped immensely.

Turned out, my time was a couple hours before I normally woke up in the morning.  I found it when I was on vacation in a different time zone!  

56 minutes ago, Kute said:

What did you all get? 

I got the same as you. 

I beat all the battledome challenges, donated a few extra potions beyond the plot requirements (but not a huge amount), and made it through the first few levels of the mirror/cannon game, but I did not finish it.  

Do we know the tiers of prizes yet?  Was it the mirror game that puts you into the highest ranks?

 

I'm not in the real estate field, but I have bought a house or two, and how the realtor looked had nothing to do with whether or not I used them.  It's all about attitude, patience, and having answers to what must be painfully stupid questions.  

You may not want massive amounts of hair in the high summer after the 100th tour of non-air conditioned farm houses or something, but that's something you do for you, not because you're supposed to look a certain way.

6 hours ago, UMaxii said:

Thanks for this very datailed explanation, any tips on weapons in the battledome? There are multiple types of weapons/magic etc. no clue what is best for beginners.

Definitely take a look at the guides and the battlepdedias.  I didn't have any battledome experience before returning to my account 2 years ago, and had no idea what to expect, so I did found them helpful.  However, they can't tell you what is "best" or even affordable because that changes with the times and conditions.  For example, if you have a super expensive powerful shield that will absorb 100% of any dark based attack, but your opponent only uses light or water attacks, that best shield is as effective as the worst shield.

Spend the time with your lower training levels fighting lower level opponents and see how everything works.  Don't invest millions or even hundreds of thousands of np yet.  There are plenty of imperfect weapons and shields out there to be had for 1,000 np that will help you practice fighting.  Once you're into the swing of things, you'll say "Man, I wish I had something that would heal me while blocking earth attacks" or something.  Then, research that to death, and spend tens of thousands of np getting the best for your level.

I didn't buy anything greater than 100K np until this month!  The plot we're in required fighting wraiths who delivered 2-300 points of damage and I kept getting smacked around.  I bought Hansos Charisma Charm but that's only good against dark based attacks.  So be patient on weapons. 

Remember, you can heal your pets for nearly free every 30 minutes, so it's OK if you get damaged.

Also, take part in various neopets events (like plots or the altador cup) because prizes often include decent (and sometimes excellent) battledome items.

Start with the Swashbuckling Academy.  It requires dubloons, which aren't very expensive to buy using the shop wizard.  The cost in dubloons goes up in tiers based on what level your pet is at.  So, train as much on defense, strength, and endurance (you can skip training speed) as you can before moving up a level.  You can only have twice as many points in any one attribute as your level, so really you're going to be training 2 on strength, 2 on defense, 2 on HP and then 1 on level.

You can get dubloons randomly from Coltzan's shrine and other dailies, but they're easy to find in the shop wizard, too.

The Academy only goes to level 40.  After that, you have to use the Mystery Island Training school and courses cost codestones, which are expensive.  It still makes sense to train up the defense, strength, and endurance twice for each level at the Academy, it's just that the process costs much more np.

The good news, codestone-wise, is that you can earn them by fighting in the battledome.  The bad news is that there are 7 (I think) different types of codestones and you almost never win the exact right one from the battledome that you need to train.  So, you have to buy most of them (with the shop wizard).

At the lower levels, it's not expensive at all.  From level 20-30 or so, I only remember having an expensive item (22,000 np) once.  The highest level I've gotten was 34.  The level 35 item she wanted was only on the trading post for a million np.   At the time, the Honey Potion was worth 250,000.  So, it wasn't worth it at all, even if I could have gotten a trade done in the time limit.

It may be cheaper now.  Both the Honey Potion and the million dollar item are available on the shop wizard for much less today.

Did everybody get 200 NC or was that tiered as well?  I donated 6,000 points so I'm in the silver trophy party and got the couch and background.

Did anyone get different items?  

I was so done with it by 5,000 points.  I probably could have stuck with cleaning my SDB to get to 10,001 but bleah...

58 minutes ago, sajixx said:

I saw someone say once that the bank boon only gets you +5k if you have something like 45 million in the bank. That seems high, but I have ~8 mil and last time I tried the bank boon I only got a few hundred extra from it each day, so maybe it's right. 

As far as guessing participation goes, I'm in a guild with 1200 members that go for the skirmish together, so that's a good chunk of people participating. But I think a lot of people go with faerie quests instead. I don't have a quest cookie so I went with stocks.

It's worse then that.  To get 5,000 a day, you have to make 1,825,000 np in interest per year (5k * 365).  To get the 1.825M np in interest per year at 3%, you'd have to have 60,833,333 np in the bank.  If you have less than 60 million in the bank, the stock boon is better for you.

I do use quest refresh boons with a fortune cookie.  It nice to be able to avoid a quest to increase movement points, for example. In a week or so of daily quests, I think I've only refreshed one or two at the most.  Is it worth it?

Now that I think about it, it's a close thing.  At my pet's level, it costs me 25-30K np worth of codestones each course.  So, that useless faerie quest has a value of about 25K np to me.  50k np if I get two "bad" quests in my week.  Buying 1,000 stock at 10np instead of 15np nets me 5K np more (eventually) each day I do it, so potentially 35,000np. 

For me, I'll keep going for quest refresh, but if you need less codestones to level up your pet, then the stock boon is probably more valuable to you.

I do remember movie related games being available there but the only one I can think of was from a cartoon where you played a mouse that had to run along a table dodging plates and food while the cook threw knives at you.  Don't know what movie it was at all.

I don't remember watching any movie trailers there, but I still think there were some?

The games weren't hard and you made your 300-1000np quickly.  I remember that for sure.

Don't stop visiting the faerie festival! 

I just went by there and got to click through a conversation at the top.  Queen Fyora and another faerie interview a witness.  I think the conversation only happens once because when I reloaded the page, it didn't reappear.

Things are going on!

Well, now, today there was no Delina for me.  I went to the quests page and at the bottom was the "Would you like to do today's quest" button.  It's always been the bonus quest button before, which I used to just dismiss in order to get to the regular quest.

Then after I did the Air Faerie (sigh) quest, there is no additional quest to do.

This didn't happen to me yesterday morning.

I should add, since I see you're from Australia, that "yesterday morning" for me was 24 hours before this here post.  It's morning right now where I am.

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I did the reset and got a soup faerie quest instead.  I'm sure it's possible to reset a crafting quest and get another crafting quest, but that's not what happened to me today.

I was lucky enough to get the "Refreshed Quest Request" boon this week, right in the middle of the Faerie Quest Event!  I usually don't care for Air Faerie quests because she gives movement points as a reward and I don't find them helpful.  I was happy I could reset the quest every day if I got an Air Faerie.  But then I discovered...

You can use the boon to reset the bonus Crafting Faerie quest!  

Since I don't ever do Crafting Faerie quests, that means I can get 2 "normal" faerie quests for the rest of the week.  How awesome is that?

Pass the news on to all your friends (who were in the winning faction this week)!

Why, I like new things and I don't think I've seen most of the things on your list.  Please add me to the giveaway.

I see, so you need for it to defend something for it to work, unlike the Cursed Elixir.

Let me try it out.

 

Edit:

Nope, still not working.

http://imgur.com/a/asOjd

 

Is the drain stat reliant? I.e. perhaps I need a minimum of a certain stat for it to work? Sort of how like Crisp Blue Tunic requires at least 750 INT for it to drain 100...

I think you're on to something, but I don't know which stat.  I didn't notice this issue when the weapon came out.

Back in April, mintyfish was level 55, strength 103, defense 89, movement 55, endurance 98, and intelligence 761

Your pet, rogerqi, is level 43, strength 87, defense 58, movement 45, and intelligence 259

We need somebody between those levels to test it out.  Unfortunately, all my other pets are smaller than yours.

I can't be the only guy using the yo-yo this way!

I think the yo-yo acts more like a shield and it has to react to an attack.  

Here's a screenshot of it in action: http://imgur.com/a/zwZTm

The Giant Walein was at full strength at and mintyfish had been knocked down to 169 or so by the start of the round. The walein attacks, the yo-yo defends, and also heals mintyfish 35.

The battle report shows the damage from the icicle to the walein, but his health is actually down more than that.  (35 points).

If the conditions hadn't been right, say mintyfish wasn't down more then 35 hit points, then the yo-yo would just defend 4-6 icons.

I does heal (I use it all the time) however, you have to have 35 points of damage against you.  If you're only down 10 hit points, it won't bring you back to 100%.

Also, I've noticed that it only heals if your opponent has more than 35 hit points at the moment in combat that the yo-yo fires.  So, if you do 25 points of damage at the beginning of the round, and that brings your opponent down to 30, the yo-yo will just defend at the end of the round.

I use it in the first round or two when I start the fight wounded or in later rounds where my opponent has healed themselves and refuses to die despite my best efforts.

I'm curious what you got!  It'll be anti-climactic if the notice is for 1000 np, so maybe it's for something unusual and cool.

For me today, I spun (with adblocker turned off) but didn't get any pop up telling me what I won.  I repeated this at random times, and then a few seconds ago, I tried it and it says I won 1,500 np.  Now, I can't spin again today, which is normal behavior.  I don't know what made my last spin go through.  

Was 1,500 a possibility before the move to a dedicated page?  The lowest I remember getting was 2,000.

Well, I have different a problem today, but we know it's all part of one big problem behind the scenes.

This morning (Chrome on a Macintosh, adblocker turned off for the page), it spun, got 2,000 np.  I'd gotten 5 the day before, so I think it started me over again.  I think I'm going to take receiving any prize as the surprise and just wait until they work out all the kinks before I worry about progressing to the 100K level again.

This is the first jumpstart change for me since I came back to neopets.  Is this how things normally go?  Do they eventually repair everything?

On a whim, I turned off my ad-blocker and went to trudy's surprise page again, and I did get a reward after I spun!  

I guess coding it as a dedicated page instead of however they did it before looks like an ad to AdBlock.  So, if this particular glitch is still happening to you and you use an ad blocker, try pausing it.

Obviously, the ads are still out there, and about a million landed on me right after my spin, so some fine tuning is in order, but at least I'm not starting over.

Yup, definitely glitched. I didn't even get to see the pop-up that told me the amount I'd won, so no neopoints have been added, and I can't spin it again.

Similar glitch, I spin it and don't get the message telling me what I've won, but I can come back to it and spin again.  It just doesn't tell me if won anything.  I also haven't seen any extra neopoints showing up.

I wonder if this means our daily progress will start over tomorrow.  :sick01:

Blocking the ads makes everything playable again.  I actively resisted turning it on for neopets for so long because I figured this was how they make money and I didn't begrudge neopets that.  I tolerated the ads you had to fast forward through just to play something quick and easy like Meerca Chase.  I started thinking about blocking when the ads unfolded and took up parts of the screen you needed to use to play.  Finally, I started noticing the ads were getting less and less kid friendly and I thought neopets wasn't really watching what their advertisers were doing, why should I have to?

If they introduced some sort of advertising preferences, either for content or aggressiveness (or both), I could be convinced to stop blocking, but it's made the neopets experience pleasant again.