HAUNTED HOUSE - Halloween is a time of sweet chocolates, sugary lollypops and
caramels. It is a night of fearful excitement, magic and witchery. It is a chance
for everyone to shield themselves under disguises and be someone else fantastical
for a day. But what is Halloween for the 60 million NeoPets out there? Just
another ordinary day. They can't really trick-or-treat, decorate the house,
dress up in costumes and have parties... Or can they? Of course they can. All
they need to have a perfectly haunting Halloween is a few steps taken by their
owners.
Decorate the House!
Time Needed: 30 minutes, Neopoints Needed: None
Instead of decorating the house, pets (along their owners) can decorate the
user lookup and shop front. They can place a spooky background from a web art
site to set the haunting mood and use CSS to change the text to a pumpkin orange
or bat black. Some guilds even offer special Halloween adoptables like cute
little Ghostkerchieves and black Aishas to place in shop fronts. Just be careful
when using graphics that you have the artist's permission prior to doing so!
Decorating is a very fun activity and best of all, it isn't even one bit hard
on the bank account.
Trick-or-Treat!
Time Needed: 2 hours+, Neopoints Needed: N/A
Somehow, candies received through trick-or-treating just taste so much sweeter
than those bought directly from the store. One suspects that it's the trick-or-treat
pillowcase syndrome... Anyhow, with some planning and organisation, pets will
not miss out on the age-old joy of trick-or-treating. Arrange with a couple
of Neofriends or your guild members ahead of time an agreement to virtual
trick-or-treat at each other's accounts. Virtual trick-or-treating is the
same concept as traditional trick-or-treating. An owner takes his/her pets to
his/her Neofriends' accounts by writing a Neomail and they fork over the treats
through the Neofriend item transfer system or through the trading post. Treats
can be anything - candy, cosmetics, little toys, berries... even dung!
However, just like how people generally only trick-or-treat in their own neighbourhoods,
owners should stick to their own good friends while virtual trick-or-treating.
Absolutely do NOT bother random strangers when virtual trick-or-treating. It
is not polite, may be seen as begging and will cause lots of nasty comments
to be tossed at the perpetuators.
A Very Spooky Paint Job!
Time Needed: 2 minutes, Neopoints Needed: 120,000 NP
Halloween is here, so why not seize the opportunity and give a pet a cool new
look that fits the holiday flawlessly? Many of the Halloween pets are simply
awesome, such as the Halloween Aisha (devil), Lupe (werewolf), Blumaroo (Count
Von Roo) and Kougra (vampire/bat). Halloween Paint Brushes go for about 120,000
NP on auction, which is unfortunately a slightly hefty price. But perhaps as
the October 31st date nears, contests such as Mystery Pic, Better-than-You!
and Lenny Conundrum will give the paintbrushes out as prizes and in turn helping
to lower the prices in the process.
A Very Spooky Petpet Paint Job!
Time Needed: 2 minutes, Neopoints Needed: 21,000 NP
If a pet is already Halloween, or if the Halloween Paint Brush is just simply
too expensive, then another alternative is to paint the petpet Halloween. Halloween
Petpet Paint Brushes are about 21,000 NP and offer many aesthetically pleasing
looks such as the Halloween Whoot (Grim Reaper) and Flizzardo (devil).
Make Neopoints the Halloween Way!
Time Needed: N/A, Neopoints Needed: N/A
Ah… making Neopoints - a time-honoured, always enjoyable activity. So enjoyable,
that some Neopians probably don't even want to take a break from it to celebrate
Halloween. Luckily, there are ways to make Neopoints the Halloween way. For
the packrats or Neopians sharp enough to have stocked up on Halloween goods
out there, go through the safety deposit box, take out those Halloween paintbrushes,
spooky food etc. and sell them. Prices on Halloween-related goods generally
increase in value prior to October 31st, so a very nice profit can be in store.
In particular, the spooky petpets that recently received a makeover (Meowclops,
Goulblee, Snormorg and Pwerko) have increased in price multiple folds.
Or why not play some of the spookier games out there? Try Feed Florg, Korbat's
Lab, Monsters Inc. Canister Collector, MAGAX: Destroyer and Mutant Graveyard
of DOOM. Not only will the pets be pleased with the Halloween ingredient in
their lives, but the NP payout from some of these games is also considerable.
Feast on Candy!
Time Needed: 5 minutes, Neopoints Needed: 50 NP+
What's Halloween without candy? Take those pets out of their omelette-tombola-berry
diet for one day and give them something tasty and sweet to eat. Due to the
recent Snow Faerie and Kitchen Chef quest item changes, the majority of chocolates
have skyrocketed to over 1000 NP in price. But do not worry, as there are still
many cheap chocolates and candy around such as Cherry Twist Lollypop, Kyrii
Treats, Lime Jelly Blumaroo and Orange Sweetie.
Worried about breaking a pet's Vegetarian diet and thus condemning him/her for
eternity to the dark, descending road of red meat that leads to fire, brimstone
and even more red meat? Luckily for the Vegetarian pets, there are also healthy,
cheap alternatives such as Gooseberry Cupcake, Chocolate Sprout and Parnips and
Cream to feast on.
Ghost Stories!
Time Needed: 10 minutes, Neopoints Needed: 900 NP+
"To read is to realise that we aren't alone." That statement has a double,
creepy meaning in the ghastly time of Halloween... But still, reading has great
benefits for pets and since it's Halloween, a wonderful activity is to read
a good spooky Halloween book. Some titles are Watch Out!, Korbat Halloween,
Mystery of Halloween, Witchcraft Spells and Witch Hunting Techniques.
For the owners who are a little short on Neopoints, a completely free option
is to read a spooky Neopedia entry such as "Aisha Thieves", "Edna the Witch"
and "Frozen with Fear".
Costumes!
Time Needed: 1 hour+, Neopoints Needed: None
Even though pets really just exist as 1s and 0s in a database somewhere in
Southern California and in the imaginations of 31 million owners, costumes are
still possible. Owners can take an official NeoPet picture of their pet and
then give him/her a "costume" by editing the picture in a paint program. The
artistically gifted or the daring can draw the costume picture of their pet
themselves. Then, using HTML or for the more technically inclined, CSS positioning,
place the costumed picture of the pet into his/her pet lookup. Viola, a costume!
One very cute idea is to do owner-pet co-ordinated costumes. For example, the
owner can dress up as the NeoPet, and the pet can dress up as the owner.
Collect, Collect, Collect!
Time Needed: 1 hour+, Neopoints Needed: 100 NP+
For the avid collector, there are many Halloween-themed items in Neopia. Halloween
Aisha Rare Code items, spooky food and spooky petpets recently introduced into
the game can form the base of a very charming but chilling Halloween collection.
And if a pet is an adherent of the recent stamp fad, he/she can choose instead
to seek out the creepy Halloween stamps.
Halloween is a very enjoyable holiday and now, with some help from owners,
one holiday that NeoPets don't have miss out on. Happy Haunting! | 
