A Guide to Sophie’s Stew

But I digress. It isn’t fair that only Edna has Neopians flocking to her tower to help with her silly spells for the avatar, right? Pfft, that stingy creature hardly even gives out decent rewards. She calls “Bubbling Wand of Jetsam” a spell? Pah, how trivial. My spells are much more potent than hers.

Well *cackle* I finally got my own game – Sophie’s Stew. Being the absent-minded witch I am (my Great Grand Aunt twice-removed told me it runs in the family), I will need some help to complete my powerful spell. Now, read my game guide and get practicing before I throw you into my bubbling pot!

OVERVIEW OF THE GAME

Neopians, all you have to do is use my precious wand to bounce the ingredients that I throw into my pot. You start out with five lives, and each time you drop one of my ingredients onto the floor, you lose a life.

Try to keep the ingredients away from my Meowclops! If you lose all five lives, my spell will be ruined - and out you go of my hut! Or perhaps into my lovely pot, if I’m in a bad mood…

CONTROLS

You can use the mouse or the keyboard to control my wand. However, I advice you to use the mouse as it allows for a faster reaction.

GAME PLAY

Let’s start off with my wand. You have to bounce the ingredient on its right to move it towards my pot. Bouncing the ingredient on the left side of my wand will move it towards me! Avoid that, for it will be difficult to juggle multiple items in different corners of my hut.

Next up is my Meowclops. Although I have admitted that I often forget to feed it, I will be kind; therefore you shall not lose a life if you accidentally drop an ingredient and my Meowclops eats it. Why, it may even entertain you by doing a jig. However, remember that the focus of the game is my spell, and not what that silly petpet does. Do not get distracted by it!

Occasionally, a passing Droolik will fly past my hut. If a spell ingredient hits it, the Droolik will become disorientated and drop a power up. There are three kinds of power ups: the extra life, wand size increase and wand size decrease.

You can get a maximum of six lives with the extra life power up. The wand size increase will make my wand bigger, while the wand size decrease will do the opposite. Only the wand size increase is worth getting, for it will make the transportation of my ingredients slightly easier. (Take the wand size decrease at your own peril!) Once you lose a life, the effect of the wand power ups go away.

ITEM POINTS

There are two ways to get points in my game: either you get the ingredients into the pot or you feed that greedy Meowclops of mine. Below is a list of ingredients in the following arrangement:

Format: Ingredient – Go into Pot/Feed Meowclops

Dung – 5/0

Almost Gummy Rat (Grape) – 5/5

Brain Ice Cream – 6/1

Glaring Eye Wrap – 6/1

Spooky Doughnut - 6/5

Tongue Wrap – 7/1

Octorna Tentacle – 7/2

Twirly Fruit – 7/2

Hot Worm Hot Dog – 8/1

Red Scorchipepper – 8/2

Spoc Spoc Grub – 9/2

Woo Woo Grub – 10/2

Blueberry Fish Pop – 10/10

Mau Codestone – 12/0

Ghost Marshmallow – 15/5

As you can see, it is only worthwhile to feed my Meowclops the Grape Gummy Rat and the Blueberry Fish Pop. And, to some extent, the Spooky Doughnut because you only get one point less as compared to bouncing it into the pot.

Feeding it the Codestone and the Dung is utterly useless. I mean - would YOU like to eat a pile of dung? Well, perhaps I will make you try that if you ruin my spell. *cackle*

EXTRA GAME TIPS

1) Concentration is needed for this game. Turn the music and sound effects off.

2) The further you can bounce the ingredient off the right side of my wand, the less bounces will be required to get it into the pot.

3) Take note of the different bouncing of the ingredients! The Dung, Gummy Rat and Codestone require more attention because they bounce low, needing about 5 bounces to go into the pot. The Scorchipepper, Ghost Marshmallow and Octorna Tentacle bounce higher and require approximately 3 bounces.

4) Do not rely excessively on my Meowclops to eat the ingredients for you. When possible, try to get them all into the pot. You never know – it may look as if it is going for that particular ingredient but miss it. Hey, give it a break; it only has one eye! How do you expect it to see everything clearly?

5) Do not try to deliberately hit the Droolik for power ups. Doing so causes distraction and breaks the rhythm of the bouncing. Consider it as a bonus if the Droolik is hit in the course of the game.

6) If an ingredient hits the rim of the pot, it will rebound. Again, this could break the momentum of the game. Try to aim accurately so that it falls directly into the pot.

7) Practice, practice, practice! You need to get a feel of how each ingredient bounces and how to manipulate my wand. I *may* forgive you for ruining my spell the first few times you try. That is, if I see that you are improving!

GAME TRIVIA

I’ve been told about my Meowclop’s interesting behaviour when it eats my ingredients. It can faint, turn Maraquan or Snow, dance and turn a bright shade of red from eating the spicy Scorchipepper.

And, if you are unkind or careless enough to feed my poor Petpet the Dung or Codestone, it will throw the revolting thing out.

Perhaps I should teach it how to carry the ingredients to my pot instead! *cackle* However I doubt that will happen because it is just so greedy.

CONCLUSION

I hope that this guide has given you a better idea of how to play my game. Overall, I do feel that a little of this game is based on luck – the ingredients that I throw out and the power ups that the Droolik drops will influence the game score. Oh, I know what you’re thinking –you want me to throw out only the Ghost Marshmallows don’t you?

Who’s the expert witch here, you or me? So don’t you dare try to change my spell!

If you can master my game well enough, you can get a shiny trophy to add to your userlookup. Now, isn’t a trophy with my lovely wand on it much better than having an avatar with Edna’s hideous face on it? Good luck!