Getting Your Dream Pet, Without Winning A Contest

     All of Neopia is abuzz with festive cheer and jolly moods, Christmas spirit is in the air all around us. And with that comes one of the most exciting contests of the year: the Dream Pet Giveaway! Thousands of hopeful pets are entered, but only forty get to walk away with the grand prize of a dream makeover. The winning pets will get morphed and painted into their owner’s greatest dream pet, possibly one that they could have never afforded without having won the competition! But, like I said, only forty can win...and out of thousands of entries, those odds aren’t so good.

     So what is one to do if they ARE NOT a lucky winner? How do you go about achieving your dream pet on your own?

     First, you should decide what exactly your dream pet would be and would look like, and then enter the Dream Pet Giveaway just in case. You never know, you could become a winner. This guide is more of a backup plan for if you lose.

     After you get that all settled and squared away, you should start working towards building your bank account up. This should be done before the winners are announced, an early start never hurt anyone and even if you DO win, you’ll have gotten some extra Neopoints in the bank. How do you go about earning all these Neopoints though?

     There are lots of options, I’m sure you’ve all made a few Neopoints to begin with. The most important thing about saving for a big goal, whether it is a cheaper paint brush like a Striped Paint Brush, or a more expensive one like a Woodland Paint Brush, is that you shouldn’t take risks with your money. This isn’t the time to gamble away at the Brucey B Slots hoping to win it big. You want to make good decisions using tried and true methods, because otherwise you will end up further from your goal than where you originally started from.

     What are some good ways to make money safely, you ask? Flash games! These games cost nothing to play and can give up to 1,000 NP per play. If you find a few that you are good at and can consistently get a good score, you could make 50,000 NP or more every day just from games alone. This is also fun and not as frustrating as some of the other options.

     Restocking, while sometimes very profitable, can also be frustrating. This is where you buy rare items from Neopian Shops and sell them to users for a higher price. The best items to restock are things like stamps and morphing potions, books, or gourmet foods, but it can be so frustrating to go after a million Neopoint stamp only to see it disappear right in front of you to another user who beat you to the punch. If you can take the disappointing for the occasional gain, this is a great way to make money.

     There are a million other options, like investing in stocks (which can be done safely, but takes a while to turn a profit), or running a large shop with small markups on every item (similar to a mall). But what will really get you closer to your dream pet is smart money management.

     You need to set your goal and stick to it. Let’s say you want a Faerie Lutari. You need a Faerie Paint Brush and a Lutari Morphing Potion. Don’t buy anything until you get these!!!! Yes, it will be tempting to buy that stamp for your album, but you must resist. Even if it is only 3,000 NP, that is 3,000 NP less going towards your dream pet. You have to prioritize the pet over your other needs, maybe stop feeding gourmet foods for a while or hold off on adding to your gallery until after the morph and paint job are complete. Self-discipline is very important when it comes to achieving a long term goal, if you really want something you will have to work hard for it.

     You may not be the type to be able to laser focus in on just one goal though, and that is fine. Some people enjoy working on multiple things at once, and dividing their finances among them all however they feel on a day to day basis. This is fine, but it will generally take you longer to achieve your goals. It is all about preference, if you want to get your dream pet as fast as possible (which is probably the case if you are entering the Dream Pet Giveaway), then you will want to focus all your time and energy on that and put other goals on the back burner for a bit.

     But, let’s say achieving your dream pet isn’t possible through a paint brush. There are a few colors out there that cannot be achieved with a paint brush alone....Robot is one that comes to mind. To get these colors you either have to complete a Fountain Faerie Quest (or Grey Faerie Quest and hope she blesses you with the Fountain Faerie’s magic), or get lucky at the lab ray. There really isn’t anything you can do to trigger a fountain faerie quest, but buying a Faerie Quest fortune cookie from the NC Mall would for sure increase your odds. And while you are doing as many of those as possible, be sure to be visiting the lab ray at the same time. Just keep in mind that the lab ray comes with the risk of changing your pet to another species entirely, and know that you’ll have to use some NP to buy morphing potions to continuously morph your pet back. For that reason I only recommend the lab ray to those trying to get a non-paint brush color, as it can end up more costly than buying a paint brush outright if you are unlucky...but for some colors there are no other options available.

     The Neopian dream is still very much alive, work hard and your goals will be reached. There is no time that holds more true than today, but it WILL take hard work. Learning the self-discipline it takes to save up will be an essential skill you’ll carry with you through life, and if you learn it sooner it will be much better than learning it later. Best of luck to you in the giveaway, and on your new saving journey!!