Going for Gold: The Petpet Protection League

     The PPL awards Neopets for loving and taking good care of their faithful Petpets. Every week, a Petpet that has not previously won PPL is selected at random, and the top 200 Neopets who have played with that specific Petpet the longest wins a trophy or medal that will display on its pet lookup. The trophy will stay with them forever, even if that Neopet is pounded, transferred, or if the winning Petpet is removed, painted, or zapped by the lab ray after winning. Regardless of how many Neopets in Neopia have a winning PPL Petpet attached, everyone who has that specific Petpet attached to one of their pets will at least earn the Neopoint prize, which is 10 neopoints for every single day it has been attached to your pet. The best part? This is a contest that is allowed to be entered and won both repeatedly and on side accounts!

     So, what exactly do you need to do? The short answer is: nothing! If you have a Petpet attached to your pet (that hasn't already won PPL before), you don't have to do anything else. Your pet is already automatically entered into the contest. But, there are some important things to know about PPL if you--or your Neopets-- are interested in hunting for a rare, gold PPL trophy.

     Firstly, it's important to know that no Petpet wins the PPL twice (purposefully), so if it's already been selected for the PPL award in the past, it likely won't be chosen again. The good news is there are still over 2,000 unique and eligible Petpets to choose from in various colours, species, and price ranges!

     You should also be aware that Petpets zapped by the Petpet Lab Ray are not allowed to win PPL, regardless of how long it has been attached. This means if the original incarnation of your zapped Petpet is selected as the PPL winner for that week, you and your Neopet will not receive a prize or trophy. This also means the Pile of Soot will never be able to win PPL because it is only obtainable through the Petpet Lab Ray.

     Luckily, there is a list at an official fan site, Jellyneo, where you can browse every single unrewarded Petpet and get an estimate of its current price. This is the easiest and quickest way to find a potential PPL winner that is the perfect fit for you and your Neopet.

     You could absolutely just pick any listed Petpet at random for your Neopets' chance to win big, but there are some strategies to picking the perfect pet for your pet.

     The first strategy is to pick a Petpet that has been released relatively recently. A Petpet released within the last few years will have a better chance of your pet earning a higher trophy since it's going to be newer to the site; therefore, fewer people have had their chance to attach it to their pet. A couple of examples of newer-released Petpets would be the Elderly Gathow or the Grey Plumpy. Petpets that are released for the first time as a part of a prize for a daily, site event, plot, or the Advent Calendar are typically not good options for winning a PPL trophy unless you are one of the first people to obtain and attach the Petpet upon its release (immediately after midnight, for example).

     A different strategy would be to go for Petpets that aren't as popular on the site. These would be Petpets that aren't featured in any games, plots, or Advent Calendar days. Petpets like the Polarchuck, Kadoatie, or Warf have been on the site for a long time and have games made featuring them like Snowmuncher, the Kadoatery, and Warf Rescue Team. This would be a great opportunity to browse the list of available winners and pick a species you've never heard of before and give some extra love to the lesser-known Petpets out there! The Plushie Zebie, a colour released for this Petpet in 2004, only had 19 total winners in week 910.

     Similarly, you could visit the list of weekly past winners until you find a species that had less than 200 listed winners, and then pick a different colour of that species to attach to your Neopet. A recent example of this could be the Water Intesteen, which was selected for PPL week 860 and only had 3 winning Neopets. While the Intesteen itself has been around since 2003, the watercolor is relatively new for the species and it is not known to be a wildly popular Petpet on its own.

     Those with deep pockets could try to obtain one of the most expensive Petpets on Jellyneo's list as well, as competition may be low due to a hefty price tag. This might be a Mutant Powtry at around 5 million, Maracite Blobikins at roughly 12 million, or even Robot Snowickle at an estimated whopping 14 million Neopoints.

     Long-time Neopets players do have one additional option to go for gold, if you already have a Petpet that has been playing with your Neopet for a long time: a trip to the Rainbow Pool! Someone with a Cirrus that's been attached for many years (but perhaps wasn't attached long enough by week 59 when it won PPL, or attached after week 59 entirely) could always try to paint it to a colour that was released later on like Darigan, which came out in 2022, or Faerie, released in 2017. While this is not a cost-effective method in the current Neopian economy, those who are serious about striking gold in the PPL could prove victorious with this method.

     Whatever your strategy, there are plenty of opportunities for your beloved Neopets to earn a well-deserved, flashy trophy and enjoy the companionship of a long-time friend along the way.

     Jellyneo’s list of PPL eligible Petpets can be found here: https://items.jellyneo.net/search/has-not-won-ppl/