World Challenges

So… you’ve played Destruct-o-Match II every day, 3 times, for the last 6 weeks. Are you any good? Well now’s the time to find out! We have the brand new world challenges to test your abilities, and hopefully this guide will clue you in on the basics, plus some handy hints to help you win!

Firstly, the basics.

The world challenge menu can be found here; //www.neopets.com/challenges/world_index.phtml

From there you can see there are a number of different worlds, each one with its own set of themed games. Have a browse, and try to find the game you think you can score best at, over and over again. Pick maybe one or two games, preferably in the same world, and then have a look at who is ranking top slot at the moment. The important thing is not who is playing, but rather what scores he or she is getting. You do this by clicking the word ‘score’ beside the user-name.

Hopefully there will be a couple of scores there for you to get a rough idea of what kind of score you should be aiming for. For the games which take a long time to play, eg, time tunnel, there will be less scores but hopefully still enough for you to see what you have to be able to beat.

Now here’s the clever part. As well as seeing what kind of score you need to beat, you can also see what kind of score the player was beating. These are presented on the right hand side alongside the winning score. Was the player beating them by miles, or was it a close call? This is important because if the average score is only 500, then there is no point wasting time getting 2000, because you only have an hour.

Of course, the score needed to win at the world challenges varies from game to game, and quite possibly with the time of day too. I’ve found that during peak time on Neopets (9am to 9pm NST) the average winning score rises, probably due to the increased number of people playing.

So, what you are trying to do, is play your game as many times as you can within the hour, winning as often as possible. The more people you are playing against, the more slots on the winners chart are available. This is shown by a darker line. It can go from two winning slots (for about 10 players) to fifteen (300 players).

If, by the end of an hour, you rank above the dark line, you get a share of the NP everyone has paid to enter, plus, more importantly, a world challenge map piece. You need 20 of these to collect your reward (hence why you should stick to one world), or you can sell them. It's your choice.

So, you have your game. You know what kind of score you are aiming for. You even got in a few extra practice shots before the hour starts. Ok, you’re nearly ready to go!

Checklist

Are you in the world challenge area, just before the hour?

Have you checked what scores are likely to win? (hint, you can do this while waiting for the hour to tick over)

Have you put in your 100 NP entry fee towards the jackpot (this is essential for entering. There is nothing worse than getting an outstanding score, sending it and finding you forgot to put in the entry fee! I know this from experience!)

Have you made sure the computer is going to be free for the next hour, since you are going to have to play repeatedly if you want to win?

Have you double checked that you paid your 100 NP entry fee (I cannot stress this enough. No entry fee, no score!)

Then play!

Some people like to refresh the competition page between games to check their progress. It can give you an extra shot of energy to see that you are one win away from making rank 1! It also lets you see how many people are playing at the time. If less than 10 people are playing at the same time as you, then no world pieces will be awarded.

You can check to see what times are busiest, generally 9am-9pm NST. But it might vary from day to day.

When you win a world challenge piece, the Neopets Team will send you a neomail to let you know. They send it out of the 59th minute of the hour, just before a new round starts.

It’s a mystery what goodies lay in sort for anyone who completes a whole world challenge map, maybe you’ll be the first to find out!

There are rumours of rare petpets, petpet brushes and plushies, but at time of writing these are unconfirmed.

Handy hints

Play repeatedly for the full hour, those extra wins will help you out in the end.

If you find you are losing more than you are winning, try upping the score you try to get. If this means restarting after a disappointing game, so be it. Remember, loses will place you further down on the scorechart.

On that note, try not to send in scores that are poor, just because the hour is running out. Again, the more losses you have, the lower you will rank.

Practice makes prefect. You’ve probably never had to play Hasee Bounce for a whole hour before, so give yourself time to get used to the intensity of world challenges.

You may find that the music starts to drive you mad after a while. Turn off the speakers and put on your favourite CD. It’ll help you enjoy yourself!

Don’t sell your first challenge piece. Everyone gets 1.1 (the top left hand corner) piece first. Therefore there are lots of these floating around the trading post. Try to win another (which I believe is randomly picked from the pieces you still have to collect) and sell that instead, since it is likely to be rarer, and therefore worth more.

World challenges are hard, so don’t worry if you don’t win the first few tries. Relax, take a break from playing for a while, and remember that you play Neopets to have fun!

I hope this has helped you, take care and have fun! Scribble.