Tips for Restarting in Neopia

Now, since Neopia is a community just as much as Earth is, imagine taking a break for a little while. Whether you get frustrated with something, you lose interest, or something more important (but less fun) comes up in your life, you might have to step back and sign on less often. In some cases, you stop signing on at all. That’s what happened to me, and I think I can safely assume that some of you out there can relate.

Some people that take a break from Neopets never come back. Most of the time, though, people do, and it can be a hard transition. After a struggle to worm my way back into Neopian society, I’ve decided to be selfless and noble and offer up my personal methods of success.

Number one: Your pets!

For most of us, pets are the most important part of Neopets; they’re even in the name. They are the center of all Neopian culture; therefore, it makes sense to start there. Are they hungry? Sick? Use anything from jelly to gourmets to the Lodge to make sure they’re bloated. Groom them and play with them until they’re delighted, or use the Merry-go-round. Use the Healing Springs or the pharmacy to cure them of any disease they might have. Remember, your pets are the most significant part of the game.

Number two: Check on everything!

After your pets are taken care of, make sure everything is how you left it! An inactive account can be a sitting duck. No matter what, you might want to change your password just to be safe (just make sure you remember it!). Since you just pampered your pets, you should be able to tell if one of them has gone missing. Then, check your bank account. You might not remember exactly how much you had before, but you should be able to notice drastic changes—any change of 100,000 or more should be pretty evident. Then, check your SDB and inventory to make sure your items are safe. Some other areas you might want to check are weapons your pets are equipped with, pet pages or pet descriptions, galleries, your user lookup, petpets attached to your pets, or anything else that may occur to you. This might be a good time to start using a PIN. Nothing is worse than trying to start playing again and finding that someone has messed with your account!

Number three: Money!

Did you leave stocks when you took a break? I did, and they made me money! I went back to check and a few had nearly doubled in price. You should also check your store. Maybe you finally sold that hard-to-sell item that has been sitting there for weeks. Check on your trades; if you didn’t have any up when you left, then you can skip this step. Gather all of this newfound revenue and keep it in your inventory for now. Then, go back to the bank and get your interest before you put your profit into your bank account.

Number four: Social maintenance!

You should definitely go back and neomail everyone on your neofriends list. They will probably wonder where you went and why you haven’t replied to any of the mail they sent you. Sending them a quick note is a good way to reconcile your neo-friendship. This is also a good way to apologize if you’ve been away so long that your neomails were deleted; greet them, tell them you’re back, ask them what they’ve been up to and ask them if they can recall what they said to you while you were gone.

If you belong to a guild, go to your home page and check it out. Read any news updates that have been posted, check for any new members, or see if it has disbanded all together. There might be an event on the calendar or new posts on the discussion board. Depending on how long you’ve been gone, you might have been deleted from the guild. Some guilds do delete idle members, but most are understanding if you neomail the leader and explain the situation. If they don’t let you back in, however, you can find a new guild or make your own. You could also remain guild-less for a while. It might be smarter to catch up with everything else first, and THEN go in search of a guild to join.

Number five: Culture and current events!

You’ll probably have a lot of news to catch up on. News updates, Neopian Times, site events like plots, and your neofriend just waiting for you to get online so they can tell you about their new painted pet or how they won big at a carnival game last week.

Going through all the updates, events, new items and articles, comics, and editorials can be a daunting task. There are three ways to accomplish this:

1. Don’t. You could always assume that anything important that has happened in your absence will make itself apparent without digging through pages of old updates.

2. Ask a friend. You could kindly neomail someone asking for an update: any new plots? Cool new items, pets, or colors? Your friend might be able to tell you all the highlights of the past week/month/year. That way you won’t have to scroll through things that are no longer relevant or that were not relevant to you.

3. Take a deep breath, sit down, and dive in. Going through all of the news updates or Neopian Times editions that have come out since you last checked probably won’t take as long as you think, but it could turn into a major sensory overload. However, I don’t recommend this method if you’ve been gone over six months. If there’s a news update and a Neopian Times every week and you’ve been gone a year, that’s 52 update pages and 52 sets of comics, editorials, short stories and articles to go through. However, if you’ve been gone a shorter amount of time, this is probably the best option. Take an hour and go through everything. When the words start blending together in your brain, though, take a break.

Number six: Remember!

Trying to plunge straight back into the world of specific lingo, pet names, characters and other things you can’t remember can be a bit of a challenge. If your neofriend starts talking about something and you have no idea what they’re saying at all, it’s time for some mental upkeep. This can be frustrating for long-time users because you’re so used to taking your knowledge for granted. Trying to rebuild this familiarity can be a trying process, but it’s absolutely crucial. However, there are a lot of resources out there for you; skim through some encyclopedia articles, go to the pronunciation page, read the FAQ or the editorial, or go to the discussion boards. There will always be someone there to help you remember different names and words. Just make sure you remember your manners! ;-)

A brief note: Wh-hoo! I know that if you're reading this, then I got into the Neopian Times, which is definitely a wh-hoo moment. Think that this article was helpful? Think my brain is full of dung for writing this? I'd like to hear from you. However, if you're mean, I reserve the right to let my mutant meepit loose and take a swipe at you with my sword pencil. Just sayin'.