The Top 5 New Year's Resolutions of Y13

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5. Obtain *Insert Seasonal Avatar Here*

That’s right, it’s a new year and that means a new chance to get some of those seasonal avatars you missed last year! The first one’s already gone! That’s “I *heart* Sloth,” obtainable this month on Sloth Appreciation Day. There are also several in February, March, and April, so make your lists, mark your calendars, and make sure you don’t miss these early avatars!

The most popular seasonal avatar that people are going for this year is the ever-popular “Blumaroo - Chef Bonju” avatar. “Bonju,” as most affectionately call it, isn’t available until the month of Hiding (that’s August for you out-of-town folk). That gives you almost eight months to get your hands on a Blumaroo Steak, a Gourmet Cooking For Your Pet, and an Orange Juice. Now, at just around 40,000 NP on the Shop Wizard pricing lists, you might think that Gourmet Cooking For Your Pet is out of your price range, but it’s not! Remember, you have eight months! Make your way over to the Magical Bookshop and grab a copy fresh off the shelves from the friendly Nimmo behind the counter. Volumes go fast and the Nimmo is often sold out, so you might have to make several trips to the shop before you find it in stock, but between now and the month of Hiding I’m sure you’ll be able to buy a copy at a very reasonable price.

4. Win a Beauty Contest Trophy

The Beauty Contest (often abbreviated as BC) is a weekly event where Neopets around the globe send in pictures of themselves, and the Neopian public votes on the best-dressed Neopet. The Neopet with the most votes in each species receives a gold trophy! Silver and bronze trophies are awarded to second and third place winners each week as well. It isn’t difficult to enter the Beauty Contest; you simply have to send in a picture of your Neopet to the BC council. Winning however, may take some work.

You don’t have to be a particularly artistic or stylish Neopian to help your Neopet win a trophy in the Beauty Contest. Similarly to the Art Gallery competition, any entry has a chance to win if you do your best and put in some effort. A huge part of the BC is advertising. There’s an even an entire Neoboard dedicated to the Beauty Contest! On the Neoboard, contestants can display their BC pictures for the week and campaign for votes. You will also see “previews” where Neopians ask for advice, opinions, and comments on pictures they plan to enter in the BC in coming weeks.

In addition to the Beauty Contest Neoboard, most participants put a link to their pet’s beauty contest entry in their NeoSignature, user lookup, pet lookup, petpage, or all of these places! The more exposure you get, the more people are likely to vote for your entry! Just remember, you can only advertise from the account that your pet is on. Some people advertise very little and rely on manual votes (people who go to the Beauty Contest page and look at all contestants for a species) to win, others advertise all week to campaign for as many votes as they can. Both of these strategies can work, and you just have to figure out which one is right for you. Remember, use all the resources you can. And if you don’t place one week, you’re free to try again. There are 52 weeks in a year, so that’s 52 chances to win!

3. Paint Your Pet

“Why don’t you paint me Grey if you’re just going to leave me like this?” How many times have you heard your pet say that to you? Instead of telling your pet to stop whining, take their words as inspiration and encouragement to save up your Neopoints for a new paint brush for them! Have you been trying to save for that Lost Desert Paint Brush for years? Well, this year, you can do it! Take a deep breath, gather your determination, and earn those Neopoints! Whether you want to paint your pet Tyrannian or Maraquan, this is a resolution you can achieve this year.

For those less expensive paint brushes, Key Quest is a great way to go. If you win your game, you have a chance of finding the very paint brush you’re looking for behind that golden door. If you don’t reach the door first, you still earn Neopoints that you can save towards buying that paint brush on your own. And Key Quest prizes can always be sold in your shop for additional Neopoints! Key Quest is also a great way to earn Neopoints towards those more expensive paint brushes. Remember, you can use 10 keys each day to open doors and obtain prizes!

Let your Neopoints work for you! The Stock Market is a great way to let your Neopoints multiply. You have the whole year, so there’s definitely time to wait for those stocks to go up! Remember, buy low and sell high. I recommend playing enough games to earn at least 15,000 NP each day and buying 1000 shares of your favorite stock of the day that is going for 15 NP/share. Do NOT sell your stocks until they rise to at LEAST 50 NP/share! Be patient, you have all year. And while your NP are tied up in stocks, you’ll be less tempted to spend them on impulse buys.

Keep your extra NP in the bank. Make collecting interest a part of your daily routine. You can earn NP just for letting your Neopoints sit in the bank overnight! And the more NP you keep in the bank, the more interest you get. Keep an eye on your account type! When your balance grows, you can upgrade your account for even better interest rates. Play games every day to add to our bank balance and earn more interest. You’ll have enough Neopoints to buy any paint brush before you know it!

2. Obtain *Insert Elusive Avatar Here*

We’re really getting down to the more difficult resolutions now. These last two New Year’s Resolutions take real perseverance. Is your New Year’s Resolution to finally be able to use the “Super Attack Pea!” avatar? Or maybe it’s “MSPP” that you’re seeking? These elusive, exclusive avatars almost always require you to find a lender, and finding a lender can take time. Some people will be lucky and will find a lender in a matter of days; others can live on the Avatar Chat Neoboards (sometimes known as the AC, not to be confused with the Altador Cup) night and day for months and not meet one. Lenders are scarce, and they are careful with their avatar items because they can be extremely expensive or even impossible to replace if lost. A lender may see you but choose not to contact you. The key to being lent is to show your trustworthiness to the lender.

One of the most tried and true ways to appeal to a lender is to “improve” your account. Put time and effort into your account! You can show that you care by customizing your Neopets, using custom or premade lookups rather than the default, adding a personal touch to your pages. Some lenders like to see painted pets. Many lenders place emphasis on your avatar count. If you’re a serious avatar collector, you will have obtained many of the more easily borrowed avatar items before you seriously begin your search for a SuAP lender, for example. Even young accounts can be impressive and seem trustworthy to a lender!

Make sure you have all the clickable and seasonal avatars. These are the easiest to obtain and can make your avatar count jump up with very little effort. There are many item avatars that do not cost much (e.g. Tuskaninny - Spotted). You can either buy some of these items yourself, or look for lenders that offer “basics.” Some “basics” can be worth quite a bit and may require collateral. The “Icy Snowflake” is sometimes considered a basic avatar item lend, and can require up to full collateral (around 130,000 NP). The advantage of borrowing instead of buying when you have full collateral is the elimination of the need to resell an item that you only need to use once. If you don’t have full collateral, many lenders are willing to lend for low or no collateral if they feel you are trustworthy. Do your homework before asking for a lend! Know exactly what you need to do to get the avatar after you receive the item, and always return the item as quickly as possible without making a mistake.

Once you’ve unlocked the “basics” of the secret avatars, the next step is to move on to the more expensive avatar items, and avatar pets and petpets. There are many pet lending agencies out there! Check the AC for pet lending boards, or ask your Neofriends for referrals. Some items and pets are easier to borrow than others! For example, it’s easier to find a Faerie Queen Doll lender than a Zafara Double Agent Plushie (ZDAP) lender. Just like it’s easier to find someone lending or giving away a pink pet than a Krawk or Draik. Be patient, make yourself known on the AC, and keep working on your account. These avatars are all obtainable.

And now we’ve gotten to those high-end avatars: BGC, MSPP, and SuAP. If you don’t know what these acronyms stand for, then you have a lot of homework to do! To find lenders for these avatars often takes weeks of making and bumping your own Neoboard until a kind Neopian who is willing to lend you is online at just the same time that you are online. But you’ve gotten this far already! You’re experienced in avatar borrowing, you’re working on your game avatars and writing for the Neopian Times for the NT avatars. Now it all comes down to determination. Make boards every day and bump them! Talk to your friends and let them know you are seeking. Get to know the people on the “TBGCC” and “MSPP/SuAP Lendees” boards. There are 12 months until the end of Y13, and I’m sure you can complete this New Year’s Resolution if you really work at it.

1. Increase Your Pet’s Stats

Working on your pet’s statistics is something that requires daily supervision if you want to be serious about it. Neopets everywhere are making the resolution this year to read more, train harder, and increase their stats, but they need their owners to help them! Now that the plot is over and the Faeries are no longer stone, it is much easier and much less expensive to train your pets! The price of dubloons and codestones has gone down, and the Negg Faerie has her shop back up. For your lower level pets, dubloons are the way to go. You can go back to the Academy on Krawk Island every few hours to start a new training course. It takes real discipline and perseverance to train your pet’s Battledome statistics. Remember to optimize your training by never letting a particular area become more than two times your level until the other areas have caught up! Once you train past level 40, you’ll have to train at Mystery Island with codestones. Just like at The Academy, you can start a new training course every few hours, and you can often complete more than one course each day. Be sure to check the prices of codestones on the Shop Wizard, and keep in mind that you can also train with certain Neggs (although they can be quite pricey!). And always have your eyes open for those Faerie Quests! Completing a quest can earn you a faerie blessing that will increase one of your pet’s statistics.

In addition to Battledome stats, you can increase your pet’s intelligence by reading books to them. There are many resources that you can use to find new books to interest your pet. Several Neopian shops carry books and scrolls, as does the Almost Abandoned Attic. You can also get books from user shops, and as Key Quest prizes. Neopets love to be read to, and in addition to spending time with your Neopet, an increased intelligence can also allow your Neopet to unlock the abilities of certain Battledome items, such as the Heavy Blue Tunic.

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Remember, New Year’s Resolutions aren’t meant to happen immediately. You have the whole year to work on your resolutions, so be patient and be persistent! The important thing is to make a plan, stick with it, and try your best. Whether your resolutions are on this list or not, best of luck to you in Y13!