Hi Ho, Hi Ho, It's Off to Work We Go

     Hi Ho, Hi Ho, It’s Off to Work We Go

     If you’re like me, you’d do anything for your Neopets. Buying them toys, curing them when they’re sick, feeding them when they’re hungry, taking them to Kelp (are you SURE you don’t want to take any leftovers this time? Welp, that’s 60k down the drain…). And while we love and take care of our pets, there is nothing wrong with asking them to start earning their keep! While many of us older Neopians already have real-life jobs of our own to pay for our Neopets Premium, our Neopets have the opportunity to grab some jobs of their own through Faerieland’s Employment Agency.

     While job hunting might have once been extremely competitive, it seems that more and more of our Neopets are content settling for unemployment these days. And in reality, completing jobs for the Faerieland Employment Agency is a great way to earn Neopoints and boost our pet’s profile. So it’s time to get our favorite Shoyru off the couch and into the working world!

     After working and experimenting around with jobs, I have come up with some best practices for completing jobs that anyone can do, even without a job coupon.

     Basic Jobs

     First, let’s talk about these wonderful things called Basic Jobs. Basic jobs are jobs you can accept without a coupon. To find the list of Basic Jobs, go to the Employment Agency in Faerie City, and click on “Basic Jobs” up at the top. They are limited, but there are a few tricks to know to make the most amount of money.

     Basic jobs refresh every 10 minutes or so. When they refresh, there should be over 160 jobs available. I like to go to the very end of the list first, to see how many jobs are available. The more jobs there are, the better chances you will have at grabbing a high-paying job.

     To know if a job is going to pay a good amount, there are 4 things you need to look at:

     1. Base Reward

     2. Time

     3. Number of Items to find

     4. Price of said items

     Base Reward: I like to find jobs that have a base reward in the 8000-9000+ range, but sometimes I will do 7000+. The base reward is the minimum amount that you will receive for the job; you will almost always receive more than the base. I have received anywhere between a couple hundred more and a couple of thousand more. And the higher the base reward, the higher your extra points received will be. Cha-ching!

     Time: It is in your best interest to find a job that gives you a large amount of time to complete the job. Best-case scenario, I like to find a job that gives 50+ minutes, but I usually do accept jobs that are over 30 minutes if the base reward is good. You want a lot of time, not because you’ll need it, but because your reward is dependent on how long you take based off the percentage of time they give you. So you could have the same job, getting the same thing, with the same base reward with two different times offered, and you would get paid more for the job that offered you more time. Tick tock!

     Number of items to find: Usually the higher paying jobs ask you to find a good amount of items, usually between 3-5 of the same item. Try to go for the jobs that offer you the least amount of items to find. Partially because you have to spend less getting the items, and partially because it takes more time to buy more items.

     Price of said item: Let’s say you find a job that offers a good amount of reward with a lot of time allotted. Woohoo! But how much money are you going to spend on this job? Are you going to spend more on the job than you will be rewarded? Will you barely break even? Do what I do, and look up the item on the shop wizard before applying for the job. It is obviously better to have the Super Shop Wizard for this, but a couple of refreshes with the normal Shop Wizard work fine too. If you see you’re not going to make much money, then pass the job over and find something different.

     Alright, now you’re ready to go job hunting! Let’s walk through completing your job, and talk about some best practices in getting the most bang for your buck.

     1. Find your job.

     Find a job that pays well, offers a good amount of time, and utilize the Shop Wizard to make sure you’re going to earn money. DON’T click “apply for this job” yet!!

     2. Tab your shops

     Pull up the shops that sell your items on different tabs. If there is a shop that sells more than one of that item, pull it up twice as if it is a different shop. DO NOT BUY YET.

     3. Apply for the job

     Click “Apply for this job” on your job. Sometimes if you’re too slow, someone else will snag it before you do, and a sign will pop up saying that the job was already taken. This is why you don’t want to buy your items before applying for the job. If you get the job, then the screen will say, “you got the job!” with the number of items needed and time allotted. KEEP THAT PAGE UP ON YOUR COMPUTER.

     4. Purchase items

     Now quickly purchase your items! I like to click the item with one hand, and press “enter” with the other when it asks you if you’re sure you want to buy. Obviously you want to do this as quickly as possible, and don’t wait for the page to reload. This is why you want to have multiple tabs up of the same shop if they sell multiples of an item. Restockers are your friend! And when you come across multiple of the same shop, you know how far to scroll down quickly if the user has a bunch of graphics on their shop. As soon as you’ve pressed enter, quickly move to the next tab and do the same thing.

     5. “Return to this page”

     After you have purchased all your items, quickly go back to the employment tab and click, “return to this page”. Sometimes you might miscount when you buy, so make sure you see the phrase, “Good job! You got all the items we wanted.” The faster you do everything, the more Neopoints you will earn.

     Some Observations on Job Coupons

     The benefit with Job Coupons is that they offer more Neopoints than the average Basic Job, and they don’t go as quickly. Job Coupons can be expensive, but they can give out quite a pretty penny.

     I would personally recommend not purchasing a Job Coupon under the value of a Silver Coupon. These include Red, Blue, and Green Coupons. The reason is because you can easily find Basic Jobs that offer the same amount of Neopoints or more. Also, when you use a Job Coupon, that coupon decreases in value by one each time. If you are going to purchase, I like buying either a Pink or a Purple Job Coupon. You will pretty much always get much more back than what you spent, without spending too much on the coupon.

     So there you have it! That is my best practices for the Faerielend Employment Agency and working jobs. I hope you found this money-making article helpful, and that your Neopet will finally get off his lazy tail and start making that moolah!