A Guide to The Search for Princess Lunara

So you’ve been looking through your trophy cabinet and noticed that it looks a little bare lately. If you’d like to learn how to earn one of the easiest trophies in the game and 750, 500 or 250 neopoints per day for a month guaranteed, then please read on.

The Search for Princess Lunara is my absolute favourite game, and I find, one of the easiest. I first found it as a newbie, attracted by its pretty picture and I stayed because it's quick, fun and you get pretty good neopoints from it even without that sparkling trophy. So now you’re convinced, let’s get on with the guide!

The Storyline

Oh no, Princess Lunara has been kidnapped! So it’s up to you, the amateur sleuth, to save her!

Just one teensy, weensy problem, though. The Emperor has ordered all the bridges closed to stop the kidnapper escaping and the guards are rather reluctant to let you through. Fortunately, being the clever Neopian that you are, you can answer their questions in order to pass. Depending on the guard you pick, you will be asked questions from one of three topics: All About Neopia, Neopian Culture, and Notable Neopians. You need to answer correctly to get through; otherwise they’ll think you’re the kidnapper and it’s off to prison you go. Of course you could always bribe them...

The Game

You need to choose the twelve question option if you’re aiming for the trophy. Otherwise you can choose the six questions option or play with your friends in multiplayer. Since I’m writing this guide for people aiming for the trophy, I’m going to assume you’ve chosen the twelve questions option.

Scoring:

This is pretty simple. Questions come in sets of three and each question is worth 15 points. However, you can earn bonus points for speed, which is how you end up with a high score. Each section of questions needs to be answered slightly faster but you end up getting more points for the faster sections. To be specific:

First section: 4 points max for speed

Second section: 8 points max

Third section: 12 points max

Fourth section: 16 points max

So the total amount possible is 300 points. This means that when the calendar flicks over to the first of the month, you need to send your score ASAP to get your trophy.

Controls:

The mistake most people make when first playing this game is that they use the mouse and don’t realize you can use the keyboard. I was one of these people and used to look on in awe at the people who got 300 points, trying to figure out how they did it.

Now there are two sets of numbers on your keyboard. I know most people like to use the keypad but I prefer the line of numbers for this. This is because there are four possible answers and this way you have one finger for each key. No doubling up, which is more likely to make you make mistakes.

Also, you want your LEFT hand on the keys and your RIGHT hand on the mouse. This saves time changing between the two and time is a very important thing in this game!

Questions:

As I said before the questions come in sets of three. After you answer a set, you get to move on to the next bridge. It’s important to CHOOSE ONE TOPIC AND STICK WITH IT. This prevents you getting confused when answering questions. How will I get confused, you ask? Well it’s because YOU WON’T ACTUALLY BE LOOKING AT THE QUESTION. Yep, you heard me! It takes too long to look at the question and then the answers and then choose the correct answer. You should have the answers partially memorized so when you look at the answers, you can pick out the right one without looking at the question.

Another helpful thing is that the answers are split in two as well, with 1 & 3 on the left and 2 & 4 on the right. I like to look at one pair and then the other. This makes you faster, particularly if you get lucky and a bunch of correct answers appear on the same side in a row.

Also it’s important to note that in some questions, the answer for one question is an incorrect answer for another. My personal favourite topic, Notable Neopians, has two of these with both of the correct answers being a wrong answer for the other question. However, one question tends to appear first and I have never seen it appear after the third section. The other question rarely appears first and usually occurs in the third and fourth sections. If you choose this topic, you’ll quickly figure out the two I’m talking about and once you’re on your guard it’s easy to choose the right answer.

One other thing is if you answer a question wrong, restart. Bribing takes away points and you need the maximum to get the trophy.

Final Tips:

1. Don’t despair if you don’t get 300 points every time or you just can’t get it at all. Take a break and then come back. Groom or feed your neopet or something. It usually takes me about fifteen tries to get 300 points and I’ve been playing the game for over two years now. Most of the failures are from hitting the wrong key because I’m trying to go so fast that I pick the wrong answer accidentally. The rest of the failures are because I just wasn’t quite fast enough.

2. Send your score at the beginning of the month. Just after midnight is the best time to send your score, although you can usually still get a trophy up until 3am or so. Yeah, I know that’s really late for some people, but hey, it’s only one day and it's every month, so pick a month during your school holidays and go for it!

3. Try to get into a rhythm of answering. If you start out answering fast, you’ll keep answering fast. Speed is your friend. :D

4. Have fun! This game is much easier if you enjoy it and it helps stop you getting frustrated easily.

5. Watch the cut scenes if you’re playing for fun or it’s your first time. They’re quite good and it gets you into the story. However, if you’re aiming for the trophy, skip over them to preserve your rhythm.

6. Good luck!!!