Trouble At The National Neopian - Game Guide!

Welcome to TROUBLE AT THE NATIONAL NEOPIAN!

This is a fairly simple game which rewards someone like me, a grand master ;), 3000 NP a day! Whilst it can take some practise to get that good, you can still make a respectable 1500 NP every day, which makes it a game well worth putting into your dailies!

Aim of the game:

The aim of the game is simple – stop the robbers from stealing neopoints! You do this by defending 6 doors with the keys S, D, F, J, K and L. Every time the bank is visited by a robber, you must activate the defence mechanism above the door, which blocks the robber from entering the bank so they can't steal anything!

As well as being visited by robbers, there is always a steady flow of customers coming through the bank to deposit their money. The money quickly adds up – every 100 NP can be converted into a gold bar (by pressing the 'space' key) which is too heavy for robbers to make off with. Make sure you don't try to convert neopoints into gold bars if the bank doesn't have enough neopoints to do so – you lose 10 NP every time.

The more neopoints you get, the more points you score! The current neopoints ratio is 0.77 – meaning you need to score 1298 points to get 1000 NP. If that sounds worryingly large, don't be put off! A score of 500/600 is easily achievable and still gets you around 1500 NP overall!

You don't gain any neopoints from stopping a robber stealing anything – but failing to do so means you lose a life, as well as half the neopoints available for stealing! A life can also be lost by barring a customer from the bank accidentally – not good, as it means you also lose the neopoints that would have been deposited.

Customers and Criminals:

The only people you really have to worry about coming into the bank are the robbers. They are:

1) Red Scorchio

2) The Meerca Henchmen

3) Uzarro (Small, green, masked neopet)

4) Tall Red Techo

As a general rule, the only Neopets coming into the bank that are red in colour are criminals – the Scorchio and the Techo – so hit the warning bell as soon as a splash of red is seen! The Meerca Henchmen are generally the only brown too – however, very occasionally the Phantom Orange Shirt Guy (TPOSG!) comes (he wears an orange shirt, and carries two huge money bags) and these two are very easy to muddle up! This is what catches me out most often. Luckily (or unluckily, he's worth 25 NP!) he doesn't show up very often.

The easiest two to muddle up are the green Quiggle and Uzzaro. Uzzaro is a darker shade of green to the Quiggle so once you get your eye in, you shouldn't be caught out so easily (though it's still pretty easy if you're not paying enough attention!).

The customers are pretty varied. Notable customers are the Usul and the Quiggle – both are worth the most neopoints (10) whereas the Bruce is worth the least (3).

Increasing Levels

This game starts off very slowly, but quickly increases in speed. Most people get flustered once too many doors are opening and closing at the same time and start making mistakes.

There is a level increase counter to the top left of the game screen, which governs how fast doors open and close. From what I gather, this increases with the largest amount of neopoints that you have had in the bank at any one time. For example, once you have collected over 20 NP the level will increase to level 2, once you collect over 50 NP you increase to level 3, etc. But you could keep playing indefinitely at level 1, if you never collected over 20 NP (eg, by pressing the space bar to get rid of them!)

Obviously, you wouldn't get anywhere by doing this, but I've included it to to show that it's not the amount of time that a game takes that increases the game speed, but how many points you have ever had at any one time. If you think it will help to get used to the changing speed, you can purposefully lose neopoints to keep the speed at the same level!

I wouldn't necessarily advocate this, though – robbers will still keep coming and you won't be gaining any more points. Besides, once you've gotten past a certain level (I find after about the 6th gold bar has been converted from neopoints) the speed no longer increases. If you can get to that level confidently, it's plain sailing from then on!

Tips for success!

Keep relaxed! Don't tense up! Don't panic!

Don't let a slip-up put you off your A-game. It's only one life gone, and you still have more to go! Keep on going at all costs!

Learn which finger operates which door. It wastes valuable time having to look down at which finger to press each time a robber appears.

Don't take your eyes away from the doors. I find it best to concentrate on the middle of the doors and unfocus my eyes slightly so I can see all 6 doors at once. You don't need to be able to see who is coming through the doors clearly, as long as you can identify if it's a robber or an innocent customer (colour recognition really helps for this!).

Don't money-watch! If possible, you should try and watch for when the neopoints bar at the top to tick over 100 NP without directly looking at it. It takes some practise to be able to watch that as well as the 6 doors, but once you catch on it makes the game a lot easier.

Robbers tend to come in waves. If there is a large amount all coming at once, the neopoints clock up slower. Try not to get trigger happy on the space bar! Conversely, when there are few coming, it's a welcome break as the only thing you'll need to be hitting is the space bar to convert all the neopoints flooding in.

If it's a toss up between hitting the space bar to bank 100 NP or stopping a robber – ALWAYS stop the robber first! You can always bank the neopoints after, but you can't bank them if they've been stolen first, or you'll lose a life if you bank but then don't get the robber in time. Keeping your lives intact is more important than instant gold bar conversion.

And my number one tip:

Don't play this game whilst tired! It takes a lot of concentration to keep your eyes on so many moving objects all at the same time. If you find you aren't doing as well as usual, it's probably because you're too tired. This is not a game to playing last thing before you go to bed!

I hope this guide has been helpful! No doubt you'll be a grand master like me in no time... :D