 All You Need To Know About Neggsweeper
by moocowalex
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When I was just a young Neopian, I attempted to play Neggsweeper, but I quite quickly became utterly confused as to what the numbers meant, and so I began randomly clicking. This, of course, led to a quick loss. However, when I finally took the time to actually learn the rules of Neggsweeper many years later, the once difficult and headache-inducing game became a fun and pleasurable one! Hopefully, with this guide, the same can happen for you, too. Rules
The rules of Neggsweeper are actually fairly simple. There are a set amount of bad neggs, or traps, in a square field of regular neggs. If you click one of the traps, you lose all your points and it is game over! When you click a regular negg, if there are one or more traps in the surrounding eight neggs, it will show the number of traps around it. If there are no traps adjacent to it, then it will clear the whole area that does not have any traps around it, and award you bonus points depending on how many regular neggs were cleared! There are also three modes to play: Easy, Medium, and Hard. Easy has a 9 x 9 grid with 10 traps, Medium has a 12 x 12 grid with 25 traps, and Hard has a 14 x 14 grid with 40 traps. If you look at the percentage of traps in comparison to regular neggs (12.3%, 17.4%, and 20.4%, respectively), you can see that each mode gets progressively harder from the last. Tip: If you know for sure where a trap is, hold down the Control key while clicking and it will create a red "X" on that spot. This will help you keep track of the traps, and if you happen to accidentally click that spot later, it won't count, and you'll be safe! Daily Neopoints
It only costs 30 neopoints to play one game, and you can win up to 3,000 neopoints per day. Usually, Hard gives more points than Medium, and Medium gives more points than Easy. There are exceptions, however, depending on any bonus neggs you get, which will be discussed later. Trophies
As with most games, there is a trophy for a high score in Neggsweeper. However, you are only eligible for a high score if you actually complete a game (on any mode). Although, if you are going for a high score, I would advise that you play on hard mode; there are much more neggs for potentially more points. However, you might be aware that there is ALSO a cumulative trophy, for most points obtained in Neggsweeper ever! As you can imagine, this is quite a rare trophy and usually only obtainable to very aged Neopians. Some people have been playing Neggsweeper for years to earn this! To even come close, you need to have a whopping 10 million points, and I myself only have a measly 1 million points after what seems like forever. Only the very dedicated will get this trophy, but don't become distraught, the high score trophy is much more reasonable! It just requires a bit of luck. Tip: Although Medium and Hard modes earn more points per game, playing on Easy will earn more points per time spent playing. So if you are going for the cumulative trophy, play on Easy. You can time yourself, but you should expect to gain around 15,000 points per hour to your cumulative score playing this way. But remember, you can only obtain a maximum of 3,000 neopoints per day from Neggsweeper. And also, if you take a break from Neggsweeper for more than 3 months, your cumulative high score will be cleared, so make sure to play at least once every few months! Bonus Neggs
As with many games, there is a certain random component to Neggsweeper. Every now and then, you might find a special negg that gives you bonus points! Naturally, the more points they award, the less likely they are to appear. These special neggs are: Blue Negg – 50 points Purple Negg – 100 points Rainbow Negg – 150 points Crystal Negg – 300 points Fish Negg – 500 points As you can see, the Fish Negg is worth quite a lot of points, and all you need is one or two of them, coupled with a few other more common bonus neggs to get a shiny trophy! Strategies
With just a bit of logic, you can get very far in this game. As a very basic example, if you click a negg in a corner and it reveals a "3", then you know all the adjacent neggs are traps, and so you can mark them as such. Just common sense can get you through Easy mode almost 100% of the time. But for Medium and Hard modes, you might need some more advanced logic, if you want to avoid having to guess. Instead of just looking at one of the neggs, you will have to look at multiple ones and figure out what clues each give, and how they can work together to narrow down the solution. With a little bit of practice and some critical thinking, this will come naturally! If you are nearing the end of the game, and have come to the conclusion that you must guess in order to keep playing, then looking at the top left corner of the game and taking note of the number below "Remaining" may prove useful. This number indicates the number of regular neggs still left on the board. If there are 5 negg spaces still left, and that number is a 4, then you know there must be only one trap left in that area! This can prove very useful in tight situations. The Avatar
Sorry to get your hopes up if I surprised you with that header, but there is not actually an avatar for Neggsweeper. Although, I thought I might include this section with the small hope that it might inspire TNT to release one for this amazing game! This concludes my guide to Neggsweeper; I hope you enjoyed it and will try out this game, at least once or twice! I fell in love with it quickly, and I'm sure you will too. Good luck Neggsweeping! Also, congratulations to the Neopian Times for an astounding 550 issues! It's been fun.
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