The Wonders of Neopoint Sinks

Lever of Doom

Perhaps the worst of all sinks lies in the Virtupets Space Station. The lever of doom attracts many with the possibility of a shiny new avatar being won. At first glance the lever seems enticing, with its mysterious "Do Not Pull" sign engraved above the hand. But daredevil Neopians across the globe just cannot resist the challenge. Upon pulling the handle, if you have more than 100 neopoints on hand, an evil mechanical hand will emerge from the panel and will steal your hard earned neopoints! 100 neopoints is not so bad to lose when there is an avatar reward, right? Wrong! Although the evil mechanical hand only steals 100 neopoints at a time, it can take hundreds of pulls before you are lucky enough to receive the random, shiny avatar!

Kelp

Another coveted neopoint sink that bribes you to visit with a beautiful avatar, is the beloved restaurant located deep within the sea in the bustling world of Maraqua. While Kelp is a fancy restaurant that your pets will enjoy, the prices may be a little high for a full course meal. Kelp offers a stunning array of cocktails, appetizers, main courses, and fabulous desserts. Your pet will likely be so delighted to be in the restaurant that they will scarf everything down without a second thought. While it is great that your pet is enjoying the fancy and expensive meal, the avatar is tricky to get! Yikes! The cheapest item on the menu weighs in at 7,000 neopoints and that is just for one cocktail!

Wishing Well

The Wishing Well seems like a harmless place. What bad could come from a well that grants wishes to some who visit? You can make fourteen wishes a day, depending on what times you are placing your wishes between. However, you must toss 21 neopoints in the well for each wish to count! That's 294 neopoints a day for a small chance at winning the item you wish for. The Wishing Well seems to be in a slumber for most of the day, only being awake for around 6 of the 24 hours the day has to offer. The Wishing Well is in a sleepy state most of the time it happens to be awake, so you must be incredibly careful and precise when placing your wish! If that were not enough to prove this a neopoint sink, again, the Wishing Well offers an avatar which attracts many! To get this avatar, though, you must throw a lot of neopoints into the well! Gasp!

Neocola Machine

The Neocola Machine is situated high above Neopia in the world of Kreludor. To use the mysterious machine, you must have one of three Neocola Tokens in your inventory! The Neocola Tokens come in the colors red, blue, and green and are currently sold for around 500-600 neopoints a piece. The tokens can also be won from premium Space Faerie Scratchcards, the Cosmic Dome, or random events! The tokens also stock in the Space Weaponry shop, however, due to the high volume of them being won through other methods, they tend to stock for more than they are currently sold for on the shop wizard. To use the Neocola Machine, you must deposit one of your tokens. From there you have the option to choose from 8 unique flavors of Neocola soda as well as pick how many times you would like to push the red button. The machine typically will reward you a small neopoint reward and a random item, mostly themed around the ruler of Kreludor, Sloth! The factor that makes the Neocola Machine so interesting however, is the chance to win a Transmogrification Potion! A Transmogrification Potion is reported to be one of the random prizes that can fall from the machine, although they seem to be incredibly rare, and may take hundreds of tokens to redeem!

Alien Aisha Vending Machine

The Alien Aisha Vending Machine is one of the best and worst neopoint sinks out there. The use of this machine requires possession of a Nerkmid. There are currently 20 types of nerkmids offered, ranging in colors and rarities from copper to platinum. Nerkmids are currently running at least 40,000 NP per one, however, they are also given out through random events, and if you are lucky, you could win a few from the Cosmic Dome! This machine offers an avatar AND trophy, making it that much more appealing. The avatar, unlike many of the other neopoint sinks that offer avatars, is easily acquired! The trophy, on the other hand, is a tough one to get a hold of. The trophy is based on how many neopoints the machine awards you, and unfortunately is not cumulative. You will have to win a large amount of neopoints from one nerkmid to be added to the high score list. To use the machine, you must deposit a Nerkmid, choose which buttons you would like to press, how many times you would like to press them, and which levers you would like to pull. After you make your choices, the machine will dispense some neopoints and either a gross food item, another nerkmid, OR a random paintbrush!

Haunted Woods Quests

The Haunted Woods is home to three famous quest givers; Edna the Witch, The Esophagor, and the Brain Tree. Quests given out by Edna seem to be the most popular, due in favor to the avatar she rewards quite randomly. The elusive *cackle* avatar is sought by many, but may take hundreds to thousands of quests to complete, and can be a long and expensive road. Edna asks for one to three items to complete her latest spell, and in return usually only rewards a small sum of neopoints and a disturbing gross food item as a thanks. The Brain Tree and the Esophagor seem to hold a similar amount of interest due to the correlation between the two. The Brain Tree will send you on a quest to find information, instead of items. To find the information that the Brain Tree is requesting, you must go on to complete two Esophagor quests. The Esophagor will ask for spooky food items, some of which may be quite cheap, but others skyrocket into the tens and thousands of neopoints. Completing two of his quests, however, will allow you to gather the information needed to complete the quest for the Brain Tree! The Brain Tree will typically reward you with a relatively cheap item and a neopoint reward. Your neopoint reward given, however, may land you a shiny new trophy, and the neopoint rewards are cumulative, so if you keep completing quests for the Brain Tree, you can move your way up the high score table!

Wheel of Extravagance

The most expensive wheel of the Neopian world is also the most extravagant, hence the name! Prizes range across a multitude of things. You have the chance to win 25k neopoints, 50k neopoints, 100k neopoints, nerkmids, map pieces, job coupons, paint brushes, stamps, random statistics to improve your pet in the battledome, a rarity 100 item that could sell for millions, and of course, like most neopoint sinks, an avatar. The prizes sound absolutely outstanding... before you see the price of a single spin. One spin will cost you a breathtaking 100,000 hard earned neopoints... and there also happens to be a space where you could win nothing at all. The thrill of the gamble is what makes this wheel so popular, but it is quite the chance to risk 100,000 when some spaces award much less than that.

Tombola

The Tiki Tack Tombola Guy seems friendly, warm, and welcoming. He also allows you to step up and try your luck for FREE one time a day. However, supplying the prizes costs the Tiki Tack Man neopoints; and sometimes he runs out, at which point he asks all Neopians for donations. If you choose to donate to the friendly islander, you will be disheartened to find out there is no trophy or reward for your kind offer.. and you are no more likely to win a prize when you try your luck later. Donating neopoints to him will only help him open his stand up for business a little bit faster, and pack a good deed under your belt.

The Deserted Fairground

The Deserted Fairground offers many "fun" carnival games. Neopets and their owners from all over Neopia are attracted to the games that help reminisce youth and childhood, however, the games in the Deserted Fairground seem to be a little bit off. Upon your arrival at the fairground, you will find classics such as Test Your Strength, and spin-offs of other games called Cork Gun Gallery, Bagatelle, and Coconut Shy. It is rumored that all of the games here are rigged and do not produce many wins, but of course, they all cost you some hard earned neopoints to play! If you are by chance one of the very lucky Neopians to win, you could earn yourself some nifty prizes, a pocket full of neopoints, or perhaps even a trophy if you are strong enough!

Training

The training schools of Neopia are found in Krawk Island and Mystery Island. The Krawk Island school charges in dubloons, and will only train your pet until level 50; at which point you will need to continue your training on Mystery Island, which charges in dubloons. Training your pet can be great if you love to battle, but if you are in it just to make your pet or account stand out, you may be in for a shock! Once you train to a high level, the amount of codestones you will need to begin a course goes up considerably. The top tier of the Mystery Island Training School is between levels 201 and 250, and costs a remarkable 8 codestones for a 24 hour course that will only improve you in ONE stat, unless you are lucky enough to receive a bonus! Training to a high level could set your bank account back hundreds of thousands, depending on what the demand of codestones happens to be at the time.

Overall, Neopia is full of sinks in many different forms, and they all seem to attract Neopians from across the globe. Some Neopians are lucky enough to walk away with more than they started with, while others are left to sulk as they empty their pockets hoping for a chance at hitting it big. Are you brave enough to take a gamble in one of the sinks?