Goals on the Go: Achieving Many Neo-Goals At Once

Many Neopians think that the only goals worth their time involve saving up Neopoints for a long time. But there are so many more goals that can be pursued without saving. In this article, I will highlight different categories of Neopian goals and achievements that can be worked toward at the same time.

1) NP Goals

These goals are the most common and should be pretty clear to everyone. Saving up a large amount of NP for a purchase is usually everyone’s first or second goal. Depending on the cost of your goal, these could take anywhere from a few days to many years.

Short term NP goals include: Cheap paintbrushes or morphing potions, buyable gallery items, buyable wearables, filling the buyable stamps on a page, or so on.

Medium term NP goals include: Other paintbrushes, the Lab Map, battledome items, expensive collectibles one at a time, costly wearables, etc.

Long term NP goals include: full stamp album pages, full weapon sets, very rare items, or just plain filling your bank account with a sizable amount of NP for a rainy day.

2) Training Goals

Although training your pets involves NP, it is limited by time, and should be mentioned separately from NP-only goals. The difference between spending NP on an NP goal and on training is that training requires hours or even days between each course. You should have more than enough time to save up NP for the codestones or dubloons, so the real challenge is remembering to take courses as often as possible. Some folks also use training cookies, purchased in the NC Mall, or do quests to assist their training process, but no matter what, there is only so much you can speed training up unless you have so much extra cash that you can spend 40 or 50 thousand NP per stat point using items like Bubbling Fungus or Jar of Forest Earth.

3) Time goals

Just like training, these goals are limited by time, but unlike training, they don’t require spending. These are the type of goals where you keep trying to achieve something and then, one day, you finally get there. These kinds of goals include things like using the Lab Ray to zap a pet into a particular colour (okay, you have to buy the Lab Map first, but once you have it, it’s just patience…), or getting random avatars from dailies, like the Neggbreaker one I still haven’t got. These goals are more about remembering to try for them every day, or however often you can.

4) Creative goals

There are many ways to explore Neopia that don’t involve spending Neopoints. The

Neopian Times, obviously, is always looking for stories, articles and comics. As well, there are contests like the Beauty Contest, Art Gallery, and Poetry Contest where you can submit your creative work. None of them cost anything to enter, and getting a submission accepted makes many Neopians more proud than millions of NP ever will. Once your entry is accepted to your contest of choice, others will see it and may even send you a congratulatory Neomail, the ultimate good feeling. If you’re strapped for NP while saving up for something, try writing a good story for the rest of us to read!

5) Trophies and High Scores

For those of us who love to be number one, the best accomplishment shows on a user lookup: rows and rows of trophies. Some people may wish to collect a trophy for every game they can, others want to get an avatar for their favourite game to show that they can play it as well as talk about it, and others may want to be the top scorer on a favourite game every month. No matter what, there’s probably a game out there that you like, and may even be good enough to get a trophy in! Even if you don’t make it right away, your skills will quickly improve, and you can challenge your friends to beat your scores while making a few Neopoints on the way (which can help fund your other goals)!

6) Customization goals

Of course, the best part of Neopia is our pets, and people want them to look as good as possible. Sometimes, customization is easy. With an outfit in mind, all that remains is to acquire the right wearables and paintbrush colour. However, this can be easier said than done. Some colours must be traded for or zapped by the Lab Ray, and some wearables can be extremely expensive or be retired and require NC trading with other users. And even when an outfit seems done, an item that fits even better could be released tomorrow, and the hunt will be on once again. Keep a theme in mind for each of your pets, and as you observe others’ customizations, take note of anything you think your own pets would love to wear… and then set about finding one for your closet.

There are no doubt more categories of goals in Neopia that aren’t covered here. Everyone has their own favourite activities, and for some, all they want to do is get a great return in Food Club, snag a rare item from the Money Tree, or restock all the jam-related items in Fresh Foods. But if you’re tired of working toward something that can seem ages away, I hope that you can try a few different types of goals listed here, which shouldn’t affect each other’s’ progress too much. A while ago, I was saving up for a paintbrush for one pet while zapping another one in hopes of a Robot makeover, while also playing games to try to get a trophy. When one thing is over, celebrate, and don’t worry about what to do next… if you’re doing many things at once, your plate will be full already!