Shiny! A Guide to Starting Your Trophy Collection

          First, it’s worth mentioning there are a handful of ways one can win a trophy in Neopets. This can range anywhere from a daily high score in one (or more) of your favourite games, to a random event (to the ever-elusive Tax Beast, I curse you), or for your skills at various card games. While daunting, this one-stop shop will set you on your way to becoming the ultimate trophy collector in no time.

          When hunting for trophies from Neopets classic games, I mean the newly-revived games where you can submit a score up to three times a day. Essentially, trophies for these games are handed out daily, early in the morning of the next day. What this means is once you’ve submitted your trophy-worthy score, that score needs to stand on the high-score table for that game until TNT hands out trophies in the wee hours of the morn. What may have been a gold-worthy score when you submitted it may be bumped down a tier or two depending on how your fellow Neopians perform throughout the trophy period. But, the good news is, once you get your trophy for the game, you get to keep it forever. Additionally, the high-score tables are reset at the beginning of every month. Typically, this means that the best odds to earn a trophy are on then – on the first day of the month. I’m sure there’s a very fancy statistical explanation behind this, but this Neopian finds math to be a true nightmare which means I can’t explain it beyond the first day of the month is the best day for trophies.

          If you endeavour down the games path for a trophy or two, here are the chronicles of my success over the last few months: first, pick anywhere from 1-3 games where you want your trophy from. This to me is the most helpful when it comes to monitoring my scores throughout the day – it’s much easier to battle it out on the high-score tables for 2 games than it is for 10. Next, I pick games usually a month or so in advance, and spend that month practising and figuring out patterns that work best for me and how I play these games. For example, I had never played Snowball Fight before, and through some trial and error, I figured out how best to prolong my playtime in a game, which translated to more points and a shiny new trophy for my cabinet. If you can figure out a strategy that works for you, that leaves less up to luck to get you a spot on the table. Finally, I’m very frugal with which scores I send. Remember, you get 3 scores a day to earn Neopoints. While you can continue to send scores after reaching that threshold, I limit myself to those three attempts before I move on to the next game and begin the monitoring. With that, I try not to send multiple attempts back-to-back. Once I’ve scored high enough to give me a spot on the high-score table (tip: keep the high-score table open in a separate tab to keep an eye on what you need to be trophy-eligible), I’ll move on to my next target game, rinse, and repeat. Once I feel comfortable with the scores I’ve sent for my games, I keep the high-score tables open across multiple tabs and systematically refresh here and there to monitor my standings, and get back into competition if I fall off the leaderboards completely. At the end of the day, the scores still standing in first through third place will be given gold; fourth through eighth will get silver; and ninth through seventeenth get bronze. Each game has its own unique trophy (and sometimes, trophy variation between gold, silver, and bronze), which adds an added layer of excitement to your hard-earned reward.

          Next, moving on to non-game trophies, there are a few worth mentioning. These are almost entirely up to chance, and this Neopian has not been lucky enough to be graced with any of these in my trophy cabinet. These trophies come from the Angry Tax Beast and its calmer friend, the Tax Beast; Sloth’s Invasion Tax (you know what they say…taxes are one of the only inevitabilities in life); the Brain Tree Quest; Card, Avatar, and Stamp Collector; the Alien Vending Machine (Nerkmids, how I love you so); and a trophy from the reigning brothers of Meridell and Brightvale, the Grumpy Old King and the Wise Old King, respectively. If you are going for any of these, the first of the month is still your best shot at earning a trophy but really, it’s all up to luck.

          Finally, there are a handful of trophies you can get without necessarily competing with your fellow Neopians. Despite being the last topic addressed in this tome, these are where I’d recommend starting. Primarily card games, through sheer grit, determination, and maybe a little bit of tears (looking at you, Sakhmet Solitaire gold), these will add a layer or two to your blossoming trophy collection. Turning first to the Battledome, you can earn a trophy for beating Punchbag Bob. This little concoction of burlap, buttons, and straw has 3 difficulty settings as every Battledome foe does, but will not fight back. Just make sure your pet has plenty of weapons attached and through dedication, you will whittle little Bob’s health down to zero. Upon doing so, you’ll automatically be given a (shiny?) burlap mini of Bob in your trophy cabinet. Next, Cellblock in the Darigan Citadel will give you trophies based on your progression through the prisoners; a runner-up medal after winning round 4, a bronze trophy at round 8, silver at round 4 of your eleventh tournament, and gold at winning the eighth round of that same eleventh tournament. Snow Wars and Cheat! are both similar to Cellblock, in that you are awarded various trophies at various levels of success throughout your journey through the opponents. Pyramids and Sakhmet Solitaire over in the Lost Desert are similar to each other in that bronze is awarded for each upon winning your first game; silver upon winning your fifth game; and gold upon winning two in a row. In theory, you can go straight to gold in these, but luck needs to be emphatically on your side to win two in a row for either of these games. Go! Go! Go! is a tricky game, but once you play through a few hands it’ll get clearer, and making your way through all the opponents will net you a gold trophy. Similarly, Round Table Poker will give you a runner-up medal just for making it through all the opponents, regardless of your amount of winnings at the end of the tournament. Finally, if you have words to spare, you can earn a trophy by submitting an article to this humble periodical, the Neopian Times.

          A subset of trophies not mentioned here are Site Feature Trophies, which include things like Kadoatery trophies, a trophy you get for feeding one of the many mewling Kads left by their owners whilst on holiday. Additionally, you can earn a Site Event Trophy just for participating in an eligible Site Event.

          If you’ve made it this far, thanks for sticking with me. I wish you good luck on your trophy hunting, and good fortune as you climb your way up through the high-score table. Who knows – maybe you’ll even earn an avatar or two on your quest for glory!