Get Great Pets for Free*! *OK, OK, it's technically not for free- you still have to pay the pound fees This is not quick nor easy, necessarily, but it is a (near) free way to get AWESOME pets. Step 1. Begin by going to the pound boards. To start with, you should be on a 4+ month account that looks legit- avatars, font, UL, 1-2 (but no more- this is important!) pets, games, etc. At the pound boards, look around until you see boards about people pounding pets. This board will usually be called something like "Pounding XX pet!" Essentially, a user decides they want to give anyone the chance to get it. Usually these pets will be pretty bad- an unpainted LE, an inexpensive color with a bad name, etc. Step 2. Once you've found a "pounding" board, determine what kind it is. Some boards will just post a time in the first post or they may say "posting time on # page." If this is the case, just fire up an auto adopter for that pet (or if you don't have one, get reading to manually refresh.) Step 2b. The second type of pounding board is one where they'll neomail the time of pounding to a select few people who "stay and chat". For this type of board, you want to be sure to chat, be friendly, don't spam, etc. See the end of the guide for an example of a good way to win over the owner. Once you've got the time, use an autoadopter/autorefresher to catch the pet. Sometimes you won't get it, but there are always more boards. Step 2c. The final type of board is when they're actually attached to the pet. These are a little tricky, because while the pets are often better, it also means it's more hassle to do what you have to do later. Regardless, these people will usually want you to write a sentence to a paragraph about why you want their pet. For this, I recommend something convincing but sappy. Ex: I really want to adopt XX because he/she (always use genders, no "it"s!) seems like he/she would have a great personality, and [nickname for the pet, shows you've thought about it] reminds me so much of my first ever [dog, cat, fish, whatever] who passed away [last year, 5 years ago, etc.] I also find it best to NM these 'applications,' or else people will start to notice you have a lot of dead pets. :lol: Step 3. Now, you've got 1-2 pets, but they're not great. They're probably badly named, or an unpopular color, or a default color LE. This step is the most challenging, in my experience. What you want to do now is go and offer your pet on EVERY trading board you can find. The only exception would be if their pet is worse than yours, but it's not likely for someone who's trading. Keep in mind, you will be rejected for nearly all of these. However, eventually you'll run across a pet that's just *marginally* better than yours. Make the trade- I prefer pound, as it means the whole process is done quicker w/o having to wait a month, but some owners may insist. Step 4. This step is simple: repeat! This process is similar to "paperclip trading" (google it). Basically, you continue to trade up for a pet a little bit better than yours. Pretty soon you'll find yourself dealing in UCs, VWNs, and Draiks! Step 5. Optional profit! If you're not actually a fan of the pet you've settled on, or you don't really play, or whatever- you can always sell the neopet on the blackmarket here at NF, as long as you're Lvl1+. Appendix Sample Conversation Hi, I'm ___. How is everyone? Not starting off with a "please let me have" makes them more keen to like you. ___(pet) is so beautiful/gorgeous/pretty/cute/awesome/etc! I hope I'm lucky enough to get him/her. Make the compliment appropriate- don't call a tonu gorgeous, for instance Good luck to everyone who is trying! Pounders find compassion for others a plus. Common Acronyms You need to learn what these mean or you'll be lost on the pound boards. UC = Unconverted (pets still in the old drawing style. Considered a very big plus.) UFT = Up for trade UFA = Up for adoption WN = Well-named VWN = Very well-named RB = Royal-boy RG = Royal-girl DN = Decently Named Custom = Usually offered in return for a trade- i.e. A 10mil Custom for a Green Draik- this means one player gets a Green Draik, that player then uses 10mil to custom-paint/clothe a pet for the other person. It's really like buying pets, but TNT keeps contradicting themselves in editorials so it's OK :lol: BN = Badly Named BD = Battledome (means that the pet has some stats, although people are likely to inflate this, so don't take it for granted) Miscellaneous Tips [*]Once you get into the realms of better pets, you can start making your own boards to advertise that you're trading, rather than just posting on others. Then the offers just come to you x) [*]Also when you're starting to have better pets, make sure you're only offering/accepting pets that are actually better than yours. You don't want to trade down! [*]The benefit to getting more than one pet in the 'pounding' board phase is that it allows you to wager different things- some owners might prefer unis to myncis, or whatever. [*]While you're browsing the board for trades in steps 3/4, don't forget to glance at pounding boards every now and then. Just the other day someone was pounding a VWN Island Eyrie- some may be higher on the scale than what you're currently trading. [*]Be sure to always have enough NPs out to adopt! Often these will be labbed pets with higher stats, so they're likely to cost more than a measly 90 NPs. Sample Progression Here's approximately (I don't recall all of it) how my exchange went, if you want an example. BN Spotted Kacheek DN Cloud Kau BN Baby Kau DN Pink Lenny VBN Plushie Shoyru DN Faerie Pteri I stopped here because I love Faerie Pteris and I probably forgot some in the middle, but that's an example of how it might work out. Thanks for reading! If you have any questions/suggestions/etc, feel free to comment. Please refer to the other guides on the pound/transferring for tips on how to safely pound/adopt pets. Stuff I'm planning to add when I have more time : = give-a-way boards = full trading guide = pound surfing = adoption
I used to spend my time pet trading and every time I traded for a better pet. I also adopted for free an UC pet not badly named. The pound board is quite fun. I sort of find it mean you "stealing" other people's pet with an auto-adopter because people tend to get real upset... I'm not really into this type of strategy. I prefer nice and equal trading There was also something you could add in your guide it's called "dream pet boards" it's a board where you list 3-5 of your dream pets eg: faerie pteri, darigan poogle ... And then when a person gets the pet right, the person sends it to you. The thing is people tend to always say the same pets, so you can go by elimination and guess pretty easily sometimes
Thanks for the guide, I recently took a break on Neopets ever since the new pound system came up, so it was quite a big change.
So basically you trade the pet up for better pets right? How do we know if it is one? By the paint brush prices?
I suppose using an auto-adopter to "steal" a pet is 'mean', but we're on a cheating forum, so I don't know if you can expect much else. Yeah, dream pet boards have come up more recently since I've written the guide, I will add it in ASAP. I suggest looking for pounding boards where the user will just pick one or two person (hopefully you!) to mail the time of pounding to- this reduces the competition for pets. Alternatively, you could also download an autoadopter from NF- this will probably help your chances of getting the pet. That's a good point! Generally, the 'cuter' the pet, the rarer (with some notable exceptions- draik, krawk, etc), and yes, paint brush color. Things like Maraquan (11m) are worth more than Royal(2m) which are worth more than Baby (600k) which are worth more than Christmas (30k or so). Lab-only colors (robot, coco, garlic, mallow, etc) are probably worth about what a 1.5mil paint brush would be worth, give or take (estimating based on the fact that the lab is worth 1mil, plus 500k for the randomness of getting that color). And of course, the better-named a pet is, the more it is worth. Thanks for all the comments, everyone, you've given me some great ideas on how to improve the guide!
Oh, so mind stating the more popular and those colours that they want? Those for a low, medium and high price, thanks
Nice guide...hopefully I might be able to trade up for my dreamie now... Please do not gravedig. This topic has not been posted in for many months now.