Newbie Guide to Virtu.pet by Dune (AKA #OWNERLOOKUP)
Hi, #VISITOR, welcome to the site! This page is full of tips for new users. If you have any questions, feel free to Neomail me, or ask other Virtu.pet users on the Help Neoboard or Discord!
**NOTE: Virtu.pet is a work in progress! You will probably notice that not everything works and sometimes you get a 404 page. That just means that feature hasn't been implemented yet.
-- Quick List of Major Missing Features: ----------------
- Auction House
- Battledome
- Stock Market
- Food Club
-- FAQ ------------------------------------------------------
Q: I have a question. / You made a mistake!
A: Let me know! You can reach me by Neomail here.
Q: My question isn't answered here!
A: You may find an answer on the Virtu.pet FAQ. You might also find Jellyneo's various guides for official Neopets helpful, too.
Q: I just joined the site. Can I invite a friend to Virtu.pet right away?
A: Yes! Just have them fill out an application like you did, and ask them to type in your username as their referral.
Q: What's the best way to earn Neopoints (NP)?
A: Playing games and doing your Dailies! (You can see your Dailies on the Pet Central page. They disappear as you do 'em, and reappear the next day.) I find Volcano Run to be one of the easier and more lucrative games. Dailies like the Fruit Machine are more likely to award you some big NP or paint brushes than on official Neopets! You can also try buying Scratchcards from the Ice Caves or the Deserted Fairground, and you can do jobs for the Employment Agency for lucrative NP rewards (in order to do Super Jobs, you can win Brightvale job coupons from the Wheel of Knowledge, and apparently the Wheel of Excitement can give you job coupons as well. No coupons are needed to do Basic Jobs).
Q: How many scores can I send each day for games?
A: As many as you want until you hit the Neopoint cap! Instead of limiting players to 3 score submissions a day per game, you can submit any number of times until you max out your NP. The NP cap (and how much you've earned so far) is viewable if you scroll down below the game: "NP Earned Today : 3,500 / 75,000." This total is cumulatively shared across all HTML5 games (and there is a separate cumulative total for PHP games, like Pyramids or Tyranu Evavu).
Q: Why can't I find anything in the Shop Wizard?
A: The userbase for Virtu.pet is rather small, so there aren't enough items in the user shop pool yet. If you need a common item for a quest, I recommend waiting for a Neopian shop refresh (every 6 minutes), checking the Money Tree, or asking for help on the Discord or Neoboards. To find out what Neopian shop sells the item you're looking for, type the item name into the Search box at the bottom of the left sidebar.
Q: What can I make with the Cooking Pot?
Lots of things! At the Cooking Pot, you can even make rare paint brushes out of more common ones! Here's a recipe list I'm working on.
Q: How can I keep my pets fed inexpensively?:
You can feed them at the Soup Kitchen or check them in at the Neolodge. On Virtu.pet, it appears that the Soup Faerie won't stop feeding your pets no matter how many Neopoints you have, and at the Neolodge, your pets see no difference between the Cockroach Towers and the most expensive, luxurious options, so just book 'em cheap and they'll stay happy and fed for weeks.
Q: Where can I join the Discord?
A: Right here: https://discord.gg/UzKqnXJA3R
Q: I got an error message when I try to create a Neoboard thread. How can I fix it?
A: Try clicking "Create Topic" again. Sometimes clicking the [CODE] button helps, too.
Q: Where can I change my avatar and NeoSignature?
A: Here or by clicking "Chat Preferences" on the Neoboards.
Q: My NeoHTML looks weird on the Neoboards! / How can I get my paragraphs to work right on my board post?
A: The boards have some bugs and quirks, sometimes the formatting goes wonky and your post might look different than your signature preview. If you click [CODE] and see ampersand-hashtag-1-3-semicolon (replace with the characters, no dashes or spaces), that's the newline character. If your code is going awry, feel free to use my thread as a testing ground, or ask someone for help & advice elsewhere on the Neoboards or Discord.
Q: Why are there hardly any pets in the pound? And why are most of them named "avvie"?
A: Since it's easier to get whatever pet you want, and you can name it whatever you want, AND the userbase for Virtu.pet is rather small, AND you can rename a pet with a Name Change Certificate you can buy from the Virtu.pet Mall, this means that not many pets get abandoned, or stay in the pound for long. All the pets named "avvie" are a kind gesture to help users get special avatars that require that pet. Please re-pound the pet (abandon it so it returns to the pound) when you've gotten the avatar you need, so another user can have the chance!
Q: How do I get to the Pound?
A: Click here or visit the Pet Central from the left-hand sidebar and click the crying purple Bruce.
Q: How can I get to the Virtu.pet Mall?
A: Click here or just click your VG total in the top-right corner.
Q: How can I have more than 8 pets?
A: Buy a +1 Extra Pet Slot from the Virtu.pet Mall.
Q: How do I add an item to my pet's treasure?
A: Click on the item in your Inventory and choose "Add ITEMNAME to your Neopet's Treasure."
Q: How can I have more than 3 treasure slots on my pet?
A: Buy a Treasure Chest from the Virtu.pet Mall.
Q: How do I re-order my pet's treasure?
A: You can change the order of items in your pet's treasure by visiting the Quick Ref page and clicking "Edit Treasure" below your pet, underneath their stats.
Q: I can't request a user to be my Neofriend! What's going on?
A: Virtu.pet DOES have a Neofriends feature, but there's a bit of a bug. If you're a new user, your ability to send Neofriend requests won't work right away until you receive a Neofriend request from another user and accept it. From then on, you should be able to send out requests as you please! (Thanks Gwyn for the tip!)
Q: How do I send another user an item?
A: Click on the item in your Inventory you want to send and choose "Give to Neofriend", then type in the username of whoever you want to receive the item, and click Submit. Don't worry, you do NOT need to be Neofriends with the recipient--you can enter any username!
Q: Does the Virtu.pet Mall use real currency?
A: No, nothing on this site uses real money. The VP Mall uses VG (VirtuGems), which you can get by converting Neopoints to VG (100 NP = 1 VG), or crushing items in the Trash Compactor. I recommend compacting items you'd otherwise discard or can't sell for at least 100NP.
Q: How does the Trash Compactor work?
A: It's kind of like the Charity Corner on official Neopets. Instead of, say, discarding your unwanted/junk items or donating them to the Money Tree, you can crush them in the Trash Compactor and receive VirtuGems (VG) to spend at the Virtu.pet Mall. Crushing an item is permanent. Crushing rarer items gives more VGs, but it's up to you to decide if it's worth it.
Q: How come I got an error message saying the item I wanted is gone when I was haggling at a Neopian shop?
A: Shops restock every 6 minutes, so if you take too long haggling and the shop refreshes, you'll lose the chance to buy the item. (Or, someone else might've finished buying the last one before you.) Haggle fast! You can see when the next refresh is on the shop's main page, below inflation it'll say something like, "It seems like the next shop restock will be in about 5 minutes."
Q: How can I check what secret avatars I have?
A: Click here. Or, go to your User Lookup and click on the Avatars button, next to the Trades button and below the text that says "Secret Avatars: 5". OR, click "Secret Avatars" on the Neoboards. (You can find the User Lookup page by clicking your username in the top bar: "Welcome, #VISITOR".)
Q: I saw a user page that had their pets organized into categories. How do I do that?
A: Buy Organization is Easy from the Virtu.pet Mall.
Q: I saw someone replace their pet's picture on their user page and/or pet lookup. How do I do that?
A: (Examples: this and this.) See below!
Q: How do I change my Neopet's picture on its pet lookup page?
A: Go to the Quick Ref page and click "Edit Description" below the pet whose image you want to change. Then, in the Pet Description CSS section, paste the following code (upload your custom image using discord, tumblr, imgur, or other image host and replace "YourImageURLHere" with your image's url. Example: https://i.imgur.com/ImageName.png):
And if you want to change the Battledome image, too, then here's the code for that:
Q: How do I change my Neopet's picture on my user lookup page?
A: Go to the User Preferences page and paste the following code into the Userlookup CSS section (replace "YourPet'sName" with your pet's name--if your pet has spaces in its name, type it with underscores. Example: Froggy_the_Destroyer. Also, upload your custom image using discord, tumblr, imgur, or other image host and replace "YourImageURLHere" with your image's url. Example: https://i.imgur.com/ImageName.png):
Q: Why do some pets look different, like the Island Zafara or the Faerie Hissi?
A: Some pet and petpet colors, namely Island and Desert, are being redesigned by the Virtu.pet community because their original Neopets designs are racially offensive. So, in order to "remove racist/orientalist elements", Island pets, for example, are being redesigned to fit a beach/ocean theme instead. The same goes for certain items, especially Mystery Island items, and the Tombola Tiki Tack Man has been replaced with a Scorchio. Also for this reason, Geraptiku is not currently functional and will probably be redesigned if it makes it onto the site.
Meanwhile, the Faerie Hissi is different than the one you'd see on official Neopets because that's the gorgeous unreleased design that sadly Neopets never used, even though the official artwork exists. There are also some unreleased petpets that get to see the light of day here on Virtu.pet, too. You can help name them here.
Here's a list of custom asset credits.
Q: I have an idea for an Island pet! Can it be on the site? / I found an item I think is offensive and should be replaced!
A: Share your idea on the Discord channel: "replacement-asset-discussion" under the Creative tab.
Q: I want to paint my pet, but it's not working! / Why aren't all the pet color combos available on the site yet?
A: Some pet colors do not have official pre-customization artwork, like the Water Chia or all the Vandagyres. So, the Virtu.pet community has to draw it themselves! Not all combos have been made/added yet. You can see a list of asset credits for custom, user-made artwork here.
Q: How can I find out what number is my pet on the site? (For example, "Is my Wocky the 70th Wocky created on the site?")
A: If you just made your pet, click on the Stuff page on the lefthand sidebar. If you're lucky and your pet is the most recent, you'll see it there under "Newest Neopet". Neat!
Q: Where do I buy Draik eggs and Krawk petpets?
A: Draik eggs restock (if you're lucky!) at Merifoods, and Krawks are sold at Tyrannian Petpets. If you're REALLY lucky, it's possible to get a Draik Egg from Monthly Freebies, too. Otherwise, you can always try seeing if there are any up for trade at the Trading Post, too. To hatch a Draik Egg, go to the Draik Nest. To turn a Krawk petpet into a Neopet, visit the Fungus Cave. (Make sure your Krawk is attached to your active Pet and that it has the name you want first!)
Q: Is Boochi going to turn my pet Baby from a Random Event? Oh, no!
A: No, not unless you turn the Boochi Guard off. By default, events that change your pet's color are turned off. You can turn them on in your Site Preferences here.
Q: Can I buy a Faerie Paintbrush?
A: Yes! At Fyora's tower, you can view both the old stock and the newer stock. Old stock has Faerie pb, new stock has Darigan, Baby, and Royal pbs.
Q: How should I price things in my shop? / Is this being sold for a fair price?
A: It's hard to say! Since Virtu.pet is pretty young (and full of kind users), lots of people are trying to keep prices low for rare items. If you want a second opinion on a price, you can ask on the Discord in the "price-check" channel under the Restocking & Trades tab.
Q: Where can I buy Neocola tokens for the Neocola machine?
A: Here at Space Weaponry on the Virtupets Space Station.
Q: How do I turn my pet's color to Glass?
A: You can get a Glass Paint Brush from a Random Event, the Fruit Machine, the Money Tree, by completing an Ice Treasure Map, or from the Vending Machine (I think the Alien Aisha one, not the Neocola one, but I'm not sure). It's not a Cooking Pot item, and I am not sure if you can get it from the Lab Ray.
Q: There's another paint brush I want. How do I get it?
A: Type the name of the paint brush you want, such as Pink Paint Brush, into the Search bar located on the bottom of the left sidebar. Click "Go!" and then click on the item you want. You'll see a gray box with Notes about where you can obtain the item. For example: "Obtainable via Random Events, Cooking Pot, potential prize from: Vending Machine, Fruit Machine, Money Tree, Original Treasure Map." Now you know your options!
Q: Not all areas are on the Neopia map. How can I get to shops for missing areas?
A: Some areas, like Geraptiku or Shenkuu, do not currently exist on Virtu.pet, but you can still go to Geraptiku Petpets or Fanciful Fauna. If there's an item you're looking for, type its name into the Search bar on the lefthand toolbar, click Go!, click the item you're looking for among the search results, and then look for the text below the item that says "This item stocks at [Shop Name]" which you can click and then visit that shop to see if it's in stock! If you don't see "This item stocks at [Shop Name]" or a special gray Notes box (will say things like, "Obtainable via Random Events"), then the item might not be available yet on Virtu.pet.
-- Changes from Neopets.com ---------------------------
Shops & Items
On Virtu.pet, many elements of the site are much more forgiving than on official Neopets--may your far-reaching dreams come true! For example:
- The frequency for which the Fruit Machine grants paint brushes and big NP appears to be increased, as well as Scratchcard and other gambling game jackpots. I think Random Events are also more common, too. (I'm not sure about Underwater Fishing's rate for giving rare items.)
- Shops restock faster, and each shop has a timer that lets you know when the next restock is ("the next restock will be in about 4 minutes..."). However, this means you shouldn't take too long while haggling--if it restocks before the shopkeeper has accepted your offer, you might lose your chance!
- Rare items are cheaper and more common. For example, it is not terribly hard to find a Krawk petpet for sale at the Tyrannian Petpet shop (and for 30k-80k!), or Draik Eggs at Merifoods, Morphing Potions from Kauvara, etc.
- If the Money Tree or the Rubbish Dump are empty, try refreshing. Items should appear each time you refresh until it's full again (items donated by the site).
- You may find that the Shop Wizard doesn't have much luck finding what you need. Why? The Virtu.pet community is rather small. It's growing quickly, but the items in user shops are a bit limited right now. Also, many items are more common, cheaper, and shops restock quicker, so if you're looking for a common item, it's worth checking the Neopia shops and the Money Tree a few times. Chances are good the common item you need for a quest will turn up! If not, you can also ask on the Discord for a quick response for help.
- Thanks to the factors I mentioned that make it easier to get rare and traditionally expensive or otherwise unfeasible items, you can find many paintbrushes or morphing potions for sale in user shops or in the Trading Post for fairly cheap!
- The Cooking Pot has been enhanced. Now, you can view other users' recipes for items they've made in the Cooking Pot by clicking on the number of Recipes on their user lookup (near where it says Gallery, Secret Avatars, etc.). Here is a list of recipes I've found so far. Some of the recipes are the same as on official Neopets, and others, especially the Paint Brush section, are unique to Virtu.pet.
Dailies
- You can view a list of Dailies on Pet Central, clickable on the lefthand sidebar. When you complete a Daily task, it's removed from the list. The list refreshes everyday, making it easy to keep track of what Dailies you've done today!
- In Underwater Fishing, you can choose to cast a fishing net: for the price of 100NP for each pet you have, you can have everybody fish all at once. Convenient!
- Monthly Freebies: Once a month, you can click on the Freebies link on the Pet Central page to get some free NP and random items picked by each of your pets. (So, if you have 5 pets, you'll get 5 different items.) It's usually just common or even gross food, but it's possible to get something rarer like a Draik Egg!
Your Pets & the Virtu.pet Mall
- You have more gender options for your pets: Male, Female, Other, and None. You can change this with a Strange Potion (cheap and commonly available at Kauvara's or through the Shop Wizard).
- You can have up to 8 pets right off the bat, but if you want more, you can buy a +1 Pet Slot from the Virtu.pet Mall. It doesn't use real money, it uses a currency called Virtugems (VG) that you can get from either converting Neopoints to Virtugems (100 NP = 1 VG), OR you can use the Trash Compactor to earn VGs.
- The Trash Compactor functions similarly to the Charity Corner on official Neopets: turn your unwanted junk items into Virtugems (VG)! I usually put stuff I get from the Rubbish Dump, or anything else I can't sell for at least 100NP, into the Trash Compactor as part of my dailies. But I also just learned that junk items from dailies like Underwater Fishing or Tombola are often requested for Basic Jobs at the Employment Agency, so... do I trash compact my junk, or hold onto it? Hmm...
- You can also buy a Rainbow Fountain Pass (similar to the reward you'd get for completing a Fountain Faerie quest) and a Robotification Thingamajig from the Virtu.pet Mall. Save up for your dream pets!
- You can name your pet whatever you want, as long as you don't already have a pet with the same name. You can settle for "Sunny" instead of "Sunny_pie5068"! You can change the name of your pet by buying a Name Change Certificate from the Virtu.pet Mall.
- Each of your pets has a little inventory on their pet lookup called "treasure". You can add up to 3 items, any items, to it by selecting the item in your Inventory and clicking "add to your pet's treasure." You can remove treasure items and change their order by going to the Quick Ref page and clicking "Edit Treasures" below your pet, underneath its stats. If you want more than 3 treasure slots, you can buy a Treasure Chest from the Virtu.pet Mall.
- When you make a new pet, afterwards if you click the Stuff page right away you might get to see what number of the species it is on the site.
- Unlike official Neopets, there appears to be no NP limit for when the Soup Faerie will stop feeding your pets. (My friend has 2mil NP in the bank and she STILL is willing to feed them!) You can also keep your pets fed for cheap by sending them on vacation at the Neolodge in Neopia Central (no, they can't tell the difference between the Cockroach Towers and the Presidential Palace).
- At the Rubbish Dump, codestones and healing potions can commonly be found alongside the usual junk (these will not get you the Rubbish Dump avatar, though). If the Rubbish Dump is empty, try refreshing; each time you refresh, a new item (donated by the site) should appear.
- It's worth spinning the Wheel of Knowledge regularly, because you can win Brightvale job coupons from it, which can be used at the Employment Agency. Doing jobs can earn you a lot of NP! Take a look for yourself, here's the super job list. According to the Virtu.pet FAQ, you can also win job coupons from the Wheel of Excitement, too.
Avatars & the Neoboards
- Not all avatars are implemented yet. Some of the requirements are slightly different than on official Neo. You can see a list of live avatars--including whether or not you have them, and how to get them--by clicking here, or clicking on the Avatars button on your User Lookup (next to the Trades button), or by clicking "Secret Avatars" on the Neoboards.
- A kind user, boogiepop, has created a Neoboards thread with a list of links for clickable avatars.
- Check the pound for circulating pets that other users created to help everyone get more avatars, like "orangegrundoavvie". Please return them to the pound when you're done!
- The Neoboards have a few changes, such as supporting images! The boards have a few quirks, so don't fret if your neoHTML ends up looking a little different than you expect. If you click [CODE] and see ampersand-hashtag-1-3-semicolon (replace with those characters, no dashes or spaces), that's the newline character. If you don't have any luck using [p] or [br] to get the spaces and divisions you want around your paragraphs, try adding the newline character instead. (Use two of them if you want an extra, empty line of space.)
- You can send Neomail as usual, and you can send items to any user by selecting the item in your Inventory and clicking "Give to Neofriend." But you don't have to be Neofriends, you can type in the name of any user.
Ethical Changes
- The Virtu.pet community recognizes that some elements of official Neopets are racially offensive and could be improved. Most specifically, but not limited to: the Desert and Island pet and petpet colors, as well as the Tombola man, Geraptiku, and many Mystery Island items. So, you may notice that some items, pet colors, and characters' appearances have changed in order to "remove racist/orientalist elements". For example, Island colors are redesigned to fit a beach/ocean theme, such as the Island Zafara or Techo. These redesigns are drawn by Virtu.pet members, you can discuss and submit ideas for changes on the Discord channel: "replacement-asset-discussion" under the Creative tab. (Note: There seems to be a little injoke about calling the asset-replacement process "balding".)
- You can view a list of credits for asset changes here.
Use of Unreleased, Retired, & Pre-Conversion Content
- Some unreleased official Neopets content is fully available and functional on Virtu.pet! For example, the pre-conversion design for Faerie Hissi is used, and many unreleased petpets have been added, too. There's a Neoboard thread where you can suggest and help name unreleased petpets here.
- Also, old petpets that were converted on official Neo and hard to obtain, like the Fat Cat, are more readily available on Virtu.pet, too.
- You can even have a Glass Neopet! (Example.) You can get a Glass Paint Brush from a Random Event, the Fruit Machine, the Money Tree, completing an Ice Treasure Map, and from the Vending Machine (I think the Alien Aisha one, not the Neocola one, but I am unsure). It's not a Cooking Pot item. I don't know if it's a color obtainable from the Lab Ray.
Games
- The games should work on both desktop and mobile. More are being converted to HTML5 over time!
- Instead of being limited to 3 score sends a day per game, you have an NP cap (and for some games, a prize item cap). So, you can send as many scores as you want a day until you max out the NP cap (which you can check by scrolling down below the game: 5,000 / 75,000). This cap is shared/cumulative across all HTML5 games. There is a separate cap for all PHP games, such as Pyramids or Tyranu Evavu. Lastly, there's also an item cap for games that grant items as prizes, such as Dubloons from Dubloon Disaster.
- Personally, I find Volcano Run to be the most lucrative game.
- The NP payouts for games are tweaked (raised!), so you may notice you're earning a lot more NP than you would on official Neopets.
- Kadoatery: Kadoties are a little easier to feed. They request items of lower rarity than on official Neo, and they reset more frequently, too: every 30 minutes.
Site Preferences
- You can access the site preferences here or by clicking the Boards link on the lefthand sidebar, and then "User Preferences", and then "Site Preferences."
- There are several convenience and/or fun features added, check 'em out! If you played Neopets in the 2000s, turning on "Nostalgia Mode" may bring a smile to your face. :D
Unknowns
This section includes things I don't know much about yet! Sorry... Will add info when I get it.
- Nerkmids - You can get these from Random Events and use them at the Alien Aisha Vending Machine, which usually gives you gross food but it also has a small chance of giving you a paint brush or another nerkmid. But are Random Events the only way to get Nerkmids??? And how different is the AAVM on Virtu.pet than official Neo? I'm not sure, I'll add to this once I know more.
- Lab Ray Zap Colors
Other Resources
Check out these other awesome Virtu.pet user-made guides and other helpful pages!
- (cw: flashing images) Clickable Avatars List by boogiepop
- CSS Help Guide by unicorn
- Petpage Custom Code page by felix