Caution: Quills may be sharp Circulation: 195,555,499 Issue: 862 | 12th day of Eating, Y21

A Guide to Wheels

by cottontailcat


      Have you spun a wheel today? What did you win?

      The wheels are a great way to have fun and, maybe, win a prize. For a usually small price, you can spin these wheels and land on any space to win - or lose. There are six neopoint wheels in Neopia, plus one neocash wheel, each with a different price point and risk margin. Some wheels can be spun once a day, others once every few hours or even minutes. The neopoint wheels are located in Faerieland, Brightvale, the Haunted Woods, Tyrannia (which has two wheels), and Qasala. All of the wheels have an element of risk involved. To minimize the risk as much as possible, it is wise to put all important items in your Safety Deposit Box rather than your inventory, put your spare neopoints in the bank, and to play with a neopet whose stats aren't being built upon.

      The Wheel of Excitement, located in Faerieland, costs 500 neopoints to spin and, best of all, it can be spun every 2 hours! This wheel, like most, has 16 spaces to land on. Seven of the spaces on this wheel will award you some amount of neopoints, but only five of them will award you 500 or more. There are two spaces that award you something other than neopoints - a magic item or healing your pet - and three that cause your pet to lose health or become sick. The other four spaces now do absolutely nothing.

      Statistically, you're more likely to lose neopoints on a single spin than to gain much. However, over time, the wheel tends to be quite profitable! There are a number of spaces that grant you many times the price of a spin, and the item space gives you a chance at a high-value morphing potion. Luckily, most of the spaces with negative consequences - the Pant Devil, ability loss - have stopped working over time, so the risk is lower than ever. Although you may appear to lose more often than win, over time, the Wheel of Excitement is likely to help you earn neopoints.

      Brightvale's Wheel of Knowledge holds a similar price point to The Wheel of Excitement at 500 neopoints, but is of lower risk in some senses - however, it can only be spun once daily. Out of this wheel's 16 spaces, nine will land you an item! The only outright negative effect of the wheel is on one of the King Hagan spaces, which will make your neopet a touch less bright. Stat-wise, it can also increase your neopet's intelligence or refill its health. You may also land on a space granting you a free spin (redeemable immediately), an avatar, or advice.

      More than two thirds of the items available from the wheel are generally profitable! There are only a few "cheap" items that the wheel gives out, but many that are worth a great amount. Of course, the wheel runs a risk of getting no material gain from your spin, as you may land on an advice space instead. These spaces will either offer a line of King Hagan's wisdom, or a fun fact about Neopets. These facts can be helpful! You may learn a code to make an arcade game easier, or how to use certain items. Still, though, these spaces won't earn you any neopoints. Since more than half of the Wheel of Knowledge's spaces provide an item, but the cost of spinning is fairly high, this wheel can be mildly profitable if you're willing to use your shop and sell your winnings.

      Deep in the Haunted Woods, you'll find the Deserted Fairground. Somewhere among the fair games lies the Wheel of Misfortune. This wheel has only eight spaces, half that of most other wheels, and can be spun every two hours for only 150 neopoints. While most the spaces on this wheel will provide some negative consequence, you may also receive a valuable reward! There are 3 possible reward spaces to land on, including two item spots and one for neopoints. You may lose neopoints or items from your inventory via negative spaces. Unfortunately, there is also some risk to your neopet: they may forget about a book you've read them in the past, even if it was particularly expensive, or come down with a disease.

      Many of the items available from this wheel are quite valuable, however, it seems that the most popular prizes - when you're lucky enough to win a prize in the first place - are junk. It is possible to win neopoints directly from the wheel as well; although the value could be as low as one single neopoint, many Neopians have reported winning a few thousand. The wheel has a higher chance of harming than helping you, and the harm may be very costly, depending on the Neopian spinning the wheel. If you've read your pet a lot of expensive books, or if they're working toward a book club award, do you really want to run the risk of losing one of those book points? If the book lost was very costly, or has since been retired and gone out of print, it could be nearly impossible to re-read. You also may lose items or neopoints - it is especially important to clear out your inventory and on-hand fund before spinning this wheel, but it is capable of sending your pocket money balance into the negative! You may also incur cost if your neopet is infected with certain diseases. Although some can be cured with easy-to-find medications, others will require costly travel and pricey antidotes before your neopet will be feeling like themselves again. All in all, this wheel may be best left untouched, unless you don't mind a little misfortune in your life.

      Tyrannia holds two wheels to spin, one being the Wheel of Monotony. This wheel is, again, only priced at 150 neopoints per spin, but can only be spun once a day. It's different from other wheels in the sense that rather than taking a few seconds to stop spinning, it takes several hours! As long as you keep the wheel open, you can use other tabs to keep doing other Neopets activities - or anything else - while you wait, so it's not as though you're stuck until the wheel stops spinning. It does have a high profit margin, with ten spaces giving either a few thousand neopoints or an item, and only two negative spaces. Both negative spaces cause (potential) hit point loss - one space will cause your neopet to instantly lose half their health, and the other forces you into the Lair of the Beast. The Beast may attack, reducing your neopet's health to 1.

      It's hard to walk away from this wheel without being at least a few thousand neopoints richer. You can directly win either 5,000 or 20,000 neopoints in a single spin, or even receive a lottery ticket - many Neopians have won the lottery this way! Items are often profitable as well, with more than 50 r90+ items available in the prize pool. You could even win a paintbrush or a codestone. You may only receive an avatar or a trip to the volcano - which does absolutely nothing, positive or negative - but you won't have wasted many neopoints doing so. Similarly, the possible harmful outcomes only affect your pet's available health, and can be easily rectified with a quick trip to the Healing Springs. The Wheel of Monotony is definitely a must-do for easy profit!

      Tyrannia's second wheel is the Wheel of Mediocrity. The cheapest wheel of all at only 100 neopoints per spin, nine of the sixteen spaces will bring reward. Only three of the spaces are negative, leaving four completely neutral spots to land on - other than the loss of the cost of your spin, of course. You can win up to 4,000 neopoints from this wheel, or receive an item - furniture, a petpet, or food. The negative spaces carry the possibility of reducing your neopet's health or removing an item from your inventory, but unlike other wheels, it can affect the health of all of your neopets. As long as your pets aren't currently in any Battledome matches, this shouldn't be a major problem.

      Many of this wheel's outcomes are quite positive, or at the very least, neutral. You have a high potential of winning neopoints; five spaces award more neopoints than the cost of the wheel, and one space wins you 100 back. Because the cost of the wheel is so low, winning an item is nearly guaranteed to turn a profit! Even if the item you win appears to be extremely low value, if you price it a little higher and be patient, fluctuations in market values will likely bring you profit eventually. The wheel does have a large number of outcomes which do nothing at all, and may not return anything for your investment. If you have properly stored all items from your inventory, there is no major risk to using this wheel, and it may turn a small profit. If you have the neopoints to spare, try out the Wheel of Mediocrity for yourself.

      The Qasalan wheel, the Wheel of Extravagance, is only for the richest of Neopians. This 12-space wheel costs 100,000 neopoints to spin - yes, you read that number correctly! Although 8 of the spaces award you with neopoints or items, only about two thirds of the prizes are worth more than the cost of the wheel, and only one of the neopoint spaces is worth more than 100,000 - it's worth 100,001. However, the most "negative" outcome of the wheel is a space which does nothing, and one space gives an avatar. The other two spots on the wheel significantly increase your neopet's stats - the stat increase is random, but is worth either five or ten points!

      If you are training a pet whose expenses are very high - a pet who needs three or more red codestones per course, for example - this wheel may be worth trying for a few weeks for the stat bonuses alone. In attempts to make neopoints, however, the wheel's success will vary. A space each is made to award the wheel-themed stamp and background, neither of which are valued higher than the cost of a spin. The wheel also contains a space awarding a paintbrush, and another to award either a nerkmid, job coupon, or Secret Laboratory map piece. Paintbrushes are often profitable, with around 80% of the brushes available worth more than 100k neopoints. However, all nerkmids are worth less, as are half of the available job coupons and map pieces. The neopoints spaces are not at all profitable. The other winning space provides an item of rarity 100, of which, again, 80% or so are profitable. Why bother with this wheel at all? Well, when an item IS profitable, it could be worth many million neopoints! In fact, most of the items on the wheel are worth at least triple the cost of a spin. If you are a richer Neopian, able to recoup the cost if your spin does fail, the Wheel of Extravagance is a risky but realistic way to jump up the economic ladder of Neopia.

      All wheels balance risk with reward, but it's up to you to decide which risk is worth taking. You may be able to increase your profits - or your risk - with boons from winning skirmish battles at the Battleground of the Obelisk: you may be offered the opportunity, for the length of your victory, to spin the wheels twice per waiting period. Additionally, if you are an avid avatar collector, you'll want to spin every wheel whenever possible until you earn its avatar. As long as all your important items are in your safety deposit box, your budgeted neopoints are in the bank, and you're able to heal your pets, wheels can be plenty of fun. It is most important that you recognize your limit, and take a break from wheels when your funds are low. Good luck and happy spinning!


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