World Challenge Maps
World Challenge Maps | Set 1 Prizes | Set 2 Prizes | Set 3 Prizes
Ever wondered what exactly the World Challenges are? Then you came to the right guide. Here you will learn everything there is to know about the World Challenges; from which games and how to enter them to how to win prizes from them and what to do with the prizes. You can find a list of prizes that other users have won from converting their maps.
What are World Challenges?
World Challenges (referred as WCs from here on) were introduced on the 6th of July 2005, but not everything was as it is now. There were still many errors and the challenges weren’t that much of fun, so eventually Neopets changed most of the rules on the 15th of February 2006, when they added the third maps. No changes have been made since then, and we can be pretty sure things will stay the way as they are now.
Neopets introduced the WCs to give gamers a little extra, since all you could get from playing games was 3,000 NP at most per game. 6,000 NP if that game was the featured game. But with the WCs gamers now also had the chance to win World Challenge Map Pieces, and then either sell those for nice amounts of NeoPoints, or to collect them and eventually convert them to nice prizes like Paint Brushes!
In the WCs you just play your favourite Flash games against other players. Once you entered a WC, then all the scores you send that hour for the game you entered will be competed against random opponents who also entered that same WC. At the end of the hour the top players that hour will get a WC Map Piece and part of the NeoPoint jackpot.
If you’re fairly new to Neopets or to the games, then it’s best you first play all the games a bit and check which games you’re quite good at, before entering any WC. WCs are more for the experienced players.
Which World Challenge to enter?
You can find the World Challenges by going to the Games section and then clicking the globe image at the bottom of the page. Now you’re at the WC main page and from there on you can go to the WC worlds and their games.
Right now there are 12 WC worlds. Each world has their own games, and their own 3 WC Maps to collect. Only Flash games are selected as WC games though, so don’t bother looking for Shockwave games like Dice Escape and Castle Battles or HTML games like Cellblock and Pyramids. Not all the Flash games are selected though, some like Attack of the Revenge and Gourmet Club Bowls are never listed for an unknown reason. If you want to know if the flash game you want to play is a WC game or not, then check our Game Guides section. For each game the World Challenge World is mentioned if it belongs to one.
Per world, only a few games everyday are available as WC games. These are the most popular games and one or two random unpopular ones. The more games a world has, the more games that get listed for that world. Neopia Central has almost always 5 games listed while the other worlds usually have only 2 or 3 games listed.
To decide which WCs you should enter it’s best to check which scores others often send at certain games. If the scores you can get at that game are usually about the same or better, then this is a good game for you to enter the WC of. To check the scores you can go to the WC page of the game and then click on Previous Hour’s Results, there you can check all the scores sent in the past 24 hours.
How to enter and to play?
Now that you have chosen which World Challenge you want to play, it’s time to enter. On the WC main page you click on the world and then on the game you want to enter, there you will see the line “One time entry fee of 100 NP per hour. Enter the Challenge!” If you really want to enter then this will indeed cost you 100 NP. But you can win it all back and more, so click the link and enter the challenge.
The page will have changed a bit now: There’s a grey box now telling you you’re entered for this game’s WC, and with a link to the game. It is now time to play the game and send scores. You can send unlimited scores for the hour you’re entered, and not just only the three send score’s per day you get for NeoPoints.
When you send a score, it gets randomly competed against someone else’s score. If your score is higher, then you get a point added to your tally that hour. If your score is lower however, you lose a point to your tally. If it’s a draw, then nothing happens.
Your tally is the reason why you rather send one good score almost nobody can beat, than multiple small ones. When your tally is lower than 0, you can’t win a prize, no matter what. So it’s best to be happy with only 1 or even 0 as tally, than to risk a -1 or lower by sending too many small scores.
The WCs always start at exactly 3 minutes past the hour (eg. 2:03:00pm NST) and always end exactly when the hour ends (eg. 3:00:00pm NST). You can enter anytime between, even one second before it ends, but it’s best to at least enter 10 minutes before the WC ends to get at least a chance to send one score. Once the WC hour has ended, prizes are awarded in the next 3 minutes. Nobody can enter any WC in those 3 minutes.
How to win in a World Challenge?
As just said, prizes are awarded right after the WC hour ends.
To win prizes the following requirements must be achieved:
- At least 5 people must have entered that hour. If that’s not the case, all the results will be dragged to the next hour, so you still can win something then. As long as there aren’t at least 5 participants, the results will be dragged to the following hours.
- Your tally must be at least 0 to have chance on a prize.
Once the first requirement is achieved, the top players will receive a WC Map Piece and a share of the Jackpot. You can be a top player in three categories, as long as your tally is at least 0. These categories are Tally, Hour’s High Score, and Score Totals. Tally is simply the tally, Hour’s High Score is the highest score you sent that hour, and Score Totals are all the scores you sent added together.
In the following example we’re showing a possible scenario explaining all the possible results:
These are the ending results of a World Challenge with 16 participants. The top 4 players of each category get a prize. They are highlighted in this example. On the WC page the results are always listed in order of Tally, but you can also view them in order of Hour’s High Score or in order of Score Totals by clicking on those titles in the results list. To give an idea of how the results list looks like ordered by Hour’s High Score and by Score Totals we show you the top 5 of each as well.
Ordered by Tally:
| User | Tally | Wins | Losses | Ties | Scores Sent |
NP | Hour’s HS |
Score Totals |
|
| 1 | player_1 scores |
3 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 800 | 1,435 | 6,210 |
| 2 | player_2 scores |
2 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 400 | 1,205 | 3,955 |
| 3 | player_3 scores |
2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 200 | 1,520 | 2,875 |
| 4 | player_4 scores |
1 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 6 | 100 | 1,060 | 4,425 |
| 5 | player_5 scores |
1 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 1,195 | 3,335 | |
| 6 | player_6 scores |
1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1,385 | 1,385 | |
| 7 | player_7 scores |
0 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 6 | 1,640 | 7,825 | |
| 8 | player_8 scores |
0 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 1,470 | 3,450 | |
| 9 | player_9 scores |
0 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 1,330 | 4,205 | |
| 10 | player_10 scores |
0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 1,695 | 4,085 | |
| 11 | player_11 scores |
0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1,695 | 1,695 | |
| 12 | player_12 scores |
-1 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 1,185 | 2,865 | |
| 13 | player_13 scores |
-1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 810 | 1,395 | |
| 14 | player_14 scores |
-1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 285 | 285 | |
| 15 | player_15 scores |
-2 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 4 | 1,695 | 5,555 | |
| 16 | player_16 scores |
-5 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 5 | 545 | 1,535 | |
Ordered by Hour’s High Score:
| User | Tally | Wins | Losses | Ties | Scores Sent |
NP | Hour’s HS |
Score Totals |
|
| 1 | player_10 scores |
0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 800 | 1,695 | 4,085 |
| 2 | player_11 scores |
0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 400 | 1,695 | 1,695 |
| 3 | player_7 scores |
0 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 6 | 800 | 1,640 | 7,825 |
| 4 | player_3 scores |
2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 100 | 1,520 | 2,875 |
| 5 | player_8 scores |
0 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 1,470 | 3,450 | |
Ordered by Score Totals:
| User | Tally | Wins | Losses | Ties | Scores Sent |
NP | Hour’s HS |
Score Totals |
|
| 1 | player_7 scores |
0 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 6 | 800 | 1,640 | 7,825 |
| 2 | player_1 scores |
3 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 400 | 1,435 | 6,210 |
| 3 | player_4 scores |
1 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 6 | 200 | 1,060 | 4,425 |
| 4 | player_9 scores |
0 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 100 | 1,330 | 4,205 |
| 5 | player_10 scores |
0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 1,695 | 4,085 | |
From these example lists we can learn a lot:
- The Tally winners are player_1, player_2, player_3, and player_4. Player_5 and player_6 also had a tally of 1, just like player_4, but player_4 had more wins which is why player_4 gets a Tally prize, but not player_5 and player_6.
If two or more players have an equal Tally, then the one with the most wins is ranked better. - The Score Total winners are player_7, player_1, player_4, and player_9. But because player_1 and player_4 already got a prize from Tally, they won’t get another prize anymore.
You can get only one prize per game in one hour, even if you’re in two or all three category tops. - The Hour’s High Score winners are player_10, player_11, player_7, and player_3. Player_3 won’t get another prize since he already won in Tally, and player_7 won’t get another prize as well since she already won in Score Totals.
Prizes are always awarded in this order: Tally - Score Totals - Hour’s High Score. - Player_4 won 100 NP because she was 4th at Tally. She was 3rd in Score Totals though, so you would think she wins 200 NP there. Wrong, she only gets the 100 NP from Tally.
Even if your prize money is higher in the later categories, you only get the amount of NP you won in the category you get the prize of. - Player_15 is the typical example of the one with bad luck. He would have been 3rd at Score Totals and his Hour’s High Score is the best one, but since his tally is negative he doesn’t win anything.
Make sure your tally is at least 0, or you won’t win any prizes. - Players_16 is the one that keeps sending low scores. As you see he didn’t win any challenge with his low scores, so his tally is -5 and he doesn’t win anything. His Score Totals and Hour’s High Score were too low anyhow.
Don’t bother sending multiple low scores, they won’t help you at all. - Player_10, player_11, and player_15 all got a score of 1,695. In this example game, that is the review score, and the highest score that will count for the WC.
Any score higher than the review score has to be reviewed by The Neopets Team. Because of that they don’t count in the WCs. - Player_11 sent only one score, but the best possible score at this game. She knew beforehand that this would either be a win or a draw, as nobody could beat that score. She also didn’t bother to send any other scores, as this score would place her in the top of Hour’s High Score.
If you can easily get the highest possible score (often the review score) at a game, then only send that score: it’s a guaranteed win. - Player_5, player_6, and player_8 have a tally of 0 or higher, but they didn’t get in the top 4 of any category so they don’t win anything. Player_5 could have sent one more score though, and if that had been a loss, then his tally would still have been 0 and his Score Totals might have been high enough to be in the top 4. On the other hand, if that score had been a win, then his tally would have been 2 and enough to be in the top 4 of Tally.
If your tally is at least 1 but you’re not listed in any top position, then don’t give up and send another score!
In the example we had 16 players, but most often there are only 5 to 10 players. The more players that enter, the more winners there are though. Here’s a list with how many winners there are when a certain amount of players have entered:
| Players: | 5 | 6-15 | 16-25 | 26-35 | 36-45 | 46-55 | Every 10 more players. |
| Prize winners per category: | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 10 | 15 | 5 more winners. |
What do I win?
Okay, so you belong to the winners, what exactly did you win now?
You won one piece of the World Challenge Map of the world your game is located at. This piece is of the first map, unless you already converted that map, then it’s a piece of the second map. If you also already converted that map as well, then it’s a piece of the third map.
You also won part of the NeoPoint Jackpot. This jackpot are all the players their entry fees, so in our example the jackpot was 1,600 NP. The winner always gets half of the jackpot, if you came 2nd then you get 1/4th of the jackpot. 3rd means 1/8th of the jackpot and 4th gets you 1/16th of the jackpot. Almost nobody plays the WCs for this, as you never get much anyhow. The WC map pieces are the real prize.
You can only win up to 3 WC map pieces everyday. You can still enter the World Challenges after you won 3 pieces, but you won’t win anything, not even part of the jackpot.
What to do with the World Challenge Map Pieces?
You can do two things with these: sell them or collect them to convert the whole map and have a chance on winning a Paint Brush.
If you don’t plan to often play the WCs, then it’s best to just sell all the pieces you get. It will take long enough to get all 20 pieces of the first map, and most of the time if you convert the first map you get something worth less than all 20 pieces together in return.
Only if you plan to convert at least the second map, and preferable also the third map, then it’s worth it to save the WC map pieces and convert them. The second map will often enough give you a Paint Brush, and the third map will always give you a Paint Brush.
Often enough you will win pieces you already have. You can try to trade those on the Trading Post for pieces you still need, or you can sell them and either use the NeoPoints to buy pieces you still need, or wait until you actually win all 20 pieces from playing in the WC. This can take long though, so suggested is that once you won 20-30 pieces and are still missing a few, that you buy those you’re missing, and sell your doubles.
Once you convert a map, you can’t take away those map pieces anymore. Once you’ve converted all three maps in a world, you can clear them all again to start over.
You cannot convert the second map of a world if you haven’t converted the first map yet! Nor can you convert the third map if you haven’t converted the other two maps yet!
If you wonder what exactly you can win from converting the WC maps, then you should check our World Challenge Maps page. You will always get 2,000 NP and one item from converting a map. This item is always a Petpet, a red Codestone, a Petpet Paint Brush, or a Paint Brush.
Have a question or comment?
If you read this whole guide, but still have a question, or you want to comment on something, then please send a Neomail to pasqui_q. He’ll respond as soon as he can.
