Disclaimer :K

Getting Started!

Hello, dear newbies! Welcome to my guide. I'm going to teach you how to find your way around Neopia without losing your pets, neopoints, or your head! I'm going to start from the very beginning, creating your account. You will need to type in your name, zip code,password, birthday, and the username you'd like. Everyone wants a unique username, but sometimes when you are new you might not know how to do that. You can create a unique username by combining your name/nickname with one of your favorite things. For example, my username is kikiluvsyoga. That uses the the method I mentioned above!

After you create your account, remember to write down all of the information on paper. I know from experience that information is imperative in retrieving a frozen or lost account. Frozen, by the way, is what happens when you do a bad thing, or get scammed. My main account got scammed and frozen. TNT (The Neopets Team, AKA: The Staff) will never ask for your password, so don't fall for scams from people pretending to be staff.

Pets

Your next step in Neopia should be creating a pet. Creating your first pet takes alot of careful decisions, like names, species, personality etc. For a neopets name, I like to create a name using very unique names or words from other languages. One of my neopet's names, Nuannaroq, is based on an inuit word meaning "taking extreme pleasure in living". Try searching for unique names or words in other languages. You can also give a pet someone else a has made a new home by adopting one from the pound!
Also, your pet can have it's very own pet, called a petpet! You can buy these in default shops or user shops. Their prices range all the way from under 1,000 neopoints too 1 million+! Petpets can also have their own pet, though it is more like a bug than a pet. These are called- you guessed it! Petpetpets! These are normally quite expensive, as they are rarer than petpets.

Earning Neopoints

Once your first pet is created, you should start earning neopoints and doing what are called "dailies". Dailies are something that derive their name from "day", meaning tasks you do in Neopia every day. You can find a good list of dailies on Jubbyjubjack's Dailypage. Most dailies are free and earn you neopoints or items, or skills for your pets.
Another way to earn neopoints is by owning a shop. To create a shop, click on shops, then create/edit your shop. (link) Your shop starts out being able to hold five items, and you can upgrade it (for a cost). To put some items in your shop, go to your inventory and click the item you want, then select shop stock from the drop down menu. Another thing I should go over is buying items. You should buy items from the site's default stores as little as possible. (Unless your restocking, NeoFaerie.net has a great guide on that here.) Things you could find very very cheap in a user's store, could be tons more. This error is due to the incorrect nature of Neopia's inflation. The average price listed in your inventory is wrong, usually. You can find the real value of an item by using the Shop Wizard, a magical blue dude who can find the real price of things. Another way to find shops is on the Shop Ad's board, which you can also use to advertise your own shop. Here you can find all sorts of stores, with everything from neggs to plushie sludgies!

Boards

If you are 13 or over, you may want to use the Boards, Neomail, and Neofriends. The Boards are a good tool for not only chat, but for contests, help, shop ads and more! There is even a special board for Newbies.
Don't be fooled into thinking that because Neopets was created as a children's site, that you don't need to be careful. Never give out your full name or any personal information, such as your account info, to people you don't know in real life. The chatters on the Neoboards can be cruel and mean to newbies, and you will need to be on your guard against mean remarks. Just remember, every rose has it's thorns, so find a place in the boards that suits you, and you could find your next best friend!

Standing Out!

Now, on to making you self stand out. (In a good way of course!) On Neopets, you can decorate your user lookup, your pet's description, and your pet's page. You can find special layouts to customize such things at many different sites, such as this one! It has a special box beneath it with a code, that you must copy. This code is called HTML or CSS. These are languages that when used make things appear on a webpage. You can learn basic HTML at Neopet's HTML Guide. You can put this in user editable things on neopets to show your style!
You can also have a layout for your pet's description, in which you'll want to write some info about your pet's personality, goals, and lifestyle. Your pet also has what is called a petpage, which is in actuality a website you can design. These can also have layouts. You can do alot with your petpage like making your petpage about your pet, about you, a page of your artwork, a page of guide's like this one, a page of HTML/CSS layouts you designed, and much more!

You can also customize and "paint" your neopets. Customisation involves using neopoints or real money to buy clothing, backgrounds and accesories for your neopet. Painting your pet involves buying something called a paintbrush, which can make your pet into all sorts of styles, such as christmas, halloween, ghost, island, maraquan and many more! Paintbrushes can be worth anywhere from a few thousand to a few million neopoints.

That, I think sums up your first few days in the wonderful world of Neopia! Remember, be safe, make friends, love your pets, and keep your stuff out of the Pant Devil's way!