The news has barely updated, and what’s this? In any case, where should you begin? Don’t stress, I’m here to answer all of those silly—I mean sharp—questions. Heh.

The first thing you need to know is: What is the mystery picture? Simple, of course. A mystery picture is a slightly distorted image taken from somewhere on the Neopet site. Once you know that, you don’t have to scour the web to find it. Hopefully, you got that one already. Fail…

Secondly, I recommend opening a paint program—Paint, Paint Shop Pro, Adobe, etc. Any software that allows you to zoom in on the distorted image is excellent. I mean, TNT can’t expect you to solve it without a paint program, can they?! *Gulp* I also suggest a program with an eye dropper tool to match the colors. Now, save the mystery picture and open it in your paint program. You’re done with step two!

Thirdly, if the mystery picture just appeared in the news, check out the Games board. Generally, they have a ‘Mystery Picture’ thread. There’s often a bunch of people there ready to help find it. Unfortunately, there could be lurkers on the board who don’t help at all—they just take the answer if someone posts it. So if you find the mystery picture, try not to post it on the board. However, you might be able to offer helpful hints to those seeking it, which seems like a reasonable way to approach it.

Now, it’s time to actually find the mystery picture and where to look. First, I usually examine the type of picture it is. Sometimes you can tell if it’s a shopkeeper, banner, game icon, etc., just by identifying the colors. If you can’t identify the shades, one of the first places I check is Neopedia. Yes, that means going through every article to see if the colors match the mystery picture. A lot of work, I know, but no one said this would be easy! If you still can’t find it, I recommend checking game icons next—look at the ones that seem clear based on their colors first. If you’re a restocker, you might not have a problem knowing which shopkeepers to check first. But for those who aren’t, it could be quite the search!

If you still can’t find it (AGHH!!), it’s time to check the banners—not the advertising ones, but the ones you see on every page at the top. If you noticed, most of the main Neopia Central shop signs are purple (at least most of them).

If you’ve searched all of the above and still haven’t found it, chances are it’s none of those. Alternatively, you may have missed it, which is the worst thing that can happen during a mystery picture hunt. Now it’s time for more obscure things to check, like collectible cards, Neopet backgrounds, Neogreetings (my least favorite), blogs, avatars, shopkeepers, petpets, Neopets—gah, there are so many things! However, the good news is that TNT rarely uses animated stuff for their mystery pictures. So you don’t need to worry about having a program that can run animations to view each slide.

If you’ve gone through all of that and still can’t match the pixels or colors with any of them, the mystery picture might be an item, a Neopian Time picture, or a completely random picture on the site. Those are the most complicated and likely the last ones people search for.

Whew, after all that searching, hopefully, you ended up finding it. Oh yes, I’m not saying you have to go in that order, but I find it’s the easiest and most logical way to do it.

Now, here are some helpful tips to remember:

• Just because the colors might match up with the picture, it doesn’t always mean the pixels will! Make sure to check this.
• Try working with a nearby Neofriend or two; that way, it’s less tedious. Just make sure they stay silent!
• If you think you’ve found the mystery picture, ALWAYS, and I mean ALWAYS, double-check. Trust me, I’ve been too hasty with my own answers sometimes.
• Even if a picture looks somewhat close to the mystery picture, and you know there’s a chance it won’t match, try anyway!
• Make sure to keep your answer polite and concise but detailed. If the mystery picture is a shopkeeper, don’t just say ‘shopkeeper.’ You need to specify which one. Otherwise, you might risk getting it wrong.
• Remember, if you are one of the first 200 people to get the answer right, you’ll score a cool item and a trophy! If not, you’ll still get some Neopoints from the prize pool.