Throughout Neopets’ 25 Anniversary year, TNT has been using more and more platforms of social media to bring in old and new users to the site. Various customisation contests and forms of communicating with TNT were used in social media such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Starting on March 11, 2024, TNT officially began the tease that a new avatar was going to be released. Using all available social media, Puzzle Hunters identified and gathered clues through various stories, tweets, and posts, to form the special code. The code was officially solved on May 22, 2024 at 8 PM NST, causing an uproar of chaos among Neopians everywhere.
Feel free to go through our detailed timeline to examine the clues and try to solve the puzzle for the code. Or, we have the code (as a spoiler) accessible to those who would like to have it right away!
Update: The May 2024 Livestream had a small segment focusing on this avatar. The avatar will retire on June 15th, 2024. TNT Fallie described what it was like to create this avatar hunt and showed 3 concept avatars:
The Avatar
When you solve this puzzle and enter the code at Grundo Warehouse, you will be given this special avatar! The avatar was designed by sosunub, a community ambassador, based on the community votes.
Virtually Alive
Activated on May 20th, 2024 and was the reward for solving the Puzzle Hunters Club's social media-based avatar hunt. Many Neopians gathered together to solve this puzzle since April and was completely solved on May 22nd.
The avatar will be retired on June 15th, 2024 and won't be be obtainable afterwards!
If you'd like to solve this puzzle or learn how it was discovered, checkout our coverage guide! Otherwise, you can reveal the answer in the spoiler tag:
Enter the code TIME4SOC14L1SING at the Grundo Warehouse – if you cannot copy and paste it as is, you might need to remove the hyphens for it to work correctly.
⌨ ☠︎︎ ☆
VIRTUALLY ALIVE
Characters & Lore
Here's some highlights about these characters!
- An energetic Pink Vandagyre and is on Twitter (@ItsBirdieHeart)
- Birdie is "Team Illusen"
- A ship engineer at Virtupets
- Doesn't like eating eggs but likes Parmesan
- Sometimes likes poems but prefers to laugh
- Met the others at Virtupets
- Might "have a thing" for Maeve (or its just unhinged players assuming things)
- Born during the Month of Relaxing
- Favourite places to go: Smoothie store, Igloo garage sale, Neopian gift shop, Grooming parlour.
- Purple is Birdie's favourite colour
- Thinks Maeve is the coolest pet
- Besides solving puzzles, favourite things to do in Neopia include: Sewing, Imagining, Napping and Gaming
- Thinks Maeve would make a cool supreme leader (of the universe and beyond)
- Loves solving puzzles with her friends (Max and Maeve, maybe others?)
- Never gives away her skincare secrets so easily
- Wanted a puzzle hunters-themed avatar
- A quick-witted Darigan Kacheek, originated from Darigan Citadel but moved to Neovia to find a less gloomy home
- Maeve is "Team Jhudora"
- Has a Darigan Angelpuss
- A Robot Petpet Repairer/mechanic at Virtupets
- Likes gothic fantasy books and sappy romances
- Acts tough but is very shy
- Wanted a Dr. Sloth themed avatar because it'd be funny similar to having an Angelpuss petpet and then painting him Darigan – to "subvert tropes"
- Into reading and so smart that Birdie "zones out"
- Thinks Lord Kass is "pretty sharp"
- Met the others at Virtupets
- Maeve is "so extra" (confirmed by Fallie)
- A cheery goofball and friendly Rainbow Kougra, first to introduce himself to Birdie and is very social – prefers to "catch up irl"
- Called Neopia Central home when he's not working at Virtupets
- Max is "Team Why Can't We All Be Friends"
- Works with communications at Virtupets, has a hearing aid, and met Birdie through communications(?) at work
- Taught Maeve and Birdie sign language
- Always wanted to have a plushie version of himself
- Likes old plushies
- Talented at humour and "he mentioned a contest once" (the caption contest)
- Believes that everything has feelings and doesn't want anything to be left out
- Met the others at Virtupets
- Wanted an 8-bit themed avatar
The Solution (spoilers)
The entire puzzle revolved around social media, socialising and collaborating together as a team. There was a hint that Maeve is always "online" and likes to communicate using 1337 speak, so there is an aspect of converting letters to numbers and vice-versa.
Amanda's video had pictures of a paw which spelt the word TIME
Secondly, Maeve's daily routine drawn out would reveal the number 4
From the neggs we get the number14 which could represent IA. The freckles on Birdie's face represent L in braille, and from Max's caption contest we get 1 because he likes to pretend it means an "I". As well, the Upperdeck live stream picture featured a clock. The clock's hands represented a C using Flag Semaphores. Finally, the news post contained Yellow K0rbat, rather than taking the zero literally but take the correct letter, "O", or undo the 1337 speak, you get the code: O
Birdie had kept hinting at "SING" and hinted to not take it literally and that she likes to "SING" at the end of a puzzle. In other words, the code literally ends with SING, or having to find a British word ending with -sing.
The final clue should've been an S, it was solved before the clue was posted. Considering the "social" themes and rearranging the previous letters and numbers you could guess the word: SOC14L1SING (socialising.)
When you put everything together: TIME + 4 + S + O + C + 14 + L + 1 + SING you get the wonderful code: TIME4SOC14L1SING
The Answer
The final solution would yield a unique code that can be entered at Grundo Warehouse that rewards you the avatar: TIME4SOC14L1SING
Potential Prizes
Some players reported receiving an item in their inventory. These items might have been given out for participating in the hunt, but we're not 100% sure and cannot confirm just yet. This section will be updated when we have more details.
| Puzzle Hunter Club PrizesItems some players received for participating in the fun avatar hunt | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Last Updated: August 02, 2024 Total Items: 5 | ||||
 Darigan Petpet Paint Brush |
 Key to Unknown Magic |
 Kool Rainbow Kougra Bobblehead View Preview |
 Stuck in Space |
 The Great Golden Slushie |
Free Goodies
Here's some SunnyNeo graphics you may use freely, the puzzle hunter's club banner and a meme template.
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