Puzzle Hunters coverage guide at SunnyNeo

Timeline of Events

This is our timeline of events relevant to the avatar hunt. The avatar is now solvable and all clues on this page can be used (when thinking creatively) to solve the avatar. If you believe we've missed something, feel free to contact us or Neomail toe_bob!

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!

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  • Cesar Cipher Monday, March 11th, 2024

    From Neopet's instagram stories, only viewable for 24 hours. It was a 7-letter Cesar Cipher, when decrypted the message revealed: THERE IS A NEW AVATAR COMING.. CAN YOU FIGURE OUT HOW TO GET IT?

  • A Wild Avatar Appears! Monday, March 18th, 2024

    The hunt began with an interesting post on social media. It pictured a mysterious rainbow Kougra paw (later revealed as Max Torra) holding a Virtupets phone with a screenshot of an unhinged Neoboards meme message (posted May 24th 2017): "wow this place is a freakshow. i don't respect literally any of you people" and had an active Yellow Korbat pet.

    🌈 A Rainbow paw hands you a neat looking device and excitedly says, "Have you heard?! Did you figure out the secret code?" 🔎

    A new secret avatar is being released, but we need YOUR help to make sure it's perfect! While it's still uncertain how to attain this avatar, keep your eyes peeled on our socials to have your say and vote! ✅

    ..Perhaps there will be some clues to help us figure out this mystery?

    Help us by tagging your fellow mystery-solving avatar hunters and sharing this post! Who knows, it might help!
  • Avatar: First Vote (Shape) Monday, March 25th, 2024

    The first voting for the avatar's design began, Neopians could vote on the shape of this design: Square, Circle, Triangle or Star. The star won this vote. The image showed a mysterious Darigan Kacheek, later revealed to be Maeve Slade.

    You’re greeted by a toothy grin and sparkling eyes. A figure obscured by shadow ‘pssts!’ over to you and asks, “What’s your favourite shape?”

    Well, that was weird. But, if you HAD to pick, you guess it’d have to be.. 🟦🔵⭐️🔼

    Vote to decide the shape you’d like this mysterious new avatar to take!

    And as always, comment below your theories or conspiracies! We love a good head-scratcher.

    It is unknown whether the voting contains any clues.


    UPDATE ON MAY 22ND: Ivy/Jamie hinted that her monitor showed this picture differently and that we missed something. The original hint was supposed to make us look at things related to the neggs. Since nobody originally figured out the clue from this post, they had to give a different negg-related hint. So the correct answer for the neggs is 14 You can see more details about the altered neggs clue below.

  • Mysterious News Post?? April 3rd, 2024

    On April 3rd, itsAJ noticed that there was a mysterious and altered news post for the date from the message

    Transcript of this message is below. There was an interesting zero in the item name Yellow K0rbat Morphing Potion.

    Hello, time traveller! Fancy seeing you here! Kauvara's Magic Shop is full of wonderful items, like this Yellow K0rbat Morphing Potion! Is this the new look your Neopet has been waiting for?

    Several players searched for a previous version of this news entry. On the unofficial discord server a message was found on the same day (May 24th, 2017) of a different potion, Stealthy Grarrl Morphing Potion, was released on this day. This confirmed that the news was altered by TNT and was our first clue!

  • Avatar: Second Vote (Phrase) Tuesday, April 2nd, 2024

    The second voting for the avatar's design began, Neopians could vote on the phrase for the avatar: "Always Online", "Virtually Alive", or "I'm Social!". The phrase "Virtually Alive" won this vote. The image showed a new pink Vandagyre (later revealed as Birdie Featherhart) in the image.

    ⭐ A new face appears and waves at you! ⭐

    You’re not sure where she came from, but an excited Pink Vandagyre nudges you and says, “I just can’t decide!”

    Well, you better help her out!

    Comment below (😘, ❤️, 😆) to vote for what text might appear on the upcoming avatar! Has anyone found any clues yet?

    Theories and speculation around the freckles/dots on Birdie's face to be constellations. TNT Fallie would later debunk this and hinted at analyzing the "too perfect" freckles.

  • Avatar Activation Friday, April 5th, 2024

    Fallie stated that the avatar would be released and activated after the polls concluded, since the artist (sosu) would need to create the avatar based on the results of these polls.

    The avatar will become officially active after the next poll finishes so it’ll be well and truly available before the last clues are out. Which is why the clues up till this point have been .. well, a bit nonsensical
  • Avatar: Third Vote (Visuals/Theme) Monday, April 8th, 2024

    The third and final vote for the avatar's design began, Neopians could vote on the avatar's theme: "Puzzle Hunters-themed", "8-bit themed", or "Dr. Sloth Online-theme". The Dr. Sloth theme won this vote. The image showed all three characters together and revealed their names.

    You’ve made some new friends recently! At least.. You think you have.. There seems to be a trio of enthusiastic, albeit mysterious, figures that have sought your help as they figure out a bigger mystery!

    The final poll for the upcoming avatar is here! And with it, we’re introducing the Puzzle Hunters Club. They all have thoughts on what the new avatar should look like.. Who will you vote for?

    Meet Birdie Featherhart! Hailing from Faerieland, this energetic Vandy wants a ‘Puzzle Hunters-themed Avatar’.

    Next is Max Torra, a cheery goofball Kougra from Neopia Central. He wants an ‘8-bit themed’ Avatar.

    And finally is Neovian-based Maeve Slade! This quick-witted Kacheek wants a ‘Dr Sloth-Using-The-Internet-themed Avatar’. Wowee! (Is she implying social media managers are evil overlords? hmm)

    Maeve Slade was holding a cellphone, now a different colour than previously and it had a piece of text @itsBirdieHeart which resembled a social media handle. The Twitter account, itsBirdieHeart, was then discovered. Several Neopians began to tweet Birdie and asking questions.

    The freckles on Birdie's face was inconsistent. On Instagram and Facebook, 3 freckles disappeared but on Twitter only 1 freckle disappeared. There were confusion as to whether or not these freckles should be ignored or be the primary focus.

  • TNT Ivy Hint: Non-repeating mechanisms Monday April 8th, 2024

    Neopians were stumped and kept searching the news for clues. TNT Ivy and Fallie were clearly laughing at us as we ran around in circles but Ivy hinted that they would not use the same mechanisms twice.

    Okay, here's my one hint: a lot of you are fixated on the news.... I would continue to look at other avenues instead. It's unlikely we'd use the same mechanism twice. :pugdance:
  • Max's Introduction Monday, April 8th, 2024

    A moderator posted an announcement introducing Max Torra, hinting he's a friendly Rainbow Kougra from Neopia Central

    📢 We've been hearing some chatter about the ✨new avatar✨ coming and the trio of friends helping to solve the riddle to obtaining it, so r/Neopets has been given permission to introduce a 'new' face here!

    This is Max Torra - a cheery Rainbow Kougra who called Neopia Central home when he's not working at the Virtupets. If Birdie is Team Illusen and Maeve is Team Jhudora, Max is Team Why Can’t We All Be Friends. He's looking forward to meeting you!
  • Neggs Monday, April 8th, 2024

    Birdie tweeted a cryptic tweet, hinting how Dr. Sloth is so evil even though he likes to collect "pretty pictures."

    Have you ever noticed how Dr Sloth is so evil, and yet he likes to collect pretty pictures? Sometimes I like to look at them and imagine what his favourites are. Max thinks I just see the good in everything, but it’s still fun to pass the time!

    An image was found on Dr. Sloth's Image Emporium (an image archive database operated by Jellyneo.) A Jellyneo staff member confirmed that this image was submitted anonymously. This image was uploaded on Neopets' image server and featured 14 happy neggs, and its file name was itsbirdieheart.png

    When asked about the neggs, Birdie hinted at wondering what the cost of happiness was:

    The Happy Negg has a price of 4 points at the neggery. Based on the 14 neggs, the sum of these points was 14 × 4 = 56.

    Fallie then hinted at "separating 56"

    By separating 56 into 5/6 to be June 5th, we get National Cheese Day (which is a day after June 4th). Fallie then joked that it's Neopian lore that TNT is always late (as in news posts are always a day late.)

    On Neopets' Instagram account, a "National Cheese Day" post was found with an altered message! It was originally posted on June 4th, 2023 but was edited on April 9th, 2024.

    You found me!? But you also discovered the true COST of happiness (Neggs)! Its 14. But do numbers always mean numbers?

    Not to be cheesy, but we wanted to wish you all a happy National Cheese Day! 🧀

    But this clue doesn't make much sense and might not have been found. Because the 14 neggs gave us 5/6 which was the cheese day post, but it hinted that 14 being the cost of happiness and numbers not always being numbers.


    UPDATE ON MAY 22ND: Ivy/Jamie hinted that her monitor showed the First Avatar Voting Image differently and that we missed something. The original hint was supposed to make us look at things related to the neggs. Since nobody originally figured out the clue from this post, they had to give a different negg-related hint. So the correct answer for the neggs is 14

    Possible Clue: 14

  • TNT Fallie & Ivy Hints Tuesday, April 9th, 2024

    Fallie hinted at asking Birdie (on Twitter) "more friendly, personal questions" and hinted a specific set of freckles was important, not representing constellations.

    You guys are doing great! Definitely try asking Birdie more friendly, personal questions. She loves to small talk :madslorg:
    As for the freckles - yes! One set in particular is especially important. I’ll tell you that they don’t represent constellations.

    Since Fallie debunked the constellations theory, other theories developed, such as analyzing the buttons on the characters' clothing or using braile or morse code to decode the freckles.

    Some people noticed the dots on Birdie's face was too perfect, and of course, Ivy reacted with 👀

    TNT Ivy then hinted at thinking about the characters in a combined sense.

    Since Max appears wearing a hearing aid, it suggested he may have a hearing impairment thus may know sign language. Comparing the PERFECT freckles on Birdie's face revealed an L The 3 perfect circles was braille for "L"

  • Birdie Tweets Wednesday, April 10th, 2024

    Birdie responded to the "L" and hinted it being the right clue.

    And Birdie's response that Max taught them sign language confirmed this as well.

  • Plushies Thursday, April 11th, 2024

    TNT posted on social media an interesting image of plushies playing together. The same background was used in a previous social media post.

    Wowee, someone caption that! 🧸

    Nostalgic faces all across Neopia have sprung to life thanks to the creativity of Umbra and their trusty paint brushes. Have you noticed? 👀

    Show us your favourite ‘new’ faces for a chance to win a Deluxe Styling Supplies!

    But the image hinted at "caption that" and the plushies playing together was from the caption contest round 525. The backgrond is UC Pet Plushie Background:

    This room is stuffed with cute UC Neopet plushies! This item was exclusively awarded through a virtual prize code. UC Pet Plushie BackgroundSee Preview

    The background was also altered and featured two plushies: Purple and Rainbow Scorchio Plushies.

    Birdie retweeted the original Neopets post on Twitter and mentioned that Max always wanted to have a plushie version of himself.

    A Neopian messaged Birdie that they spotted the two plushies, and Birdie responding that they "seem a little old."

    The plushies were released on January 11th, 2001, combined with the hint of a caption contest, a mysterious message on caption contest #1,111 from maxtorra was spotted!

    By maxtorra
    MaxTorra: One is the loneliest number.. I like to pretend it means “i” sometimes so it doesn’t seem so sad. L1ke this?
    Illusen: ...
  • S I N G Wednesday, April 8-13th, 2024

    Never ask anyone who attempted to solve this puzzle what "sing" means because you'll give them horrible flashbacks. There are more than a dozen tweets from Birdie, where the first 4 words had started with the letters that represented "SING." In other words, the first word started with an "S", the second word started with an "I", the third started with an "N" and the fourth word started with "G".

    After a few days Birdie got tired and had to emphasize the word "sing" until someone caught on. Once it was discovered, everyone felt insanely stupid for not noticing "SING". When Birdie was asked about SING, she hinted that she liked to sing at the end of the puzzle, but not to take "sing" literally and understand what it represents:

    So what this meant is that the clue sing must take place at the end of the puzzle. If it's a secret code, then the code must end in sing

  • News Post Thursday, April 13th, 2024

    An announcement was made on the New Features page to bring attention to the Puzzle Hunters Club, recruiting new members to find clues on the Neopets social media.

    • Have you heard? There’s a NEW avatar coming! Three new faces have appeared across our social media, and they need your help! By joining the Puzzle Hunters Club on our official Facebook, Instagram, and X, you can find clues and solve the riddle of attaining a new secret avatar!

    Head over there now to test your sleuthing skills!

  • Darkest Faerie April 13th, 2024

    Original speculations tried to tie this into the hunt but it ended up not yielding any clues.

    A suspicious social media post featuring a sketch of the Darkest Faerie, from the book of ages, was posted on social media. Hidden in the images reveals the phrase "Do you want to join the puzzle hunters club?" While this might be related to the concurrent avatar hunt, it is interesting to note that there was an unknown Dark Faerie in the Faerie Festival comic. We are not certain whether this is related to the plot or not.

    Before
    After
    Before
    After
    Before
    After

    The caption of the post:

    💜 Trivia Time! ⭐

    Besides the Darkest Faerie, there has only ever been ONE other Faerie banished for practising dark magic.

    However, Faeries often help each other and form strong bonds, regardless of alignment.

    Can you name a Dark Faerie who is known for their good deeds? 🔧
  • Grey Day: Festival of Neggs Announcement April 16th, 2024

    Original speculations tried to tie this into the hunt but it ended up not yielding any clues, so its probably related to the plot. View SunnyNeo's The Void Within coverage guide!

    The Grey Day site news had announcement that the Festival of Neggs would still be hosted by Kari this year. However there were intentional missing letters in the message, the missing letters from the correct words would spell: TROPHY While this may be related to the concurrent avatar hunt, because it was posted on Grey Dey and relates to the festival, it could also be related to the plot. The highlighted words in red indicate the letters that are missing:

    Important Announcement: We know that many have been worried about Kari recently and what her change in appearance may mean for the Festival of Neggs. So we are here to inform you there's no need to fear because Kari will still be holding the event!!! She says that while her energy may be pretty low, it will take more than some strange curse to stop her passion!! The first day will take place in one week! So be sure to check in on April 22nd (4/22) to start participating in this year's festivities!
  • About Maeve Slade Wednesday, April 17th, 2024

    A new Neopets social media post was release, highlighting details about Maeve.

    “So you want to know a little more about me?” Maeve asks you, flicking her long ponytail. 💅

    Hailing from Darigan Citadel, Maeve Slade decided to venture out into Neopia when she was young.

    “Darigan Citadel was just too gloomy for me!” 😈

    She settled in Neovia, where her favourite places to visit on the daily are The Crumpetmonger (start the day right), Apple Bobbing (for lunch with a challenge!), Prigpants and Swolthy (gotta check for new gothic trends!), the Neovian Printing Press (gotta read the latest goss to tell Birdie), and finally back down to Grave Danger (with her loyal Angelpuss).

    The attached video highlighted the placed that Maeve would visit every day, in order:
    The Crumpetmonger → Apple Bobbing → Prigpants & Swolthy → Neovian Printing Press → Grave Danger. When you traced out the path, the number 4 would appear.

    Possible Clues: 4

  • Upper Deck Livestream Thursday, April 18th, 2024

    A social media post announcing the Upperdeck edition livestream was posted. A clock was visible pointing to 5:55 beside the livestream's date.

    IT'S TIME TO BATTLE, NEOPIANS! 🃏

    Gear up and sharpen your wits because we've got an electrifying Neopets LIVE event heading your way - Upper Deck Battledome Trading Card Game Edition! ⚔️

    Join us on April 24th at 5PM (PST) for an adrenaline-pumping journey into the heart of the Battledome, featuring special guests from Upper Deck themselves!

    ALL live viewers will receive a redemption code for an in-game Item, ready to be redeemed at Grundo's Warehouse!

    Got any questions about the upcoming Trading Card Game? We’ll be taking your questions about the upcoming TCG and we’ll also have our usual AMA session with TNT Dom here:

    It's possible that the possition of the clock's hands can be represented as a Flag Semaphore code:

    Possible Clues: 555, 3 or C, S or SSS

  • Void Negg Trophy April 21st, 2024

    Original speculations tried to tie this into the hunt but it ended up not yielding any clues, so its probably related to the plot. View SunnyNeo's The Void Within coverage guide!

    The day before the Festival of Neggs beginning, a social media post of orion holding 16 void neggs in the shape of a trophy. This void negg was a prize item in the 2021 Festival of Neggs and later given out during the plot livestream.

    What's this?! Something is definitely going on in Neopia.. 💫

    The Festival of Neggs is nearing closer, but what will be in store this year? Only time will tell!

    *cackles in TNT*

    Okay, fine!
    Tell us in the comments what you're looking forward to (or your theories) and some lucky Neopians might find themselves with some little negg-loving critters!

    Don't forget to include your usernames!
  • Avatar Is Bugged Friday, May 17th, 2024

    A member contacted neo_truths and they discovered that the avatar is not live, even though Fallie's previous messages said it would be after the conclusion of the final poll.

    A few hours later, Fallie gave an update on the situation.

    There’s been some unfortunate changes that have impacted the community, and I’m just here to apologise for the confusion and frustration, even if I’m not able to jump onto my TNT account, because it’s been a whirlwind month. As you all probably saw, we lost Ivy who was a massive part of the team, and it’s been incredibly bittersweet, but mostly it’s been a whole blur for the team adjusting. Secondly, Gio is on the money - the avatar was intended to be live over a month ago, and there’s been some unforeseen issues that I didn’t find out about and have been trying to get to the bottom of. If I’d known, I wouldn’t have said otherwise and I’m so sorry for leaving you guys in the dark (and not finding fun puzzles 😭) I’ll get TNT Luna to send everyone some prizes as an apology, and I know that doesn’t fix the issue at hand, but I do really appreciate everyone being so honest and vocal and keeping the team accountable because that’s the only way we, as TNT, will have the space to do the best we can. If you haven’t previously dm’d @TNT Fallie your username, do it asap! :warfU:
  • Festival of Neggs & No Clues April 24th - May 20th, 2024

    The Festival of Neggs event was taking place and the Puzzle Hunters Club took a break to investigate plot related events and investigate Lord Kass' potential sightings. It was assumed the avatar was released and active and further clues would be released later.

  • TNT Luna's Update Tuesday, May 21st, 2024

    TNT Luna announced on the Neoboards that the avatar was fixed and activated after a technical issue.

    Hi everyone!
    We're making this update as there's been a hiccup in our social media avatar puzzle that we recently became aware of, and we want you all to be aware and up-to-date on the situation. Firstly, we want to say sorry for any confusion and frustration caused. We know that mistakes happen, but it's important that we take accountability for this one and keep the hard working puzzle hunters here updated—
    There's been a backend issue in the activation of the social media avatar, and as a result, the Puzzle Hunters took a short pause from clue hunting until it was fixed. We can confirm the avatar is now live and attainable.

    Those who have been participating, commenting, sharing, and joining in on the hunt over on our social media will be able to win some special goodies for your hard work so far!

    Thanks to everyone for making this such a fun little event and helping us to do the best we can (:

    In addition sosu, a community ambassador and the creator of the avatar, responded with the avatar active. And it was beautiful.

    As well, TNT Luna shared a screenshot of the avatar being activated at the Grundo Warehouse.

  • MAJOR Breakthrough Wednesday, May 22nd, 2024

    The previous day Fallie had hinted at paying attention to theamandafiles' next upcoming video:

    Amanda had uploaded a new video on the 22nd:

    From her video, several very important clues were dropped!

    The vidoe had a QR code which led to grundo's warehouse. There were 4 distinct rainbow paws (Max's hands, featuring 5 fingers, whereas previous pictures of him had 4 fingers.) These hands had different positions using American Sign Language and would spell "TIME"

    Clues: TIME

  • Birdie Hates Breaks! Wednesday, May 22nd, 2024

    Birdie posted a new tweet after a long hiatus, hinting that "we should remove ALL breaks." You interpret the dashes in Grundo Warehouse codes as a break, so you must remove these from the code!

  • THE FINAL CLUE!!! Wednesday, May 22nd, 2024

    Birdie posted another clue that could be used to solve this puzzle! It featured several pins of Neopian characters, all starting with the letter "S". As well, there are two slorgs in the mirror. Finally, there's an extra "S" in the message, right after "Shes" so the final clue is S

    Look at these new @Neopets pins Maeve got me from @WYPJewelry!! They have all my favourite things! Shes knows me so well.
  • Solved!

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