Avatars are the images that appear under your name when you post a message on the guild message board or the Neopets chat rooms.  To set your avatar preference (as well as the title under your name and your signature), click on Boards in the yellow tool bar on the left.  Click on Chat Preferences and make the changes you want.  The secret avatars that you have acquired will be at the bottom of the drop down menu.  When you have made the changes, click on the Submit button at the bottom.  If you are going to be posting on the guild message board, do not set your font to glowing, large, or other unusual fonts--these make your message hard to read and are against guild rules.

These pages have a list of secret avatars and how to get them:
The_Pet_Eater's pet web page has an alphabetical list and a section for newest avatars. (updated frequently)
AvatarLog - sign up and they have an easy way to load all your avatars and display them. They also have detailed instructions on all the avatars and how to get them, and they have a way to compare your avatars with other friends who have signed up.
lalaeith's pet page (for older avatars by category)

Some guild shops have items to loan for avatars. Please check directly with the shop.
Grand Librarian (Librarians or higher) ~ Faerie Queen Doll, Meowclops, Drackonack
Card & Stamp Shop (Librarians or higher) ~ Chokato (TCG), Kasuki Lu, Fire Paw and Niten Hiroru
Battle Shop (Librarians or higher) ~ Icy Snowflake & Mystery Palm Shield; the Battle shop also has a Darigan tonu that may be battled to obtain an avatar (Apprentices or higher for now)
Kitchen (Librarians or higher) ~ Orange items
Toychest (Apprentices or higher) ~ Blue Evil Fuzzle

GOBL member chacha1352 has an avatar item loaning gallery on her pet ChaChaMolena's pet web page.

GOBL member akiressim has made a packrat item distribution centre on the pet page of Achondroplasia. If you are going for the packrat avatar, be sure to visit this page. :)

GOBL member _godiva_ has a list of cheap items for the packrat avatar on her pet _BobIsBlue_'s pet web page. Lailahr's witch0baby has a list of 500 cheap items, too.  Also, watch the guild's message board.  People who already have the avatar often offer trades of their now unneeded items. Be sure to get the monitor's approval before posting to the board.

Be sure to visit the Links page for game guides and help sites that might aid you in achieving other avatars.

Click here for a list of solutions for Cliffhanger.  This list is in a different order than most.  It's in numerical order by the number of letters in the words.  I find it much faster to use than the others. -- cybraria

You can only get these from Coltzan's Shrine, Buried Treasure, Black Pawkeet Slots, or by buying them from a user's shop.

The only way to get a smaller dubloon (e.g., you have a 10 dubloon coin and need a 5 dubloon coin) is to buy a very cheap item at the Golden Dubloon on Krawk Island and get change back, or to set up a trade with another user.

Faerie abilities are obtained by giving your pet a bottled faerie.  You pet must be a certain level to receive various abilities and must receive the abilities in order (e.g., it can't get the Dark Faerie ability Drain Life until it has received the previous six Dark Faerie abilities).  Here are all the abilities and what level your pet needs to be to receive them (the most highly recommended abilities are in bold):

AIR:  1/Spark, 5/Air shield, 8/Haste, 10/Thunder tail, 12/Flight, 17/Dive, 21/Invisibility, 28/Diamond dust, 33 (or 38)/Teleport

DARK:  2/Night vision, 4/Night time, 7/Temporal leak, 10/Shroud, 12/Demon breath, 17/Shadow health, 21/Drain life, 30/Sink

EARTH:  1/Magic pebbles, 3/Tough skin, 6/Magic berries, 10/Burrow, 12/Negg, 15/Twisting vines, 19/Great feast, 23/Regeneration, 30/Stone legion

FIRE:  1/Smoke screen, 3/Fiery roar, 6/Fiery gaze, 8/Fireball, 12/War cry, 15/Lava spit, 19/Song of the volcano, 24/Boil, 30 (or 33)/Meteor shower

LIGHT:  1/Magic torch, 4/Flash, 7/Bless, 10/Sun ray, 13/Psychic blast, 17/Mote dance, 22/Restore, 28 (or 33)/Ascension

WATER:  1/Heal, 3/Bubble shield, 6/Water jet, 9/Quench, 12/Steam shield, 16/Water breathing, 20/Water of life, 27 (or 30)/Healing vapour, 33/Watery guardian

Note:  The only way to increase the level of an ability is by a random event or the Wheel of Excitement.  However, at this time increased ability levels don't do anything.

You can't get these anymore. They were given out as a promotion, but are now retired and unbuyable. Even the smallest ones are over 100,000NP and aren't worth buying.

~Thanks to shades167 for posting this info~

UPDATE:You can win a Brightvale Job Coupon from the Wheel of Knowledge. The type varies from Gold (best) down to Green (least). Once you use a job coupon for a job, it downgrades by one value: Gold Brightvale Job Coupon downgrades to Silver Brightvale Job Coupon , and a Green Brightvale Job Coupon downgrades to a regular Pink Job coupon. Since they can be won on the wheel, a Pink Job coupon goes for about 55k on the wiz nowadays, and is good for seven jobs, each of decreasing value.

Many people like to have more than one account for galleries, to have more pets, etc.  You are allowed to have up to four additional accounts besides your main account, but there are very strict rules about what can be done with these extra accounts.  If you have, or are thinking of having, more than one account and want to avoid having any of your accounts frozen, mizzkis has gathered the latest information put out by The Neopets Team on this subject on her pet northager's web page. Thanks for the hard work on this, mizzkis!

For those who are having problems with the Flash program, or who are leery of playing Flash games because of glitches, here is a list of games that do not require Flash.

Petpetpets are pets for petpets.  They originate in very rare random events.  Some people sell them rather than attach them to a petpet (they are quite valuable), so you can find some of them in user shops, the auction, or the trading post.

Important!  Before you decide to attach a petpetpet, be warned that if you ever remove the petpet that it's attached to the petpetpet will disappear.

To attach a petpetpet to a petpet, first make the pet who has the petpet you want to attach it to your active pet.  Put the petpetpet in your items, then start refreshing the page.  You may have to keep refreshing for a very long time before the petpetpet is attached.  You will not be notified that the petpetpet is attached, so watch the line that says "You currently hold __ items".  When it goes down by 1 your petpetpet will be attached (or the pant devil will have stolen something from you).  It is strongly advised that you fill up your items with cheap things while you do this to lessen the chance of the Pant Devil stealing the petpetpet.

Random quests - Most faerie quests (air, dark, earth, fire, light, water, space rainbow, and queen faerie) are random events.  If you decide to accept the quest and get the item the faerie asks for, you will not be able to use the Shop Wizard to search for it.  In fact, you will not be able to use the Shop Wizard for anything until you have either completed the quest or told the faerie you don't want to do it.  If you prefer not to do the quest, go to Explore > Faerieland > Faerie City > Faerie Quests and tell them you do not want to do it.  The consequence of this is that you will not get another quest for at least 5 hours.

If you do decide to do the quest, the guild's Quest Shop (booklovers_webmaster) stocks some items asked for by the air and fire faeries.  If you don't find the item you need there, or are doing one of the other quests, you may ask on the guild's message board (please see guild rules) for help in finding shops that have the item.  There is no time limit on these quests.  When you have the item, go to the Faerie Quests hut in Faerie City and click on the appropriate button.

If you have not had a random faerie quest for a long time, it might help to visit the Faerie Quest hut just to let them know you're around.

This chart will tell you what kind of things these faeries ask for and what the rewards are.

Voluntary quests - Voluntary quests include the Snow Faerie, Kitchen Quests, Edna the Witch, the Esophagor, the Brain Tree, Illusen, and Jhudora.  You have to go and ask for these quests.  They all have a time limit, but you are allowed to use the Shop Wizard for them.  It is advisable to check on the total cost of the items asked for on these quests, as they are frequently not worth doing unless you really like to gamble.  If you decide not to do the quest, just let the time run out and then you can ask for another one.  If you do the quest, when you have the items asked for return to the page where you accepted the request and click the appropriate button.   Do not post to the message board asking for help to find these items.

Snow Faerie - The Snow Faerie resides at the top of Terror Mountain.  She will ask for almost anything.  She will reward you with 1000-3000 neopoints, a snow ball, and an item.  The item could be anything and of various values.  Recommended spending limit: 2000-3000 neopoints.

Edna the Witch - Edna resides in the Haunted woods and will ask for various items.  She will give you 100-200 neopoints and an item, frequently spooky food.  Recommended spending limit: 200 neopoints.

The Esophagor - This ugly creature also resides in the Haunted Woods.  He will ask for spooky food and will reward you with an item of almost any kind which may or may not be valuable.  He also will give you part of the answer to a Brain Tree quest if you have accepted one.  Recommended spending limit: 200 neopoints.

The Brain Tree - (You can only do one Brain Tree quest a day.)  Yet another Haunted Woods quest, the Brain Tree quest is a little different.  It will ask you for the date and location of the birth or death of a fictitious character.  The only way to find the answers is to do two Esophagor quests (see above, and stick to the recommended limit).  On each completed quest the Esophagor will give you half of the answer to the Brain Tree's question.  (Don't forget to write the answers down!)  Before you try a Brain Tree quest it would be a good idea to try an Esophagor quest to see if it's a cheap one.  If it is, before you give him his item(s) go and accept a Brain Tree quest.  That way you'll know that at least one of the answers will be cheap.  The Brain Tree will reward you with brain tree weapons or other items and 1,000-2,500 neopoints.

Kitchen Quests - This is located on Mystery Island.  The flotsam chef will ask for various food items.  He will reward you with neopoints, or an item of varying value, or raise one of your pets statistics.  Recommended spending limit: 1000, unless you want to raise you pet's statistics, in which case 2000 or more might be worth it

Illusen & Jhudora - (You can only do Illusen or Jhudora quests every 12 hours.)  Illusen is found in Meridell and Jhudora is found in Faerieland.  You cannot do a quest for both of these faeries on the same day, as they are quite jealous of each other. Their quests have 50 levels, although you can quit at any time. These quests are timed and the time is usually quite short. They ask for various items and may ask for quite expensive things, although this usually doesn't happen until you are well along in their quests. Rewards are not given at all levels and are items unique to them. The rewards become more valuable as you go along. Follow these links for a list of Illusen's rewards and Jhudora's rewards.  You will also get an avatar at Level 20. There are high score tables for these quests, so it's also possible to get a trophy.

Smilies are the tiny images (faces, etc.) that appear in the text of messages you see on the guild board and in the chat rooms. They are made by typing certain key combinations or placing particular words between asterisks.
Here's a list of most of the smilies that work on neopets and how to make them. There is an error in the vampire face one. It should be :K instead.
TineNeoHelp has a very complete list of these. Click on the "chat smilies" link on the left hand side of the page.

Sidebar themes are explained in great detail on C0ntaminat3d's pet web page. This page also lists the various sidebar themes available and how to get them. Thanks to neobloggo for the link.

When the Snowager is asleep you can try to take something from his treasure hoard.  You may get something, or get nothing, or one or more of your pets may get an icy blast which will take away most or all of their hit points.

Neopian Time (also Pacific Time) (US): 6-7am, 2-3pm, 10-11pm
Mountain Time (US):  7-8am, 3-4pm, 11-12pm
Central Time (US):  12-1am, 8-9am, 4-5pm
Eastern Time (US):  1-2am, 9-10am, 5-6pm
London (England):  6-7am, 2-3pm, 10-11pm
Singapore & Hong Kong:  5-6am, 1-2pm, 9-10pm
Sydney (Australia):  7-8am, 3-4pm, 11-12pm

The Symol Hole can be found in Meridell, near the Turmaculus. You can send your petpet down the hole and see if he returns with some treasure. Guild members have reported receiving items or NP from the hole, but no one knows yet if there is a schedule or if it is completely random whether or not you will receive something.

This page will tell you how most of the maps work. It shows all the pieces of each map and lists what many people have gotten for completing the maps. It's generally thought that the only map worth completing is the Secret Laboratory Map, and that only if you want to raise a pet's statistics for battledome, get a painted pet, or help pets from the pound.

www.jellyneo.net has another treasure map guide, and a Lab Ray Guide and a Petpet Lab Ray Guide as well.

Turmaculus , or T-mac as he is affectionately called, is the floppy monster in the upper center of the Meridell map.  He can be awoken during one random hour each day.  Since the hour is different every day, we rely on fellow guild members to post on the message board when the hour arrives.  How to wake him is also random. Be warned that one of the outcomes of waking him may be that he eats your petpet!

Coltzan's Shrine: Go 55 seconds exactly past the minute for a doubloon.
Destruct-o-Match: Type "boohooiwanttheoldgameback" on the "Select a game mode" screen to launch the old version of Destruct-O-Match.
Faerie Bubbles: If you type "faerieland" while playing, the current bubble becomes a Rainbow Bubble! (once per game)
Faerie Bubbles: If you type "stardust" while playing, the current bubble becomes a Nova Bubble! (once per game)
Frumball: While playing, type "kougra". You will skip a level but your points will be reset.
Hasee Bounce: While playing type "doughnutfruit" and your time is restored.
Lab Ray: Did you know... A Neopet can only be turned into a Robot by the Lab Ray.
Snowmuncher: While playing, if you type "buuuurrrrrrrrp" you will get your bloatedness decreased by 50%. (once per game)
Sutek's Tomb: Type "plzsutekcanihavemoretime"; you will get a 30 second time bonus.
Sutek's Tomb:Type "pyramibread" as many times as you'd like to see the next possible move.

The Wheel of Monotony can take anywhere from 1 to 4 hours. As soon as you start it spinning, use another browser and go to this page to see how long it is going to spin. It normally will have a series of numbers; you take the first 4 numbers and divide them by 60 to see how many minutes are left. If it says "done spinning", or "not spinning", then you might as well close it because it's glitched.
You can also go here to see what was the last time you spun the wheel officially and what you won.
~Thanks to thehappiestblumaroo for this tip!~

There is a good guide to figuring out what you will win while it is still spinning on AmaterasuChan's pet web page.
~Thanks to mizzkis for this tip!~

FOOD that is the same number of characters as your pet's name (including spaces)
TOYS that are 2 times the number of characters as your pet's name
PETPETS that are the same number of characters as your pet's name
HEALING POTIONS that have 1 more than the number of characters as you pet's name
For BOOKS your pet won't read see the Boring Books page