Category: Guest Posts

Guest posts are blog posts that are written by Poptropicans who are not staff writers on the PHB team at the time of writing. Interested in contributing? Check out our “Write for the PHB” guide under the Contact tab up top.

Escape from Pelican Rock Island, Guest Posts, Reality TV Island

Tips & Tricks for Escape From Pelican Rock and Reality TV Island

Slanted Fish

(Hey Poptropicans! This is a guest post written by Gentle Fang, a Poptropica player in the community. In this post, she’ll be sharing some game tips, particularly for last month’s Islands of the Month, Escape From Pelican Rock and Reality TV. Enjoy! –🐠)

tips efpr rtv

Since Poptropica’s kickoff in 2007, we have seen many islands, each filled to the brim with adventures, puzzles, brainteasers, and fun. But within this wonderful world, there are also secrets that may not be obvious, things that I’ve picked up on through my experiences of playing the game. (For example, did you know that the later episodes of Survival Island are based on the short story The Most Dangerous Game? There’s a PHB post about it here.)

Anyway, this post will be all about these cool tips and tricks! I’ll be sharing with you all some tricks to help you succeed, cultural references, and other neat facts that you may or may not have caught onto.

General Tip: Explore around instead of overlooking things.

If you climb on the tops of buildings, you can find things and meet characters that, while maybe not important to the story, can be just as interesting as the people and things below.

An example of this can be found on Reality TV Island. If you jump to the top of one building, you see a woman holding a camera. She is not part of the story, but what she tells you is a hint about finding a celebrity in the motel.

Similarly, if you go inside buildings they might not seem important, you can still find super cool stuff, some of which you may need during the island quest. In 24 Carrot Island, I got my super cool bright teal hair from drinking the juice that changes your hair color. While not necessary, I do now look a lot cooler than I did before with my typical blonde hair!

Now we get into the specifics…

Although it’s March, I wrote this in February, so in honor of February’s Islands of the Month, I’ll share my tips about Reality TV and Escape from Pelican Rock. These are both some of my favorite islands. The competition of Reality TV really drew me in, as well as the fun escapades of EFPR.

Tips for: Escape From Pelican Rock Island

efpr2bfloodlight

In Escape from Pelican Rock, we have a prison on top of an island, with the city in the distance. The security is higher than that of the other prisons, like Azkaban from Harry Potter. As the guard with the brown hair so eloquently put it, “Break the prison rules, and you come here.” It’s a lot like a former real-life prison in California: Alcatraz.

For those who don’t know, Alcatraz was the highest security prison in America. It was where the worst criminals went, and it was home to many psychopathic people. The only comfort was the sea air, which has been eroding Alcatraz. Very few people were known to escape, and often they were later proclaimed dead. In short, it was a tough place.

Now for some tips regarding the island:

Get out of prison in 7 days

During the mini-game where you make license plates for cars, which is very boring and generally just a waste of time, I figured out that – assuming you made 7 sticks of gum per day (to the point where the machine breaks down) – you could get out of prison in 7 days.

On the first day, your character only makes 5 sticks of gum, not wanting to make the machine overheat. In total, to complete all purchases, you need 21 sticks of gum. So, you would need a total of three days of playing the game to get the total amount of gum. With four days gone (first day + 3 work days), you only need to work the day you overwork the machine and sharpen your spoon (day 5), and the day before your escape when you have fixed the air vents (day 6). On day 7, you can escape.

Trapped in vents?

When you are in the ventilation corridor right above the mess hall, if you misstep for any reason, you can fall through the vents into the kitchen. If this happens, don’t panic: the guards will not find you in the kitchen. While you can decide to take stuff or stir the mashed potatoes while you are down there, it is of no significance.

Instead, in order to get back up, go to Home Island and click on the island icon that shows up below the blimp to continue. This will restart you from the end of mess hall.

Skip (most) meals

Uh, Cook’s food tastes disgusting. You can never stomach her food, and the twins are pretty sure that s/he never trained at the Cordon Bleu. (I certainly agree…) So with that being said, do you really have to sit through mess hall? The answer is no.

The exceptions are: on the first day when you get your second spoon, and when you get the noodles, as well as when you dump plaster into the potatoes and start the food fight. All of the other days, it is not important in the slightest to sit down. The people say the same things every day.

With that being said, if Alcatraz was still operating with all of the breaking and entering I’ve done in Poptropica, I would be there!

Tips for: Reality TV Island

balanced diet

Well, look at you! You managed to get onto a Reality TV show! And now you have to pick off the other seven contestants in an array of mini games! Well, while someone has to get voted off every round, there are definitely ways that you can minimize your chances of being that person.

Here are my top three tips for Reality TV Island:

Pay attention to what people are saying!

If Merry Muse says that she’s in it to win it and Sickly Skull says she doesn’t care, it might not seem important. But it actually is. The more devoted a person is to winning, the longer they tend to last, and the less likely they are to get voted off.

Therefore, you want the person in the final round to be someone who cares the minimal amount. I know this seems crazy, but I have played the game multiple times and found this to be true for me.

Geyser Guess

In Geyser Guess, the mini-game where you step on different geysers and contestants are eliminated one by one, it seems all you can do is cross your fingers and hope for the best. That’s true for the first round.

However, after the first person gets eliminated (hopefully it isn’t you), your strategy should be to pick the geyser that just exploded. Based on my experience, it’s less likely to erupt again because it already did. Using this strategy, I have won multiple times.

Don’t sweat it

If you know you cannot win no matter what you do, don’t sweat it. Unless it’s the last round, chances are, people will either vote off the person who came in second place (because they are a threat) or will vote off someone who constantly wins but didn’t this round. If you come in dead last, you are actually one of the least likely to get voted off.

With that being said, I wish you luck on your drama-filled adventures with the seven other characters you’re up against. Grandma Gracey and Merry Muse hate me for some reason, no matter how many times I play. Honestly, they’re probably just jealous of my gorgeous hair. (I’m so vain…)

This also concludes February’s Island of the Month hints. If you guys like this, I may do one for March’s Islands as well!

-Gentle Fang

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Hope you enjoyed this guest post by Gentle Fang!

The PHB welcomes guest posting from anyone in our community if you have something to share, whether it be sneak peeks, My Place in Poptropica stories, or any other ideas you might have. We also encourage sharing on the PHC (Poptropica Help Chat).

If you have an idea for a guest post, send it in to [email protected]! :)

 

Guest Posts, Pop 5

Pop 5: Ideas for Multiplayer Features

Slanted Fish

(Hey Poptropicans! This is a guest post written by TallMelonisCool, a Poptropica player in the community. In this post he’ll be sharing his ideas for more features in multiplayer rooms. Enjoy! –🐠)

pop5-multiplayer

Hey guys! So, I like popping into common rooms a lot on Poptropica to chat with, battle, and friend other Poptropicans. Although it’s pretty fun, I think there are some features that could be introduced to make multiplayer on Poptropica even better. Hopefully, the Creators can consider these ideas for the future, and I also hope you guys like these ideas. Let’s go!

1. Make it easier to view who’s currently in the multiplayer room

In order to show the options for chatting, battling, or friending someone in a multiplayer room, the player you click on has to be standing still – but sometimes, they just will not stop moving!

What they should do is have a window you can open or close that lists all the players currently in the room, as well as options next to them that say Chat / Battle / Friend. Prompting any of these actions would bring your Poptropican over to them if you aren’t already there, so they can see that you’re interested in interacting with them.

2. Show what the other player is busy with

You know when you really want to chat or battle with a Poptropican, but they’re always busy? Well, I’d love to know just what they’re busy with. Whether it’s looking through their backpack items, browsing the store, or checking out their friends’ profiles, I’d like to see the message “Sorry, I’m busy right now” changed to something that indicated what they were up to.

They could even have a feature where you can click on options for feelings (like the ones on your friend profile), so you can tell others something like, “I’m feeling happy/sad/sleepy right now.”

3. Option to choose who your chat question is directed to

Not everyone knows this, but when you chat with someone, every Poptropican in the room gets to answer the question. This is cool sometimes, but not always. It’s not so great when you just want to battle someone but they’re taking a while to answer and then a question comes up that delays them even further. Instead, you should have the option to either ask everyone the question, or just the one player you clicked on when you pressed Chat.

They should also add the option to enable/disable receiving questions if you don’t want to chat at a certain time.

4. A new mini-game

I play a lot of head-to-head game battles in the multiplayer rooms, and I really do mean a lot. So sometimes, I wish there were more options for games to play. Poptropica has only twice added more games to the collection, when Soupwords first came out in 2008 and Pathwise in 2009.

Anyway, here are some games I’d like to play multiplayer on Poptropica:

  • Chess: This game has lots of skill involved, though it tends to take longer to finish than the other games usually do. Still, we already have Sudoku, which also takes a while to finish a round.
  • Switch: Switch is currently a single-player game only, but I can easily see this game becoming a multiplayer game. It could be a timed game where the winner is whoever scores the highest by racking up the best combos.
  • Circle Tap: Imagine a whiteboard with a circle (or a dot). The goal is to click on the circle before the other player does. Once it’s clicked, it will move to a different position, and you’ll try to click on it again before the other player clicks on it, and on it goes. The first to click the circle 10 times wins!

5. More actions (emotes)

Multiplayer rooms already come with a few actions, which you can perform by pressing the emoticons on the right side. But multiplayer rooms could be even more social with some more emotes. Here are some ideas:

  • waving a hand
  • tap dance
  • fold arms
  • looking up
  • clapping
  • hands on waist
  • hands in the air
  • sit down for two seconds

Alright, that’s all I have now, guys. Thanks for reading, and if you have any comments or suggestions of your own, please leave them down below!

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Hope you enjoyed this guest post by TallMelonisCool!

The PHB welcomes guest posting from anyone in our community if you have something to share, whether it be sneak peeks, My Place in Poptropica stories, or any other ideas you might have. We also encourage sharing on the PHC (Poptropica Help Chat).

If you have an idea for a guest post, send it in to [email protected]! :)

Guest Posts, Poptropica Worlds

Poptropica Worlds: Preview Pic Analysis

Slanted Fish

(Hey Poptropicans! This is a guest post written by Smart Flame, who also runs his own site, The Smart Way to Poptropica. This post, while grounded in fact, is still just speculation. With that said, enjoy! –🐠)

Hi guys! Smart Flame here, and today I want to discuss a picture that Poptropica recently released for the upcoming Poptropica Worlds. Now, Perfect Sky on the PHB has already commented loosely about the photo in her post, but I’d like to go a little more in-depth, even politely disagreeing with a few of her points. The parts discussed below are labeled for your convenience. Let’s take a look:

pop-worlds-2017-graphic

From a peeping Dr. Hare in a nearby bush to mountains in the distance, there’s a lot to see. Some of these are a dead giveaway as to what they are, while others are a little more ambiguous. All that being said, here are my thoughts:

Dr. Hare

There is really no question at all as to Dr. Hare’s identity. Even the Creators have acknowledged his return in the Poptropica Worlds FAQ. We’ve seen hints that 24 Carrot is going to be one of the islands remastered for Poptropica Worlds, so Dr. Hare could very well return in a new and exciting way.

Pelican/Seagull

Well, the bird beside Dr. Hare in the picture could either be a seagull or a pelican. If it’s a pelican, could Escape From Pelican Rock Island be remade as well? However, it is one of the newest islands, so this may not be likely. We’ll probably see the regular EFPR Island in the new Worlds.

Oliver (from the comics and graphic novels)

Considering that Poptropica is exploring the idea of a universal storyline in its universe, Oliver and the others from the comics and graphic novels may play huge roles in this. Maybe we’ll see the storyline continue online with islands for each of the books after Mystery of the Map.

Park Ranger

Past sneak peeks have indicated that a similar design is for a park ranger from the unreleased Crisis Caverns Island.  I like to think of it as, maybe, a guide that you’d have throughout Poptropica Worlds or Home Island: someone who could give help advice and chat with your character.

Blimp

In all due honesty, the blimp’s presence probably means we will still use blimps, something I’ve always hoped Poptropica would continue with.  The only observation I can make here is that it has no Poptropica logo – maybe it’s just facing the opposite direction.

Coins

These gold coins buried in the sand seem interesting. They were first seen used tokens on Wimpy Boardwalk, but for Poptropica Worlds, there are two guesses for possibilities I see with them: either they are Pop Coins (like from Mocktropica, where every movement is restricted unless you pay up), or coins you can use to buy items to use to decorate your house. The second possibility seems more likely, considering how silly Mocktropica’s Pop Coins. Using coins to buy decorations for your house would be cool – I’d be excited for something like that!

Island with Knight, Tower, and Princess

This is confusing. Although, at first glance, it reminds us of Astro-Knights Island, it looks to me more like a Sleeping Beauty type of island. First of all, the knight here does not look like the knights we meet on Astro-Knights. The castle is gray instead of brown. The princess has the same design, though. Is she a predecessor? I still think that this takes place in Arturus, where Astro-Knights is, but years before Mordred came along.

Island with Ferris Wheel

Although it’s tempting to chalk this one up to Monster Carnival, this doesn’t quite resemble it, even when the Monster Carnival rides are in normal daytime mode.  The colors and the star design don’t quite match up. Honestly, I have no idea what this one is, but I don’t think it is Monster Carnival.  I think it could be a once-in-a-while carnival event or something entirely new.

Island with Snowcapped Mountains

At first glance, I thought this was Survival island. But when you zoom into the cave, you’ll notice the two bright red eyes. It really confuses me, since Survival doesn’t have something like this – although you could consider the bear in the cave from Episode 1, his eyes aren’t bright red; they’re asleep. Could there be a remake of Survival Island as well, with a monster to defeat?

Island with Big Skull

The skull here most definitely looks like the one from the Pirate Outpost on Skullduggery Island. There is a clear resemblance to the trading post, which is surrounded by pirate infested waters. The difference here is the daytime setting, which makes it seem less ominous.

Well, that’s all I’ve got for this picture. Thanks for reading, and bye!

~Smart Flame

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Hope you enjoyed this guest post by Smart Flame!

The PHB welcomes guest posting from anyone in our community if you have something to share, whether it be sneak peeks, My Place in Poptropica stories, or any other ideas you might have. We also encourage sharing on the PHC.

If you have an idea for a guest post, send it in to [email protected]! :)

My Place in Poptropica

My Place in Poptropica: Lone Bird

Slanted Fish

This is the My Place in Poptropica story of Lone Bird, who shared Poptropica with everyone she knew, despite her own computer being unable to play it. See below for how to send in your own MPIP!

mpip-lonebird

2007–2013 | Playdates & Poptropica

Okay, so unlike most Poptropicans, I didn’t discover Poptropica through Funbrain (in fact, I had no idea what it was, and I just learned last year).

Instead, for me it all began when I had a playdate with my BFF, Comical Berry. I remember going on her computer, and then she showed me a game that would change my internet life. When I saw the little character with the big head, I immediately knew this was a game I needed to try out. You see, I’ve always been a fan of games where you can customize your avatar, but Minecraft was the only game I knew; however, I couldn’t get it. Instead, I was stuck playing PBS Kids games.

So as you can imagine, when little me saw a Poptropican in a Magic Tree House-themed island (The Magic Tree House series was my all time favorite book series back then), I was super excited! I asked my BFF what the game was called, and she replied, “Poptropica! It’s fun!” I immediately made a note of this, and then we began to play Poptropica in real life together. Meeting characters like the emperor and Annie on Red Dragon Island was when I realized that I had a bright gaming future ahead of me.

After being introduced to Poptropica, I quickly made an account, Lone Bird, which is the one I have to this day! Poptropica quickly became the game, the one that you play every single weekend, and the game you’re addicted to. I loved it so much that I began to write stories about my best friend and me in Poptropica.

2014 | Computer Crash

Then one day, on a dark and stormy Saturday, I was playing PoptropiCon, the newest island. This memory is so vivid in my mind. I was at the part where you race Cheetah Girl when the unthinkable happened. The game froze and the screen came up with a not-so-touching message: Adobe Flash Has Stopped. And with the most pleasant-looking robot avatar! And then the screen went black… forever. Yup – my computer was dead. (RIP Connor the Computer, 2006–2014)

I was devastated. Little me was all like. “W-What?! No, m-more Poptropica?!” This, frankly, made me take matters into my own hands… I could only play Poptropica at school when we were having “technology parties.” There went my gaming future… *sniff*

2015–2016 | Sharing Pop & Finding the Fandom

Even though Poptropica was no longer something I could enjoy frequently anymore, I decided I would share Poptropica with my friends and family. I introduced it to all my friends at church, who made accounts and enjoyed it! (Well, until they got bored..) I then introduced it to my BFF (a different one from the one introduced me to Pop), Popular Snowball.

After introducing Poptropica to a lot of my friends in school, Pop became the “it” game in my class for a few weeks! I didn’t stop there, oh no, I made an account for my sister – and then even one for my mom. (Don’t even ask why I made an account for my mother…) So even though I lost Poptropica for myself, I helped a lot of people find Poptropica!

Okay, so I loved Poptropica, but as it happens with many people, there were some islands I could not complete. That’s when I found the help of YouTube! (Thank you, YouTube! ^.^) I remember the first video tutorial I ever found was on Survival Island. I don’t remember the YouTube channel, but I think it was Fierce Moon from Poptropica Secrets.

Anyways, her walkthrough was good, but I wanted to find something with better quality. That’s when I found the king of the Poptropica YouTube world, Thinknoodles! After watching one of his videos, I was hooked! They were funny, and I thought his “Road to Captain Thinknoodles” series was (and still is) awesome! I liked seeing his reactions as he played islands for the first time. I thought it was neat!

Now for how I found the PHB! Okay, so I always read the PCB (Poptropica Creators’ Blog) and when you search it up online, the PHB is listed as well. However, I always thought it was some kind of hacking blog because of the word “cheats” in the description. But one day I decided to click on it, expecting the worst. To my surprise, it looked fantastic! I was immediately hooked, reading as many blog posts as I could. From there, I found out about all these other amazing fan blogs! So that’s where that began.

2016–beyond | Epilogue

I now have a computer, finally! However, as we all know, Poptropica has been quietly lately as they work on Poptropica Worlds, so I haven’t been playing it as often. I still love it, though lately I’ve been playing more Roblox than Pop. If you want to add me on Poptropica, my username is Bellaisa55.

Anyway, that’s my MPIP! I hope you enjoyed it. And now a word from my sister: “I love you, Fishy!!”

Thank you for reading! I hope I didn’t make you fall asleep…

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Hope you enjoyed this “My Place in Poptropica” story! Feel free to send in your own (please include a minimum of 550 words, type with good spelling and grammar, divide it into labeled sections, and include your username). If you send in your story, we will continue to post new community MPIPs!

~the Poptropica Help Blog

My Place in Poptropica

My Place in Poptropica: LillySparkle$

Slanted Fish

This is the My Place in Poptropica story of LillySparkle$, who runs a Poptropica fansite called The Pop Blog with her friend Mia. See below for how to send in your own MPIP!

mpip-lillysparkle

Hi, I’m Lilly, and this is my detailed MPIP. I love this series so much and I thought it would be fun to write one myself – so here we go!

2010-2011 | Fun for the Whole Family!

Back in first grade computer lab, our teacher let us go on Funbrain. I played the fun mini-games they had for a while, and soon an advertisement popped up for Poptropica, which also looked fun. I asked my teacher if I could play it, and to my surprise, she said yes! The whole class soon got in on the action.

Eventually, the school blocked the game – but that didn’t stop me from playing at home. My sisters caught on as well, and unlike me, they actually played the islands – whereas I would just run around on Poptropica and do a lot of customizing. Later, my cousin also got in on the action, and it was pretty fun!

2012-2014 | A Million Accounts?!

I played Poptropica continuously throughout elementary school, eventually learning to complete islands by watching and pausing YouTube videos. My favorite island at the time was Cryptids Island.

Most people remember their first account like it was yesterday, while I – well, let’s just say I wanted credits to buy a costume, so I saved so many accounts and always forgot the password.

Slowly, starting around 2014, Poptropica faded away from my life: with school, friends, and other activities, I never really found time for it. My siblings, as they grew up, also grew out of Poptropica and forgot about it with time.

2016 | Coming Back, Better Than Ever!

One fateful day, I got sick and had to stay home from school. After several TV show marathons, I got bored and went on the computer. I was trying to think of a game to play, and then it hit me: Poptropica! I made a new account, LillySparkle$, and started Escape From Pelican Rock Island.

The next day, I was talking to my friends at lunch about it, and my close friend Mia said, “Oh yeah, I remember it!” She found her old account, and soon started playing Escape From Pelican Rock as well. We helped each other through the island, and it was a ton of fun!

Since we had so much fun helping each other, we decided to share our love with Poptropica to the world – by making a blog! That was how we started The Pop Blog, which you can check out here.

Anyway, when we first started The Pop Blog, we would play Poptropica at school. One random time when our teacher let us play games, I immediately went over to Poptropica and continued where I had left off with Lunar Colony Island. A boy walked up behind me and asked, “Are you playing Poptropica?” I thought he was going to laugh at me, but then he got on his computer and started playing Poptropica as well! It reminded me that no matter how old we get, we are still kids and should embrace what we love.

As the islands we attempted got tougher, we stumbled upon the PHB’s guides – they are so helpful! It’s great how this blog updates you right away about anything new in Poptropica.

I love Poptropica, not only because it’s a fun game, but because anyone can be a hero and save the day. No matter what gender or age you are, you can be important. In Poptropica, everyone is different, but together, we make ourselves one, and we are all heroes.

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Hope you enjoyed this “My Place in Poptropica” story! Feel free to send in your own (please include a minimum of 550 words, type with good spelling and grammar, divide it into labeled sections, and include your username). If you send in your story, we will continue to post new community MPIPs!

~the Poptropica Help Blog