Hey, Poptropicans! After an accidental leak and two sneakpeeks, the Lost Cubs Mini Quest is now here for all players!
You can start the rescue mission by one of two ways. The first way is to visit Home Island and talk to Ishmael, who is being crushed by a sad mama bear. The second way is that you can fly to the quest, which can be found on the first page of the map.
Starting the quest greets you with a comic explaining that the mama bear lost her cubs in the wilderness of Survival Island. Now it’s our job to help reunite this fuzzy family! Click “Start” to begin the quest!
As some of you already know, the Lost Cub Mini Quest was prematurely released earlier this month. How does the finished product compare to the leak? The gameplay is exactly the same with the player needing to collect the five cubs, akin to some of Pop’s ad games. While the gameplay is the same, there is a lot more going on visually in the final version. Leaves and grass are blown by the strong wind, and the blizzard makes finding the cubs a bit more difficult.
Final version
Original leak
Thankfully, unlike the leak, completing the quest doesn’t take you to an infinite loading screen. Finding the cubs on your first playthrough rewards you with a heartwarming reunion, a humble 250 credits, and a cute Lost Cub Mini Quest follower (which can actually roar)!
In the Creators’ behind-the scenes look at the quest, it was stated that players could replay the quest multiple times to earn more credits. UPDATE: The Creators’ Blog clarified that 250 credits should be awarded for the first playthrough, followed by 50 for each subsequent play. (In the first day of release, some players have reported earning 50, 20, or even no credits at all! If you’re having this issue, contact Pop support.)
And that was the anticipated Lost Cubs Mini Quest! Personally, I thought it was pretty lacking since it’s just a simple collect-a-thon game. It’s also strange that this Survival Island-based mini quest was released before Survival Island’s remaining four episodes were converted to Haxe. We all wish that the Creators would focus more on making and porting islands and less on delivering half-baked side quests.
Anyway, what are your thoughts on this quest? Let us know in the comments below! Thank you all for reading the Poptropica Help Blog and bearing with our unbearable puns! 😜🐻
Hey, Poptropicans! Yesterday, the Creators shared Part 1 of an exclusive behind-the-scenes look at the upcoming Bear Mini Quest. As promised, they released Part 2 on the night before the quest’s scheduled release. Let’s take a look!
Part 2 of our sneak peek opts to show off a sketch of a wintry forest environment, reminiscent of Survival Island. Ned Noodlehead and the bears are present to show the scale of the snowy scene. And as a fun bonus, we learn that an average Poptropican’s jump height is 224 px.
The Creators confirmed that players can replay the quest as much as they want to earn more credits, so it seems that this quest will act as a credit farm like the app-exclusive Reality TV: Wild Safari. If you do plan on replaying this quest, you should know that the cubs’ locations will be randomized for each playthrough. Expect to find those cubs in some unexpected places.
Keep your eyes open for the Bear Mini Quest, which is scheduled to release tomorrow, May 13th!
Over on Instagram, the Creators shared three new pieces of fan art. Instagram user cacaocheri drew some art of their OC Cuddly Flame, and arts.n.darts drew two pictures highlighting Copy Cat and Betty Jetty from Super Power Island.
Nice as usual, but the official Poptropica Instagram account made an unusual comment. On the Betty Jetty post from arts.n.darts, they commented, “Does the character have a name?” We’ll just say it: it’s pretty embarrassing to forget about a major character from your own game. 🤦♀️
Anyway, what are your hopes for this upcoming quest? How will the it compare to the accidental leak? Leave your thoughts in the comments below!
Hey Poptropicans, have we got a lot to look at this time!
In addition to the monthly rotation of store items, four new shops have popped up around Poptropica, each with their own themed items. Plus, the game’s showing signs of progress on the friends feature, and for the first time in a long time, we even get to see some official concept art. Let’s explore!
First, let’s take a tour of the new shops, which are all located in various common rooms on different islands. These common room stores feature themed items for those islands—some new, some we’ve seen before. However, these stores are only available in Poptropica’s Haxe Javascript build, and are unlikely to be made for Flash, which will soon be obsolete.
These common room stores are available on four islands so far: 24 Carrot, PoptropiCon: Episode 1, Survival: Episode 1, and Timmy Failure.
Our first stop is the cinema on 24 Carrot Island. You will find Quippy hovering by the entrance. They’re offering Dr. Hare-themed goodies for sale: Hare Hotshot (which was the former BETA Carrotene bonus for members who helped beta-test the sound-updated 24 Carrot Island), Dr. Hare Plush Toy, Light & Shadow Hare*, and the Rabbit Ear Prank*. (* = members only)
While waiting in line to get into PoptropiCon (Episode 1), you can stop by the Facili-Tee store to buy cool costumes such as the Tinfoil Robot and the Supernova (basically recolored from a Tron ad). You can also show your love of Old School Islands by wearing the Lunar Colony Cosplay* and Game Show Cosplay*. Quippy is ready for the convention with their own adorable cardboard cosplay!
While traveling in our blimp, we get caught in a storm and become stranded in the snowy forest of Survival Island(Episode 1). Thankfully, we’re not alone. A wooden Quippy can be found at the frozen pond under the big tree to the right. They’ll offer feathery friends like the Blue Woodpecker follower and the Owl Head Rider, as well as a Ghillie Suit* and a Frozen Body power*.
Our final stop is Timmy Failure Island. The bad news is that Timmy Failure Island is only available to members. The worse news is that you need to have a membership on an account in Haxe Javascript, as Flash-made accounts are separate from ones made in the newer Haxe build.
If you have an active membership on a Haxe Javascript account, you can access the island and its common room. Though Quippy looks as if they came out of a garbage truck, the store items are anything but trash. We have a Total costume, a Señor Burrito follower, Timmy’s iconic red Scarf*, and a mighty “GREATNESS” banner*. (Strange to list some items as for non-members when the whole island and its store are for members only!)
You can do more than shop in common rooms, of course. The Creators are hard at work implementing the friends feature to the new Poptropica, and new Haxe players now have a fourth dialogue with Amelia when they first land on Home Island: to meet new friends!
In common rooms such as the Blast-off Arcade, you can befriend other players by selecting “Want to be friends?” from the chat menu. If they say yes, you’ll even get a pop-up message saying the friend was added successfully! (It might also say the user isn’t registered, if that’s the case.)
Despite this, the player profile and friends page aren’t ready just yet, so there’s no way to view your friends on Haxe at the moment. But the signs are there that this popular feature is being worked on!
Over on the Creators’ Blog, the Creators shared an inside look on how they created the adorable Quippy. Early concepts show the artists figuring out how to show players the common room stores — did they want a droid, a kiosk, or something else? Once they settled on a droid, they chose some of their favorite designs and explored them further…
All this hard work and creativity culminated into one of the most unique and adorable faces in Poptropica. A friendly droid equipped with a luminous smile and a keen fashion sense. The magnificent Quippy.
The Creators ended their post with a word of encouragement for budding artists and avid gamers:
If you love games and art, consider learning more about becoming a games artist! There are a lot of ways to get involved in the making of video games outside of coding, and game artists are a critical piece of the team. After all, what’s a game without the art!?
That wraps up this post! What do you think of Quippy and the presence of all these new stores? Thoughts on Poptropica’s Haxe build so far? Share in the comments, and if you haven’t yet, catch up to our other posts below!
This is a guest post written by Trusty Leopard, a Poptropican who’ll be sharing a tribute to a favorite villain, Myron Van Buren of Survival Island. Enjoy!
Hello everyone! My name is Trusty Leopard and this is my first ever guest post on this awesome blog. I hope you enjoy this article about my favorite and perhaps one of the most craziest antagonists in Poptropica.
Myron Van Buren (MVB) is the bad guy of Survival Island, a five-part Poptropica adventure that I loved. Van Buren is a cool-looking villain with his hunting clothes, tooth necklace, safari hat, crossbow and creepy smile along with a facial scar to complete the look. A great design, if you ask me.
His catchphrase, “Tally-ho!” is something that I have started using. It just sounds really cool. When I first saw Van Buren and the description for Survival Island, I had some idea of what it might be about, and the villain’s plans. But I figured Poptropica wouldn’t do something like that in a kids’ game, so I was interested to see what exactly MVB’s plans were. Little would I or anyone else have known they did go there.
In the first three episodes, you don’t actually see a bad guy, just someone watching you with cameras after you successfully complete the first two episodes. Pretty creepy.
With the third episode comes your rescue in a sweet-looking helicopter. Your rescuer is big game hunter Myron Van Buren, who lives in a huge mansion with just his chef and butler Winston. (Seems a bit strange to me.) When you tell him you just really rather go home, he insists you mustn’t miss the big hunt tomorrow and just basically won’t let you leave. Totally not a red flag at all.
He acts all nice, showing you his animal trophy collection, but then he makes a ghoulish joke about Winston being another one of his trophies.
But Van Buren laughs it off and tells Winston to go ask the chef to prepare dinner. Winston responds with “Yes, m’lord.” Definitely not normal…
Once you eat the steak, you pass out and wake up locked in a room. That note was absolutely right when it said, “Don’t trust MVB!”
When you finally make your escape, he tells you that you are the quarry for the hunt. O.M.G. Things then cut to an epic mini-game where you’re running from Van Buren’s arrows and his hounds chasing you. I mean for goodness’ sake, he’s a human hunter!
It was a truly fun and exciting twist for an island that was a bit slow in the first three parts and then just exploded once you got to parts four and five.
The idea for this island came from the 1924 short story “The Most Dangerous Game” by Richard Connell, a tale about a big game hunter named General Zaroff who hunts people who get trapped on his island, just like Van Buren did. I was genuinely surprised that Poptropica did something a little dark for a kids’ game.
Even though it was a bit shocking, it was quite fun to play. The mini-game when running from Van Buren was fantastic, in my opinion. The music during the game was suspenseful, catchy, and added to the whole storyline gracefully. In fact, the music for all the parts of the island fit perfectly. My favorite was the “Escape!” episode music. While gathering the supplies for a trap and trying not to get caught, that tune was excellent to play.
Creepy…
The ending of the island was truly in Poptropican fashion. With the cage trap all set, you blow the whistle hoping to get Van Buren’s attention. Instead, he sneaks up behind you and scares you so that you are the one that falls back in the trap! When you ask why he likes to hunt humans, he says he just loves the thrill of the hunt. That is messed up.
Now I know how wild animals feel when they are the ones being hunted. Not fun. Although I knew my Poptropican would live it was still scary watching that scene unfold, never have I seen a more psychotic villain. (Zeus is just really annoying, but it comes close.) Before Van Buren can shoot you and add another trophy to his creepy collection, Max McGullicutty comes in and saves the day on the bear you freed while hunting for trap equipment. You basically high-jump kick Van Buren so he gets trapped in the water tread and ends up being slapped by two beavers on the bottom. Leaving him there for a taste of his own medicine, you exit on the helicopter with Max and watch a beautiful rainbow sunset completed with sweet music. That nightmare is finally over.
This island is one of my favorites and always will be. I love seeing fan art for this island and reading articles about how he is one of the scariest villains in Poptropica. If Survival Island ever makes it into Worlds, they should find a way to make the first three episodes a little more fun and not so tedious. Add some arrows from his crossbow sticking out in trees as you continue along. Put more escape-like mini-games in the final parts. More history about Van Buren’s family would be cool too.
One other thing I would love is if MVB is added to a new version of Super Villain Island. Have Van Buren be one of the villains whose dreams you have to go inside in order to recover an evil totem. If only Survival had come out before Super Villain—it might just have happened. But I can always hope that if Worlds does add a Super Villain Island, they would add this crazy dude to it.
Well that’s it, my post about my absolute most favorite super crazy bad dude of Poptropica! I hoped you enjoyed it. Tally-ho!
The Poptropica Help Blog welcomes interesting Poptropica insights from anyone in the Poptropica community with thoughts to share. You can find some tips and guidelines on our Write for the PHB page. We also encourage sharing blog posts on the PHC.
Heyyo Poptropicans, it’s Ultimate iPad Expert here with today’s Timmy Failure prize. You may be asking, “Y u b releasin dis post so l8, brah?” Firstly, you need to work on your spelling. Secondly, we mistakenly thought it had already been posted. Now let’s move on to the actual post (if you didn’t notice I get quite distrac- SQUIRREL! Okay, let’s move on.
Today’s Timmy Failure prize is a Timmy Failure Poster which you can print out with your character on it! The poster itself has a pretty cool design, so be looking forward to what else this giveaway could possibly have in store. 😀 Of course, be sure to tune in next Thursday for more Timmy Failure prizes!
Remember, Timmy Failure Island debuts September 17th for members, and you can check out our Behind-the-Scenes Overview & Theory post for an exclusive and extensive sneak peek!
Also, over on YouTube, the Poptropica Creators have posted a new video titled Inside Poptropica: Whoopsie Cushion, which you can view below! Myron Van Buren remains oblivious…
By the way, members can get the “Whoopzie Cushion” item for free as part of the Night Watch Island prize pack in the Poptropica Store.
So, what do you think of the Timmy Failure Poster and this Survival Island strategy? Comment below.
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