By Pesh (#81)
Not sure how to make money on Aywas, or finding that the methods you've been using haven't been working? Whether you're brand new or a veteran and looking for new ideas, here are a few helpful hints and tricks that will show all of the ways to make money on site. If you are brand new, be sure to read through the Newbie Tutorial first!
First, it's best to describe the differences between the three currencies of Aywas.
Blue Paws or BP. The standard site currency. Won from games and exploring, and can be used to buy most items from NPC Shops. There is also a special BP Shop.
Gold Paws or GP. Can be bought for real money via Paypal, won through events/contests, or can be bought for BP from other users. See the GP Shop for special only-for-GP items.
Silver Paws or SP. Can only be gotten from winning events/contests, being on the High Scores list for Games, and for submitting pets/content to the site. See the SP Shop for where to spend this currency.
BP and GP and the most used currencies. GP is the most desired, as it is used to buy most of the most expensive and well-desired items on the site. Also, many artists will only work for GP. However, it is important to have BP, as it is what's used for many pet and item sales, and to buy from most NPC (Non-Playing-Character) Shops.
Often, rare, expensive, or highly desired items will stock in the SP shop, but usually they cost a lot of SP. Since SP is tied to your account (meaning it cannot be transferred), if you want to buy things for SP, you have to work for the points yourself!
There is a multitude of ways to make all of these currencies on-site, as this guide will describe.
[ DAILIES ]
Dailies are Games that are usually reset once a day that one should perform on a daily basis, and it's usually as easy as just clicking a buttom. It is a good habit to get into a daily routine of completing these games, as with some of them, the more you play them, the more money you will get out of it.
Once a Day Dailies
-Pick a Leaf:: May give you Leaves, BP, or nothing.
-Guess the Number:: Guess the number and you'll get 1,000 BP. You can see if someone's guessed the number from the GTN Help Topic.
-Guess the Item:: Guess the item and you'll get 1,000 BP. You can look through the Item List to find it.
-Talk to Xero:: Amount of BP he gives you goes up the more consecutive days you visit him.
-Tam's Item Quest:: Give him the item he wants and he'll give you BP and an item in return.
-Kaz and Shoe:: Poke them and they'll give you either an item, BP, or nothing. It is better to visit Kaz from Midnight to Noon AST. He doesn't give out prizes as often as Shoe, but his are worth more.
-Free Food:: Your pets will be fed, and you'll get up to 10 food items, depending on your pet count.
-Rogue's Zapping:: Zap a pet once a day, and sometimes you can get rares. You need to have all nine colored Spheres, however.
Multiple Times Per Day Dailies
-Crystal Ball:: Play every 60 minutes; gives items, BP or sometimes nothing.
-Scratch Cards:: Play every 6 hours; gives items, BP or nothing. If you want to profit from these, sell them, don't use them; they are hard to win.
-Donation Box:: Play every 60 minutes; though sometimes there will be nothing there.
[ OTHER GAMES ]
Besides the Dailies, there are many other games that pay very well, in both money and prizes. Check out the Games Room to see them all, but here are some of the best paying ones! Remember that many of these games have High Score Lists. If you're on the high score list for a game at the end of the month, then you win SP depending on your placement!
-Throwing Bones:: Costs 10 BP per spin. To make money, never claim the pot. Keep spinning to win items, and if you get to level 4, you have the chance of winning the 25,000 BP jackpot.
-Slots:: Costs 20 BP per spin. Keep spinning to win BP and items, or to possibly win the Jackpot.
-Graverobber:: A Flash game; free to play. Is difficult, but worth it to make at least 10,000 BP per play.
-Chaos Cooking:: Give him the items needed for the recipe, and he'll give you BP and items in return.
The Scav Bites contest occurs every week. Each week users are given one task, such as "Create a Metal Breeding Pendant in Real Life". You have the whole week to complete the one task, and at the end you have the chance of winning a great prize. Each weekly Scav Bites will be announced in the News.
Most months of the year, there will be a Monthly Event. This varies from sending out Love Letters to get love points, to exploring in a Holiday Forest where there are themed pets and items to be won. It is important to participate in these events, as they often let you gather a great deal of prizes or money. Monthly Events are announced in the News.
[ EXPLORING ]
Exploring is a money-making technique that takes time, but not much effort. Simply explore any region, clicking "Continue Exploring", and you will gradually gain BP that your pet finds. You will make more BP the higher regions your pet explores, meaning the Rain Forest will give the most random BP.
However, it is important that if your main focus is to make BP, do NOT buy items from the explore persons called Merchants. They will offer you a hidden item, often for around 1,000-5,000 BP, and it is usually not worth it.
You can also get BP and items from fighting explore creatures called Monsters. Monsters vary in rarity, type and name, and the rarer the Monster, the better prize you will get from your pet defeating it. It may take a little work to train your pet enough to beat Monsters, but the payout is worth it!
[ BANKING ]
The Aywas Bank offers several opportunities for users to make money while their savings add up. You will notice that the Bank offers two types of BP accounts, a Savvy Checking and an Advanced Saving account. Each day you can gather interest on all BP you have in both accounts, and the amount of interest gained will rise the more BP you add. Savings offers a greater amount of interest but can only be withdrawn from once a day. Checking offers lower interest rates but can be withdrawn from 10 times a day. Be sure to take notice that you do not make interest on GP amounts in these accounts, only BP amounts.
The Certificates of Deposit feature, or CD, gives out a much higher interest rate than the other two accounts. The condition, however, is that you are unable to withdraw the BP at any point during the duration your CD is set. So, if you set up a 90 day CD, be sure you won't need the money you put into it for at least 90 days!
The special feature about CDs is the ability to make interest on GP if you have a CD of 30 or 90 days. This is an important feature as it is one of the only ways to make GP through a site feature, besides contests or events. Remember, however, that you will NOT have access to this GP until the CD is up, so make sure you will not need the money for the duration of the CD.
[ RESTOCKING ]
Though it takes a bit of time and patience, Restocking is a great way to make money on-site. Restocking, or RSing as it is frequently shortened to, describes the act of buying items (usually rare, highly desired, or expensive ones) as they stock in the Aywas Marketplace (not including the BP, GP, and SP Shops). Most Restockers will then sell the items for a higher amount, as many items are worth more to users than they sell for in NPC Shops.
At first it may be difficult if you do not know which items are the best reselling, but as you get the hang of RSing and do some searching in User Shops, it is easy to tell which are most prized.
Just remember that it against the Aywas Terms of Service to use an Auto-Refresher or an Auto-Buyer to get restocked items! It is possible to get these items without cheating, it just takes a little work!
[ SALES ]
Once you start to get pets and items, one of the best ways to make money is to sell them. There are two places to sell pets, the Pet Sales board and the Pet Auctions. There are three places to sell items, the Item Sales board, the Item Auctions, and Your User Shop.
[ DOING ART FOR OTHER USERS ]
If you are one of the lucky users that has great artistic talent, you will find that art is close to being the most prized skill on Aywas. There are options to simply sell art, as in pictures, graphics, writing or sculpting, which can be done on the Art Sales board. However, there are also options to draw custom pets for other users. If people like your work, you can make a lot of money on designs! You can sell designs you create on the Pet Designs Sales board, or you can sell baby predictions on the Breeding Predicts board.
Not entirely sure how to go about making Aywas custom designs or baby predictions? Be sure to check out the Predicts Tutorial and the Coloring Tutorial! All "pet source files" for making customs can be found HERE.
[ SITE CONTRIBUTIONS ]
Think your art is quality enough to be on the site? You can make money from submitting art such as Site Colorations to Aywas. What are Site Colorations? They're all the pets species and colors on site, which can be found in the Aywapedia. You can post the site colorations you create in the Site Colorations board, or see the Events board to find out if there are any special events pets needed to be made!
If you find you are good at making customs or making breeding predictions for users, you may wish to try applying to be a LBC or BC Artist. Breeding artists are paid very well, sometimes getting 100 GP per breeding list they work through, though it is a very demanding job. LBC Artists work with making babies for two pets of the same species (Melo x Melo) while BC Artists make babies of two pets of different species, often making Hybrids (Melo x Soli to make a Quetzal).
See the BC Artist App and LBC Artist App for more information. If you would just like more information about Breeding on Aywas, check out the Breeding Tutorial!
Many events or contests for site contributions appear at random, giving users opportunities to make a little extra money. The HA Clothing Submission is an example, allowing users to submit Human Avatar clothing and be paid for it. These events are announced in the News.
[ BEING ACTIVE ]
One of the easiest ways to make money on-site is to simply be active. Every day you log in, you get a daily BP amount. Each consecutive day you log in, the number of BP you get each day rises. All it takes is a quick log-in every Aywas day, and after diligently doing this for many consecutive days and months, you can make thousands of BP every day just by logging in!
There are also other prizes for active users, though they usually take more luck and activity (such as maneuvering through the site) than simply logging in. Every so often, a lucky random user will be sent a "Random Prize for Activity" from the Aywas Staff, which is often a very rare or widely desired item. It is pure luck for active users however, so if you would like one, just stay active!
Active users also have the possibility of encountering an NPC requesting assistance. These NPCs often need help, such as giving a Stiletto to Shoe or aiding Spenser in a pursuit. NPCs will reward users that help them, so be sure to provide assistance whenever they call upon you!
[ REFERRALS ]
A fun way to both make site money and get more of your friends on Aywas is through the Referral System. Remember it is free for all users to join Aywas, so getting more users to join using your referral link is like getting free money! The more users that use your referral link to join Aywas, the better prizes you can get. Every once in a while there are also referral contests where the user who gets the most new members to join the site wins a grand prize! Advertising Aywas by having users use your referral link is very well rewarded, as new members are important to the success of Aywas.
[ PREMIUM ]
While it may not seem like a feature for money-making, Premium really is! It will take initial saving of GP to get Premium, but each month Premium members get an amount of BP and a Monthly Item. Every monthly item is approximately worth 5 GP, which is the cost of one month of Premium. However, the more months you buy at a time, the less you pay per month.
A few little money-making features are added to Premium accounts as well. Premium users are able to "Send Score" in Games 6 times, whereas regular users only are able to send scores 3 times. Also, users who buy 6 months of Premium or more have a 10% discount in all NPC Shops (besides the SP Shop). Over time your savings will add up for all the money you didn't spend!
With tips you learn from this guide to making money and GP, you have the chance of getting Premium without needing to buy GP with real money! You can get Premium on the Purchase Gold Paws page.
[ GOOD LUCK! ]
Good luck in your hunt to gather more money on Aywas! You may find that you're particularly good at one aspect of the site while on your money-making hunt. If there's something you're good at, keep at it and your amount of money will rise!