The Daily Neopets › Neopets Game Guides › Great Desert Race| Link to Game | Trophies | Avatar | ||
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 NP Ratio: 1.29 776 pts :: 1000 NP |
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Traveling along the Lost Desert with no more than three familiar faces is no mean feat, but with the added dangers of thieves, Scamanders and Qasalan mummies clawing at you along the way, you would be lucky to make it past Coltzan's Shrine! Luckily, though, it's not all across the Lost Desert. It's a mere trip from Qasala to Sakhmet, but don't let that trick you into thinking it's going to be easy.
Using your mouse, you click the die to roll it and travel across the Lost Desert Snakes and Ladders style! You start off at Qasala and follow the pathway to Sakhmet, trying to avoid landing on yellow tiles which, more often than not, trigger something bad to happen. Collect Neopoints and food while you go to keep them at bay, though.
The object is simple. Get both your players to Sakhmet before your opponents. In reality, though, it doesn't matter if you arrive first or last, really. But we'll come to that later.
Here's the game board. You will get to know it quite well even after a couple of games. Green lettering signifies good things, while red lettering signifies bad. White letters are neutral and are there just to be helpful.
To move your character "pieces", you click the die on the event scroll when it flashes for you to do so. Then, a rather large die appears to the right with a number on. From here, you choose which of your two players you wish to move. As a general tactic to get one of your characters to Sakhmet first is to storm one character ahead and, if a certain roll would get it into trouble (such as into quicksand), move the other player as a backup.
Whatever number you roll, you move that amount of spaces and get that many Neopoints for that character. When all character "pieces" reach Sakhmet at the end of the game, you receive the amount of Neopoints both your characters collected together. There is a way to enhance this amount, but we'll go into that later on. But as your character moves across the Lost Desert, they will no doubt land on bags of Neopoints. These vary in value as you go up the path to Sakhmet and generally give higher amounts as you reach the end. Get as many as you can! There's no limit!
Seven paces in and you'll meet the map item. This allows you to to not get lost in Sutek's Tomb. Without this map, you will be sent back to the beginning if you land on the two yellow squares where the pyramids are. You'll also lose 10 Neopoints from that character, which could be the difference between a high score or not! In the unlikely event you pick up the map, however, you will lose it when you land on those squares, but you won't need it again for the rest of the journey anyway. That's handy!
Twelve steps in and you'll be greeted by your first whirlwind. In general, these
will aid you getting in front. If you land on any whirlwind square (apart from the one near the end of the journey), you will be lifted to the end of the set
of whirlwind squares in the same turn. The first set of whirlwind squares will force you to miss out on some food items, which are pretty important for later
on in the game, but only if you land on the certain squares. The second set of whirlwind squares are much better to land on, but not if you're going for more
Neopoints, which will be talked about later. However, be aware about the solemn whirlwind square the end of the path to Sakhmet! This will take you back to a
few squares before the "Tug-o-War" square, which is rather annoying when you get that far.
If you bypass the first set of whirlwinds and Sutek's tomb, you will have a chance to pick up some classic Lost Desert food items. Picking these up will get you out of a pickle with the Scamander and mummy later on in the game, so they are worth picking up in the unlikely event on landing on those squares.
Watch your step a few squares after, though! Stop on the quicksand and you're
going to be stuck there so long you'll lose a turn! You can lose a possible 12 Neopoints or, if you're really unlucky, the chance to get to Sakhmet first. So
always count your steps beforehand.
When you reach Coltzan's Shrine, you will see "Welcome to Coltzan's Shrine" in the event scroll. Clicking the scroll will give you an event much like the on site Coltzan's Shrine, but in this case it's generally bad. Things like losing Neopoints or a turn are the general messages. Occasionally nothing happens... if you're lucky!
Those familiar with slot machines will get the concept of the Tug-o-War square. The two players will duel and you pick a player to win. Who you choose has no effect on what you have to do next. After you have chosen, you roll the die. If you get a high number (4, 5 or 6) you win and gain 100 Neopoints, which is very handy. Although, if you get a low number (1, 2 or 3) you lose a turn, which isn't. It's a 50-50 chance, so you might as well go for it unless someone else could get to Sakhmet before you (They are twelve or less squares away).
When you reach the Ummagine, it's worth trying to pick it up. A mere ten squares away stands the Ummagine thief Stan from Grand Theft Ummagine . If you have an Ummagine on you, he will leave you alone, but
if you don't, you'll lose a turn. He only wants Ummagine, so the other Lost Desert foods won't make him leave you alone. He's picky like that.
The sand dune on your way to Sakhmet can be dangerous. Much like the popular
saying "Three steps forward, two steps back", you will always be ushered two squares backward, so you'll need to roll a three or higher to make progress.
Moving only one square will move you backwards, so don't do that too often. The dune is six squares in length, so if you are at the square before the dune
and roll a 6, it will pose no problems.
The Scamander, the well known Lost Desert petpet from it's own game Scamander Swarm . Fortunately, you'll play a simple version of the game for free! If you land on the same square as the Scamander, who moves, you'll be shown a similar game layout to Scamander Swarm in the event scroll. From here, you click one of four doors the Scamander could go into. Get it right and you'll get away scott free, but get it wrong and you'll lose a piece of food if you have any, or a turn if you don't.
Finally, we see the Qasalan mummy standing gormless on the course. Land on that square and it's bad news. If you have food on you, it will take it from you and let you be. If you don't, it will summon you back two squares, which can get annoying if you keep getting 2's on your final character.
To complete The Great Desert Race, all characters must make it to Sakhmet. To make it there, though, you must land on the final square of the path. You cannot over-roll and still get into Sakhmet, as it will not allow you to. It's a good idea to progress one character explicitly before starting the other. This will make sure none of your rolls are wasted while you wait for the right number to appear.
The score you get after getting both of your characters to the exit as fast as possible is nowhere near enough for a trophy. How to get a higher score, then? Actually, you... should keep yourself from getting to the exit as long as you can :) A bit unexpected, yeah? :) Yes, this contradicts the concept of such games, but that's how this particular game is made. What you should do is, when you come closer to the exit, get into the whirlwind, and, as already mentioned, it will take you back to a few squares before the "Tug-o-War" square. Next, you need to get into the Tug-O-War square itself, pick a player (no matter which one), roll the dice and get 4, 5 or 6. This will get you 100 points, remember? Then, just travel back to the whirlwind again, get into it, get to Tug-O-War, get 100 points, repeat, repeat, repeat... for a couple of hours, because you won't always get 4, 5 or 6 - sometimes you'll be getting 1, 2 or 3 which means that you get nothing and just need to try again :) Yes, that is rather boring, but that's the only way.
You might ask "But how can I be assured that I will land on the whirlwind, and not further than needed?" Easy - just use your two characters wisely! When you get a wrong number after rolling the die, use another character, and use the one you need only when you finally get the number you need.
The game stars four well known Lost Desert stars: Brucey was the star of the Neopets site plot 'Brucey B and the Lucky Coin ', opponent at Cheat! and mascot of the Brucey B Slots . Tomos and Nabile were stars of a more recent Neopets plot, simply dubbed 'Lost Desert Plot '. Osiri is the owner of Osiri's Pottery in Sakhmet.
Whether you're a 'Dungeons and Dragons' or a 'Snakes and Ladders' fan, I'm sure you'll find The Great Desert Race in tune with those classic games. It makes a difference from the usual style of Neopets games and throws a few old faces in the mix too. A nice little Sunday afternoon game.
This Neopets help article was written for The Daily Neopets by Matt.
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