A Beginner's Guide to Playing Pet Society and Getting Lots of Points

Pet Society is an application game found on facebook and myspace. It is very successful because it is easy to play and you can create your own atmosphere.

I started playing it over a year ago and play on a daily basis. I've made lots of friends, have tons of fun but have found there are secret things you need to know in order to prevent people from taking advantage of you.

But first, lets get to the basics and how to play the game.

The basics to the game are easy and Playfish, who created and run the game, have a guide of tasks you must finish which will help you understand things you can do in the game.

Start out, fulfilling all those tasks, before doing much else.

The key to getting items and decorating your home is points. You get points each and everyday in a lottery card. It can range from 50 to 1,000 points. But there are other ways to get points as well. First you need to visit your active friends. You get 30 points each for visiting the first 50 active friends. You will see on the bottom of the page three types of friends - all, active and visits. Click on active and visit them first. You get 15 to 5 points for all other friends visited. If you need friends go the forum and say "add me" and people will become your friend. They will also now become part of your facebook or myspace friend list.

You get a lot of points visiting lots of friends. I know people who have 500 or so pet society friends.

While you are visiting other pets, see if they are dirty. If they are dirty they will have flies around them. If that is the case, use your soap to clean them. This gives you points.

Dirty pets are great to clean but if you are wondering why they are dirty, it is often because their owners want them to poop. It is not vital to the game to poop but only dirty pets poop. Poop is only worth one point but pets can poop rainbow or golden poop which are worth a lot of points if you trade them in the trading forum.

Once you do visit your friends and clean them, go to the stadium. Run races and if you win, you get points. Another way to get points is to run through trees. Once you get a point from running through a tree, you cannot get another point from that tree unless you go into a home and visit or go home. You can do that all day if you choose to.

You can also play games in your home to gain points. You get points for playing Frisbee, playing catch with a ball and jumping rope. You must hit the ball or Frisbee back and click to jump rope.

If you do all those things, you will start racking up lots of points.

You will get a garden. You will need to use points to make things grow. Buy the vegetables for 100 points and plant them. Once they are large, takes a few days, sell them for 200+ points by putting them in your chest and then bringing them to cash register in chest marked sell. Do not let vegetables grow past large or they will get rotten and be useless.

Trees cost 500 points and are less maintenance as they do not rot but wait until you get lots of points before buying them. Growing flowers does not give you much of an income so avoid that.

When you first start, you will get a TV, chair, window and door. I immediately would sell those by putting them in your chest and dragging them to sell. You get points for selling items.

If you want to be very successful, do not fall into buying items that are sold every day. Buy items in the pet stores that are this weeks special. These items are only for sale for one week. Once you get sick of them. They can be traded for other great items in the trade forum. In time, these items become rares as they are no longer available. Their value rises but items available every day values fall.

A lot of people purchase mystery boxes. These cost 50, 200 and 500 points. Most valuable items are only found in the 500 boxes. Occasionally a 200 box will have an item being sought after. If you are lucky to get a rare item out of a box, trade it in the forum immediately. As more of these items come out of the box, the value decreases. You can get items in return valued at 4999s or 999s points or cc. The 4999 are items that if purchased in the store would cost 15,000 points. 999s would cost 3000 coins.

Cc coins are cash coins. People paid for these coins and will trade you items in the cash coin store for items you have. You cannot trade these in the future so only get them if you have an item in the cash store you really want and will never trade.

Do not trade until you know the value of your item. If you are in doubt, ask in the forum. People will often post trade values ranges of items. Copy it and keep it handy. But remember values change every few weeks.

If in doubt read other trades and see what people are asking and getting. Don't be taken but don't be too greedy or you will never sell it.

One way to gain items worth trading in the future is to buy food items available for one week. Lots of people display these but others eat them. Your pet needs to eat to survive. So feed them items in the store and hold onto to one week's items being sold.

I know this sounds complicated but as you get going, it will not be. The more you play, the more addicting it will become.

You will eventually want some of the rarest items. Those include 2008 Halloween items such as a set of 3 jack-o-lanterns; 2008 Halloween and Thanksgiving food; an astronaut helmet, a toy called a jell-o and 2008 Christmas items. Those are considered the rarest items and will cost the most to get. I am still seeking several myself. I wish I knew the things I am telling you now because I would have them. It will now be tough to acquire them but it is not impossible. You just have to want to play enough to get them.

I must give you some warnings. When you make a trade, there no way to insure the other person will send you their end of the trade. I have never been taken but many people have been taken. Read profile information on the person before trading and do not be afraid to ask for a fair trade referee. This person will take both items and give each one of you the appropriate item. If the other person will not send first, or agree to abide by a referee, think twice about trading with them. If they other person has lots of positives and are high on the traders list, just make the trade and send first. Be cautious but don't suspect people who have conducted many fair trades in the past. Just see their record.

A few quick notes you need to know.

New items come out at midnight UK time on Monday. New items in mystery boxes usually but not always come out on Thursday. Wait and see if they are out before purchasing boxes.

Read and follow all Playfish rules. Don't do anything not allowed.

Have fun with the game. Although it is easy to play and get addicted it is still just a game. Remember that and don't become a cheater or an unfair trader.

Now go name your pet, do some tasks and let your creativity flow.