Kitchen Quests

[NeopetsMom]

Kitchen Quests

Over time Kitchen Quests will work out to be the cheapest and often most efficient form of training for almost all battlers. Almost all battlers should strive to do 10 kitchen quests. Virtually the only exception is when doing Kitchen Quests would prevent you from being able to use the training school any more and even then it is debatable.

I have kept records of 1274 Kitchen Quests. First, I will provide the stats and then I will provide my suggestions on how to select which Kitchen Quests to do.

Total Cost of 1274 Quests - 3,375,081 NP

Average (mean) Cost of Quests - 2649 NP (this is very dependent on which quests you choose to do)

Cheapest - 41 NP

Most Expensive - 10,972 NP

Median - 2000 NP

How often received:

Items - 389 (31%)
Neopoints - 389 (31%)
Movement Stat - 91 (7%)
Useful Stats (level, HP, Defense, Strength) - 405 (32%)


Total Value of Items and Neopoints Received - 1,599,786
5 Most valuable items received (what I sold it for, often soon after the item came out)-
Faerie Aisha Plushie - 115,000
Nimmos Pond Guide Book - 100,000
Baby Blumaroo Plushie - 38,500
Plushie Desert Pet Paintbrush - 29,000
Split Paint Brush Plushie - 28,500
Mutant Grundo Stamp - 25,000

Least Valuable Item sold for - 1 NP
Least Valuable Result - Movement stat (for purposes of this article, receiving the Movement stat increase is considered to be worth 0, even though there are now some limited usefullness for movement)

Most amount of Neopoints Received - 1370 NP
Least amount of Neopoints Received - 622 NP


Type of Stats Received -

Level - 80 times (6% of all results; 20% of stats received)
Hit Points - 162 times (13% of all results; 40% of stats received)
Strength - 82 times (6% of all results; 20% of stats received)
Defense - 81 times times (6% of all results; 20% of stats received)
Note that I was twice as likely to receive an HP increase as other stats.

How stats were divided between pets -

208 times to my main pet
197 times to my second pet

Total Cost of Useful Stats - 1,775,295 NP (Total Cost less value of items and NP received)

Average Cost per Useful Stat: - 4383 NP

Average Cost per Useful Stat for Main Pet - 8535 NP

Conclusions:
With an average cost per quest of 2,629, Kitchen Quests are very cost effective. At that average cost, the cost per useful stat works out to roughly 4,383 NP if you have one pet and will be roughly double that for two pets, etc. Stats are evenly distributed over time among however many pets you have. It makes no difference which pet is active. You will get a useful stat increase, on average, about 3 times a day if you do 10 Kitchen Quests. You are twice as likely to get an increase in HP as you are to increase level, strength or defense.

The primary disadvantage of kitchen stats is that you can't choose which stat to train. Also, if this is your only means of training your HP increases will be roughly double those of your other stat categories which will result in an unbalanced pet until your strength and defense both equal 700. Therefore, to keep balanced stats you must also use some other type of training such as the school or academy if your stats will allow you to use them. If not, then train using neggs or other stat increasers to keep strength and defense level with your HP. Also, once you reach level 250, training level currently is useless. At that point the cost of a useful stat would increase since training level would provide no benefit to you. However, if a training school for higher level pets ever opens then having trained level may be of benefit.

How to use Kitchen Quests:

The main question is how much to spend on Kitchen Quests. Over time I average about 2650 for Kitchen Quests. However, I could easily spend 3 times as much and the Quests would still be cost effective for me since it was costing me 8 codestones to train. My records of Quests go back for over a year. My sense is that quests are more expensive now because many items asked for in Kitchen Quests have increased in price. Even so, Quests are still cost effective for most battlers.

How much I will spend on a quest is highly dependent on the time of day. That is, let's say it is morning and I haven't done any quests. I get an 8,000 NP quest. I will probably turn it down and wait until that quest expires hoping the next one will be cheaper.

On the other hand, let's say it is 10:00 at night and I've only done 5 Kitchen Quests. Then, I will do the expensive quest hoping to get rid of it and then do 4 more less expensive quests.

However, if I have done 9 quests and the 10th quest is very expensive, then I may give it a pass and just do 9 quests for the day.

April 17 edit:

It is sometimes pointed out to me that kitchen quests are more expensive now than in the past and that many get quests more expensive than I note above. This really depends on what you are willing to spend. When I did most of the quests above I would only rarely pay more than 8k a quest. I would usually pass those by. Early in the day I would only rarely pay more than 5k. Now that my pet is above level 250, I am not as picky. I will now do just about any quest that costs less than 15k and occasionally will do a 20k quest. So, my average cost goes up. But I still get plenty of cheap quests.

[CDX]

Good article.. This can helpout the Kitchen Quest training ..

[fmuannky1]

Still having trouble understanding what you've said...but I think you've convinced me to start kitchen quests! Thanks

[P_N_G]

Man, you're really helpful, first the Terror Trove article, now this! 5/5

[NeopetsMom]

Quote:Originally posted by fmuannky1@Dec 5 2004, 05:21 PM
Still having trouble understanding what you've said...but I think you've convinced me to start kitchen quests! Thanks

What is confusing? I'll edit to clarify.

[_sp1c3_]

I really like this one. You make it clear. I'll give it a 5.

[Qanda]

Another clear-cut and informative article. 5/5. One thing to note though, the price of KQ food items have inflated while the prizes it gives out have deflated, so the average cost per stat may be higher now.

[Khaled]

Another excellent article. These will definitely change a lot of people's ways about thinking :) One tiny thing though: The percentages for rewards add up to 101%. I'm assuming one is rounded, I'm just curious which :)

5/5

[Phalkon]

wow... that's a LOT of research you did!

5!

[X winged]

an awesome article, must have spent quite some time doing this :D

and thanks for the extra info u gave and stuff B) now i might just spend a little bit more on kq :sorcerer:

[Combatant]

5/5 for this great article :P

I've been a little discouraged with the KQs, but your article convinced me that 3 out of 10 stat increases makes it worthwhile (especially now when codestone training costs 6 codestones and takes 12 hours per course). Thanks for doing the record keeping and sharing it.