Webkinz Walkthrough & Tips

There are many types of Webkinz pets. Your 1st step is to purchase one at a local retail store or purchase one online ( I highly recommend www.carlstoys.com ). Each Webkinz comes with an eight character code. This code is what makes your Webkinz unique and allows you to enter the pet into the Webkinz World website. (Please, keep this code in a safe place so that you can refer back to it if you need to.)

Now that you have your new Webkinz, your child needs to come up with a name for it. My child named her dolphin Flippers. When you go to the Webzinz website, you click on the "NEW MEMBERS" button in the center of the screen. Ms. Birdy will pop up and step you through the entire adoption process. Don't worry, this is very easy and you will be on your way to fun in no time. My children have collected many Webkinz, so to add a new Webkinz, you should add it to your existing account. Don't start a new account because you get rewards and special bonuses for having multiple pets on an account. To do so, log on as usual and then go to the "Adoption Center" in the "Things To Do" menu. Again, Ms. Birdy will step you through the process.

This is where it gets a little confusing for the little ones. I am going to break it all down in different sections so you can refer back to it later.

This is shown when you first sign on to Webkinz World. This is a newsletter that just posts different news and advertisements about Webkinz. Don't worry Mom, these advertisements will not take you child outside of Webkinz World. They are only links to places within the site.

The "My Stuff" toolbar is at the bottom of the page. These are items that you can use in Webkinz World. You are automatically given special items and a Webkinz World guide with every new pet. The important things here are a mailbox and a button to go to the KinzChat module. If you don't know what KinzChat is, we will talk about that later.

This is located at the bottom of your screen. This shows you which pet you are actively playing with. You will notice it very easily because it has a picture of your pet. This is important although it doesn't appear to be!! Above your pet's portrait, you will find your KinzCash balance and the time. The only thing you can click on here right now is a blue figure with a yellow plus sign on it. This takes you to a page with three tabs. Your "My Pets" tab, "Daily KinzCare" tab, and your "My Options" tab. "My Pets" is where you choose which pet's profile to use in Webkinz World (it also shows your account expiration date). "Daily KinzCare" is an important thing for you to help your child remember that it is there. You should go here daily to get free KinzCash and food. All you have to do is click on "I Love My Webkinz". "My Options" tab is where you can turn off advertisements from other companies. I did this for my child.

The "Things to Do" option is a purple tab next to "My Stuff". This tab basically takes you everywhere in Webkinz World. You have many things to choose from here, but the first things you should do is to go to Dr. Quack's Clinic.

Remember your "Dock"? This is where you will find three meters. You now need to pay attention to what they mean.

The smiley face is your happiness meter. This will change depending on your pet's mood. Some of the things you can do to bring up your pet's happiness is to visit it daily, play games, or feed it it's favorite food. There are many other ways, but you will find them as you are playing.

The heart is you r health meter. Your pet can get sick, but don't worry, it can't die. Your pet is the same as you, so it should eat healthy and exercise or your pet's portrait will get things like an icebag over it's head or it's nose will turn green. To bring up the health meter, go see Dr. Quack.

The fork is your hunger meter. Choose food carefully. Some food is better than others. Just remember to exercise your pet after you give it treats.

After clicking on "My Room", you have two choices, you can either click on "START PLAYING" or "WATCH DEMO" The demo is a great place to learn how to build your room and gives you a quick overview of the site. Click on "START PLAYING" and you can go directly to your room so you can start building. This is where your pet spends most of it's time and you can eventually get more rooms. I won't bore you with all the details on how to build your room since the demo does a great job of it in a short amount of time. You can add more rooms and even a yard. You can do this by clicking on the map. After you add more rooms, it is easy to switch between rooms by using the jump button. Just remember that you will have to earn more KinzCash to build up your rooms and make it more unique by buying things in the W Shop. You can even purchase games in the W Shop to play inside your room.

"My Page" is a great place to show off your uniqueness and is also what other people will see about you. Click on the tab "My Page" at the top of the screen. There you will see different blocks that you can personalize by using the edit feature. Remember to click save when you are done. Click the view button to leave the edit feature. On the "HOME" tab, you will find your friends list, the member of the day, and a way to search other people's pages.

This is where your pet can compete against other pets. You need to look at the schedule to sign up for the various events. After signing up for an event, come back after 30 minutes to compete. Don't worry, if you signed up for an event, you will not miss it, you will always be able to see it compete. All of the skills you obtained through Kinsville Academy will pay off now. You will earn KinzCash for placing in the events.

Ms. Cowoline is the school superintendent. She will give you a brief walkthrough of Kinsville Academy. This is where you train your pet. Your pet can attend up to 3 different classes per day. You can either pay a small fee or pay a larger fee for a tutor. There are 6 attribute classes with each containing 10 levels. When they are all complete, your pet will earn a diploma.

You can get to your KinzChat by clicking on the cell phone on your dock. This is where you can add friends to chat or to invite them to your room. You cannot change things in your room while your friends are visiting, so wait for them to leave or ask them to leave. Click on the cell phone and push the power button. When it turns green, then it is on.

To add friends that you already know, click on the add button and type in your friend's name. To invite a friend, click on your friend's name and click invite. You can make friend in the tournament arena by clicking on the find me an opponent button. After you finish the game, you can ask the person to be on your friends list.

Once your friend is in your room, you can chat with them using KinzChat. If you are busy doing something and do not want to be bothered, you have the ability to set the DND (do not disturb) mode on your cell phone. You also have the ability to block another user by highlighting their name and clicking block. Be careful, because once you block someone, it is permanent and you can never unblock them.

KinzChat is divided into different colored zones. To invite or play with your friends, you must be in the same color zone. Your phone will be the same color as the zone you are in. Your friend's name will have a colored bar around it to show their zone. Watch the smiley face next to your friend's name. A green smiley means that they are in the same zone as you. A yellow smiley means your friend does not want to be disturbed. A red smiley means that your friend is not using KinzChat or is in a different zone. Change your zone by clicking on the zone button and choosing a different color to see if your friend is in that zone.

On the regular KinzChat, your child must pick from a pre-set group of questions and answers. This is really good because it will not let your child see or say anything except for what is listed in the choices.

On KinzChat Plus, your child has a lot more freedom. Mom, please be sure your child is ready for this before you grant access. On KinzChat Plus, you do not have to pick from the list of phrases anymore, you can type in your own. Although you can type it yourself, it still has to be accepted by the site's filters. The filter will not allow anything offensive or inappropriate at all. The filters use both a word and a phrase dictionary to decide if it will allow what you are typing. For example, the word girl is acceptable and so is the word friend, but the filter will not let them be used together. Also, be sure your child is pretty good at spelling because it will not allow misspelled words. My daughter had been on Webkinz for over a year before we allowed her to use KinzChat Plus. To grant access to KinzChat Plus, you need to go to the Log-In screen and go to the Parent's Area.

In the W Shop there are items for basically everything in this shop from food and clothing to furniture. Spend your money wisely. Mom, this is a great way for your child to learn about responsibility. You can also sell items you have collected that you do not want for KinzCash.

The Code Shop is where you can enter a feature code that you may have gotten with your Webkinz product or possibly in a trading card package. You can also browse the feature code catalog.

At Arte's Rare Collectibles, you can buy rare items that are not available in the W Shop. If Arte has more than one of a particular item, you can only purchase one of them. Arte's inventory changes constantly and so do his prices. Arte treats his friends very well, so be sure to give him a tip. Remember to look for the Gem Hunt here. The Gem Hunt is a mining game where you have to collect gems to get the Crown of Wonder. You can either keep the gems or sell them back to the curio shop, your choice. You can only play one per day.

The Wish Factory is where you can buy exclusive items. You need ten tokens to use the Wish Factory. You can put your tokens in as soon as you earn them because it will remember how maney you have used. You need to play special games to earn tokens.

At Kinz Post, you can send gifts or notes to your friends. It does cost KinzCash to do this though.

Finally, we are at the Fun & Games section of the "Things To Do" menu. Hurray, finally the fun part for all the children within us. I, myself, played this for hours and earned my kids a ton of KinzCash. This is the place where you can earn KinzCash and tokens.

This is a neat place to chat with your friends using KinzChat or KinzChat Plus. When you enter, there will be a door for each version of chat that you have.

The arcade is where there are a ton of games to play to earn KinzCash. You can also compete for top score or top monthly score. Make sure you go to the game of the day because it earns you extra KinzCash. Try to get the top score for the day. In the Arcade, there are two thing that can only be played once a day. The Wheel of Wow and the Wishing Well. For the younger players, the Fence Painting, the Shoe Store Clerk (memory games), the Wacky Zingoz , and Tulip Trouble 2 are the best choices. The Wheel of Wow, Wishing Well 2, and the Care Award are also good choices because they do not require you to play a game to earn KinzCash. Also if your child is 5 - 6 years old, check out Quizzy's Question Corner. It is a great place where they can answer age appropriate questions to earn a large amount of KinzCash. Although these are great for younger players, my 5 year old has now learned to play pretty much any of the games. My oldest daughter's favorite game is Pizza Palace even though they all spend hours playing all the games in the arcade. The other games include Smoothies Moves, Get 11 Solitaire, Ant Mania, Bamboo Break, Picnic 2, Bonanza, Booger Gets an A, Zingoz Bounce N Burst, Candy Bash, Candy Bash 2, Viva Poncho, Cash Cow, Cash Cow 2, Color Storm, Go - Go, Googles!, Gobbers Lab, Skunk Sweepers, Hide N Skunk, Home before Dark, Hungry Hogs, Pinky's Big Adventure, Lilly Padz, Dex, Dangerous and the Lunar Lugbots, Luneh Letters, Webkinz Mini Golf, Operation Gumball, Picnic, Polar Plunge, Pumpkin Patch Protector, Title Towers, Stackem-Up Solitaire, Triple Strike Solitaire, Bonanza Tropical Troubles, Bullseye Batter, Waddell's Icecap Adventure, Where's Wacky, Zacky's Quest, Zingoz Bounce and Zingoz Pie Throw.

The Tournament Area is where you can play in tournaments against existing friends or new ones, join an already started tournament, or create a new one. Most of these games are like the ones in the Arcade, earning the same KinzCash value. Here, you can win a lot more KinzCash if you win or do well. This is also where you can play Trading Card games (Webkinz Mix N Match and Webkinz Challenge). The Tournament Arena is another place that you can use KinzChat. Again, have no fears, it is perfectly safe. I have personally played in the Arena to test out KinzChat. Some of the allowed phrases are "This should be tons of fun", "Congratulations, you won", "I am totally going to win", and "Hello". Every game has phrases designed for that game.

This is age appropriate. It has categories for all age groups from age 5 to age 13 and up. This is the best place to go if you want to earn a ton of KinzCash. You can only answer each question once. Make sure you answer Daily Bonus Question because you earn twice as much KinzCash as the normal questions. Your child will love this because you can also earn stickers to add to your sticker collection.

The Magical Forest is a special area in Webkinz World that combines the real world charm collection with the real version. It is like the gem hunt. You buy one charm and the feature code it comes with will unlock the activity for you along with one row of virtual charms to search for and collect. If you are lucky enough to collect all 40 virtual charms, you will win a cool grand prize. You have been wondering what the pixie pods are for? Now, we can tell you. You can use the Pixie Pods that you have collected in the Wonderland Wonders to play Pixie Pod Pachinko to win extra Kinzcash. Each of those Pixie Pods give you one try. You can find Pixie Pod Pachinko in the Magical Forest.

Dicekinz is a game that you can play against either the computer or your friends. The object of the game is to be the first one around the board. Please watch the tutorial to find out how to play. You can go to the W Shop to purchase your own set of dice to play with.

Another way for your pet to earn KinzCash is to get a job. Go to the Employment Office where you will meet Tabby Von Meow, your job advisor. The available jobs are listed on the bulletin board and you can only do a job that you are qualified to do. Mouse over the P on the job posting to find the requirements. After you do a job, it will be added to your resume. More experience pays you more.

Sending your pet on a vacation will make it very happy (remember your happiness meter?) A good one to pick is the Spa Getaway. It will make your pet happy and less hungry. Trust me, a vacation is just what your pet needs. Once you purchase a ticket, it will be put in "My Tickets". It will stay there until you use it.

Don't forget about LilKinz. In Webkinz World, they are the brother and sisters to Webkinz. They can be a lot of fun. And remember that CarlsToys.com is the best place that I have found to purchase them.

I almost forgot to tell you about this and it is very important. When you are done playing, you need to remember to log out so your pet doesn't run away!!! Just kidding, but seriously, actually logging out instead of just closing the window ensures that your world will be the same as when you left.

Oh, and by the way, every night Webkinz World goes offline so they can do maintenance. Just wait a few minutes and it will be back on.

As a mother, I was concerned over the safety of Webkinz, in particular, the chatting part of it. I have 4 kids and I consider myself to be an over-protective mother. After a while, my daughter asked me to give her access to KinzChat Plus. I was concerned over the safety, but to my surprise, I really did not have anything to worry about. I was very impressed and it far surpassed my expectations. I also use NetNanny to protect my children if they decide to go out of Webkinz World. I highly recommend this software and I have included a link to it.

This seems to be the end of our journey through Webkinz World. As you can tell, I love Webkinz. I hope this has been helpful and easy to understand. Please feel free to leave me any comments in my guest book. Check back in the near future because I am planning on adding a forum to the site. As a mother, we don't have very much time to search for things for our children. I seem to do a lot of this. I found a place that has a great selection of Webkinz and Webkinz accessories as well as other toys, books, and other things. I highly recommend www.carlstoys.com as a great place to purchase these items. Please check them out. Thank you for showing interest in my site and please continue to check back often for updates.