The Void Within Discussion [Split 2]

[Pickles]

Plot restarted when it was supposed to yesterday! Now that PPT is back up (YAY THANKS BLUE!!) I will work on updating everything over the course of the next couple days.

Here's a quick rundown with some reminders and info, will flesh things out a lot more over the next few days:

When each chapter is released (8/4, 8/18, 9/1, 9/15):
*Read all pages. Make sure you click each panel in the comic in order to activate any potential page prize. Each page still awards 1 plot point, which counts towards your 3k chapter total.
*Earn a total of 3,000 points per chapter. Chapters last 2 weeks and begin on Mondays at 10am NST.

Daily Dos for Max Points:
Check the main hub page for updates!
Collect your 10 Void Essences (locations vary daily still). Each is worth 5 points and these do NOT count towards your 3k for the chapter.

Daily Optional:
Both of these tasks award points towards your 3k per chapter bar. You CAN max this out in one day if you so choose, but keep in mind that the items you can get from doing them daily may be worthwhile anyways!
*Battle Void Opponents: Barracks Page -- Note: If you want your 15 "non-plot" items, battle for those FIRST. You CAN get all 30 items from Void opponents.
*Start Hospital shifts (every 6 hours): Hospital Volunteering Page

Other:
*Once you hit 56 collected Void Essences, collect your bonus 20 points and item from the main hub.
*Watch for any achievements that may appear!

Notes: Currently, the three games are not awarding plot points (Voidworks, Cosy Campfire Collection, and Tea Time with Tavi) but they do still award items as they have previous.

We are currently in Act III. There are places on the barracks, hospital, and rewards pages for acts IV and V. According to the timeline posted in a recent update, Act IV is slated for January 2026 and Act V is not on the timeline (which goes through June 2026, so we're looking at July 2026 probably for Act V at earliest). I have THOUGHTS on this but won't go into that right now.

[Siniri]

I thought story points and void essence points weren't supposed to count towards the chapter max, but I'm pretty sure mine did since I'm at 1933. I didn't do the plot until late Monday (10:45 my time) when I checked again before bed and saw it had finally activated. I haven't done today's dailies yet. I've been battling until I get the NP and items, and sending all 6 pets on hospital shifts together (1 Monday, 3 yesterday, and 1 this morning).

Edit: today's void essence points, at least, didn't count towards the total, so maybe only story points did? Were they supposed to? I didn't count my battles, and I don't remember how many points you get for hospital shift.

[Pickles]

Posted: Wed Aug 06, 2025 7:01 am NST:

I thought story points and void essence points weren't supposed to count towards the chapter max, but I'm pretty sure mine did since I'm at 1933. I didn't do the plot until late Monday (10:45 my time) when I checked again before bed and saw it had finally activated. I haven't done today's dailies yet. I've been battling until I get the NP and items, and sending all 6 pets on hospital shifts together (1 Monday, 3 yesterday, and 1 this morning).

Edit: today's void essence points, at least, didn't count towards the total, so maybe only story points did? Were they supposed to? I didn't count my battles, and I don't remember how many points you get for hospital shift.

The only thing the FAQ specifies DOES NOT count towards the 3k chapter limit are void essences and achievements. I'll get the FAQ up on the info page sometime in the next day or two, but here's the relevant info:

Plot points earned from Void Essence collection (including the weekly collection prize and community goals) and Fearless Deeds do not count towards the plot point bar being filled.

That being said, I'm 100% certain that all 13 points from the 13 pages of the chapter counted towards the bar, because that was all I did at first, and I saw my bar at 13/3000.

ETA:
Flavor text for the Pet the Doglefox Fearless Deed (when you initially activate it), saved for posterity's sake:

The stray Doglefox eagerly presses closer, angling his haunches so that you may scratch him where he pleases. A warm rumbling emanates from the petpet, more evidence he is sincerely appreciative of your affection.
You probably shouldn’t make a habit of petting every stray critter you come across, but this one certainly seems grateful. Congratulations on earning the Pet the Doglefox Fearless Deed!"

A few quick notes: The Lost in the Dark mini game WILL be back after this chapter ends, according to the FAQ. If, like me, you didn't get the Fearless Deed associated with it on your first try, we'll have another chance at it then. There is also an avatar for the new mini game (when you complete it).

This was also in the editorial today:

Hi TNT! I like the idea of having a cap of plot points per chapter so people don't feel overwhelmed, but would it be possible to adjust it so that players that wish to collect points past the cap are able to? There's a lot of prizes I want, but so little points to get them with! ~lexstravi
We’ve been hearing the feedback about the chapter plot points cap! We plan on taking a look and doing an update soon. ~~Sunpotato

So....point cap per chapter is being reevaluated.

On a completely different note: I got a LOT of work done on the info posts tonight. Things that were updated:
1) First post has Act III links started, as well as the updated FAQ's added in.
2) Second post now has ALL chapter prizes (I was short some, plus the new ones), the Fearless Deeds have been updated (including noting which ones were moved from Act II to Act III), Trophies were updated, aaaaaaand....the Prize Shop Act III Additions are all in now. Whew! (That was probably the most daunting task.)
3) Hospital Volunteering post now has Act III prizes
4) Skeleton posts have been made for Cosy Campfire Collection, Tea Time with Tavi, and Lost in the Dark. FAQ's are up to date in those, but prizes are not (as of yet).

As I am now going cross-eyed from having worked on all this for 2 1/2 hours, I'm calling it a night. Hopefully I'll have some more free time tomorrow to get the mini-game posts more up to date!

Last edited by Pickles on Sun Aug 10, 2025 2:08 am, edited 1 time in total.

[Siniri]

Thanks, Pickles! It looks awesome!

I also missed out on the achievement (and the chest) by jumping into the new mini game too early. I did figure out the ears things on my own, though it's really hard to see on a phone.

I also missed my first day of void essence collection a couple of days ago, but I should be good for the weekly bonus tomorrow.

I need to update my own prize spreadsheets to see which prizes I still need/want (because I might want to switch which battle I choose in the BD, though I've been doing the new one because there are definitely new prizes I need to collect anyway). Maybe someday I'll get the last two cozy campfire prizes... And I think there were a few battle ones I still needed, too.

The NP and red codestones have been nice (and I've been buying extras until I use up all the daily NP). I've not been timing things, but I've been getting two trainings and 3 volunteer shifts a day (though probably only 1 and 2 respectively today). Definitely not timing anything.

[Pickles]

Posted: Sat Aug 09, 2025 1:05 pm NST:
They actually updated the Weekly Bonus prize pool for Void Essence Collection! I'm excited as there are two stamps in there that I still need.

...of course, I got Weak Bottled Water Faeries as my prize. This pool's version of the colored pencils. Sigh. Oh, and an extra of the first community prize (since it's still glitched), which I promptly discarded.

I hopefully will have time to work more tonight on the posts.

ETA:
So as of last night, mini-game posts have prizes/avatars added (except for Lost in the Dark, as the prize pool may change once it becomes a daily and I want to wait and see what all gets reported here, the neoboards, Discord, etc, before I spend the time adding items). I have one or two minor other things to update/fix, but they can wait (especially since the site is being persnickety).

One amusing thing, though: I went back to try and fix the avatar image for the "Brush it Off" avatar, and discovered that the image name had been changed in the post and now included 'smurf' in it, hence why it's a broken link.
Let's just say that the image name on site is identical to the name of the avatar....without the spaces.

[Siniri]

I got a checkered petpet pb for my weekly bonus.

Gotta love those filters! We had one elsewhere for a certain troll whose username included smart. It was changed to dumb as a bit of an Easter egg to help us release our frustration (because we don't engage directly with trolls, because nothing good comes of that). She came out of the woodwork a couple years later, and we had to explain to the new people why the filter was there.

We also had one for JS, but I can't remember what that one was.

[Pickles]

New story parts today!
There are item prizes after reading two of the pages.

Page 18: Luxinias Lantern
Page 25: Luperus Bobblehead

There is yet another new mini-game to play: Doglefetch. It's kinda like Ultimate Bullseye....or Petpet Cannoball...or Bouncy Supreme. It awards some plot points (toward your 3k bar) and an item, and if you do well enough, a trophy. You CAN play this multiple times, but you only get one item/plot points per day.

This might be BEHIND the pop-up prize window, so double check for it:

Something Has Happened!
You are now eligible to use 'Doglefetch' as an avatar on the NeoBoards!

Another Fearless Deed is possible through this game, too:

Well Done!
It seems you've been going above and beyond in your efforts!
You've been awarded a total of 10 Plot Points for completing these Fearless Deeds:

Paw-er of Friendship

For the record, I got the trophy, achievement, and avvie all on my first play through. Whew.

[Blue]

Cool. Looks like I got all 3 in one go as well, but I have the stinky silver trophy, not the shiny gold trophy like you have

I had to play on my phone. My Neo Computer can't handle these types of games.

[Siniri]

My phone won't load the game, and I already shut my computer down for the night and am passed bedtime after reading through all the pages. I did do plot stuff earlier, and the new stuff wasn't available yet. *Sigh* I'll give it one more shot; otherwise it's waiting until tomorrow.

Edit: it worked today, and I got a gold trophy, the avatar, and the achievement. Nice!

And throwing in a checklist for dailies now that the list is long again. I'm going to keep it generic so we can use it regardless of what comes up each day. Let me know if I should add anything else.

1) Quest Log: daily quests, daily bonus, weekly bonus (+Neopass stuff if you do that)

2) Trudy's Surprise

3) Tarla

4) Timed activities:
a) volunteer shifts*
b) training
c) wheels/buried treasure/scratchcards/etc.
d) healing springs

5) Plot daily activities: (* see above for timed activities)
a) void essence collection
b) battling
c) daily games
d) new story parts/activities as they come up

6) Skirmishes: (activity depends on timing)
a) use daily boon
b) sign up
c) battle

7) Cookies (daily quests, training, etc.)

Other dailies

Am I missing anything?

Last edited by Siniri on Sun Aug 17, 2025 3:07 pm, edited 1 time in total.

[Blue]

I think you captured everything in #7

[Siniri]

Well, everyone's daily list is a little different! But I figure you have your own routine down.

Today, there was an exclamation over Tavi on the home page. When I clicked on it, it took me to page 25 of the story page (which also has an exclamation), which I read and clicked next.

And got this on page 26:

Looks like there are some events you missed! Be sure to read all the previous pages in this Chapter before coming back!

I don't remember reading page 25 last time, because it implies the next step is a puzzle, but I've now clicked on everything I can think of on the page about six times each. I just clicked on each panel in the entire chapter, and I just double checked that I received the prizes. I hope this is a glitch.

Not seeing anything on JN yet, other than on the checklist there's now an item about reading page 26 (the guide for that isn't updated yet though). Guess I'll check the boards.

Edit: oh, yippee! Most people can see the page, but there are a bunch of us with the glitch. I only checked this early because I wanted to battle before starting my first volunteer shift of the day, and since the update was actually already there for once, I figured it was better to do that in case there was a new BD wave so I could choose that one instead. I cleared my cache, but still no luck.

Edit: and ticket submitted.

Edit: Cosy Campfire felt sorry for me and finally gave me one of the two regular prizes I'm still missing! Now I just need Marshmallows On A Stick, Negg of Everlasting Fire (should have bought at 4k, since it's out of the prize pool now), and the ever elusive Pumpkin Stick. Looks like it's time to start playing on medium to remove the hard prizes from my potential pool.

Edit: still not fixed. Apparently this chapter ends Sunday, so they have one more day in office to fix it.

[Pickles]

What you're seeing is a glitch affecting a LOT of people, Siniri. Half my family can't move on, either.

Blue, if you see this before you try to read the comic, play at least one of the plot games first (ex: Doglefetch) and THEN try to read the next section - this seems to work for a lot of people. Unfortunately, it doesn't work after you attempt to read the new page.

I suspect that TNT is well aware at this point of the issue, as it is rampant everywhere.

The new page seems to imply there's still a puzzle to go, but...I've got this feeling that we won't be actually having to do it until Monday. Unless it was supposed to activate today and didn't, and the glitch is part of that.

[Blue]

Thanks. I played Doglefetch a few days ago after reading 25(?), plus earned the "Pet the Doglefox"(?) achievement a day or two prior. Today, I was able to get through Page 26 without any issues.

[Siniri]

Is there anywhere I can even see the new page? It's annoying not even knowing what I'm missing... *Trots off to check Pickles's amazing post here*

Edit: it's fixed! Woohoo! Now time to read.

Edit: Void essences bonus is Grey Wocky Plushie this time.

[Blue]

Glad it's working now,Siniri!

Bzzt Blaster Coin for me