July 28, 2020

Agent Insights Ep 51: Hacked Pet Bears


Hey all, Jade here with your latest Agent Insights post! Today, we'll be talking about hacked pet bears, and how to avoid them.


The Meagyn's Pet Bear was a limited edition pet that was released in honor of a Jammer named Meagyn, who visited AJHQ with the help of the Make-A-Wish Foundation. These pets were sold in the diamond shop from November 2018 until January 2019. As of now, they are typically worth a few den betas each, though some uncommon bears can go for Spiked Collars.


Starting in the later months of 2019, people began noticing pet bears with adoption dates later than January 2019. These bears were being hacked into the game and passed off as regular bears- and, as of now, they are still being hacked in regularly.

Trading for one of these hacked bears is a very bad idea. Many hacked bears are deleted from the game by AJHQ when they are discovered- meaning that, if you trade for one and keep it, it will likely be deleted and you will have traded your rare items for nothing. Additionally, there have been cases of Jammers getting banned from the game for having a hacked bear on their account. Getting banned for having a bear is relatively unlikely, but it is always a possibility- so, it's better to be safe and not have them at all. 


So, how do you tell if a bear is hacked? There is only one way to tell for sure- the adoption date. Any bear with an adoption date after January 2019 is hacked. Whenever you're trading for a bear, make sure to pull up the adoption certificate first and check the date. 


Many hacked bears have also been noted to share the following traits: solid color (same color for primary and secondary), squinted eyes, fluffy ears, and mohawk- so it's reasonable to be especially suspicious of bears that fit this description. However, as you can see in the picture of the hacked bear earlier in this post, not all hacked bears share these features, so it's best to be safe and check the certificates of all bears.

Now, if you're buying a bear from a shop, there is no way to check the certificate directly. Instead, you'll have to pull up the owner's player card, open their pets tab, and scroll through until you find the bear you want to buy. This may seem tedious, but finding the bear to check its certificate is much better than wasting diamonds on a hacked bear.

Finally- what do you do if you already own a hacked bear? Well, you shouldn't trade it or sell it, because whoever owns it next could face consequences for having it on their account. Instead, you'll need to simply release the pet. This may seem like a disappointing solution, but it's much better to just remove the bears from the game instead of letting them circulate and cause more problems. To release a pet, just go to your pets menu and click the cage icon in the lower left-hand corner, then click whatever pet you need to release.

That's all for today! If you have any more questions about hacked bears and how to avoid them, feel free to leave them in the comments below. Stay safe, everyone, and jam on!

July 25, 2020

Random Saturday Ep 59: Sustaining Free Membership in AJPW


What's up everyone! Today, I bring to you your next Random Saturday! Today's topic is kind of like a continuation from the last one I wrote. (You may view it here) Without further ado, let's go!

So, in the last post, I talked about how everyone could earn free membership from AJPW through hard work. Today, I'm going to walk you through how to extend this free membership past just one month, such that your AJ membership could be indefinite.

As written in the last post, one month of membership can be bought for 400 or 500 sapphires. What can you do to keep earning those sapphires? I should say that playing games in AJPW is now of a much lower importance as compared to when you first started of. This is because those gems can only be earned once. Therefore, they are only useful for the first "surge" to kickstart your membership in AJ. Though, if you still have some milestone rewards unclaimed, you may go ahead and grind it out if you want. However, I can say that it is very possible to continue having indefinite membership even without the milestone rewards.

First, membership in AJPW means that you will earn five sapphires each day you log in. For the following calculations, I will use the upper limit of 500 sapphires for membership.  A month of membership is 30 days long. Every day, members can earn five sapphires if they log in on each day. Therefore, from just log in bonuses alone, you can earn up to 150 sapphires. That leaves just 350 sapphires to cover.

Next, sapphires are a common reward from pet expeditions. In order to send your pet on an expedition, you must first raise its level. This is something that only members in AJPW can do, because it requires the usage of Pet Stations. Interacting with your pet in the Pet Station will gradually increase its level. Continuously interacting with the Pet Station allows a member to grind the level of their pet from a minimum of 1 to a maximum of 5. When it comes to pet expeditions, the level 5 expedition gives the best rewards. So, I highly recommend you to save your pet till they reach the maximum level. Then, you can send them off on the longest expedition. The level 5 expedition takes 5 days to complete. When your pets come back, there is a high chance for them to come back with 4 or 5 sapphires per pet. Do note that there are other rewards that can also be earned, not just sapphires. Therefore, I recommend you to send as many pets as you can on expeditions. I know that pets in AJPW are quite expensive, since they cost 50 sapphires each. However, the honeybee (and Meagyn's Pet Bear) only cost gems. Therefore, whenever honeybees come back in stores. I recommend you to get some since they also can be sent on expeditions.

Next, check the gem tree and pack chest in your pack hideout. These mechanics are also only accessible to members. The gem tree can give you gems when you click on it. While the tree mostly gives gems, there also is a small chance for it to drop sapphires, so you might get lucky! The tree regenerates every hour, so be sure to check it whenever you're on! Every pack also has a pack chest. It gives a reward every day. Most of the time it is gems, but there is a very small chance that it could be sapphires!

Finally, keep on watching ads and using the phantom dimension to earn sapphires. At this point, you may realise that you don't really have to go into the phantom dimension anymore, because the above plus ads are more than enough to earn you enough sapphires for membership.

I should let you know that while the membership is written down as 30 days, AJHQ extends it a little longer than that for Jammers to buy a new membership using real money. You can only buy the next 30 days of membership once those "extra" days expire. I recommend you to make good use of those extra days to earn more sapphires till you have to buy another membership (with sapphires).

My last tip is to check your balance before you buy anything that requires sapphires. In order to be able to continue buying your membership, it's good to assume that it will cost 500 sapphires instead of 400, as that prepares you for the worst. Always make sure that you are getting closer to being able to buy your next sapphire membership as time goes. This is because many of the methods listed here cannot be used without a membership!

That's all from me today, good luck to all of you who are working your way to a free membership! As usual, stay safe, jam on!
-Dew


July 21, 2020

Agent Insights Ep 50: Item Worth Manipulation



Hello everyone. Flint here, to talk about a scam/thing to watch out for that I come across occasionally.

This scam occurs anytime someone tries to convince people that items are worth more than they are. It's not much more complicated than that. They can try a couple different methods of convincing you that worthless items are valuable, but it's ultimately a very simple scam.

These sorts of people might drastically overprice items in My Shops, or they might trade one for one of your rares, or they might tell you that one of their items is valuable when it isn't. The items they use will usually be uncommon ones where the worth isn't widely known, like seasonal items, adventure prizes, random items from shops like Jam Mart Furniture, etc.

People may also try to trick you into thinking similar-looking but low-value items are actually rares, such as pretending a non-glitched item is glitched. This is probably a good topic for another AI, but know that you should verify the item you're trading for.

There are several ways to avoid overtrading/overpaying for items. One is to always look up the approximate value of any expensive item you're acquiring. The Item Worth Wiki is helpful for this. Even just looking up the item in general can tell you information about it, like if it's in stores, an adventure prize, a seasonal item, etc. Another way is to be wary of people who try to get you to accept without thinking. If they're rushing you, it's likely that the item they're offering isn't actually worth much. In general, don't accept trades in which you offer lots of currency or your valuables for items where you don't know the worth for certain.

Note that not everyone who overprices items or tries to undertrade you is scamming. Sometimes they genuinely don't know how much their item is worth, or they traded you as a joke and didn't expect you to accept. Only treat them as a scammer if they try very hard to convince you the item is worth a lot, even after you've told them it's not worth much.

Some scams, like the S14/Two Person scam, rely on tricking people into believing worthless items are worth a lot. Watch out for those types of scams.

That's all for today. Bye!

July 19, 2020

Random Saturday Ep. 58: Monthly Login Gifts on PW


Hello, readers! It's Rose with your newest Random Saturday. This week's post is all about the monthly login gifts on Play Wild. 

Since the April update, instead of treasure hunts, there have been monthly login gifts that you unlock on a certain interval of the month. 

The login reward screen looks like this.

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Each time you log in at 00:00 GMT, you get to spin the daily prize wheel for 100 gems, 5 sapphires, or a mystery den/clothing item. 

If you reach a certain milestone, you get a prize, it can be anything from pets, currency, to den and clothing items. 

On the last day of the month, if you have logged in every day, you can get items from the mystery chest that will give you new items! 

The most likely reason AJHQ is implementing this new system is to encourage Jammers to play more often by using new items as an incentive. 

That's all for this week, apologies for the short post, but have a great week, and I hope to see you around next time!

-  Rose ♡

July 14, 2020

Agent Insights Ep 49: Fake AJ and how to spot the difference


What's up everyone! Today, I bring you your next episode of Agent Insights! Today's topic is yet another one about phishing. The main difference here is that this is an ongoing, real scam that is rather common in AJ. Without further ado, let's go!

First, what is phishing? We've made a couple of posts about phishing before. You may find them here and here.

This post has quite a bit of images, so I've included a page break.

July 10, 2020

Random Saturday Ep 57: Battle for the Beacon


Hellooo! Agent Quacc here. For this week's post, I thought it would be nice to take a look at the Battle for the Beacon adventure. 

The Battle for the Beacon usually comes every summer and is announced through the Jamaa Journal.


Unlike other adventures, you can find the Battle for the Beacon when you click on the party icon. 


The adventure begins with Greely asking you to stop the phantoms from attacking the village. The alphas had hidden the Phantom Beacon and the phantoms are now trying to take it back. Greely then says that you should keep the Phantom Beacon away from the phantoms since it's the only way to find out where the Phantom Fortress is. 

The Battle of the Beacon also has an earth crystal shop run by Jewel where you can spend crystals to get all kinds of den items. 

 

You can earn the earth crystals by destroying the phantom tubes using boomseeds or repeatedly clicking on them. Different locations on the map produce more than one crystal.


That's all for today, thank you for reading! 

July 07, 2020

Agent Insights Ep 48: Wiki Scam Comments


Hello everyone. Flint here, to talk about a recent phenomenon that's been affecting the Animal Jam Wiki, and that could affect other wikis.

Recently, there has been an influx of scammers commenting on certain articles on the AJ Wiki. They'll comment on the pages of uncommon or seasonal items, and will say things like "Trading this item for a black long!" or "Looking for this item, will trade a black long for it!" They don't need to be asking for a black long specifically; 'black long' can be replaced with all manner of valuable items.

The accounts that comment stuff like this are scamming. By offering high-value trades for these items, or by saying they're looking for high-value trades for their item, they are tricking people into thinking an item is worth more than it actually is. This way, when people go look at the Wiki for more information on an item, there will be a bunch of comments saying that the item is worth a lot, which can make people fall for S14/Two-Person scams, or just simple overtrading.

Keep in mind that comments on a page can be easily put there by scammers. Just because the comments say an item is valuable, or has a real glitched variant, or whatever, doesn't mean those comments are true. It's better to get information from the actual article, or from looking at other comments on the article talking about how they saw a scam using this item.

As far as I know, this hasn't been a problem with any other wikis, but you should still keep in mind that comments on an article can easily be put there by scammers. 

That's all for today. Watch out for these sorts of comments. Goodbye!

July 04, 2020

Random Saturday Ep 56: Membership Options


Hey everyone, Jade here with your latest Random Saturday! Today, we'll be talking about the various membership options in Animal Jam. 

Membership is a purchasable status in Animal Jam that comes with many features and perks, and is how Wildworks makes most of its money. On AJPC, membership allows you access to a daily diamond bonus, member-only items, the Jammer Wall, custom name tags, and more! On AJPW, membership allows you access to daily sapphires, pet expeditions, packs, the color coordinator, and more. 

Though there are a lot of perks to getting membership, a lot of people simply can't afford it. So, I've collected a list of all your options to get a membership, in order to make it easier for you to decide which is your best option!


Your first option for membership, and the most well-known, is simply to purchase it on the Animal Jam website. This method gives you three different options for purchase- one month, six months, and twelve months. The twelve month option is the best deal in regards to price per month, but the one month option is the least expensive in the short-term. 

This purchase option also comes with the added benefit of membership bundles- additional items that come along with your membership, depending on when you buy it. More information about bundles can be found here!

This method of getting membership, while easy and efficient, isn't necessarily affordable for everyone. So, let's move on!


Your second option for membership is to buy it with Sapphires on AJPW. If you manage to collect either 400 or 500 sapphires (the price switches from time to time), you can buy a one month membership that will apply to your account on both AJPC and AJPW! This is the method I use most often to get membership on my alt accounts.

To get sapphires, you can play games, level up, watch ads, and more. More information about sapphire memberships can be found here. Though it is relatively easy, grinding for sapphires can often get tedious, so let's look at another option!


Your third main option to get membership is Referral Rewards. When someone new signs up for Animal Jam, they have the option to enter the username of the person who told them about Animal Jam. If they enter your username, you will get a gem reward, and they will be added to your referrals list. As seen in the referral "levels" above, if they become a member, you will receive a one week membership, and if three or five people who you referred become a member, you get a one month membership.

This method is probably the hardest to use, because it is quite difficult to get that many people to sign up for memberships. However, if you have friends who want membership, or enough patience to get sapphire memberships on alt accounts, it's a good option! 

There are a few additional methods for getting membership. You can buy membership cards at stores like Target, you can receive free membership cards from AJHQ or related sources, or you can occasionally find codes officially released by AJHQ, such as AJFREE (not active anymore). 

One important thing to remember about membership is that anyone who says they can generate membership for free is lying. Membership generators are always a scam, and they will more often than not hack into your account and take your items. Rather than trusting someone random on the internet, use one of the above methods to a get a membership for yourself!

Well, I hope this helped! If you have any additional questions about any of these methods, feel free to comment down below. Stay safe, and Jam On!

July 01, 2020

Update Post - June

What's up everyone! Today, I bring to you our monthly update for June! Without further ado, let's go!

First, we would like to welcome four new Agents to the society! Welcome Agents Aspen, Clover, Dede and Emerald! Additionally, we'd like to extend a warm welcome back to Agent Mage!

Next, we are getting really close to our target of 100 users in our Discord server! You might be asking, why do we want to hit 100? Well we want to overhaul the society ranks inside the Discord server. As seen from our rankings doc, some roles are currently locked. We want to change those locked roles. However, we can't do so right now, because only the server owner can do that, and our server owner has been inactive for about a year. Thus, we need to hit 100 users in order to request for a server owner change. You may help us reach that goal by joining our server! It is, after all, for everyone, not just agents.

Next, we have plans to host an event in our Discord server once every month. We currently have three working events, and we are currently testing out the fourth! We plan to start our monthly event schedule once we have at least six working events. If you have any ideas, feel free to leave them in the comments, or let us know through our Discord!

Finally, we now have a rehiring form for Agents who previously left, but wish to rejoin. The form may be found here!

That's all the updates today! Till next post!
-Dew