Solution: Chaos in Neopia

Answer: POWER

Author: Benji Nguyen

Fire and Snow Faeries

Each clue is actually two interwoven clues, one of which clues a phrase that begins with "HOT" and one of which begins a phrase that begins with "COLD". The missing answer here is ONES.

AnswerHOT ClueCOLD Clue
ONESWings, slangily.Beers, slangily.
WATERA predicament or trouble.Ice, if extreme enough.
SPRINGA geyser, e.g.A village in New York.
SPOTA popular place.A localized indicator of paranormal activity, perhaps.
FOOTTo move in haste.When pluralized, reluctance.
WARAn open military conflict.A state of political hostility characterized by propaganda.
PRESSA calendering machine.A juice extraction method.
BLOODEDVery passionate.Without emotion, callous.

You can arrange the clues into a diagramless crossword:

F
ONES
O
WATER
A
SPRING
R
E B
S L
SPOT
O
D
E
D

Shifting the intersections by the amount specified clues yields the answer PLUSHIE.

Earth and Air Faeries

Each map depicts a city. The city's airport code is a substring of some of your answers. The missing answer here is TEXTBOOK. Indexing with the given number yields the answer TUBULAR.

CityAirport CodeAnswerExtract
Buenos AiresEZETWEEZERT
GaboroneGBEDUNGBEETLEU
TellurideTEXTEXTBOOKB
SydneySYDPSYDUCKU
WarsawWAWWAWAPEDALL
SingaporeSINBASSINETA
ViennaVIERIVIERAR

Battle and Library Faeries

The answers to the clues are punned works of literature with a Neopet name.

Entrant #TitleNeopets (Rank)ScrabbleWord Count (approx.)Publication Year
1MEERCA CHRISTIANITY2132567501952
2LENNY (ONE) LIVED IN A PRETTY HOW TOWN42502281940
3INFINITE JETSAM45265437091996
4BLACK KOI50201252811945
5IF YOU GIVE A MOUSE A RUKI39362911985
6WAITING FOR GRUNDO1125235001952
7KAFKA ON THE SHOYRU1361731002002
8SISTER PTERI2813920001900
9THE DA MYNCI CODE14281389522003
10AISHA KNOWS WHY THE CAGED BIRD SINGS1960783841969

The six contests for sorting the entrants are puzzle answers:

  1. PET POPULARITY (popularity of the Neopet)
  2. SCRABBLE (Scrabble score of the pun title)
  3. CLUE SIZE (length of the given clue)
  4. WORD COUNT (word count of the work of literature)
  5. AGE (age of the work of literature)
  6. ALPHABETICAL ORDER (alphabetic rank of the book)

The missing answer is ALPHABETICAL ORDER. Indexing into the appropriate entrants yields:

ExtractEntrantContestIndex
AAISHA KNOWS...SCRABBLE WINNERThe 1st letter of Contest 2's first place entrant.
NTHE DA MYNCI CODE...CLUE LOSERThe 8th letter of Contest 3's last place entrant.
SSISTER PTERIAGE WINNERThe 3rd letter of Contest 5's first place entrant.
TINFINITE JETSAMWORD WINNERThe 11th letter of Contest 4's first place entrant.
OBLACK KOIPOP LOSERThe 7th letter of Contest 1's last place entrant.
YLENNY (ONE) LIVED...WORD LOSERThe 5th letter of Contest 4's last place entrant.
ETHE DA MYNCI CODEAGE LOSERThe 3rd letter of Contest 5's last place entrant.
SKAFKA ON THE SHOYRUPOP WINNERThe 11th letter of Contest 1's first place entrant.
CMEERCA CHRISTIANITYCLUE WINNERThe 7th letter of Contest 3's first place entrant.
AWAITING FOR GRUNDOALPHA LOSERThe 2nd letter of Contest 6's last place entrant.
PSISTER PTERISCRABBLE LOSERThe 7th letter of Contest 2's last place entrant.
EAISHA KNOWS...ALPHA WINNERThe 16th letter of Contest 6's first place entrant.

ANS TOY ESCAPE. The answer to this meta is TOY ESCAPE.

Light and Shenkuu Faeries

There is an 8-letter answer for each row in this puzzle beginning with A-G. You can slot in every letter after the first into the grid and subsequently replace the first occurrence of each given letter with a black box containing the specified number (e.g. the first T in the grid will be replaced with a black box 1, the next G will be replaced with a black box 3, etc.). This will form an Akari puzzle.

The missing answer is DELETION, which can be inferred through the feeder puzzle titles, finding a word that satisfies the letter constraints, and the Akari constraints.

ANCESTOR
BOGOTIFY
COFACTOR
DELETION
EXPANDED
FOXWEDGE
GARDENER
A C 1O
BO3 T Y
C2F2 O
D E I
E N2
F 1W 0
GA R

Solving the Akari puzzle and taking the letters at the lights will yield the phrase "COOTY FOE IN WAR." This refers to the Neopets mini-game Cooty Wars. Their foe is the MOOTIX, which is the answer to this meta.

Soup and Negg Faeries

You can add an answer to each given word to create a clue with an answer that is a food.

The missing answer is MCFLURRY.

TOMATOBUNOL PROJECTILE
MINTJULEPKENTUCKY DERBY TRADITION
LASAGNAGARFIELD FAVORITE
ICECREAMMCFLURRY EXEMPLIFIES
SPAGHETTISERGIO LEONE STYLE
SUSHIJIRO DREAM
SHAWARMATHE AVENGERS POST-CREDITS
POTATOIDAHO STAPLE

The column shared by all rows spells the clue MJ'S CHIMP, which solves to BUBBLES.

Faerie Queen (meta)

Each meta answer is the partial name of a Neopets game. The missing parts of the game's title has two letters in common with the backsolved answer to the corresponding meta.

PuzzleFeederBacksolveMeta AnswerNeopets GameMeta MissingCommon 1Common 2
Fire and SnowObligatory Binary PuzzleONESPLUSHIEPlushie TycoonTYCOONNO
Earth and AirThat's So ClassicTEXTBOOKTUBULARTubular Kiko RacingKIKO RACINGKO
Battle and LibraryArranging the DictionaryALPHABETICAL ORDERTOY ESCAPEToy Box EscapeBOXBO
Light and ShenkuuMutatedDELETIONMOOTIXMootix DropDROPDO
Soup and NeggI'm Lovin' ItMCFLURRYBUBBLESFaerie BubblesFAERIEFR

Sorting the missing letters in the given order gives the phrase DOORKNOB OF, which is a Neopets item missing the word POWER, which is the final answer.

Author’s Notes

Amusingly, the author of this puzzle did not play very much Neopets. This puzzle was originally going to be a different Neopets-themed puzzle written by a much more Neopets-savvy person. The Earth/Air puzzle used to be an extremely deep Geoguessr puzzle that required looking up specific driver’s license and road sign facts, and the Battle/Library puzzle used to be much harder. This puzzle is already quite large, so thank playtesters for the nerfs.