Why, hello there again! I see you’re ready and eager for another ‘lesson’ on the history of Habbo. Well this time, we’ll be discussing the history of ‘Habbo currency’ – you’ll be coming across the names ‘pixels’, ‘snowflakes’ and more… So you better keep reading! Also, by currency we mean “something” that you give, in order to receive something – e.g. Giving pixels to receive a pixel lamp. Furniture and the Ecotron do not count.

Unfortunately, the time machine is broken – so we’re going to need to use this ‘magic teleporter’ in order to back in time. Here we go…

Credits/Coins:

These are the oldest and the main form of currency in the hotel. They can be used to purchase furniture, HC/VIP membership, marketplace offers and many more services. There is some slight confusion over whether they are coins/credits – before the English hotel merge, they were referred to as ‘credits’ but after the English hotel merge, Sulake started enforcing that they need to be called coins (for reasons unknown). In fact, you can no longer use the word ‘credits’ in room information! However, the page you access to find out how to purchase ‘coins’ is titled ‘credits’ and has ‘credits’ in the URL… very confusing.

There are currently 8 methods of purchasing credits, and they are;

– Home phone
– Mobile phone (SMS)
– Credit card
– Prepaid Habbo cards
– Wallie-card
– Paysafe card
– Ukash
– Free offers

We won’t be comparing each method this time, as this has already been mentioned in a different special report.

Credits/Coins are used widely across the hotel. The places you are most likely to see/use coins/credits are:

– Shops > Shops are the main form in which people receive/give credits and 1c shops are the most popular due to their low prices.
– Casinos > An easy way to make a lot of money, however many casinos can be scams so be careful!!!
– Grabbers > Also an easy way to make a lot of money/furniture. Be careful in these as well – they could be scams!
– Event rooms > Commonly used, however many people have been deterred due to some games being scams.

Coins/Credits were originally kept in a ‘Habbo purse’. For every coin you gained, a coin would be placed in your Habbo purse to represent it, until you reached over 100 coins – if you reached over 100 coins, it would display a huge pile of coins. In 2008 the purse was ‘merged’ into the catalogue, but it is no longer a purse, it’s simply a display of how many credits you have.

The exchange tab was introduced into the catalogue in 2007 and offered Habbos 5 different types of coin you could exchange, these were:

– Bronze coin > worth 1c
– Silver coin > worth 5c
– Gold coin > worth 10c
– Sack of coins > worth 20c
– Gold bar > worth 50c

The Chinese Habbo hotel (which closed in 2007 due to bankruptcy) used different types of coins which were worth 10x the value compared to other hotels. So a bronze coin would be worth 10c, a gold coin would be worth 100c, a gold bar would be worth 500c and so on. This was also the system used on the Japanese hotel and is now often used on Habbo retros.

On March the 2nd 2010, a tax was placed on the exchange system. This means that, if you want to exchange a coin out of the catalogue it will cost you 1c more than the value of the coin. So a bronze coin (worth 1c) would cost you 2c to exchange, a gold coin (worth 10c) would cost you 11c to exchange and so on. Many Habbos were outraged by this tax and claimed “this is Habbo, it isn’t politics – we don’t need a tax?!” and many made groups to boycott the tax with most groups attaining over 1000 members.

Pixels

Unlike popular belief, pixels have not been around since the start of Habbo. Pixels were released in November of 2008 and unlike credits, they cannot be purchased with real money or traded in any form. So, how on earth do you achieve pixels? Well…

– By completing quests > if you complete a quest then you receive some pixels! Handy for new users. 
– By going up an achievement level > if you reach the next level of a badge, then you receive some pixels!
– By logging into the hotel > enough said.
– You receive 10 pixels for every 15 minutes that you are on the hotel client.

With pixels, you can only purchase a certain amount of items – and those items aren’t tradeable. Here is the list of items which you can purchase;

– ‘Hello’ furniture > The original pixel furniture range.
– Kuurna furniture > The new pixel furniture range.
– Rentals > Only 3 rentals are available at the moment.
– Effects > However, occasionally some effects will cost 1c – e.g. the Earth hour candle!

Also, with pixels you can use them to get special offers on some furniture in the catalogue. For example, in the catalogue a pad of sticky notes would usually cost 3c per. Well, if you want to purchase the special offer for sticky notes, you can buy 3 pads for 6c and some pixels! There used to be ‘collectable items’ which you could purchase for 1c and 2000 pixels, 1 of these items was the ‘planet of love’.

Also, for a limited time, the pet cat was available to purchase for 2000 pixels each!

There was some controversy when pixels were introduced, because a different ”virtual gaming site’ used the currency of ‘pixels’ and accused Sulake of stealing their ideas. Sulake refused to comment on the claim (that makes Sulake look good doesn’t it…)

Shells:

Shells were released along with the new summer furniture line for 2011. Like snowflakes, they could only be used to purchase items from the ‘shells’ section of the catalogue – which was relatively small compared to the selection of snowflake gifts that were available. However, some gifts would require credits and shells in order to purchase them, such as the rare ‘Sand Dragon’.

In order to gain shells, you had to complete shell quests and the next quest would be unlocked after a certain period of time – the maximum time you would have to wait was 20 hours and the maximum amount of shells you could gain was 60. The shell gifts that were available were:

– 3 different types of shells
– A ‘fish’ {pet food} 
– Pier stages
– Rare sea throne
– Ice cream trolley
– Sand dragon

Shells were removed from the hotel on the 17th of October 2011.

Snowflakes:

Snowflakes were released specifically for Christmas 2010 and are going to be re-released for Christmas 2011! They were obtainable by completing certain quests – each quest would reward you with a different amount of snowflakes. On the 2nd day of December, 2 snowflakes were given for completing the quest by accident, possibly for users to catch up on earning the 2nd badge? Oh yes, you received a different level badge for obtaining a certain amount of snowflakes.

Like shells, with snowflakes you could only purchase ‘snowflake gifts’ from the catalogue. Here is a complete list of the snowflake gifts that were available;

– A ballerina penguin for 2 snowflakes & a hockey penguin for 3 snowflakes! 
– Jolly duck, plain icy duck, icy bauble 1, 2 & 3 for 5 snowflakes each!
– An icy bench, frozen ted, icy pod chair, icy stone divider, chilly table and an ice star for 10 snowflakes each!
– Frozen fonds, elephant minibar, cool lupin, ice of the tiger, monkey on ice and a frozen nest for 25 snowflakes each!
– Frozen pillar, woah nelly! and a frozen garden gnome for 75 snowflakes each!
– A frozen fish for 100 snowflakes and a frozen in time (frozen t-rex) for 125 snowflakes!
– A cool club sofa for 10 coins and 25 snowflakes!
– A blizzard dragon for 20 coins and 75 snowflakes!

The snowflake gifts were removed from the catalogue on new years day 2011.

Other types of currency:

VIP and HC days can be used as a currency. Once you obtain a certain amount of VIP/HC days, you are able to purchase more stylish and rarer VIP/HC gifts!

Scratches & Respects can partially count as a currency. Once you give a certain amount or receive a certain amount of scratches/respects, you gain an achievement badge!

*Zoooooom* Here we are! Present day again. We hope you loved this weeks special report and be sure to check out more special reports in the future. That’s all for now, bye bye! *Vanishes into the mist*

What did you think of this weeks special report? Are you looking forward to the return of snowflakes? Did you regularly purchase shell gifts? Share your view now by clicking ‘Read More & Comment’!

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