Exclusive Giveaway

Once a month the Ministry of Magic opens a drawer it keeps locked the rest of the year and takes out three things. A familiar, a robe and a piece of decor, none of which is for sale in any shop, in any currency, to anyone. The Department of Rarities regards this as a public service. The Department of Shelving regards it as a clerical error that happens to have been repeated on schedule.

What It Is

There is one Exclusive Giveaway a month. It is run by the Ministry itself, so there is no sponsor, no payment and no anonymous benefactor. It opens at the start of the month, closes at the end of it, and has three places: place 1 is the familiar, place 2 is the robe, place 3 is the decor piece. These three prizes cannot be had any other way. You cannot buy them, trade them or find them in the Lodge. They are marked Giveaway Exclusive in your wardrobe and your dorm, which is the Ministry's way of saying "we know."

You will find it in the Village, under Candy Giveaway, among the other giveaways. The Ministry pins it to the top, since it is the one with the good prizes and the Ministry has never been shy about favorites. The Village is where the trip starts.

Entering

The rules are the standard giveaway rules, the same ones every other giveaway uses. The longer version lives under Sponsored Giveaways. The short version:

  • The price: a ticket costs 10 beans.
  • The free entry: each in-game new day, natural or bought, brings one free entry in each open giveaway. Claim it before your next new day or it is never sent.
  • The cap: nobody holds more than 100 tickets in one giveaway, however the tickets were obtained and however long the giveaway runs. A free player who claims every natural new day can reach it. Buying beans or new days gets you there sooner and no further.
  • The eligibility paperwork: you must be 18 or older and not live in one of the excluded places, which the giveaway's own rules page lists in full. One tick box covers both the free entry and buying tickets, and an entry without it is handed back with nothing spent.

The Draw

When the month closes, the game draws the winners with the server's secure random numbers. Tickets are weighted, and one player can win only one place, so a single wizard cannot sweep the drawer.

  • Owners are skipped: if you already own the item for a place, you are passed over for that place and the draw moves to the next ticket. A second copy of a one-of-a-kind item would be a one-of-a-kind item with a twin, which the Department of Rarities finds upsetting. You can still win a different place.
  • Nobody can take an item: if any place would end up with no eligible winner at the first close (too few entrants, or every entrant already owns that item), the giveaway is extended once by a week. It is the only extension anyone gets.
  • Still nobody: after that week, the item rolls into the next Exclusive Giveaway as an extra place on top of its own three. There is no sponsor to pay back, so the item simply stays in the drawer until someone qualifies. Because the week of extension runs into the following month, the rolled item joins the giveaway already open then, rather than waiting a further month. A staff cancel rolls the items forward the same way, and entrants get their beans back.

The Collection

The drawer holds 24 items, three a month on an eight-month cycle: month 1 of the cycle gives the first familiar, the first robe and the first decor piece, month 2 gives the second of each, and so on. After month 8 the cycle starts again, so anything you missed returns in eight months' time, at the same price (nothing). The full list, in order:

  1. Month 1: Starlit Kneazle (familiar), Aurora Robes (robe), Orrery Lamp (decor)
  2. Month 2: Teacup Dragon (familiar), Moonsilk Robes (robe), Floating Candles (decor)
  3. Month 3: Ghostlight Owlet (familiar), Ember Velvet Robes (robe), Enchanted Aquarium (decor)
  4. Month 4: Clockwork Snitch (familiar), Frostweave Robes (robe), Portrait Gallery (decor)
  5. Month 5: Mossback Tortoise (familiar), Twilight Robes (robe), Starmap Rug (decor)
  6. Month 6: Pocket Niffler (familiar), Verdigris Robes (robe), Bubbling Cauldron (decor)
  7. Month 7: Cinder Phoenixling (familiar), Rosequartz Robes (robe), Hourglass Tower (decor)
  8. Month 8: Cloud Puffskein (familiar), Obsidian Star Robes (robe), Crystal Ball Stand (decor)

Collecting them counts. The Hogwarts Champions page keeps a board called Giveaway Exclusives Collected, in the Collections group, which ranks players by how many of the 24 they own. The items also show on your profile through your wardrobe and dorm, because a rare thing nobody can see is only a rumor.

See Also