Animal Crossing: New Horizons

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Trying to keep the OP up to date with key information. PM me if something is missing.

Friend Codes (GWJ google sheet). Updated in May with character/island names.

Polygon online play guide, for multiplayer. Or here is their New Horizons Guide, with links on several topics. The first 7/14 day guides are great for starting, as well as many guides on multiple topics.

From the polygon guide above, but much discussed: Rock Hitting Guide

Stalk Market price predictors.

Original, with improved interface. Seems to have best numbers.
*Removed 2nd calculator that many reported inaccurate numbers with.

Weather (and shooting star) predictor.

This tool from Ninji is amazing. Once you find your weather seed from the 1 billion possibilities, it will predict rain/snow, sun, rainbows, Aurora borealis, meteor showers (big and small), as well as charting the shooting star times on your island to the second!

Finding your seed can be tedious. If you have a meteor shower and use a timer to track by the second you can get quick results. Otherwise, lots of entries to narrow down previous days can help. I was able to find mine with dates of meteors (no times) and Celeste visits, as well as 3 or 4 thunderstorm hours. The hour a thunderstorm happens can lock in an entire day's weather accurately without any other info, so those are useful. Same with rainbows, if you have any screenshots of those.

Good luck!

Flower breeding guides.

I've removed the old quick reference image because it's not accurate. Island native flowers and hybrids can be different from ones you find on Nook Mile islands. It's more complicated than originally thought.

This site has good explanations and breeding guides. I'll link to the Simple Guide, and you can read the more complex one from the site.

For blue roses, specifically, here's a step-by-step guide in image format:

Spoiler:

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Art Guides:

Polygon Redd art guide with real/fake pictures

Quick reference image for Redd art, with real/fake text descriptions. Spoilered image:

Spoiler:

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Old OP, pre release:

The special edition Switch system comes out Mar 13, a week ahead of the game. But it seems pre-orders sold out in the US in about 4 days. Good luck if you want one. Nintendo did an official unboxing video last week.

Just saw this Polygon article Monday about paths, cliff stairs, and other fun stuff gleamed from screenshots.

And previews have already mentioned co-op play, which I am most excited about.

Trailer from E3

Nintendo Direct from September

Official web site launched today.

Haven't played an Animal Crossing before or anything derivative such as Stardew Valley or Graveyard Keeper, have seen them all played. Mostly I don't see the point: farm, optimize, improve relationships. Loved old-school Simcity games, but not the newer ones. Could Animal Crossing actually be for me? This one?

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Keithustus wrote:

Haven't played an Animal Crossing before or anything derivative such as Stardew Valley or Graveyard Keeper, have seen them all played. Mostly I don't see the point: farm, optimize, improve relationships. Loved old-school Simcity games, but not the newer ones. Could Animal Crossing actually be for me? This one?

This. I need someone to explain the passion folks seem to have for the game. Can anyone help sell me on it? Looking for a good Switch game for while on the road.

It’s kind of hard to explain. The real time clock is a big part of it for me. You don’t play it the same way you play Stardew Valley or Harvest Moon.

I saw a video on YouTube that explained the appeal better than I could ever put it.

It’s almost like an un-game. You don’t play it to win or to maximize your abilities doing something. You play it because you want to relax in the world.

Animal Crossing is the most consistently chill & relaxing game franchise I've ever played. That's the entire appeal. You collect stuff, decorate, explore, and chill out.

I love it, it's one of the few activities I can engage in that yields mental benefits akin to meditation (I can never seem to calm my mind enough to properly meditate).

DSGamer wrote:

It’s kind of hard to explain. The real time clock is a big part of it for me.

This is the part that always keeps me away from the series, to be honest. It's my understanding that if you don't play the game for a period of time that the village becomes rundown and overgrown. That kind of obligation to daily engagement with a game will torpedo any enjoyment or relaxation I might get out of it.

ClockworkHouse wrote:
DSGamer wrote:

It’s kind of hard to explain. The real time clock is a big part of it for me.

This is the part that always keeps me away from the series, to be honest. It's my understanding that if you don't play the game for a period of time that the village becomes rundown and overgrown. That kind of obligation to daily engagement with a game will torpedo any enjoyment or relaxation I might get out of it.

I don't let the real time clock bother me. I figure that if I miss something one year then I'll just get to it another year, or I won't get to it, no worries. While the village can become overgrown, it's actually pretty relaxing to go and pick up weeds and stomp on bugs, and if any neighbors have moved out, well new ones will move in, and the game doesn't ever take away any of your progress, so you're never really losing anything.

Also in New Leaf, you could get a town perk that your village will never have weeds and your plants will never die, so if you know you will be away for a while, you can just switch to that one and not worry about any of it.

I don't know if this new version will have that too, but I'm thinking it probably will.

I just see Animal Crossing and similar games as the opportunity to live in a different world without all of the sorrow, fear, pain, sickness, worries, etc. of "real life" and just relax and enjoy exploring and creating and (in the case of Animal Crossing specifically) making animal friends.

There really is no obligation to play every day.

Yeah. I once stopped playing for months and all it meant was a 30 minutes of pulling weeds and stomping bugs. Oh, and Filbert moved out of my town, which made me really sad.

And, really, there's only a few weeds to pull up. It's not like everything goes to hell.

bekkilyn wrote:

There really is no obligation to play every day.

But everything you just described sounds like an obligation to play every day.

To me. To be perfectly clear.

ClockworkHouse wrote:
bekkilyn wrote:

There really is no obligation to play every day.

But everything you just described sounds like an obligation to play every day.

To me. To be perfectly clear.

Well you could always go see Dr. Shrunk for that problem.

Feels like the time requirements get easier from game to game.

On New Leaf you had something like a week before villagers would leave and they'd have to ask you. And yeah all the town ordinances to keep things tidy if you didn't play daily or weekly. So you really had to abandon things if you wanted the town to get ugly.

There was a time on the old DS version where I didn't play briefly, came back and one of my favorite villagers was gone and then I really didn't play for a while. Was sad.

The little bit I've seen of the new one looks really nice too, with all the crafting. They're were times in old games you'd be waiting around a week for a certain tool to show up in the shop. Now you just go build what you need. Looks to be more respectful of the player's time.

bekkilyn wrote:

Dr. Shrunk

Axolotl in a game.....consider myself piqued.

Thanks for the discussion on my not understanding the series.

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Direct now!

Map choice, yes!

Voice chat in the Nintendo online phone app. Also it scans QR codes from this and both 3ds games to share patterns.

Looks like you choose how many neighbors you want and where they live by reserving home plots ahead of time.

And you can place and move the town buildings.

Stairs!
Paths!

Whee!

OMG you can basically teraform the island. Move the rivers, change the cliffs, wow.

Stele wrote:

Voice chat in the Nintendo online phone app. Also it scans QR codes from this and both 3ds games to share patterns.

Yes! I had hoped something like this was going to happen. Happy Home Designer seemed like it would eventually work with the next game, but I didn't necessarily believe Nintendo would be interested in pulling it off.

Well, I was kinda ho hum about this game. Excited for a new AC game, but didn't expect them to pull out all the stops and it seems like they have.

Party Play: With the Nook Inc. Deserted Island Getaway package, up to eight people can live on one island.* In Party Play, you can call up to three other players to explore the island at the same time. Whoever calls the others will be the Leader, making the others the Followers. It’s easy to change out the Leader, letting others quickly take charge. Any creatures or items found by Followers will be stored in a recycle box at the Resident Services building!

Like, finally! Wasn't this supposed to be a part of the Wii game?

Just curious, did anyone catch or was there any hint about having 2 islands on one Switch? Meaning I have an island, my wife has an island, and we can Party Play in each others game, or is it basically one island per Switch and that's that.

I'm not even sure I want to play that way (2 islands on 1 switch), but I'm guessing others may. Also, the ability to have one island in Northern and the other in Southern hemisphere allows for more diverse play with the seasons.. although this may be exactly what they are trying to discourage.

It's one island per Switch, and save backup/transfer is... a fraught topic.

Yeah if you want another island need another Switch. And probably 2 copies of the game and Nintendo online family plan if you want to interact?

Maybe you can still do local wireless play with just one shared game copy, but definitely 2 Switches needed.

Yeah, I'm aware of the save/backup.. just wasn't sure about the multiple islands but I guess it makes sense. I think i'll be fine.. we have no kids, and knowing how lazy we are it will take both of us to just keep one island vibrant, but if I just want to runaway and catch some winter fish in the southern hemisphere in July, I'm hoping the getaways they showed will satisfy that itch.

Middcore wrote:

It's one island per Switch, and save backup/transfer is... a fraught topic.

Was there any other word on this today?

The news about Cooking Mama combined with Animal Crossing saves issue has me considering selling my Lite. I’m just curious if there was any improvement with the save situation.

DSGamer wrote:
Middcore wrote:

It's one island per Switch, and save backup/transfer is... a fraught topic.

Was there any other word on this today?

The news about Cooking Mama combined with Animal Crossing saves issue has me considering selling my Lite. I’m just curious if there was any improvement with the save situation.

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Thanks, Garion. That’s vague enough to read like it’s a one time thing. With manual save transfers it’s not ideal, but you can switch back and forth if you like.

Without them explicitly saying that I should probably start getting ready to sell my Lite.

DSGamer wrote:

Thanks, Garion. That’s vague enough to read like it’s a one time thing. With manual save transfers it’s not ideal, but you can switch back and forth if you like.

Without them explicitly saying that I should probably start getting ready to sell my Lite.

I say this as a longtime Nintendo fan, but expect whatever save transfer system they come up with to be cumbersome, draconian, counter-intuitive, and poorly communicated. Whatever idea you have in mind for what you're maximally willing to tolerate to move your saves between platforms, add four more steps and a call to Nintendo's support number.

I was planning to avoid this game. I have gotten sucked into previous iterations (DS and 3DS, I believe) but ultimately became frustrated by the way time moves (I'd rather sit down for 3-4 hours once a week and do a ton of stuff than sit down for 10 minutes every day, but the game seems much more tuned to the latter than the former). And I have generally found in the last few years that my desire to enjoy popular Nintendo properties has not had a very good match with my actual enjoyment of them. But my resistance has weakened because it has such a charming and pleasant look, as always, and it occurred to me that my 8 year old daughter loved playing Stardew Valley with me and would likely love this as well. And much as I think the whole one island per console thing is ridiculous, it actually would be a nice way to set up a sort of asynchronous multiplayer between me and my daughter. Dammit, Nintendo, you got me! I'm in.

I plan to buy this digitally. Is there any reason not to just pre-order this through the Switch store? Are there any retailers selling digital codes that are offering discounts or other bonuses for ordering from them?

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