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Hey guys! Interested in getting Animal Crossing? I`ll get you started up with it so you won`t have to read the guidebook for AC.
Calendar
May
May 10th: Mothers Day
May 16th: Fishing Tourney (Specific Fish)
May 24th: Flea Market
#1.Getting Started
There's a lot to do in Animal Crossing, so let's start from the beginning.
Before You Start…
Before you can catch a bus to your new town, you'll first have to setup a few basic things, including the date and time. But more interestingly, if you have Animal Crossing: Wild Word for the Nintendo DS, you can actually import your character and play as him or her in City Folk! And better yet, the items you added to your catalog in Wild World will also be carried over to City Folk, where they can be purchased from Tom Nook at rock-bottom prices! Once you're done setting things up, it's time to catch the bus to town!
The Wheels on the Bus go Round and Round
Your Animal Crossing life begins on a bus ride to your new home town. A short ways into the ride, a friendly cat named Rover will sit across from you and begin making small talk. Although he may seem nosy, the questions he asks plant the seeds of your future, so answer wisely!
Choosing a Home
Once the bus drops you off, you're free to explore the town. But one of your first tasks should be choosing a place to stay. Check your map to locate the four vacant houses scattered about. While the choice is yours, we strongly suggest choosing the one that's closest to Tom Nook's store--it'll save you a lot of time running back and forth in the long run.
Don't like your town?The town's layout is randomly each time you create a new file, so if you're not happy with how it looks or the way its laid out, simply start over to get a new one! But remember, everything will be lost, including your character, items, etc, so it's best to do this before you become too invested in your village.
Be friendly to your neighbors, as they'll often give you goodies in return.
After you've checked out some of the homes, a strange raccoon known as Tom Nook will be waiting for you outside. Turns out he's the landlord of this property, as well as the local shop owner, and he wants to know if you're interested in buying it. If you accept, he'll quickly put you to work in order to make your first payment.
Working
Despite you having almost no say in the matter, working for Tom Nook isn't so bad. In fact, it gives you a chance to meet some of the town's residents and come to grips with how life in Animal Crossing works. The tasks are all pretty self-explanatory, and help cover the fundamentals of Animal Crossing. Once you've completed all of Nook's tasks, he'll let you off the hook. You're still going to have to make the payments on your home though!
Your Town
Okay, so you've moved in and completed Nook's job requirements, but there's still much to see and do--you've only scratched the surface!
Your Home
While your home is where you'll go to sleep and save your game, its primary use is to store all that stuff you find. Unfortunately, it starts quite small, with a living room and small bedroom above. But as you begin to make payments, Nook will eventually upgrade your home to bigger and better offerings, allowing you to store even more stuff!
Here's the upgrade schedule, based on your payments:
1st Expansion: 120,000 bells
2nd Expansion: 248,000 bells
3rd Expansion: 368,000 bells
4th Expansion: 598,000 bells
Nook's Store
Apart from your home, Nook's store will probably be one of your most visited locations. If you need something, odds are Tom Nook can hook you up…for a price. Here you'll find all sorts of goods, from tools such as the axe and fishing rod, to wallpaper, flower seeds, and more.
In addition, Nook will upgrade his store periodically, after you've spent a set amount of money:
1st Expansion: 25,000 bells
2nd Expansion: 90,000 bells
3rd Expansion: 250,000 bells
Town Hall
The Town Hall doubles as both a civic center and post office, depending on which window you speak to Pelly through. On the Post Office side, you're able to send mail to other residents in town or post messages to your friends' Wii message board. As for the Civic Center side, you can check out the environmental state of your town, change the jingle heard whenever you interact with someone, or donate funds to help improve village life.
If you donate enough money, special things will be built in town, such as:
A Bridge: 200,000
A Fountain: 400,000
A Lighthouse or Windmill: 1,000,000
Able Sisters
The Able Sisters are expert tailors who can outfit you in the latest fashions. Although their selection changes day by day, you can also create your very own shirt designs, for a small charge, of course.
Museum
Well, that's odd. Your town has a museum, but there's nothing on display! It's a good thing you've moved in, as you'll be able to donate the things you collect to be used as exhibits.
These include: Fish, Insects, Fossils, and Paintings.
In addition, the museum is also home to an Observatory (where you can draw constellations in the sky) and The Roost, a relaxing coffee shop where you can enjoy a live musical performance every Saturday night, put on by the one and only K.K. Slider. If you dig his tunes, you can replay them on your home stereo with the CD he gives you after every performance.
The Gate
If you want to get away or just invite some friends to your town, then you'll have to visit the town gate to do so. The gate is always located in the same place of every town, along the northern wall. There you'll find two guards: Booker and Copper. Check in with Booker (the one on the left) if you want to find out what's going on in town, if there are any lost items, or change the town flag. Or talk to Copper if you wish to visit another friend's town or invite them to yours.
Your City
As the name suggests, you're no longer confined to the mere greenery of your village. Oh no, now you can catch the bus for a ride into the city! But don't let the fact that it's a city overwhelm you--it's really quite quaint and easy to navigate. Here's what you can find while there:
It sure is small for a city, but there's still a lot you can do.
Shampoodle (Hours: 8am -- 9pm)
If you're feeling drab, stop by Shampoodle's for a makeover! And like most good hair stylists, the employees here are great conversationalists. In fact, the manner in which you answer her questions dictates what kind of hair style you wind up with! Or if you're not feeling up to getting a haircut, you can also put on a mask that looks just like your Mii!
Gracie (Hours: 9am -- 9pm)
Gracie runs the local clothing store, although the prices can be a bit steep. Because the clothing she sells is seasonal, you may want to hold out on purchasing until the new season for some steep discounts on the outdated goods--but beware, the item you want may be sold out! Her shop also closes the earliest (along with Shampoodle) so make sure to stop by before it gets too late.
The Marquee (Hours: 10am -- 11pm)
While the tickets may be expensive (hundreds of bells), attending Dr. Shrunk's comedy act is the only way to learn new facial expressions.
Katina's Fortunes (Hours: 10am -- midnight)
You don't have to be the superstitious type to reap the rewards of Katina's Fortunes! For a small price, she'll give read you your outlook, which you'll find may very well affect the things you find or encounter back in the village.
Redd's Secret Shop (Hours: 10am -- 1am)
Redd's back and sleazier than ever, only now he's opened a full-time shop in the city itself! Unfortunately, the shop is off-limits until you're offered an invitation. Try buttering up some of your neighbors back in town by giving them gifts and keeping them happy--eventually, one should offer you an invitation to Redd's shop, though you're not in the clear yet! You must still pay Redd 3,000 bells in order to gain access to his store. Once a member, you'll find he carries some high-priced, but rare items that can't be found anywhere else.
Auction House
Have something rare that you want to sell, but aren't happy with the price 'Nook is offering? Then the auction house is for you! Here you can put whatever you want up for grabs, and anyone on your friend list can bid on the item, potentially netting you some major cash! Likewise, you can also bid on what your friends have put up for sale in hopes of acquiring that perfect item.
Happy Room Academy HQ
The Happy Room Academy is responsible for rating how well rooms fit a particular theme. Try visiting their HQ to see an ideal room, as well as perform a few other activities.
Note: Unfortunately, the city is strictly a single-player affair. If you're playing with friends via Wi-Fi, none of you will be able to catch a ride on the bus to visit the city. So make sure you take care of your city needs before departing for a friend's town, or inviting others into yours.
#2. The Basics
Fruit
Local Fruit
Each player's town will start off with one type of fruit tree growing in it - the local fruit. Each tree will have three fruits on it, and will regrow three days after you pick it. Local fruit can be sold to Tom Nook for 100 bells each.
Foreign Fruit
Foreign fruit is any fruit other than your local fruit. Tom Nook will buy foreign fruit for 500 bells a piece.
Getting Foreign Fruit
Players can trade with each other to get foreign fruits or villagers may send them a foreign fruit as a gift attached to a letter.
Some letters your write are more likely to result in foreign fruit being returned than others. If you start your letter "Dear <villager name>," then have "How are you?" or any other three word sentence as the message, and end with "From <your name>" and attach a present you should get foreign fruit back quite often.
When you first get foreign fruit, it's a good idea to plant some in your town so you have a local supply.
Planting Fruit
Fruit can be planted in the ground using a shovel. If it grows, it will grow into a fruit tree. Plant a foreign fruit orchard next to Nooks and harvest it every three days. This is a great way to earn money since one full load of 15 foreign fruit is 7,500 bells.
Coconuts
Coconuts must be planted in the bottom row of acres in a town or they will not grow. Unlike other fruits, only two coconuts grow on a tree. Coconuts are found on the shore on random days at random times anytime during the year. As coconuts can never be a town's native fruit, Tom Nook buys them in all towns for 500 bells
Trees
Your town starts off with a number of trees already there, but these can be added to at your leisure by growing your own. There are five kinds of trees:
Fruit trees - Grown by planting a piece of fruit in a hole in the ground. Can be grown anywhere.
Normal trees - Bought from Tom Nook as saplings for 60 bells. These can be grown anywhere.
Cherry Blossom Trees - Change the color and shape of some tree's leaves to a pink-ish magenta color. They appear on or after the 1st of April to signify that spring has come!
Coconut trees - Grown by planting a coconut in a hole in the ground. Can only grow in the bottom row of acres. Coconuts can be randomly found on the beach.
Cedar trees - Bought from Tom Nook as saplings for 60 bells. These can only be grown in the top two rows of acres.
Bell trees - Grown by burying Bells with a golden shovel (see below for details)
Unlike flowers, they do not grow instantly, but instead take 3-4 days to develop fully. However, they do not require watering (watering doesn't help them at all) and stepping on/walking over/running over saplings does not affect their growth. A common myth is that some trees only grow on the higher or lower tier but these are actually acre-based.
Trees don't always grow to full size, some of them whither or are stunted, and no fruit will develop (if it's a fruit tree).
Trees play a large role in a town's environmental status.
Each tile in town is set to either "allow trees" or "do not allow trees". The latter are tiles which trees can never grow on, sometimes due to planned town features (such as the fountain) and sometimes just at random. A consequence of this is that if a tile contains a tree, it is an "allow trees" tile, hence cutting the tree down and planting a new one in its place will guarantee its growth.
An exception to the above paragraph is when the town fountain is created; existing trees that are positioned immediately adjacent to the new fountain are not destroyed (as they would be for the appearance of a new villager's house), but if they are cut down and a fresh sapling or fruit is planted in their place, the replacement tree will not grow.
Bell Trees
Grown by burying Bells with a golden shovel. These trees may produce three bags of Bells (a bit like fruit), each bag of Bells on the tree is the same as the amount of Bells buried. Bells will only sprout once, and even if the tree grows there is no guarantee that bells will be produced. The chance of a Bell Tree producing Bells is 1 percentage point per 1,000 Bells buried. So if you bury 10,000 (ten thousand) Bells you have a 10% (ten percent) chance of the tree producing three lots of 10,000 Bells (90% of the time the tree will just be a regular tree).
However the maximum payout from Bell trees is three lots of 30,000 Bells. So if you bury 50,000 Bells you'll have a 50% chance of the tree producing three lots of 30,000 Bells.
Using 100 bell coins to plant coins, while very unlikely to produce bell trees, can be a convenient method to plant many trees during one session.
Chopping Down Trees
Stunted and fully developed trees can be chopped down with an axe. This leaves a stump, which can be removed using a shovel.
New in AC:CF: some bugs only appear on tree stumps, namely the Longhorn Beetle and the Violin Beetle.
Shaking Trees
Trees can be shaken to make them drop their contents. With fruit trees this is pretty obvious: the fruit drops. Normal and Cedar trees will sometimes drop 100 bells or furniture when shaken, or may contain bugs like a Spider or a Bagworm.
WARNING: When shaking trees, there is the risk of getting stung by bees. However, this is the only way to catch those evil insects. Tips for catching bees can be found here. If you do get stung, you can buy medicine from Tom Nook's store for 400 bells once per day or you can save and reload and the sting will be gone.
Grass and Snow
Grass
When you arrive at your town, the ground will be mostly covered with grass (unless, of course, it's wintertime), with a few patches of dirt. If you walk over the same area frequently, it eventually wears away. This wear will become more and more visible each time you play the game. A slower, less visible form of wear does occur even after the initial wear.
A little grass grows back at 6am, but if you walk/run over a certain area enough a trail will begin to form. It takes about a fortnight before a faint path becomes visible, though some players experience it sooner. It goes from barely noticeable footprints, to a clear trail after a while. Running will accelerate wear, as will jogging, although running does the most damage.
Grass needs to be present in order for five bugs to appear - the bell cricket, cricket, grasshopper, long locust and migratory locust. These appear at various times of the year, but they all appear in September so it may be a good idea to designate a "nature reserve" area in town that is almost never walked on - even to dig up fossils or pull weeds, which should probably be done weekly in that area at most.
There are various patterns to grass, such as circles, stars, squares, and triangles. Each individual town will have a randomly-generated and permanent grass shape. This shape changes during winter, when the snow falls, then changes back again as the snow fades.
Snow
In early December, a notice is posted on your town's bulletin board alerting you to a low pressure system's arrival on December 10th. Following a full day of snowy weather, any grass covered areas will be converted to snow.
Snow, like the underlying grass, is worn away as it is walked over. Snow wear is more visible than grass wear because of the stark contrast between snow and dirt. Cracks in the ground will also be more visible. In addition to this, you will find snowballs in your town--your only method of catching dung beetles. These snowballs can also be made into a Snowman to attain Snowman furniture. Snow only falls on previously grassy areas, and natural dirt patches will always be bare. During the final weeks of February, you will slowly start to see some green on the trees in your town start to show. On February 25th, at 6:00am, all of the snow in your town will turn green, the snow on any ledges (buildings) will disappear, the snow on the bus will disappear, and the weeds will turn green.
Solutions to excessive grass loss
Some players find that after several weeks of play, there is very little grass left. In the winter, complete erosion of the snow can prevent players from obtaining Snowman furniture. One drastic solution is to Time Travel forward using the Wii system clock, loading one day at a time. Simply jumping forward a few months has no effect on the grass. Your grass should be fully grown back from a complete desert in 6 months, although if the situation wasn't too bad, it'll take less time than that. Grass grows back faster than snow, so if you were to resort to Time Traveling while snow was still on the ground, you should start at February 25th, and go forward from there, so the grass will grow back quickly, and by the time you go back to the real date with snow on the ground, it should have grown back. (as much as your Time Traveling accomplished)
Another method is to place pattern paths to all the most visited places in town, using them exclusively while the grass is in a state of recovery. Note that the patterns themselves do not have an effect on the grass in any way. They are merely a tool to help players develop paths only where they are desired. Early regrowth is fragile; walking over it even once will cause it to visibly disappear. For this reason, players who use this method may have to refrain from shaking trees or digging up fossils and gyroids until the grass reaches a certain stage of recovery. Grass grows faster under trees and flowers and, for a town that has not yet eroded to the point of desertification, planting trees and flowers in problem areas may be enough to reverse or halt the damage. However, the act of walking to the flowers to water them will erode the grass you walk across to reach the flowers. Placing the flowers along the pattern paths themselves is an option while the town is in the early stages of recovery. Natural dirt spots will not grow back.
Whether you're trying to prevent future desertification or are in the process of regrowing your grass, there are are a few things that should be avoided. Unnecessary reloading of the game makes your grass more vulnerable to new wear. Not reloading is not a complete solution, however, as some additional, slower wear still does occur within a single load after stepping on a tile of grass for the first time and the grass becomes susceptible to the faster wear again after 6am. When there are multiple players of the same game file, it may be difficult to avoid reloading. In those cases, pattern paths may be additionally beneficial, as they encourage different people to take the same routes through the town. You should only run where you want a path to form. Do not use the same area repeatedly for rolling snowballs into snowmen; this can very quickly erode an otherwise untouched area of snow.
Grass wear and regrowth is actually affected by the current season. During winter (especially December), the grass will be at its worst, wearing away quickly and growing back slowly. During spring and summer (especially June), the grass will wear down roughly half as fast, and grow back significantly faster.
Note that the grass in your town is arranged in invisible, pattern-sized blocks. When a block of grass is growing back from total dirt, you'll be able to see a small circle of grass, dead center in that block. More bits of grass will appear within the block as time goes on, or the grass will shrink away if it's walked on.
Tools
Axes
Occasionally available in the tools section of Nook's shop (after upgrade to Nook 'n' Go) for 400 bells.
Silver axe:Occasionally given by Serena, summoned once per day by throwing a basic axe into the town fountain.
Golden axe:Occasionally given by Serena.
Purpose: An axe is used to cut down trees. This is used to clear away undesired trees to make a path or to redevelop and improve a town's environmental status. Axes can also get money out of a money rock, and they can get any bugs out of a rock.
Upgrades: The basic axe breaks and disappears from the inventory after around 50 hits [count needed]. The item and its icon change to two stages of visible cracking before the axe breaks, and the player can use this to know roughly how close their axe is to breaking. Silver and golden axes cannot break.
Nets
Usually available in the tools section of Nook's shop (all incarnations) for 500 bells.
Silver net: Rarely available in the tools section of Nook's shop (after upgrade to Nook 'n' Go) for 500 bells.
Golden net: Given to the character by speaking to Tortimer after catching every bug.
Purpose: A net is used to catch bugs. Upon use the character swings the net in an arc over its head, catching a bug within range of the swing. Bugs are caught to be collected, donated to the museum, or sold for income.
Upgrades: The silver net is a tiny amount larger than the basic net. The golden net is larger than both.
Shovels
Occasionally available in the tools section of Nook's shop (all incarnations) for 500 bells.
Silver shovel: Given by Resetti the first time a character enters the Surveillance Center.
Golden shovel: Buried shovels turn into golden shovels the next 6AM following burial.
Purpose: A shovel is used to dig holes in the ground, bury items in existing holes, retrieve buried items (such as fossils, gyroids or any manually buried item), remove tree stumps or saplings, and hit money rocks.
Upgrades: In addition to the above, a silver shovel provides a 10% chance at doubling the bells that appear from a money rock each time it is hit. A golden shovel does not do this, but allows the player to create saplings using bells, with a possibility of the resulting tree turning out as a money tree, with 3 sets of 30,000 bells. Every 1,000 bells you bury give you a 1% chance at a money tree (i.e. 50,000 bells buried gives you a 50% chance at a money tree)
Fishing Rods
Usually available in the tools section of Nook's shop (all incarnations) for 500 bells.
Silver rod: Rarely available in the tools section of Nook's shop (after upgrade to Nook 'n' Go) for 500 bells.
Golden rod: Given to the character by speaking to Tortimer after catching every fish.
Purpose: A fishing rods is used to catch fish. Fish are caught to be collected, donated to the museum, or sold for income.
Upgrades: A silver rod attracts the attention of fish from further away than a basic rod. A golden rod also does so to a greater extent and also keeps a biting fish on the lure for longer, allowing the player more response time to complete the catch.
Slingshots
Occasionally available in the tools section of Nook's shop (after upgrade to Nook 'n' Go) for 500 bells.
Silver slingshot: Rarely available in the tools section of Nook's shop (after upgrade to Nook 'n' Go) for 500 bells.
Golden slingshot: Appears as a "three-balloon" balloon after shooting down at least eight balloons.
Purpose: A slingshot is used to shoot balloons carrying presents, and the UFO of the special character Gulliver.
Upgrades: The basic slingshot fires a single pellet into the sky directly upards. The silver slingshot fires two pellets angling away from each other, increasing the amount of sky covered. The golden slingshot fires three pellets, one centered with the other two to each side, to further increase coverage.
Watering Cans
Occasionally available in the tools section of Nook's shop (all incarnations) for 500 bells.
Silver can: Mail from "Posy Farm" after buying 50 bags of flower seeds at Nook's shop.
Golden can: Awarded by the Town Hall after maintaining the best environmental status for 15 consecutive days.
Purpose: A watering can is used to restore withering flowers in order to prevent them disappearing the following day. They are also used to water buried red turnips. The effective radius of the watering can is greater than the visual effect, and using it in one space will also water the spaces above, below and to the sides.
Upgrades: The silver can resets a wilted buried red turnip, making it count as "just planted" the following day. The golden does not do this, but instead turns wilting black roses into golden roses (which themselves never wilt). Both the silver and gold cans have a greater effective radius, watering all eight spaces surrounding the spot where it is used.
Timer
Occasionally available in the tools section of Nook's shop (after upgrade to Nook 'n' Go) for 500 bells.
The timer has no Silver or Gold varieties. Upon being started, the timer counts down from a limit the player sets (3, 5, 10 or 15 minutes). During this countdown, all players in the town (via Wi-Fi) are able to view the total number of fish and bugs caught by their character as well as other characters in town. When time runs out, the score (total bugs and fish caught during the time) is displayed over each characters' head.
The timer replaces the normal clock on screen while active, preventing the player from being able to see the current time. The timer can be stopped early, but removing it from the character's inventory does not automatically cancel the timer. If other characters in town own a timer, they can also cancel the timer's countdown.
#2. Miscellaneous
Ok guys, there are different Animal Crossings for different consoles. Here`s some stuff to get you started on your choices
Animal Forest - Released April 14th, 2001 for the N64. (Japan only)
Omganimalcrossingsaportnoway. Due to the deflating N64 market, it was never released outside of Japan, and was obviously ported the Nintendo Gamecube.
Animal Crossing (Animal Forest in Japan) - Released December 14th, 2001 in Japan, September 15th, 2002, in North America, for the Nintendo Gamecube
The game Animal Crossing fans fell in love with. For me, it was nothing like I'd ever played before. You could fish, dig, catch bugs, pay off loans.. buy furniture? What? That's a game? Hell yeah it is! Unlike the Sims, which was a lot more realistic, you had a cutesy-wootsey version of it. But it was different in Animal Crossing, you have stuff to do! No sitting around, getting rated on your house, going to holidays, being the animal's slave personnel by going to pick up their damn gameboy. And, let's not forget the N.E.S. They input quite a few N.E.S games that you could find and actually play. It was pretty amazing.
Animal Crossing: Wild World - Released November 23rd, 2005, in Japan, December 5th, 2005, for North America, for the Nintendo DS
The portable version of Animal Crossing. Same game, almost, but portable! Yay! They did change a few things, such as replacing good holidays for stupid ones (Yay-day, anyone?) and removing the acre system, and N.E.S games. It still was a good game, and it had Wi-Fi connectivity. Meaning you just trade your friend codes, and go to your friends place and hang out at the same time. Awesome.
Animal Crossing: City Folk - Released November 16th, 2008 for the Wii
Animal Crossing just keeps on going?! NO WAY! It`s just like the Game Cube version, except improvement on the graphics, no more lake with a dock (nooooooo...), like Wild World; no acre system, Wi-Fi, and different music (of course). And, OMG NO WAY?! YOU HAVE YOUR VERY OWN HOUSE NOW! In Wild World, you had to live with whoever played on your DS with you and had to share the house (talk about no privacy). But now in City Folk, you can keep your own privacy, but, instead of everyone pitching in to pay the debt/mortgage, you have to pay it off yourself. Plus, you have a city you can visit! The city contains a limited amount of places like; GracieGrace (new store owned by the giraffe, Gracie), the HRA Headquarters (runned by Lyle), an auction house (runned by Lloid, the gyroid from the Game Cube version), and lots more! Shampoodle was moved there by the way, so uhh...yea.
Dōbutsu no Mori (Animal Forest: The Movie) - Released December 16th, 2006 in Japan, Nintendo has no plans for a foreign release.I actually quite enjoyed it. It's touching, and made me very sad. But it's happy too! It was released in theaters (Wow, something like this would never be released in theaters in North America) and made 5 million dollars during the course of the showing. Animal Crossing fans will love it, as it bases around Wild World.
I was able to find part 1 and 2 of the movie, someone is uploading them.. very slowly on YouTube.
Animal Crossing Movie: Part 1 Just click on the persons name to see more.
#2. Guides
Well...I`m sure this is all the info you need. For more information, you can just either as a question here in my journal, or you can PM me. Hope you found this info useful!
 My Tummy Talks To Me · Sat Mar 14, 2009 @ 04:28pm · 2 Comments |
