Little Things Some ACNH Players Might Not Know

[Mountain_Elements]

This thread is basically for stuff you think other ACNH players might not know about, usually because the game never mentioned it, and you either stumbled onto it or found the information online somewhere. With the fishing tournament occuring tomorrow, I thought that now would be a good time to post that:

1) You can get trophies from participating in fishing tournaments and Bugoffs. It's 100 points for a bronze trophy, 200 points for a silver trophy, and 300 points for a gold trophy.

I found that out from reading a thread on this website. Before then, I didn't see much point in participating in the tournaments.

2) Celeste will appear in the Roost between 5 to 7 PM on the days she'll be wandering your island. After 7 PM, you can check if she's there by seeing if she shows up for a group stretch.

Someone told this, and it's saved me a lot of time searching for Celeste ever since.

3) Balloons with presents are generated at times that end with "4" and "9" at the farthest edge of your map (the farthest you can swim away from the island) and usually reach your island at times that end with "0" or "5". They don't necessarily come every 5 minutes, but you can make it more likely for them to come at the next possible time by visiting Nook's Cranny or the museum and making sure to leave before the last digit of the time reaches "4" or "9".

I researched this online when I was frustrated by not being able to find presents, and I'm pretty sure there are details that I don't remember. I think that if you're inside a building when the time ends with "4" or "9", then a present won't be generated, but I'm not sure.

4) Katrina's fortune telling really does affect your luck. Good luck in money usually gets me a gold nugget that day. 10,000 bells to purify your bad luck can be pricey, but she sends gifts in the mail afterwards of items that can't be obtained anywhere else inside the game.

I've seen two different people ask about Katrina on this site so I thought I'd include it. I researched Katrina to see whether it was worth bothering with the fortune telling and found out that the answer was, "Yes". Here's a link to all of the possible luck results if anyone is interested.

 

[BobRocks20]

I remember you mentioned this trick found in an article about getting a perfect Snowboy during winter. On there it said you have to roll the snowball for 17 seconds to make the body and 12 seconds for the head.

You can also make a quick profit with produce, if you grow a lot of them; they sell for 350 bells. I'd share how much I got from doing this but I don't have my Switch whith me so I'll edit this post when I get it back. What I will say, though, is that once you use the crops, you won't have to worry about the tediousness of sea-diving for bells. I believe this came from fellow user @/PapaCrossing.

 

[ShawnFuzz]

3) Presents are generated at times that end with "4" and "9" and usually reach your island at times that end with "0" or "5". They don't necessarily come every 5 minutes, but you can make it more likely for them to come by visiting Nook's Cranny or the museum and then leaving before it gets too close to the time for presents to ararrive.is

Is this referring to balloons? So, a balloon will reach my island at 2:00, or 2:05... or 2:10... etc...

Or am I totally misreading this haha

 

[sashoo]

Is this referring to balloons? So, a balloon will reach my island at 2:00, or 2:05... or 2:10... etc...

Or am I totally misreading this haha

no, I think what they are saying is that times where the last digit is 4 or 9 (e.g. 2:39, 7:24) are when balloons come, if that makes sense?

 

[ShawnFuzz]

Yeah, I think I understand, but the second part of what they said was that it will reach the island at "0" or "5". Meaning... 2:45? Or 7:50?

Sorry, when it come to numbers I should just nod and smile! If I can't use my fingers to count, numbers are lost on me!

 

[sashoo]

Ohhhh, sorry I read it wrong as well, no I think you're right but they won't come every five minutes.
Sorry

 

[ShawnFuzz]

See what you are doing to us @Mountain_Elements ? You are trying to be helpful, but dividing us with arithmetic

Seriously, this is all really interesting stuff, and I hope there are more tidbits that most of us don't know! (I am looking forward to this fishing tourney because of your info!)

 

[Mountain_Elements]

Is this referring to balloons? So, a balloon will reach my island at 2:00, or 2:05... or 2:10... etc...

Or am I totally misreading this haha

no, I think what they are saying is that times where the last digit is 4 or 9 (e.g. 2:39, 7:24) are when balloons come, if that makes sense?

Sorry! I'll try to clear things up. From what I read online, the balloons with presents are generated at times that end with 4 or 9. However, the balloons are generated at the farthest area of your map (the farthest you can swim away from your island). It takes time for the balloons to travel to your island where you can pop them. The average speed of the balloons means that the presents will usually end up reaching your island at times that end with 5 or 0.

However, the presents aren't generated EVERY time that ends with 4 or 9. I remember the time between presents ranging from 5 to 20 minutes. The website I was using recommended going into the museum or Nook's Cranny to make the presents appear at the next possible time, but it cautioned that you had to leave the building before the clock reached 4 or 9.

 

[himekirako]

if you have the dlc, you can get recipes from the restaurant and the beach
you can also get turnips from joan at the hospital on mondays :>

 

[Mountain_Elements]

I thought of a couple more things to list, but some of them are probably only useful for really new players.

• If you talk to Celeste while having a Zodiac star fragment in your inventory, she'll offer to tell you about it.

I found that out accidentally and then promptly had Celeste tell me a short story about every single Zodiac star fragment.

• Thanks to @BobRocks20 for pointing out the benefits of multiplayer modes for the tournaments! Multiplayer mode for the fishing tourney and Bug-Offs means that no one has to pay the 500 bell fee and that all of the players can earn bonus points if they catch enough total creatures. The fishing tourney gives everyone 5 bonus points each if they catch at least 5 fish total while the Bug-Off bonus points are variable. 5-9 bugs gets everyone 5 bonus points, 10-14 bugs earns 7 bonus points, and 15 bugs or more is 10 bonus points.

I credit multiplayer mode with BobRocks20 for making it a lot easier for me to get the silver and gold trophies in the fishing tourney today. I don't know if I would have been able to get the gold without those bonus points.

• You can run by holding down the "B" button, but you risk destroying the petals on any blooming flowers you run through.

I did not know this until I read about it on this forum. The run mechanic is what pushed me into putting paths on my island.

• You can creep up on bugs by holding down the "A" button while you move.

This is another mechanic that I only found out about from this forum. However, at that point, I had already caught most of the hardest bugs by just walking up to them while stopping any time they reared up, over and over again, so I haven't used this mechanic much.

• You can kick away holes by pressing "Y" next to them, but you might accidentally pick a flower instead. You might also accidentally kick away a custom path by doing this.

I once called the rescue service in-game because I had trapped myself with holes. I could have also just jumped over the holes if I had known that was possible.

• You can brace yourself while hitting rocks by putting holes or a fence behind you. If you're properly braced, you can hit the rock up to 8 times and get an Achievement for the first time you manage 8 hits.

I hadn't realized this was possible until I tried researching which Achievements I was missing. I now have a couple of fences or furniture objects next to each rock on my island.

• There are Achievements for making a ton of profit from selling turnips, but any losses count against those profits. There are 4 different price patterns for turnip prices - Random/Fluctuating, Small Spike, Large Spike, and Decreasing. If you're interested in trying for those Achievements, I recommend reading up on those price patterns here and then using Turnip Prophet to help you figure out when to sell your turnips.

I do NOT recommend trying to post on this forum to ask for help selling your turnips UNLESS you're stuck in a decreasing price pattern. The Airport subforum is not very active, and threads about selling turnips often don't get a response. Even if people see your thread, they might not have the prices you want. Does anyone have a site they can recommend to new players for finding good turnip prices?

 

[ShawnFuzz]

Speaking of run mechanics, you can also skid to a halt while running one direction and then suddenly turning the opposite way. This is probably common knowledge, but I didn't know it for months until it accidentally happened. It doesn't really serve a purpose, but it's kind of fun skidding back and forth.

 

[BobRocks20]

I do NOT recommend trying to post on this forum to ask for help selling your turnips UNLESS you're stuck in a decreasing price pattern. The Airport subforum is not very active, and threads about selling turnips often don't get a response. Even if people see your thread, they might not have the prices you want. Does anyone have a site they can recommend to new players for finding good turnip prices?

Since you asked, I'll just quote from the ACNH FAQ...

If you have a Nintendo Switch Online subscription, you can travel to others’ islands for a guaranteed high price. Suggested websites to find high prices: https://turnip.exchange, ACNH Discord Server (https://discord.com/invite/acnh).

 

[Mountain_Elements]

I thought of a couple more things that either I or people on this site did not know at first.

• When Saharah visits your island, you can actually get TWO each of mysterious wallpapers and mysterious floorings. The key is that you have to buy one with tickets and the other with bells.

For the longest time, I was just buying one type of mysterious item with tickets and then the second type of mysterious item with bells. Then I accidentally bought the same type of mysterious item with bells after having already bought that type with tickets. Now I'm regretting all of those chances I missed to get new wallpapers.

• If Redd on Harv's island only has art that you don't need, you can buy one of the artworks anyway, and then there'll be a new piece of art available the next day. This gets you up to 8 chances for new artwork a week, assuming that Redd doesn't visit your island that week.

I read about this in the forums before I even unlocked Harv's island, but I've seen posts that some people didn't know about this until someone else suggested it so I thought I'd include it.

• Redd really means "Only 1 artwork per day". If you buy a piece of art from Harv's island to cycle the art and then visit a friend's island while Redd is visiting, he won't let you buy another piece of art.

 

[Mountain_Elements]

Another thing I didn't know for a while: Some items can only be obtained by checking your recycling bin. There's a 45% chance of getting an item in your recycling bin each day AS LONG AS YOU KEEP UNDER 10 ITEMS IN YOUR RECYCLING BIN. Even after I found out about the unique items, I didn't realize that I had to have less than 10 items in my recycling bin for ages.

 

[skarmoury]

I found out pretty late into the game that double pressing A while crafting actually speeds up the crafting process LOL.

Also there are many rare kinds of mystery islands some may be unfamiliar with! I remember trying to look for the trash island while searching for villagers with NMTs, and I did stumble across two trash island throughout my entire gameplay. I've also seen the scorpion island, fin island, and rugged tree island (which I mistook for a scorpion island hehe) at least once. Surprisingly, I apparently haven't seen all the mystery islands yet!

 

[Mountain_Elements]

For some reason I cannot figure out, even with help from @BobRocks20, villagers will go on a streak of giving the player items that are completely new to their catalogue and then stop at some unknown point. I got summer items during the winter and a winter item in the spring before the villagers switched to giving me only items that I already had.

Even once you stop getting new items, it's still a good idea to give your villagers gifts in order to increase their friendship levels and get villager photos. Good gift items range from two non-native fruit to assessed fossils, and wrapping the gifts beforehand gets you another friendship point. Yue's Gifting Guide seems to have the most detailed information on the best gifts to give, but it might be a bit out of date. I read somewhere else that the fruit stack trick doesn't work any more.

 

[BobRocks20]

For some reason I cannot figure out, even with help from @BobRocks20, villagers will go on a streak of giving the player items that are completely new to their catalogue and then stop at some unknown point. I got summer items during the winter and a winter item in the spring before the villagers switched to giving me only items that I already had.

I’m stumped too TBH, especially since nobody had talked about such a thing before until you came along. Maybe it’s random… who knows?

 

[Mountain_Elements]

I’m stumped too TBH, especially since nobody had talked about such a thing before until you came along. Maybe it’s random… who knows?

My guess as to why people don't talk about it happening is that most people give their villagers gifts from the beginning of the game when the catalogue doesn't have much in it so it's not as noticeable if all of the items are new. It's probably a game feature intended to get the player new items for their catalogue while they're just getting started and might not have all of the shops.

While I did give my villagers gifts from the beginning, it was mainly cheap stuff, and I didn't give gifts very often. Getting new items seems to require a minimum friendship level along with the minimum gift value. It wasn't until I started using a catalogue website that I realized that my occasional gifts to my villagers got me new items on days when I had good luck in friendship, and I went all in in giving my villagers gifts on those days. Eventually, I determined that I got new items on days in when I didn't have good luck in friendship as well. Then the gravy train came to an end, and I haven't figured out what the cutoff point was.

 

[food_and_mysteries]

Omg so that's where Celeste was, thank you!