# I thought I understood the grass decay... Maybe not?



## sigmajw (Jun 21, 2013)

So I was under the impression, that running (Holding down B) only kills your grass. Where as walking (only the joystick) wouldn't affect it. 

Now, I NEVER run with B. I always walk just with the joystick. But I do push it all the way. (he still kicks up a tiny bit of dust while walking.)

I have flowers planted in every patch of dirt, and I water daily, but I'm starting to notice my grass is getting worse, not improving. Thin patches of grass which were previously fully green are starting to get sparse, with just walking.

What's going on here, I thought I understood how the system worked? Do I seriously need to move my character at a snail's pace?


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## Attribule (Jun 21, 2013)

Grass deteriorates no matter what if I'm not mistaken. You can't prevent it.

There's a theory that planting flowers and watering them doesn't actually help grow the grass back at all, but that it's an ''illusion'' caused by the fact that many people don't walk through their flowers/flowerbeds so the grass underneath doesn't get damaged and has more time to grow back.

I think time is the only thing that brings grass back. I heard a few days to a week+ regrows some, but I'm not sure.

It's better to just find some nice design ''turf'' and slap it around your town.


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## Rainy Day (Jun 21, 2013)

I heard that simply logging onto your game deteriorates the grass. That's why some folks don't like to save and quit every 15 minutes or so.

Naturally I cannot verify this but it seems to be so. There are spots in my town I've never even stepped foot on and dirt spots are slowly but surely growing there...which makes me think it's session deterioration.


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## Ade4265 (Jun 21, 2013)

Does the "Beautiful Town" ordinance effect grass deterioration in any way?


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## SockHead (Jun 21, 2013)

Ade4265 said:


> Does the "Beautiful Town" ordinance effect grass deterioration in any way?



I think it's safe to say that this might slow it down, but of course there's no proof yet.


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## BellGreen (Jun 28, 2013)

Ade4265 said:


> Does the "Beautiful Town" ordinance effect grass deterioration in any way?



I have that ordinance. I feel like my town looked pretty much the same every day...


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## Mirror (Jun 28, 2013)

Yeah, I don't think flowers grow it back either, although they make a decent cover-up, because I've had flowers almost since day 1 on the deteriorating patches, and it hasn't really helped. To combat this, I've placed paths around my town, as grass will not deteriorate if there's a pattern on top of it.


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## ChaosKitten (Jun 28, 2013)

I have the beautiful town ordinance and the path to my house and the dirt around my ponds and river are only getting more...dirt-y. Keep in mind these are the places I walk over every day multiple times a day. The rest of my town doesn't seem to be having bad deterioration from the daily routine of shaking trees, finding money rock, etc.

I also log into the game 2-3 times per day.

I also walk over grass. I only run over my paths and so far those don't have deterioration underneath.


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## Feraligator (Jun 28, 2013)

The grass in my town is deteriorating very fast. I don't mind it much, but I can see it becoming a problem. It seems flowers don't help.


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## CharityDiary (Jun 28, 2013)

BellBringerGreen said:


> I have that ordinance. I feel like my town looked pretty much the same every day...



I also have the Beautiful Town ordinance, and my grass just keeps deteriorating.

I always use my paths, and I water my flowers on the dirt spots daily, but they don't get any better.


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## sharkstache (Jun 28, 2013)

On my old practice file, I had a beautiful town ordinance and put flowers over the dirt patches.  I time traveled 10 days without watering, and the dirt completely disappeared. The odd thing is that, some places healed faster than others, and some other spots are not recovering at all.

I think it helps by not walking on it, but it takes about a week to start seeing changes i think.


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## Nami (Jun 28, 2013)

Dirt spots that have been present since game start will never go away. Walking DOES kill grass, just slower than running. Regrowing grass literally takes like 12 days, nothing to complain about compared to the six months it would take in CF. you can also time travel that an it would work, where as in CF you'd have to log on each individual day.


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## ForgottenT (Jun 28, 2013)

Do NOT walk on the dirt, and it will grow back, also running is worse for the grass than walking, but they both destroy the grass, I would recommend paths, because grass won?t be destroyed if there?s a path over it, and paths are awesome! lol


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## Attribule (Jun 28, 2013)

ForgottenT said:


> I would recommend paths, because grass won?t be destroyed if there?s a path over it, and paths are awesome! lol



I'd lay down paths if somebody would actually create a replica of the in-game grass. If there is one I have yet to find it after seeing dozens upon dozens of different path patterns. Most designs clash with virtually everything in the game unless you build your town SPECIFICALLY to fit the style.


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## Nami (Jun 28, 2013)

ForgottenT said:


> Do NOT walk on the dirt, and it will grow back, also running is worse for the grass than walking, but they both destroy the grass, I would recommend paths, because grass won?t be destroyed if there?s a path over it, and paths are awesome! lol



Not sure what you meant, but grass that is under a path will be destroyed. Theirs a video floating around of someone lifting up their paths to reveal a dirt path under it.


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## Attribule (Jun 28, 2013)

Nami said:


> Not sure what you meant, but grass that is under a path will be destroyed. Theirs a video floating around of someone lifting up their paths to reveal a dirt path under it.



Yeah, I heard it kills the grass underneath as well. Apparently it's stated in the JP wiki or something.

Paths just mask the issue; they don't technically fix it.


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## Stevey Queen (Jun 28, 2013)

I wish we freakin knew the facts about the grass. There's too much speculation and unconfirmed details and whatnot.


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## Nami (Jun 28, 2013)

What's confirmed so far is how long it takes to grow back, original dirt spots will never grow, and that walking kills it as well as running. I'd say that is a fair amount of knowledge. Ive tested and confirmed all of the above for myself. Fact is the grass is 100% better than it was in CF. This is why I wish people would stop complaining about the feature, it takes forever to kill, and hardly any time to grow back fully.


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## Attribule (Jun 28, 2013)

Nami said:


> This is why I wish people would stop complaining about the feature, *it takes forever to kill, and hardly any time to grow back fully*.



Because this is false.

My grass is getting noticeably worse every single day, and even days and days of rain haven't helped to fix areas that I rarely even walk on to begin with. In fact, I notice them continuing to wear away even with my flowers being watered every day. I think the theory that loading your game in itself/going to black saving screens such as through wifi connections actually kill off your grass every single time by small amounts, but doing these more often obviously adds up.

People complain about it because:

1. It's a 100% useless feature in the game.

2. It's a useless feature than virtually nobody ever liked in past games yet they brought it back anyway.

3. They bring it back yet don't give us any *practical* ways of combating it. Honestly, grass wear wouldn't be an issue if they made Beautiful Town ordinance prevent it from happening, or drastically speed up the recovery process.

There's absolutely no reason for this feature to even exist in the game except to make your town look progressively worse... for no reason other than to just do what it's doing.


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## ForgottenT (Jun 28, 2013)

Attribule said:


> Yeah, I heard it kills the grass underneath as well. Apparently it's stated in the JP wiki or something.
> 
> Paths just mask the issue; they don't technically fix it.



I see, it does not concern me though, cause I?m not gonna remove my paths.


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## Pickles (Jun 28, 2013)

This. _So_ much this!! 



Attribule said:


> Because this is false.
> 
> My grass is getting noticeably worse every single day, and even days and days of rain haven't helped to fix areas that I rarely even walk on to begin with. In fact, I notice them continuing to wear away even with my flowers being watered every day. I think the theory that loading your game in itself/going to black saving screens such as through wifi connections actually kill off your grass every single time by small amounts, but doing these more often obviously adds up.
> 
> ...


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## curiousfluke (Jun 28, 2013)

The grass had started to wear along my river after how much I walked over it my first week after release trying to catch everything... I haven't really paid attention to it until I saw this thread and so I checked to find everything regrown.

As an experiment the other day, I made a new character, plopped their house down in my town, then deleted them. Of course their house destroyed all the grass in that area. I'm not putting any flowers on it or doing anything special. It has been 2 days and I haven't seen any regrowth just yet. I might put down another house and try the flower theory with that dirt plot.

I have had very little grass wear (well, under my paths is probably wearing, but I don't care about that) other than that bit around the river since the game came out on the 9th. 

I don't hop in and out of my game more than 2-3 times a day and I almost exclusively walk on my paths (I only really leave them when I wander around to find my daily fossils.) In the last 2 days I've had about 40 people visit my town who generally stayed on my paths so I don't think loading screens/ saving affects the grass deterioration, because I don't see a difference.

Just what I've seen. Grass in this game is a mystery.


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## Nami (Jun 28, 2013)

I'm just saying there is nothing we can do about the feature existing, so why continue to whine about it? I'm not happy either, but I'm doing the best I can to combat it. Why flowers aren't working for some people is a mystery to me, even without them my gras grows back at a decent rate.


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## Stevey Queen (Jun 28, 2013)

I notice a lot of people complain about how their grass dies in areas they barely walk and then I remembered back when everyone was playing the Japanese version, somebody said that villagers were affecting the grass too. They had a picture of it dying and the person said it was dying because all their villagers liked to go that particular area a lot.

Of course villagers affecting the grass is just another thing we'll never truly know :/

Nintendo should release their own guide on this game. Then we'll know everything.


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## XTheLancerX (Jun 28, 2013)

I run. All the time. I haven't noticed any grass wear. At all. Well, I think there are a COUPLE places where I can see the grass receding a little bit at the edges of dirt patches, but nothing serious. I have the beautiful ordinance btw


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## CharityDiary (Jun 28, 2013)

Nami said:


> Not sure what you meant, but grass that is under a path will be destroyed. Theirs a video floating around of someone lifting up their paths to reveal a dirt path under it.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1D8vbv7pf8

This video shows a town where the pathways have been removed.


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## TheCreeperHugz (Jun 29, 2013)

Dont know if anyone has mentioned this (too lazy to read every post) but dirt patches that are there when you make the town will not grow grass, even if you never walk on them. They stay as dirt.


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## sharkstache (Jun 29, 2013)

TheCreeperHugz said:


> Dont know if anyone has mentioned this (too lazy to read every post) but dirt patches that are there when you make the town will not grow grass, even if you never walk on them. They stay as dirt.



I was just about to post this lol.

However, if a natural dirt spot gets bigger, it's possible to shrink it down to it's original size.

I've managed to get rid of a dirt spot that a moving neighbor left in only 6 days, but the natural areas remain the way they are.


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## Fishboi (Jun 29, 2013)

I think... Animals must affect grass wear. In my town, there were like three houses next to each other and it looked as if a path between the doors/to the river had worn itself without me really ever walking that all that much. 

In essence, I think the problem boils down to this for me:
It's not about being able to avoid it, it's not about being able to "fix it" with patterns, it's not about any of that. It's that I have to employ avoidance strategies _at all in the first place._ 
It's about not having a reliable and effective strategy to "fix it" with in game items. For a game that's all about customization and personalization, why do I not have more control over this feature? We don't even _know_ how it grows/dies. It's ridiculous. 

I shouldn't be punished just because I don't have the time to take hours and hours to plop down paths throughout my town. 
I shouldn't be punished because I don't have hours and hours to water _all_ the flowers everywhere on all of the rapidly expanding dirt patches throughout my town. 
I shouldn't be punished for having a gamestyle which involves loading/saving multiple times in a day. After all, just think about animal crossing, if anything, this is a game that _promotes_ a play style like that. Therefore it is simply unacceptable for someone to come in and say "Well it's your fault for not doing X." 

I reject that and take offense to that reasoning. Because what it boils down to is this: This feature sucks. This feature sucks and I shouldn't have to do a damn thing to avoid how I want to play this game for fear my town will turn into a dirty Smudge. This is affecting my enjoyment with it, having to walk everywhere, having to go out of my way not to walk on dirt patches - because by there nature - it's where I would tend to walk a lot in the first place. 

And I want it gone.


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## Mr. L (Jun 29, 2013)

I've planted flowers in my dirt patches since day one and they've all practically regrown. 

If you're not at least seeing a difference in a week or two, it's your fault for walking over it or inviting people over who walked/ran over it. 

Walking over it at full speed will deteriorate it, walking with your character's hands slowly swaying back and forth will not.


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## Nami (Jun 29, 2013)

Dude, yes walking does do it. You've regrown your original dirt patches? So you have none?


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## Stevey Queen (Jun 29, 2013)

Mr. L said:


> I've planted flowers in my dirt patches since day one and they've all practically regrown.
> 
> If you're not at least seeing a difference in a week or two, it's your fault for walking over it or inviting people over who walked/ran over it.
> 
> Walking over it at full speed will deteriorate it, walking with your character's hands slowly swaying back and forth will not.



Pics or it didn't happen.


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## Attribule (Jun 29, 2013)

Mr. L said:


> If you're not at least seeing a difference in a week or two, it's your fault for walking over it or inviting people over who walked/ran over it.
> 
> Walking over it at full speed will deteriorate it, walking with your character's hands slowly swaying back and forth will not.



So for starters you're admitting the problem is incredibly hard to fix. You're saying you should avoid the worn areas for up to 14days to see a difference? Yeah, very practical. Especially when villagers walk wherever they please at all hours of the day.

Also, you're completely wrong about walking not wearing down grass. It's been confirmed it DOES wear it down. Grass wear is *literally impossible* to prevent completely. There will always be wear on the edges of grass that touch any dirt, whether the wear is immediately noticeable or not.

If you don't understand how grass wear works you shouldn't post about it as if you know the facts.


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## Sean4 (Jun 30, 2013)

I hate this, by the end of the next week my town will be all dirt. /Request nintendo to fix this, haha. I completely agree with what Attribule and Fishboi have said.  Paths are ugly, and take up space where stars (for fossils) and stones/flowers could appear/grow plus as mentioned just cover up the dirt not fix it. -Shrugs- It'd be cool if Nintendo could actually send us a update through wifi to solve something like this or change the game in anyway. (Digitally downloaded copies of course)


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## RisingSun (Jun 30, 2013)

Sean4 said:


> I hate this, by the end of the next week my town will be all dirt. /Request nintendo to fix this, haha. I completely agree with what Attribule and Fishboi have said.  Paths are ugly, and take up space where stars (for fossils) and stones/flowers could appear/grow plus as mentioned just cover up the dirt not fix it. -Shrugs- It'd be cool if Nintendo could actually send us a update through wifi to solve something like this or change the game in anyway. (Digitally downloaded copies of course)



The physical copies can get updates too...MarioKart had to be updated to play online (I had the physical of that one too).  I have a minimal path put down, and I don't feel it is taking a lot of space up.  My paths are single line and going through the town for each house and major building.  I am not putting paths to each and every PWP, though.


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## Bubble Pop (Jun 30, 2013)

I think other animals in your town affect it too, quite a lot of grass outside the houses of villagers i've barely visited is wearing away.


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## Mary (Jun 30, 2013)

Okay, now we are just whining! No good is going to come of this. I placed down a path and I run only on that path. Come on, people. Cheer up. dEAR GOD, LET A MOD CLOSE THIS THREAD


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## JKDOS (Jun 30, 2013)

You can also Run with L and R


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## Sean4 (Jun 30, 2013)

Mary said:


> Okay, now we are just whining! No good is going to come of this. I placed down a path and I run only on that path. Come on, people. Cheer up. dEAR GOD, LET A MOD CLOSE THIS THREAD



We have the right to whine, we paid for this game did we not?   @Sun thanks for reminding me, when I started up Animal crossing I realized there was a selection "update data." and I have the physical copy so. haha


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## Hirisa (Jun 30, 2013)

Sean4 said:


> We have the right to whine, we paid for this game did we not?   @Sun thanks for reminding me, when I started up Animal crossing I realized there was a selection "update data." and I have the physical copy so. haha



I agree. I think people are allowed to critique the game they paid for. It's nice that some people are 100% satisfied with the game as it is, but that doesn't give them the right to try and shut down conversations they don't like. They are, however, welcome to move on to a thread that they can contribute meaningfully to.

Anyway, I see grass deterioration as a good idea, with flawed implementation. The paths I walk every day in my game show almost no wear, but the dirt patches in my game grow ever larger. That doesn't make a lot of sense to me.


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## amerlene (Jun 30, 2013)

It does seem strange that there are such mixed reports on the grass deterioration issue. If it's such a bother to people, Nintendo should probably do a update that allows the player to regrow grass quickly, like asking Leif to regrow it for you or something. They did make Resetti a option, so it's not beyond the realms of possibility.

Personally, I don't take much notice of it and I haven't seen any major grass wear. I've put some paths down but they're mostly there to help me find places.


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## Nooblord (Jun 30, 2013)

My Wild World town was 70 percent dirt, so I'm fine with all the grass I have now. I've notice some deterioration but nothing too much to have me bothered. Plus I have a bunch of flowers in my town to make up for it.


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## daniacnl (Nov 30, 2014)

Ade4265 said:


> Does the "Beautiful Town" ordinance effect grass deterioration in any way?



I think yes, because I have this ordinance and I haven't seen grass deteriorate in a good time. The last time I think grass disappeared significantly was because I demolished a home and when one of my neighbors moved away, so I think it makes it wear away but really slowly and recovers in a short time.


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## unintentional (Nov 30, 2014)

I don't know if this belongs here, but isn't there places it never grows back?


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## Momo15 (Nov 30, 2014)

Grass deteriorating, from experience, works like this:
So no matter what, the grass will keep on deteriorating, flowers only cover it up to make it look nice. From time travelling experiences, if you want to help grass grow back, either don't play for long periods of time, or time travel long distances (about 5 days or more)


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## unintentional (Nov 30, 2014)

I didn't mean to post on such an old thread


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## lazuli (Dec 1, 2014)

beautiful town does NOT prevent grass wear. yall are crazy


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## maarowak (Dec 1, 2014)

and grass does deteriorate under paths, you just don't see it

imho, only time and rain fix grass. after a rainy days I can see a few mud patches starting to grow back, idk if it's really the rain, but something I noticed, since I have a mud patch near my house from walking


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## MeghanNewLeaf (Dec 1, 2014)

I'm not sure how to prevent it.  The only way my grass grew back was because I don't play every day like I used to.


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## datsuryouku (Dec 1, 2014)

I looked up the grass deterioration issue on AC Wikia and it seems to confirm a few things:​

-Fertilizer and Beautiful Ordinance *do not *help regrow grass.
-Placing patterns on ground *will not* help regrow grass. 
-Watering flowers on decaying grass *doubles the regrowth speed* (the flowers must be watered for this to count). _Stepping or walking over the flowers counteracts this and will instead count as walking on the grass, deteriorating it instead_.

Click on the link to read more up on it:
http://animalcrossing.wikia.com/wiki/Grass_Deterioration
(scroll towards the bottom and make sure you're reading grass deterioration for AC: New Leaf)


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## Becca617 (Dec 1, 2014)

i think its stupid when grass detorates even when you simply start a session honestly nintendo why


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## maarowak (Dec 1, 2014)

Becca617 said:


> i think its stupid when grass detorates even when you simply start a session honestly nintendo why



it doesn't. otherwise i would have a bare town by now, i save and quit like crazy and most of my town has full grass alright. *grass only deteriorates where you walk* if your grass is deteriorating, you walked there, even if you "barely" walked there.


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## Hypno KK (Dec 1, 2014)

Grass wears down even when you just walk on it. If you really want to prevent them, take different routes all the time. There isn't much you can do to prevent it otherwise, since it just imitates the way it works in the real world.

I don't think that flowers change it, either, they're just helpful because they cover it up while making you less likely to run or walk a lot in those spots.



Ade4265 said:


> Does the "Beautiful Town" ordinance effect grass deterioration in any way?



Not that I know of. I have that ordinance and I still get grass wear. Maybe it slows it down (and it keeps flowers from dying if you use any flowers to cover it up) but otherwise it doesn't do anything.

- - - Post Merge - - -



maarowak said:


> it doesn't. otherwise i would have a bare town by now, i save and quit like crazy and most of my town has full grass alright. *grass only deteriorates where you walk* if your grass is deteriorating, you walked there, even if you "barely" walked there.



Exactly! It has nothing to do with how many new sessions you start. People probably only notice it when they start the game very often because that's when your town is updated.


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## Royce (Dec 2, 2014)

Some of the pathes of grass are more sensitive than others in grass decay, so it's probably that.


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