# Ultimate grass wear repair thread.



## taylalatbh (Aug 25, 2013)

I'm fed up of the patchiness of my town. Anyone got the definitive answer to fixing this?


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## Midgetsc (Aug 25, 2013)

TTing is the best way.


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## taylalatbh (Aug 25, 2013)

Midgetsc said:


> TTing is the best way.



Apart from that, then. I'm not prepared to TT.


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## Mao (Aug 25, 2013)

Plants flowers and water them

- - - Post Merge - - -

Is it very tedious though and it takes a long time


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## anochel (Aug 25, 2013)

I joined to find a solution to this.. I have NO grass, anywhere top 2/3rds of my town.. only the bottom third below my river.. I try not to walk on. I will be probably one of the few, with no snow for snowballs.  Guilty hands up am being penalised for playing this too much. I never run.. Just wish Nintendo, would put a grass sachet into the final T&T Emporium, for those that want the grass to regrow.. My town has flowers everywhere it did have more.. mine though it never seems to rain, but I alwasy water my flowers.. golden can.. town called alwasy as can't spell always.. dream address. 6600-2594-4703... go see the desert..  I have been watering huge patches for weeks with flowers & no these are not the original patches that you start with.. because these will never grow grass as they are positions for new villager houses.. a sort of " let you know not to initially plant your perfect fruit on... incase a house from oz lands on it.. " Just wish there was a solution..


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## Kaiaa (Aug 25, 2013)

It takes a while for grass to grow back. Plant flowers on bald spots but keep in mind that certain bald spots will never grow grass. Water your flowers once everyday except on rainy days. It also helps to establish a path in your town, whether it be natural or pattern. I have to warn you again that it does take a while!


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## katie. (Aug 25, 2013)

Just plant flowers and DO NOT WALK ON AREA.

- - - Post Merge - - -

Just plant flowers and DO NOT WALK ON AREA.


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## Aquadirt (Aug 25, 2013)

Time travel IS the ultimate fix.  Otherwise, play for almost no time at all.  The less you play in a day, the faster it comes back.  This is why time travel works so well.  I've noticed no help from flowers or anything.


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## Sheepish (Aug 25, 2013)

If you don't want to TT, establish some paths through your town, and absolutely stick to it. Don't walk anywhere else. It can take weeks for grass to recover this way, though.


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## Hirisa (Aug 25, 2013)

What is the safest TT method to regrow grass, anyway?


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## skyandpie (Aug 25, 2013)

Hmm, I read a lot that 10 days is the amount of time needed to pass to regrow bald patches. Though I don't TT myself I've also read that the safe way to TT is go day by day and talk to your villagers once a day so they won't move away unexpectedly (then you can stop them from doing so and I've seen a lot of those threads where people TT and lose their favorite villagers ). Doing both day by day and talking to villagers may defeat the purpose of re-growing grass though because you may end up walking on those parts anyway.

All I can say is don't walk on those parts you need to regrow ever until it comes back or TT in the future 10 days. Flowers don't do anything for me either. It's just a psychological thing that you get to cover the bald spots with flowers and people typically don't run through fields of flowers anyway. AND you might actually stop your grass from growing back when you step on the area to water flowers. Though I'd suggest to make paths through your town to limit your walking area


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## Wish (Aug 25, 2013)

If you're going to play try not to open the game like 20 times a day

I heard that speeds up wear


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## Jinglefruit (Aug 25, 2013)

Planting and watering flowers seems to do nothing to help. - I find it has made the wear worse because I have to walk through the flowers to water them. 

I have noticed on my spare town if a villager moves out and I TT 2 weeks it is almost entirely back then. So while I'm on a 2 week holiday beginning of next month I'm going to set my ordinance to beautiful and lay down temp paths so It should come back.


If that fails then I'll just TT it back when it gets to November so I actually have some snow for xmas/snowmen.


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## Officer Berri (Aug 25, 2013)

For those of you saying time traveling is the best bet, I have some bad news for you. I got this from another forum I go to:



> In Animal Crossing: New Leaf, it is reported that grass deterioration not only happens more slowly, but the damaged grass regrows faster. Also, when a Public Works Project has been completed and built, the grass under it will deteriorate instantly. The same effect happens with new houses; if they are built and removed, the grass underneath it will be completely gone.
> When a new town is made, it will start off with permanent patches of mud where grass deteriorates faster from, spreading throughout the map like paths.
> 
> Regrowing grass in New Leaf
> ...



Reading this really frustrated me. Why should walking on grass negate watering that flower? If anything, it should be the other way around!

Nintendo made a really ignorant decision to put this 'feature' back in the game. Basically if you want to keep your grass you need to barely walk on it at all. It's like they're trying to force us to only walk on certain 'paths' through town. Nintendo, what if I want to walk all over my town to hunt for bugs, shake trees, or look for buried items or money rocks? Why can't I do that without losing my grass?

I find that 'villagers walking on grass does not deteriorate it' to be bull crap, though. Back before my goat villager moved away she had a natural ditch patch in front of her house. She lived right smack next to the river by the cliff. So I had no reason to ever walk in front of her house. And yet after a few days of playing that dirt patch had deteriorated so much she had no lawn in front of her house. I only started walking there to fill it with flowers and water them. And now I've discovered that since I had to walk on those flowers I pretty much negated the work I was doing! If I wasn't walking there, why was there grass deterioration? I assume it was because the villager was walking there!

The grass grew back before I finally quit playing because I was scared the grass would die again. The goat moved away and Gabi moved into almost the exact same spot. I'm paranoid so I won't walk over there. The deterioration has started again now that Gabi is out and about. |:

And time traveling is too risky. I don't want to lose my villagers. So even if I did want to TT, I couldn't.

Learning about this almost makes me not want to play again... ugh.


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## Aquadirt (Aug 25, 2013)

Officer Berri said:


> For those of you saying time traveling is the best bet, I have some bad news for you. I got this from another forum I go to:
> Time traveling forward in time does not help grass regrow. The player must load up the save file once a day for it to register. If the player went a month forward in time, the grass would register it as if only one day passed.
> And time traveling is too risky. I don't want to lose my villagers. So even if I did want to TT, I couldn't.



When I go forward two weeks and all my grass has grown back, that doesn't add up.  
It IS risky, but if you TT when a villager is already moving or after you've given them away in boxes, no one else will move.  That's the safest time.


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## Jinglefruit (Aug 26, 2013)

Officer Berri said:


> For those of you saying time traveling is the best bet, I have some bad news for you. I got this from another forum I go to:
> 
> Reading this really frustrated me. Why should walking on grass negate watering that flower? If anything, it should be the other way around!



That explains why I see so many people claiming flowers speed up grass growth while my town is barren. That is ridiculous, I can't water my flowers without stepping on them! I don't solely have flowers on the edge of pathways. <_<; I have flowers everywhere because I want to actually go everywhere in town. I want Dream visitors to go everywhere. That is where the differences between towns are! Otherwise we might aswell all have exactly the same layout with everything squeezed into 2 acres. 

They are wrong on the loading the game every day while TTing though. Yes that was the case in CF, but not anymore. Anyone who has reset for villagers in a town to move a villager out of it can vouch for that. 

And I'm split on the villager wearing grass. I haven't seen any proof myself, though I'm sure there should be more grass by Bruces house in my town as he is always outside, so I never walk to his corner outside of watering, and there is a lot of wear around there. Meanwhile Muffy seemingly has green thumbs on her toes as her doorstep is probably the best kept patch of grass in my town. It is dead in a ring around her house though. ~ And I talk to her daily.


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## bittermeat (Aug 26, 2013)

I love the grass wear feature. If you plan your town right, you can end up with nice natural paths.

Truly, time travel is really the ultimate fix, but you've got to learn how to do it correctly especially if you're afraid of losing villagers. If you're not willing to time travel, then stop complaining because there is not much else you can do about it.


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## beffa (Aug 26, 2013)

Someone told me it takes 6 weeks to grow back.


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## kathyceeiscool (Aug 26, 2013)

If you travel 2 weeks forward and then 2 weeks back can someone move out in your travelling backwards?


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## Kiwi (Aug 26, 2013)

Hmmm I just thought of something...
If you time travel two weeks forward but start with a new character to walk around town, wouldn't you be able to see who moved away and reset if it's one of your favourites? / save if it's someone you wanted to move anyway?
That way you could also (if you don't save your character)go back in time and everything would still be the same.
Ha.
If that actually works and the villager who moved away changes everytime you reset this would be the best way to move villagers out, as well.
Gotta try.


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## Toraneko (Aug 26, 2013)

TTing is the ultimate fix. I was TTing to try and get some villagers out, ended up TTing through most of September where it rained a lot, and as I walked around I noticed a lot of bare patches were starting to grow back. By the time I was done and reverted to my normal date/time, the bare patches were gone.


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## Officer Berri (Aug 26, 2013)

Ugh... I will NEVER Time Travel and it's really unfair that it's the only way to fix grass wear. It's like they're shoving the concept of paths down our throats. That's just not how I play the game. Just goes to show that Nintendo can't make intelligent decisions in their games. There was a lot of backlash over the grass deterioration in City Folk from what I saw. A smart bunch of people would have thought "let's not put that back in." or at least tweak it so you actively have to do something (like wear special shoes or use a special tool) to create natural dirt paths. But we're not dealing with smart developers I guess.

-.- Now I almost want to stop playing again. God this is so stupid.


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## superheroantics (Aug 26, 2013)

Make your ordinance beautiful then time travel a couple weeks or months. In my adventures through time I've healed many a path I've made.


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## Pickles (Aug 26, 2013)

I'm with you, Berri. It IS highly annoying. I know some people like them, but the majority do not from what I've read. At least give us the option to correct it easily if we want to. Surely they can give us a patch or something?? It feels like they're purposefully trying to frustrate those who hate this aspect of the game.

ETA: I also do not run in my town and have horrible grass wear. AND, yes, the villagers most certainly wear grass. I don't know how people can argue differently there. It is all over the freaking place in my town in areas I rarely go (i.e. in front of their houses)


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## Bea (Aug 26, 2013)

Since putting down paths I've found unwanted grass wear has really decreased. Flower gardens and daily watering will keep your grass healthy. I haven't had an issue with grass wear like I did in CF, it's MUCH more manageable. And I open the game many times a day and it doesn't make a difference. My best advice is not to stress over it because if you take a step back and calm down you'll realize it's not terrible.


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## mayortash (Aug 26, 2013)

Don't plant flowers ON the dirt patch, plant them AROUND it. Water those, when the grass under them has grown back to a dark green then replant the flowers further in and repeat. Yes it will take a long time but it does work. Obviously if you can catch the grass wear before the grass disappears totally then it's easier to have it grow back.


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## Officer Berri (Aug 26, 2013)

Yeah but I don't _want_ to put down paths. My town won't look natural anymore it'll just look artificial and planned. I loved how natural and random everything was in Population Growing. It felt like a town in the woods. I don't want my town to be dominated by foot paths considering the villagers won't even use them! And they wear down the grass too!

Animal Crossing isn't a gardening simulator. I don't _want_ to spend a majority of my play time walking down a path and watering flowers every day. That's the reason I stopped playing for 2 months last time! I stopped being able to go fishing and earning money to upgrade my house and do town projects! Keeping your grass alive through garden work should not be a requirement in a game like this. Grass should NOT decay. Watering flowers should only be needed to increase the likelihood of hybrid flowers growing. If I wanted to play a game about watering plants all day I'd plug my wii back in and play Harvest Moon: Animal Parade.

I bought Animal Crossing wanting a game where I can build a little town to suit my tastes, make friends with animals, and decorate a house and design clothing. Which is what the root of Animal Crossing was supposed to be! I didn't buy a grass care simulator. 

Telling me to not stress over it isn't going to help. I have OCD issues. I like to be in full control of elements I should be able to control in a game, and knowing that there's nothing I can do to prevent my town from becoming a desert wasteland besides not playing like I want to is more than a little upsetting. I thought I'd be safe if I didn't run around town. Apparently not, and that is really unfair to me as a player. I'm fine with being unable to control what items are in stores, what kind of fortune cookies I get, and who moves into my town and even where they plant their house. However, considering the fact grass does not die out this fast in real life makes this 'feature' a huge, glaring flaw for people like me who wanted to have a lush, beautiful nature-town. If that were the case, my back yard would be a dirt patch from my mother's 7 dogs running around out there all day.

Nintendo really needs to offer a way to fix this issue for those of us who do not want to lay down paths and actually want to walk around our town. Or play our game the way they advertised, for that matter. We have all this space, and it seems Nintendo just does not want you to explore your town. I guess we're expected to not use the grass as all and completely cover the ground with patterns or something. Time Traveling is not an option for me and I should not have to use it just because Nintendo's Animal Crossing developers were ignorant enough to put a heavily disliked feature back into the game.


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## Bea (Aug 26, 2013)

Part of playing Animal Crossing naturally (not TTing, etc) like I do requires you to accept that you are NOT in control of everything. I'm an extreme perfectionist and it was starting to ruin my enjoyment of the game so I took a break for a week and rethought a few things. I realized that whether I think grasswear a horrid feature or that it's unfair is actually irrelevant at this point because it's there and it will continue to be there. Now you can let that ruin the game for you or you can do your best to focus on the aspects of the game you do enjoy.

Another note I have is that I did natural paths in CF and while they were developing it looked AWFUL. However once you've got the paths fully entrenched it looks much better and other grasswear is much easier to manage. The silver watering can and gold watering really help in reducing watering time but even covering dirt patches with a neat flowerbed design (I'm designing a coffee cup near the cafe) disguises them.

In the end it's up to you. You can't play naturally and have full control over everything, it's just not possible. I went through the same struggle as you did and came to the conclusion that I'd rather play this way and accept that my town will NOT be perfect rather than TT and reset until it is. Part of the game, in my opinion, is about letting go. Let go.


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## Officer Berri (Aug 26, 2013)

Fine. I'll make a path and only walk on it or something. Too bad the villagers won't walk on paths though. I'll still have to worry about them.

Hopefully the next time a hand-held AC comes along Nintendo will not put that 'feature' in. Or at least make it so if someone wants a natural dirt path they'll be able to use a tool to make it.

It's just disappointing that I have to give up such a big aspect of what I wanted to do with the game now to even enjoy playing it. I really just wanted to have nice trees planted around and a few small flower gardens arranged in patterns. I guess if the grass deterioration gets too bad around certain areas of town I'll just have to quit playing for a few months again.


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## SeaMonkeyFarmer (Aug 26, 2013)

After reading this thread I think I will have to resign myself to facing grass wear!  It's not the end of the world, but it would have been good if there was some way to actively reverse it (as opposed to TTing / avoiding the areas / etc).

It's also really disappointing to hear that walking on watered flowers negates their repairing effect!


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## Bea (Aug 26, 2013)

You'll wear a natural path down easier with patterns on it. Once you've worn the grass into paths you can pick up the patterns. If you make little gardens around villagers houses I find that also helps cut down on the grass wear. I like the natural look so I tend to plant lilies and cosmos because they look more like wild flowers than roses and tulips. Violets make cute and natural looking meadows and look great mixed with bamboo. 

When you have paths down you get a better sense of the spaces you have in your town and it helps you plan better. When you have a better idea of what you want to do with different spaces grass wear is MUCH more manageable. Before I put my paths down my grass wear was starting to get out of hand, but now I can manage it easier. I plan on removing the patterns once my natural paths have been worn in because I like the natural foresty look as well.


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## John Wick (May 19, 2017)

In just 3 months of playing, my town is bald.


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