# PSA: About Star Fragment Trees (updated!)



## Dormire (May 18, 2020)

For those who are tempted to buy star fragment trees despite several warnings, please read carefully:







Dead tiles or bugged cells are specific areas that *cannot be interacted, modified or terraformed in any way*. This is the same case with the table glitch that create ghost/bugged cells except this has no way of reversing the effect it caused.

*Update: *This has been proven false, it doesn't create dead tiles nor cause errors if shaken.

Proof: *Video 1, **Video 2*
(from TBT user Zoella)

_However, still, be cautious about the trees because they are modified and *not* legitimate trees. We don't know what will happen if new patches will roll out in the future._

That is all! Stay safe out there, guys!


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## tajikey (May 18, 2020)

Rule of thumb: if it's not a naturally occurring event, then stay away.


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## Shellzilla_515 (May 18, 2020)

Ugh, are you serious? Duping glitches, scammers, rude people, and now this that can permanently impact your island in a negative way? Welp, this is another reason why I'm just playing offline. It's just to keep my island safe. I had a dream last night where my save file got corrupted for no apparent reason!


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## Dormire (May 18, 2020)

tajikey said:


> Rule of thumb: if it's not a naturally occurring event, then stay away.


The instagram/twitter designer island reps tend to advertise these modified money trees which is very irresponsible lmao. A friend of mine got hooked into it and now is regretting it badly. It's so awful for these people to just entice people to do the same since it's "aesthetic". rip.


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## Silh (May 18, 2020)

Yeah I keep seeing AMAZING towns with these trees and every one of them is all "Yah I know its hacked, but I think Im safe!". 

Big oofs.


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## kojuuro (May 18, 2020)

Wow I didn't realize they were this destructive.  Thanks so much for the heads up.  Super pretty but totally not worth it to me if they make dead tiles.


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## senbeiiscool (May 18, 2020)

Wow that's actually worse than I thought it would be but honestly, not surprised. Anyone who has these modified trees should get rid of them unless they want to further risk their game save


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## Dormire (May 18, 2020)

Shellzilla said:


> Ugh, are you serious? Duping glitches, scammers, rude people, and now this that can permanently impact your island in a negative way? Welp, this is another reason why I'm just playing offline. It's just to keep my island safe. I had a dream last night where my save file got corrupted for no apparent reason!


This isn't exactly everywhere. As long as you trade in places where people are trustworthy (TBT for example) then you should be fine. Most of us here aren't out to hurt others.


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## coffee biscuit (May 18, 2020)

It just sucks that there's already a good amount of glitches in this game and people are out here straight up making more of them.

The star fragment trees are cute though, I wish they were a real thing >w<


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## tajikey (May 18, 2020)

Shellzilla said:


> Ugh, are you serious? Duping glitches, scammers, rude people, and now this that can permanently impact your island in a negative way? Welp, this is another reason why I'm just playing offline. It's just to keep my island safe. I had a dream last night where my save file got corrupted for no apparent reason!


I wouldn't go to this level, unless you only want to experience the game offline. I've had plenty of pleasant interactions online.

The only bad one happened today, and that's because I put too much faith in people. Karma will get the idiot that took 5 NMTs and 40k bells I had laying on the ground as payment for 9 different people to water my flowers.


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## Bloobloop (May 18, 2020)

i'd actually never heard of star fragment trees until this post, but i'm surprised so many people are willing to brick their game in exchange for some internet clout. it's in poor taste to advertise something that will potentially ruin the save files of those who try it.


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## Cadbberry (May 18, 2020)

If its a glitch or hack, avoid it guys. Another reason why you don't want to cheat just for a little extra. I hate to say it but I can't feel bad for people who knowingly modify the game and then have their town corrupt. Maybe I am a bad person but if you knowingly aren't doing the right thing and try to spread the glitched items, you deserve possible Nintendo Online bans


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## UglyMonsterFace (May 18, 2020)

Wait just to clarify, you can plant flowers in someone's town via dodo code, but not trees, is this correct? I'm finding more and more reason not to ever do online with strangers T_T


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## Dormire (May 18, 2020)

Silh said:


> Yeah I keep seeing AMAZING towns with these trees and every one of them is all "Yah I know its hacked, but I think Im safe!".
> 
> Big oofs.





kojuuro said:


> Wow I didn't realize they were this destructive.  Thanks so much for the heads up.  Super pretty but totally not worth it to me if they make dead tiles.





Bloobloop said:


> i'd actually never heard of star fragment trees until this post, but i'm surprised so many people are willing to brick their game in exchange for some internet clout. it's in poor taste to advertise something that will potentially ruin the save files of those who try it.



Exactly. These people who have modified money trees are saying "guys, its ok my save file is ok nothing's gonna happen" but the thing is, "yet", Nintendo's games aren't exactly kind if it detects invalid item flags or wrong item IDs. It's very irresponsible to say that it's safe knowing that unlike Wedding items, these are deliberately modified and technically non-existent. They should always put a disclaimer that it might get your save files corrupted if Nintendo ever decides to roll patches.

I hope these people know that being a designer island also has the responsibility equal to influencers since a lot of people take inspirations from them (esp. if it's about illegitimate items).

	Post automatically merged: May 18, 2020



UglyMonsterFace said:


> Wait just to clarify, you can plant flowers in someone's town via dodo code, but not trees, is this correct? I'm finding more and more reason not to ever do online with strangers T_T


I think they can't plant trees if both are strangers. All I know is it's possible to plant flowers but trees, I'm not exactly sure. I haven't bought fully-grown trees from someone.


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## xara (May 18, 2020)

this is big yikes. they’re pretty but definitely not worth screwing up your save file over


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## Clock (May 18, 2020)

I knew this was going to happen with the custom trees people did in NH. Changing the values of bells on the tree to star fragment or whatever could ruin the game or mess up the code.


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## dragonair (May 18, 2020)

I saw someone doing a giveaway of these on Twitter and they were like "each winner will be made known of the risks before receiving these!" and it's like.....you're still distributing them though. Just because they're being made aware of the risks doesn't absolve you of any responsibility, especially when you're gaining followers for it.


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## brockbrock (May 18, 2020)

Of course I feel terrible for anyone innocent who has to experience this, but other than that, I mean, they're purposefully glitched. I don't understand why people would willing pay for these or would be seeking them out? It's not worth it.

Thank you so much, as usual @Dormire, for the awareness and letting us know.


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## juneau (May 18, 2020)

Considering the potentially game-breaking bugs that exist in the vanilla game already, I would have been very wary about anything modded or hacked anyway (although with this information now, it does make me wonder if the instances where people reported their save files being wiped was actually due to factors like hacked/modded content they didn't think were related or wanted to disclose). 

Is there any risk to visiting an island with hacked or modded content?


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## Aliya (May 18, 2020)

This is awful and I wouldn't even think to plant them in someone else's town. Who thinks of that? That would be a terrible scam if someone did that to anyone random online. Pretty things aren't worth killing my game or anyone's game over.


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## _Rainy_ (May 18, 2020)

Yikes!


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## trashpedia (May 18, 2020)

Oh nooooooooo >O< They looked super cute but I would never get them because they were expensive and hard to obtain, but having to risk ruining a save file for them is a huge hope. The fact that they’re now possible items that can be used to grief is kind of a sad thing to see on top of the many issues going on with the community such as scamming and greed >•>


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## Raz (May 18, 2020)

I've been playing videogames for 31 years, and one thing that proved to be consistent is the way a big portion of the players - no matter which game they're playing - will stupidly use hacks and exploits to gain any kind of advantage they can get, despite knowing these are harmful and shouldn't be used.


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## PajamaCat (May 18, 2020)

Thanks for the heads up! I thought they were cute but definitely not worth it knowing this. Also, the prices were kind of outrageous lol


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## Dormire (May 18, 2020)

Nerakil said:


> Considering the potentially game-breaking bugs that exist in the vanilla game already, I would have been very wary about anything modded or hacked anyway (although with this information now, it does make me wonder if the instances where people reported their save files being wiped was actually due to factors like hacked/modded content they didn't think were related or wanted to disclose).
> 
> Is there any risk to visiting an island with hacked or modded content?


I think if you're just a guest, it shouldn't affect you. Only the host/item owner has a risk of getting banned online or wipe out their save.


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## brockbrock (May 18, 2020)

PajamaCat said:


> Thanks for the heads up! I thought they were cute but definitely not worth it knowing this. Also, the prices were kind of outrageous lol



Just out of curiosity, what are people charging for these?


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## Dormire (May 18, 2020)

PajamaCat said:


> Thanks for the heads up! I thought they were cute but definitely not worth it knowing this. Also, the prices were kind of outrageous lol


To think they'd even charge you for this is malicious as hell. lol


brockbrock said:


> Just out of curiosity, what are people charging for these?


I saw on twitter these cost around 200~800nmt. A total scam if you ask me.


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## brockbrock (May 18, 2020)

Dormire said:


> I saw on twitter these cost around 200~800nmt. A total scam if you ask me.



Holy.... I-

That's disgusting. Shame on them!!


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## voltairenism (May 18, 2020)

Thank you for the warning!
I see a lot of sellers telling that you need to fence the tree so no one shakes it.


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## Noctis (May 18, 2020)

why would people even buy these in the first place even hack them into their game. I understand they look appealing for the aesthetics but not worth it.


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## voltairenism (May 18, 2020)

Dormire said:


> I saw on twitter these cost around 200~800nmt. A total scam if you ask me.


It's hard to find people selling these for NMT though. Normally they want sets of seasonal diys or other hacked items (Harv's fence, KK stools, etc)


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## Dormire (May 18, 2020)

brockbrock said:


> Holy.... I-
> 
> That's disgusting. Shame on them!!


It's sad. People are being pressured or enticed to imitate designer islands and being led to believe that it's safe. People love getting pretty things so if a group of people tells you to do it and it's fine, you eventually give in. Which is...eugh to say the least.

	Post automatically merged: May 18, 2020



voltairenism said:


> It's hard to find people selling these for NMT though. Normally they want sets of seasonal diys or other hacked items (Harv's fence, KK stools, etc)


I guess the one I found on twitter was a rush seller. Still though, this sounds really scummy.


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## Meira (May 18, 2020)

That's so scary to hear! Oh my. Thankful my best friends are all people I know in real life and they woudn't risk it


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## Paperboy012305 (May 18, 2020)

I knew these pretty things were up to no good even more. Now I want to make sure only to open my gates via Dodo Code and let certain people in.


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## nafrawle (May 18, 2020)

Scare tactics plain and simple.


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## Sicariana (May 18, 2020)

Apparently if a villager sits under the tree and you try to talk to them, the game can crash/freeze and won't boot back up.


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## Reginald Fairfield (May 18, 2020)

Dormire said:


> To think they'd even charge you for this is malicious as hell. lol
> 
> I saw on twitter these cost around 200~800nmt. A total scam if you ask me.


Kinda funny because you'd have to hack to get that many tickets in a reasonable amount of time. Hackers shouldn't have to charge anything. 

Back in Pokemon X and Y on another site, an annoying hacker would snipe our trades on the gts and create hacks with our user names and game IDs just because we didn't want his crap. They used the data from the traded mon for this. Of course this is a tangent. I hope this doesn't become relevant.


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## Dormire (May 18, 2020)

Paperboy012305 said:


> I knew these pretty things were up to no good even more. Now I want to make sure only to open my gates via Dodo Code and let certain people in.


Luckily, you need to register them as "best friend" in order to let them plant but this will cause a huge security risk since the seller might be there to ransack your island. Just only designate trustworty people as bestfriend and you should be fine.

	Post automatically merged: May 18, 2020



Sicariana said:


> Apparently if a villager sits under the tree and you try to talk to them, the game can crash/freeze and won't boot back up.


Oh crud. Where did you find that info?


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## brockbrock (May 18, 2020)

Sicariana said:


> Apparently if a villager sits under the tree and you try to talk to them, the game can crash/freeze and won't boot back up.



Is this hearsay or do we have actual proof that this happened? That would be terrible, if true.


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## Nefarious (May 18, 2020)

What makes this a really big problem is that a lot of new players are actually not big gamers in general, so they don't know that illegitimate hacked items can seriously mess up your game. Hopefully this info gets spread far and wide for their sake. Having modded hacks in an offline game is one thing, but for online games, it doesn't just negatively affect you but it can affect everyone else as well.


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## pocky (May 18, 2020)

what is a star fragment tree anyway?


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## Mikaiah (May 18, 2020)

I'm sad because these trees are actually super pretty :c Unfortunately there's a difference between legal and illegal items here. 
(in my def the wedding stuff is "legal" but not "legitimate" until june. wedding stuff shouldn't corrupt your save but these illegal items definitely can)

edit: on second thought, it's probably better not to provide information on how these are sold.


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## dragonair (May 18, 2020)

pocky said:


> what is a star fragment tree anyway?


There's pictures and tiny bit more info in this post.


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## Dormire (May 18, 2020)

pocky said:


> what is a star fragment tree anyway?


They are Money Trees with modified item ID. For example, I will change the bells into Star Fragments or gold nuggets' item ID.

They are not legitimate trees.


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## pocky (May 18, 2020)

dragonair said:


> There's pictures and tiny bit more info in this post.



wow, those are SUPER cute. not cute enough to have your game ruined though. would be nice if nintendo adds legit versions of those in the future though!


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## RooftopsRevolution (May 18, 2020)

Shellzilla said:


> Ugh, are you serious? Duping glitches, scammers, rude people, and now this that can permanently impact your island in a negative way? Welp, this is another reason why I'm just playing offline. It's just to keep my island safe. I had a dream last night where my save file got corrupted for no apparent reason!


Duping glitches are not on the same level as those other things lmao


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## RedPanda (May 18, 2020)

Man I had no idea people were that desperate to have K.K. Slider’s stool apparently as well? This whole hacked game thing leaves a bad taste in my mouth. I guess If a person wants to ruin their own game ok but since it’s like an STD thanks to online play, it’s pretty shameful.


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## Bioness (May 19, 2020)

I'm reminded of people who have experimental/new beauty procedures that turn out wrong half the time.

Just say no to hacked items, kids. Maybe if this game had a backup system, but it doesn't. Don't let the past 9 weeks be wasted.


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## Koala92 (May 19, 2020)

They’re so pretty, but not worth losing hundreds of hours of work.


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## Underneath The Stars (May 19, 2020)

yikes, i've been telling my friends don't get them!! i don't think they did anyway. YET...
anyone thinks nintendo would just let us put decors on trees (aside from wintertime) to prevent things like these? lol i doubt it, but imagine AAAAH


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## Khte (May 19, 2020)

I first thought; "Hey, if people are willing to risk it for their own game, fine." but now that I've been aware of people trying to plant them in OTHER people's towns? I'm legit scared lol. I'm normally not too upset about hacked items because- hey- if people want to risk their game files, so be it, it's their choice, but when it puts others who don't want any part in it at risk, I get irritated. I hope this doesn't happen to someone and they have their file corrupted...

On the other hand... they are so friggen beautiful and I wish they were legit... It's kind of painful they're not real.


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## cami_tayler (May 19, 2020)

Thank you for bringing this to light! I saw someone looking for this in a discord chat and I was surprised I hadn't seen a star fragment tree
before and was gonna try and look for it online. So glad I hadn't gotten around to it yet!


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## Hay (May 19, 2020)

My heart says that I need a tree now but my mind knows better :c Sad this isnt a real item but makes sense, you could just farm frags. Thanks for sharing this! I hope no one here has to deal with this <3


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## pocky (May 19, 2020)

i was wondering, doesn't nintendo also collect data on their users? something like this could potentially get your console banned too, sounds scary


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## Dormire (May 19, 2020)

Khte said:


> I first thought; "Hey, if people are willing to risk it for their own game, fine." but now that I've been aware of people trying to plant them in OTHER people's towns? I'm legit scared lol. I'm normally not too upset about hacked items because- hey- if people want to risk their game files, so be it, it's their choice, but when it puts others who don't want any part in it at risk, I get irritated. I hope this doesn't happen to someone and they have their file corrupted...
> 
> On the other hand... they are so friggen beautiful and I wish they were legit... It's kind of painful they're not real.


To clarify, some people are willing to seek out these trees but there can be overly excited friends or aquaintances who would want to share them to unsuspecting friends. This would be unintentionally griefing someone. Not exactly malicious (or unless the planter knew the risks yet didn't tell the host then that's intentional griefing). 

This is probably a less destructive "seeding" since it's not going to brick your game instantly, just causes dead cells or could get your save file corrupted if a new patch rolls out or be autodetected by some sort of anti-cheat system (I'm not sure if Nintendo will patch to detect invalid money trees like these but we'll see.)


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## Hydrangea028 (May 19, 2020)

Omg this is so horrible! Hacked items although look pretty, but definitely not worth to corrupt your precious safe file. Thank you so much for the information.


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## Hay (May 19, 2020)

pocky said:


> i was wondering, doesn't nintendo also collect data on their users? something like this could potentially get your console banned too, sounds scary


wait go on.. Ive never heard this and im interested


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## Dormire (May 19, 2020)

pocky said:


> i was wondering, doesn't nintendo also collect data on their users? something like this could potentially get your console banned too, sounds scary


Hacked switches will definitely be banned for sure. People who would go online with invalid items should be autodetected but I guess not yet since everyone's running around scott-free and extorting people with irl money or high amount of NMT for it. Super scummy as hell oof.


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## KeatAlex (May 19, 2020)

I've been gone for a bit... people are hacking trees now?


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## dragonair (May 19, 2020)

Didn't realize this ONE post that I found was going to cause so much anger lmfao, I'm just gonna clear this out so I stop getting quoted.


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## LittleMissPanda (May 19, 2020)

Know what would be even scarier and more deadly than star bit trees?



...Star bit flowers.


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## Dormire (May 19, 2020)

LittleMissPanda said:


> Know what would be even scarier and more deadly than star bit trees?
> 
> 
> 
> ...Star bit flowers.


Luckily flowers can't be edited to spawn other items. (I think because both item ID of flower plant and flowerbuds are connected to each other. I'll assume this is hardcoded rather than softcoded like the money tree.) Then again, I don't know the game's full code so it could be possible but the attempt to boot into it would crash.

I think what's scary would be those textureless items that uses nearby item textures instead. (glitched items) it's a ticking timebomb to keep in your island.

	Post automatically merged: May 19, 2020



dragonair said:


> This was posted on Facebook:
> View attachment 261129


RIP to the naysayers thinking this is just a scare tactic/fearmongering since it hasn't happened to them yet.

Hindsight is really 20/20.


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## jumpluff (May 19, 2020)

This reminds me way too much of the Wild World days! (I guess we have way better hosting tools now with the dodos, session ending, and friends/best friends/none stuff.) I think the trees are beautiful (especially the heart crystal ones), but you never know what could glitch out. Thank you for the PSA!


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## LittleMissPanda (May 19, 2020)

Dormire said:


> Luckily flowers can't be edited to spawn other items. (I think because both item ID of flower plant and flowerbuds are connected to each other. I'll assume this is hardcoded rather than softcoded like the money tree.) Then again, I don't know the game's full code so it could be possible but the attempt to boot into it would crash.
> 
> I think what's scary would be those textureless items that uses nearby item textures instead. (glitched items) it's a ticking timebomb to keep in your island.
> 
> ...


Thank goodness for that. Please everyone let's all be careful! Take good care of your islands!

This really reminds me of the WW days with the illegal seeds.

Back in WW really nasty randoms who would come to your town unannounced would purposefully drop these "invisible" seeds that caused the game to think a building was placed there. Something like that. It created a space that could not be interacted with and from what I can remember it was permanent. These could corrupt your save.


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## JKDOS (May 19, 2020)

I thought you had to be best friends to plant trees? Total strangers should not be able to do so.


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## Sicariana (May 19, 2020)

__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1262149387402297344


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## Dormire (May 19, 2020)

Sicariana said:


> __ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1262149387402297344


Thanks for the proof! We got concrete evidence that it's destructive (error message + this). I hope the people who are skeptical would believe this. In the Reddit thread, people are saying it's not true lol. Guess they'll believe it if it happens to them. Wild.


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## marzipanmermaid (May 19, 2020)

They're all over every group I'm in on FB. Even admins of said groups are helping people get the trees or hosting giveaways for a full set of them. "They've been working fine on my game so.... I don't know what everyone else is talking about." They started deleting any of the comments linking posts, tweets, pictures about how it's a threat. 

I feel bad for the people who got them as a gift for someone or a surprise not knowing the risks. :/


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## Aliya (May 19, 2020)

Sicariana said:


> __ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1262149387402297344



That's terrifying! I don't have any but I'm wondering if there's a way to safely get rid of them without bricking your switch? I'd be afraid to sell to the Nooklings.


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## Sicariana (May 19, 2020)

Aliya said:


> That's terrifying! I don't have any but I'm wondering if there's a way to safely get rid of them without bricking your switch? I'd be afraid to sell to the Nooklings.


Speaking from a software engineering standpoint, I would imagine that the only 'safe' way to get rid of them would be to plant them on a mystery island since that memory should be released as soon as you depart the island.


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## Dormire (May 19, 2020)

Aliya said:


> That's terrifying! I don't have any but I'm wondering if there's a way to safely get rid of them without bricking your switch? I'd be afraid to sell to the Nooklings.


If it's not interacted by any way, you might try and bin it for safety. I'm not sure if it will totally clean your save (since it could mess up your save the more days you leave it out in your game) but I highly suggest binning it.

or what Sicariana said. If you're able to bring it to a NMT island, dump them there.


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## elphieluvr (May 19, 2020)

Dormire said:


> Thanks for the proof! We got concrete evidence that it's destructive (error message + this). I hope the people who are skeptical would believe this. In the Reddit thread, people are saying it's not true lol. Guess they'll believe it if it happens to them. Wild.





littlemissmarzipanmermaid said:


> They're all over every group I'm in on FB. Even admins of said groups are helping people get the trees or hosting giveaways for a full set of them. "They've been working fine on my game so.... I don't know what everyone else is talking about." They started deleting any of the comments linking posts, tweets, pictures about how it's a threat.
> 
> I feel bad for the people who got them as a gift for someone or a surprise not knowing the risks. :/



What the ever loving...

how are people so stupid. Like I feel terrible for someone who got the trees not knowing they were hacked or unaware of the risks, especially since so many new players and non-gamers play NH. But to know and insist it won’t happen to you, and take it a step further by handing them out to innocent players and deliberately silencing or mocking anyone who speaks up about the risk is...wow. No pity for that level of stupid.


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## Mary (May 19, 2020)

It's a shame, they sure are pretty to look at. I wasn't gonna risk it anyway because nintendo is still actively adding updates and patches, but I appreciate the PSA!


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## DJStarstryker (May 19, 2020)

Wow. I never played Wild World online when I played it, because my router at the time had higher security settings than the original DS could support and I wasn't going to change it just to play online. But I definitely heard about the issue of other players planting seeds in your town that would cause problems.

This just makes me think of the whole seed thing all over again. Yeah, definitely not putting anyone on my best friends list unless they prove themselves trustworthy in advance. It's not worth the risk of messing up my game.


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## Dormire (May 19, 2020)

elphieluvr said:


> What the ever loving...
> 
> how are people so stupid. Like I feel terrible for someone who got the trees not knowing they were hacked or unaware of the risks, especially since so many new players and non-gamers play NH. But to know and insist it won’t happen to you, and take it a step further by handing them out to innocent players and deliberately silencing or mocking anyone who speaks up about the risk is...wow. No pity for that level of stupid.


It's because it's 6 dollar a tree. (source: Facebook) everyone's profiting real money with these so silencing any attempts to sabotage or warn others about the risk is a threat to them. It's not stupidity if it's deliberate. It's more of a malicious thing.


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## elphieluvr (May 19, 2020)

Dormire said:


> It's because it's 6 dollar a tree. (source: Facebook) everyone's profiting real money with these so silencing any attempts to sabotage or warn others about the risk is a threat to them. It's not stupidity if it's deliberate. It's more of a malicious thing.



ok that is just disgusting I don’t think I can accurately voice my opinions on that and still get past the auto censors so...

I hope something very unpleasant happens to people who made real money off wrecking other people’s games.


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## SheepMareep (May 19, 2020)

jumpluff said:


> This reminds me way too much of the Wild World days! (I guess we have way better hosting tools now with the dodos, session ending, and friends/best friends/none stuff.) I think the trees are beautiful (especially the heart crystal ones), but you never know what could glitch out. Thank you for the PSA!


I was thinking the same thing!!! Surprised we havent had anything similar to seeding happen yet with how crazy everyone is with hacking now...
I just cant believe it's so common? Hacking NL wasnt all that common until like.. years into the game. Now you cant go on twitter without running into a ton of hacked towns misleading people who have never played or are easy to convince it is safe


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## Sholee (May 19, 2020)

they're so pretty though.... i wish this could have been a real thing and not hacked item.


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## DJStarstryker (May 19, 2020)

pocky said:


> i was wondering, doesn't nintendo also collect data on their users? something like this could potentially get your console banned too, sounds scary



They do. According to Ninji (one of the dataminers), Nintendo collects a LOT of data. I don't feel like going through his timeline of the last few months on Twitter to find the post again to see exactly what he said, but it sounds like Nintendo knows pretty much everything you do in your game. I tend to believe him because, not only have I never seen him proven wrong, but the VILLAGERS comment on stuff you wouldn't expect them to. If I spend an hour in the catalog app on my NookPhone updating my item tracker spreadsheet, the villagers will comment sometimes that I've been looking at my phone a lot and wonder what I was doing.

You're absolutely right that Nintendo could potentially see you doing these things and ban you. Even if you're not a hacker and just traded with a hacker to get these trees, it's still risky.


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## wearebap (May 19, 2020)

I can understand why people would want to get these beautiful trees, but ahh at what cost? ><
its obviously to good to be true!
and its very very likely that there will be more hacks than this!
i remember seeing a tiktok of someone with a hacked island and it was a nmt island filled with gold and gold trees
simple answer: dont hack unless you are ready to take the risks of corrupting your game!


----------



## ZekkoXCX (May 19, 2020)

dragonair said:


> I saw someone doing a giveaway of these on Twitter and they were like "each winner will be made known of the risks before receiving these!" and it's like.....you're still distributing them though. Just because they're being made aware of the risks doesn't absolve you of any responsibility, especially when you're gaining followers for it.


Well , to be fair , it's not like the people who are receiving the glitched trees have a gun pointing to them , forcing them to receive those.
In the end , it's also responsibility of the receiver for letting those enter into their island and making them viral.

Best thing we can do is , unless you REALLY REALLY want to and don't care about any consequences , don't use those trees.


----------



## Nodokana (May 19, 2020)

That's scary... I've never heard of this until now. Thanks for the heads up!


----------



## Miss Misty (May 19, 2020)

Dormire said:


> It's because it's 6 dollar a tree. (source: Facebook) everyone's profiting real money with these so silencing any attempts to sabotage or warn others about the risk is a threat to them. It's not stupidity if it's deliberate. It's more of a malicious thing.


Okay this is literally the most disgusting thing I've ever heard. Charging people money for the privilege of having their saves compromised and deleting any attempts to warn people against it. I am so glad that out of all the AC communities, this is the one I landed in for NH. I don't even play online, but like it's nice to be around people who have basic human decency all the same. Thank you for the PSA about this.


DJStarstryker said:


> I tend to believe him because, not only have I never seen him proven wrong, but the VILLAGERS comment on stuff you wouldn't expect them to. If I spend an hour in the catalog app on my NookPhone updating my item tracker spreadsheet, the villagers will comment sometimes that I've been looking at my phone a lot and wonder what I was doing.


Do yours ever get eerily accurate when they wonder? I spent about an hour making a train track design in my custom design app the other day, and the next day I was speaking to one of my villagers and they said 'you were spending a lot of time with your nose buried in your phone, I bet you were working on a custom design, because that's just so you!'


----------



## QueenOpossum (May 19, 2020)

ZekkoXCX said:


> Well , to be fair , it's not like the people who are receiving the glitched trees have a gun pointing to them , forcing them to receive those.
> In the end , it's also responsibility of the receiver for letting those enter into their island and making them viral.
> 
> Best thing we can do is , unless you REALLY REALLY want to and don't care about any consequences , don't use those trees.


As a few other people have said, many non-gamers play Animal Crossing, and don't understand that hacking is a thing at all, let alone something that could mess up your game.


----------



## Lanstar (May 19, 2020)

As the person who wrote the post OP referred to at the start of this thread, you should see what the comments had to say. Probably as toxic a section as you can get.


----------



## stiney (May 19, 2020)

Sicariana said:


> Speaking from a software engineering standpoint, I would imagine that the only 'safe' way to get rid of them would be to plant them on a mystery island since that memory should be released as soon as you depart the island.


What about trashing them via a trashcan item?


----------



## Aardbei (May 19, 2020)

DJStarstryker said:


> They do. According to Ninji (one of the dataminers), Nintendo collects a LOT of data. I don't feel like going through his timeline of the last few months on Twitter to find the post again to see exactly what he said, but it sounds like Nintendo knows pretty much everything you do in your game. I tend to believe him because, not only have I never seen him proven wrong, but the VILLAGERS comment on stuff you wouldn't expect them to. If I spend an hour in the catalog app on my NookPhone updating my item tracker spreadsheet, the villagers will comment sometimes that I've been looking at my phone a lot and wonder what I was doing.
> 
> You're absolutely right that Nintendo could potentially see you doing these things and ban you. Even if you're not a hacker and just traded with a hacker to get these trees, it's still risky.



I'm not sure if the things that villagers say we did is reported to Nintendo  I think this feature is more like the rumors in New Leaf like "flowers' friend" and so.

However, when we came back from May Day Tour, Tom Nook asked us if we liked or not the event. And it's probable that the answer went directly to Nintendo


----------



## Miss Misty (May 19, 2020)

Lanstar said:


> As the person who wrote the post OP referred to at the start of this thread, you should see what the comments had to say. Probably as toxic a section as you can get.


"Just don't Best Friend people you don't know 4head" 

Never change, Reddit. but actually please change.


----------



## Sicariana (May 19, 2020)

stiney said:


> What about trashing them via a trashcan item?


I didn't know that was possible 
It's likely safe, but I wouldn't be able to say for sure unless I looked at the game code. I wouldn't imagine there would be any reason to keep track of what has been disposed of in a trash can item...


----------



## Dormire (May 19, 2020)

Lanstar said:


> As the person who wrote the post OP referred to at the start of this thread, you should see what the comments had to say. Probably as toxic a section as you can get.


You should've attached the proof that is posted here. Redditors aren't exactly known for being smart unless there's a clear picture in front of them.


----------



## BigBadButterfree (May 19, 2020)

Star fragment trees: meh.

Now, if they replaced the item in the tree with music notes (like a dropped KK song) that'd be AMAZING.

Still absolutely not worth corrupting your game though.


----------



## littlewing (May 19, 2020)

this has me kind of nervous so i have to double check: are we _100% sure _that strangers can't plant trees on your island? like most people, i was under the impression that only registered best friends can, but i've yet to see any actual proof... i mean, i know you can't use a shovel, but saplings can be planted without one.

if anyone with a decent amount of positive feedback wants to test this with me, i'd be willing to invite them to my island to see if they can plant a regular sapling or not.

(also, thank you Dormire for the warning. i see those trees _everywhere_ on my twitter feed.)


----------



## Dormire (May 19, 2020)

luckytrait said:


> this has me kind of nervous so i have to double check: are we _100% sure _that strangers can't plant trees on your island? like most people, i was under the impression that only registered best friends can, but i've yet to see any actual proof... i mean, i know you can't use a shovel, but saplings can be planted without one.
> 
> if anyone with a decent amount of positive feedback wants to test this with me, i'd be willing to invite them to my island to see if they can plant a regular sapling or not.
> 
> (also, thank you Dormire for the warning. i see those trees _everywhere_ on my twitter feed.)


Only Bestfriends can BUT I'm not ruling out people who are unaware and designate that role willy nilly to get some fancy trees. My friend got a tree from a stranger and she let them have that role. Temporary but yeah.

No problem! Once I'm at the PC I'll attach the proofs given to this thread @ 1st post.


----------



## stiney (May 19, 2020)

Sicariana said:


> I didn't know that was possible
> It's likely safe, but I wouldn't be able to say for sure unless I looked at the game code. I wouldn't imagine there would be any reason to keep track of what has been disposed of in a trash can item...


Makes sense.

Yeah, be careful with all the various trash can/garbage disposal receptacle items, because you can delete items that way. It used to be the only real way to get rid of trash items in New Leaf (you had to pay the Nooklings or Re-Tail to take it off your hands) that you fished up, and with no DIYs to use them, they were utterly worthless unless you wanted them as decor. You could also use them to get rid of fake art you bought my mistake if you didn't want to decorate with it.


----------



## allainah (May 19, 2020)

Wow thank you for this because i was actually considering buying these yesterday night i too thought "oh well i doubt they'll corrupt my game, i'll be fine!" but now this!?!... no thank you ;--;


----------



## PikaPika19 (May 19, 2020)

Ah, geez!  I heard about this but I assumed it was probably some scammer trying to pass around fake/hacked items to cheat people out of their hard earned bells, NMT, etc.. But this is way worse then I thought!  Giving someone an item that corrupts their save?  Geez. Why even do that except to just be mean?  

I'm a bit ashamed of these AC "influencers" who are trying to claim that it's fine because nothing has happened to them.  If you're going to show it off, at least make it clear that it's hacked and by trying to replicate it you run a risk of losing your save or something.  Some kind of disclaimer should be put.


----------



## Uffe (May 19, 2020)

I guess from now on I'll just go to a person's island to do sales, trades, and cataloging. I already have trust issues.


----------



## deSPIRIA (May 19, 2020)

Lanstar said:


> As the person who wrote the post OP referred to at the start of this thread, you should see what the comments had to say. Probably as toxic a section as you can get.



reddit is so bad LOL. referring to the posts on there, someone might add a stranger as their best friend for multiple reasons. it doesnt seem like it can do much on the surface. most people probably dont know or care to know that you can only plant trees if you are best friends with someone and they also probably wouldnt know about others being malicious with hacked trees either. there are multiple ways i can think of someone manipulating someone else into adding them as a best friend through trading. theyre acting like theyre so smart because they wouldnt fall for it when they were literally just given the info to protect themselves from this happening to them.


----------



## Neechan (May 19, 2020)

They looked pretty,  but I knew that they were hacked in as I saw those heart diys that weren’t in game yet....sucks for the unfortunate victims that don’t know better and were unaware.



Spoiler



Also, everyone talks about nh having glitches and saying It was rushed, but nl had it too? I recall hearing about save issues and corruption before it was released In june of 2013 as Japan got it first (sorry I know it’s off topic but I didn’t know where to put this)


----------



## Bcat (May 19, 2020)

Sicariana said:


> Speaking from a software engineering standpoint, I would imagine that the only 'safe' way to get rid of them would be to plant them on a mystery island since that memory should be released as soon as you depart the island.


Couldn’t you use the trash-can to throw them away? That’s what I would do.

EDIT: just saw you answered that. Nvm


----------



## naranjita (May 19, 2020)

there is so much unnecessary fearmongering regarding glitches and hacks in this game, it's insane. like this picture:


dragonair said:


> This was posted on Facebook:
> View attachment 261129


there isn't even any proof of this screen being in the actual game. this picture, and I don't mean a screenshot of this in-game screen, I mean _this_ _specific file _has been posted in so many websites regarding so many things. guys, look what happened to me! I left an island pressing - and this screen appeared! I duped a Royal Crown and my save file was ruined! I bought a star fragment tree and Nintendo deleted my save, look at this save corruption screen! and they all post this exact file. no one has ever thought of taking a picture of this in-game screen with their phone. heck, no one has posted a version of this picture highlighting the "start over" option. it's always this exact same file. I'm starting to think this screenshot is a hoax. no one has provided any evidence of these trees actually causing dead tiles either. it's all hearsay.

can I guarantee that these trees are safe? obviously not. you should definitely err on the side of caution and not make them or buy them. but I also can't guarantee that they _will _ruin your game, which a lot of people are irresponsibly saying. and like, I get it. it's nice and comforting to think that people who have cool things that we can't acquire, like these star fragment trees, will get divine retribution and lose their saves. but that is just not how this works.

judging by how this thread has been going I feel like this comment will fall on deaf ears, but please, please don't fall for fearmongering when proof isn't provided. a tweet of one person saying "this happened to my friend!" isn't proof. a screenshot that has been posted a million times with no proof of it even being in the game isn't proof. absolutely stay safe and don't purchase hacked items, because you could possibly be banned from Nintendo Online if Nintendo starts punishing people for hacking the game (although afaik they only really punish hackers in competitive games, like Splatoon). but don't believe crap without proof, for goodness' sake.

edit: and I can't believe y'all are criticizing that reddit thread just because people in there are being rightfully skeptical and not believing unsubstantiated claims. guys, please, apply some critical thinking. you probably don't believe those stupid chain messages your moms send you on WhatsApp, why are you believing any of this?


----------



## Dormire (May 19, 2020)

Neechan said:


> They looked pretty,  but I knew that they were hacked in as I saw those heart diys that weren’t in game yet....sucks for the unfortunate victims that don’t know better and were unaware.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


The heart crystals are actually from the wedding event. It's a legitimate item but not the tree itself.

But, yes. Stay away from it.


----------



## deSPIRIA (May 19, 2020)

naranjita said:


> edit: and I can't believe y'all are criticizing that reddit thread just because people in there are being rightfully skeptical and not believing unsubstantiated claims. guys, please, apply some critical thinking. you probably don't believe those stupid chain messages your moms send you on WhatsApp, why are you believing any of this?



how is adding someone as a best friend similar to chain mail?
on the reddit thread there is someone calling it a sob story if youre affected by it which is more unnecessarily rude than skeptical. the stories could be fake but thats not really the point.


----------



## Neechan (May 19, 2020)

Dormire said:


> The heart crystals are actually from the wedding event. It's a legitimate item but not the tree itself.
> 
> But, yes. Stay away from it.



Thanks For the heads up


----------



## naranjita (May 19, 2020)

soundgarden said:


> how is adding someone as a best friend similar to chain mail?
> on the reddit thread there is someone calling it a sob story if youre affected by it which is more unecessarily rude than skeptical. the stories could be fake but thats not really the point.


I'm not talking about the discussion about whether people should add best friends or not. never even mentioned that in my post. I'm talking about people not believing stuff without proof. don't try to derail my point, please


----------



## deSPIRIA (May 19, 2020)

naranjita said:


> I'm not talking about the discussion about whether people should add best friends or not. never even mentioned that in my post. I'm talking about people not believing stuff without proof. don't try to derail my point, please



ok....sorry????? youre not going to get a good point across if youre going to be overly aggressive


----------



## naranjita (May 19, 2020)

soundgarden said:


> ok....sorry????? youre not going to get a good point across if youre going to be overly aggressive


how am I being aggressive...


----------



## Dormire (May 19, 2020)

Neechan said:


> Thanks For the heads up


The fact that unreleased items are just being presented out in the open like it's no big deal is so funny and people say it's the TTers that spoils content. I mean, _**I**_ didn't even know it was a DIY ingredient until a twitter user said it was.


----------



## Neechan (May 19, 2020)

Dormire said:


> The fact that unreleased items are just being presented out in the open like it's no big deal is so funny and people say it's the TTers that spoils content. I mean, _**I**_ didn't even know it was a DIY ingredient until a twitter user said it was.


Same, I was wondering where the heart crystal Ingredient was from.

and TTers are limited, as I think you can’t get them unless you hack them in (hence why these Edited Id items are dangerous)


----------



## DJStarstryker (May 19, 2020)

Aardbei said:


> I'm not sure if the things that villagers say we did is reported to Nintendo  I think this feature is more like the rumors in New Leaf like "flowers' friend" and so.
> 
> However, when we came back from May Day Tour, Tom Nook asked us if we liked or not the event. And it's probable that the answer went directly to Nintendo



No, no. What villagers say isn't reported to Nintendo. I mean statistics on just about everything. How many turnips you sold, when you sold them, how many profits you made, how many fish did you catch today, how many of those were sea bass, how many times did you hit rocks today, etc etc. 

The villagers DO, however, use SOME of those statistics to comment on things you're doing.


----------



## glow (May 19, 2020)

naranjita said:


> please, please don't fall for fearmongering when proof isn't provided.



your post is the only one that has called out a lot of these unsubstantiated claims. like i've been trying to find posts/ or individual users who report their save being corrupted/their nintendo online accounts banned due to this and all i find is users trading/selling the trees

not saying these items are "definitely safe" or anything especially with potential patches/updates but yeah.

/shrug


----------



## Aardbei (May 19, 2020)

DJStarstryker said:


> No, no. What villagers say isn't reported to Nintendo. I mean statistics on just about everything. How many turnips you sold, when you sold them, how many profits you made, how many fish did you catch today, how many of those were sea bass, how many times did you hit rocks today, etc etc.
> 
> The villagers DO, however, use SOME of those statistics to comment on things you're doing.



Oh my God  I don't know if I like that


----------



## naranjita (May 19, 2020)

glow said:


> your post is the only one that has called out a lot of these unsubstantiated claims. like i've been trying to find posts/ or individual users who report their save being corrupted/their nintendo online accounts banned due to this and all i find is users trading/selling the trees
> 
> not saying these items are "definitely safe" or anything especially with potential patches/updates but yeah.
> 
> /shrug


exactly! look, I'm not a hacker. I barely have the knowledge necessary to install mods for freaking Skyrim, I definitely can't tell you that these trees are safe. but just like you shouldn't trust me if I told you that they're 100% safe and won't hurt your game in any way without me providing proof of it, you also should not trust people saying that they're corrupting saves or "creating dead tiles" without evidence, either. I mean, SOMEONE should have recorded a video of this happening, right? the Switch has an in-built recording feature. everyone owns a phone that can record videos. yet not a single video of this phenomenon exists?

I'm sorry if this sounds rude, or aggressive, or hurts anyone's feelings, but the evidence provided throughout this thread is absolutely laughable. a reddit post saying that these trees "are known" to corrupt save files (whose save files? who has documented this?). a Facebook post posting this STUPID image that I'm sick of seeing at this point, never in video footage, or in any language other than English. a tweet of someone saying that something happened to their friend.

stay safe, don't buy these trees, don't buy rumors without evidence.


----------



## Miss Misty (May 19, 2020)

naranjita said:


> snip


Okay let's be honest. People aren't criticizing the reddit thread for being skeptical, they're criticizing the reddit thread because it - like every other reddit thread - is full of chuds who think they're smarter than everyone else. The "gentleman and a scholar" types who come up with some hypothetical where it's all the victim's fault so they can blame the victim without it being victim blaming.

As to this thread and whether or not there is substantial proof... I mean not to be rude but... let's call a spade a spade. The kinds of people who needed to be told that these trees were hacked in are the kind of people who shouldn't have hacked items at all. The 2x1 duping method from a few weeks ago led to a bunch of people following a step by step guide then complaining about the bugged tiles that got created in their homes, because they didn't realize what they were doing to their game. I mean you're right, this probably isn't going to lead to absolute and total save corruption/Switch bricking for every single person, but it probably will lead to unusual, unique glitches on people's islands as Nintendo puts out patches that may impact the hacked code. What you call fearmongering I call saving kids and coding-illiterate people from heartache, and saving the people that first group runs to for advice from a headache.


----------



## naranjita (May 19, 2020)

Miss Misty said:


> Okay let's be honest. People aren't criticizing the reddit thread for being skeptical, they're criticizing the reddit thread because it - like every other reddit thread - is full of chuds who think they're smarter than everyone else. The "gentleman and a scholar" types who come up with some hypothetical where it's all the victim's fault so they can blame the victim without it being victim blaming.
> 
> As to this thread and whether or not there is substantial proof... I mean not to be rude but... let's call a spade a spade. The kinds of people who needed to be told that these trees were hacked in are the kind of people who shouldn't have hacked items at all. The 2x1 duping method from a few weeks ago led to a bunch of people following a step by step guide then complaining about the bugged tiles that got created in their homes, because they didn't realize what they were doing to their game. I mean you're right, this probably isn't going to lead to absolute and total save corruption/Switch bricking for every single person, but it probably will lead to unusual, unique glitches on people's islands as Nintendo puts out patches that may impact the hacked code. What you call fearmongering I call saving kids and coding-illiterate people from heartache, and saving the people that first group runs to for advice from a headache.


okay, but the people making up these lies about save file corruption aren't glitchers or hackers (glitchers and hackers openly make fun of that "save corruption" screenshot, for example). it's coding-illiterate people telling other coding-illiterate people that duping items can corrupt their game or whatever. this isn't hackers telling a white lie in order to protect people's games, it's people who don't know how any of this works lying to other people who don't know how any of this works. and I don't think it's healthy to encourage telling lies and expecting people to believe things without evidence.

edit: something else I want to say before I bow out of this thread since I genuinely don't want to hurt anyone's feelings: this isn't about people believing that doing X or Y will ruin their save. objectively speaking, there is no harm being done in people believing that these trees, or the dupe glitch, or anything else will corrupt their save. what worries me, what I think really _is_ a problem, is blindly believing things without proof, or believing in flimsy evidence like a tweet saying "this happened to my friend!". this is something that goes beyond animal crossing. think critically, think for yourself, look for evidence before you believe something you see on the Internet. it's not about the belief itself; it's about how people start believing in that thing. I don't know how to say this any more nicely.


----------



## Mello (May 19, 2020)

naranjita said:


> lots of words


You make a lot of good points here, really you do. I'm confident duped items/items obtained via save editors (so long as they're legal items, like stuff that can actually be obtained ingame. ie, no perfect fruit or such) will not do a thing to your save file. I'm just seeing a lot of people rallying behind the idea that pretty much _anything_ can corrupt your save, without any actual proof that whatever they're claiming corrupted their game, actually corrupted it. People claim receiving duped items corrupted their data. No proof, but let's buy into that anyway.

Also, in this specific case with the Star Fragment Trees... just... don't... plant them. It's not that hard, honestly. People not sure if it'll cause them problems? Just stay on the safe side and don't plant them. Resist the overwhelming urge to plant the trees that _could_ cause issues. I know it's difficult, but we have to try.


----------



## lackless (May 19, 2020)

naranjita said:


> I'm sorry if this sounds rude, or aggressive, or hurts anyone's feelings, but the evidence provided throughout this thread is absolutely laughable. a reddit post saying that these trees "are known" to corrupt save files (whose save files? who has documented this?). a Facebook post posting this STUPID image that I'm sick of seeing at this point, never in video footage, or in any language other than English. a tweet of someone saying that something happened to their friend.
> 
> stay safe, don't buy these trees, don't buy rumors without evidence.



Ah! Not to dispute your point as it is true that I’ve seen... what I assume to be the same screenshot of the save glitch multiple times, but I remember seeing an equivalent screenshot of the same corrupted save data screen several times in the Japanese AC twitter community, one of whom I think posted a video of their switch? I’ll try to dig around and find it.


----------



## Dormire (May 19, 2020)

lackless said:


> Ah! Not to dispute your point as it is true that I’ve seen... what I assume to be the same screenshot of the save glitch multiple times, but I remember seeing an equivalent screenshot of the same corrupted save data screen several times in the Japanese AC twitter community, one of whom I think posted a video of their switch? I’ll try to dig around and find it.


You mean this?


__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1250666455923699714


----------



## naranjita (May 19, 2020)

Dormire said:


> You mean this?
> 
> 
> __ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1250666455923699714


I stand corrected on this point; the screen is likely real. I assume someone actually got their data corrupted, took a screenshot of that screen, and posted it somewhere. I still think that very screenshot is being used to claim that any number of random things cause save data corruption.


----------



## lackless (May 19, 2020)

Dormire said:


> You mean this?
> 
> 
> __ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1250666455923699714



Ahh!! Yes that’s the one!
A quick search around google and I was also able to find this one in German: https://www.archyde.com/animal-crossing-new-horizons-users-report-corrupt-scores/

Which appears to show the screen after you say no to restarting your data. I do think it’s prudent to be skeptical but at this point I feel like it’s safe to say that the glitch does exist, although the causes might be unknown.


----------



## Jacob (May 19, 2020)

If you truly honestly think about it, the game _shouldn't_ get corrupted with this kind of hack. I guess it's possible, but it seems to me like the game should corrupt the second one of these trees is loaded into the game/planted on an island, but that isn't what's been happening... It's unlikely Nintendo will put out a patch for it imo, and if they do, I'm sure they would make sure the patch won't corrupt thousands of people's games. It's pretty bad publicity for Nintendo regardless of what lead to it. It seems likely to me that people would make up corruption horror stories to stop people from having these

I'm remembering all of the hacking that went on in City Folk and New Leaf, much more deep edits we're done in the code that loaded fine. Ex. Lightsabers in City Folk, they did the same thing with changing the Axe's code that these trees do with the Bell Bag's code, and afaik they didn't lead to mass corruptions. Those weren't even using code that was in the game like the star fragment trees are. Just don't buy one of these trees if you don't want to get banned from online play


----------



## nafrawle (May 19, 2020)

Fake news


----------



## Zoella (May 19, 2020)

I can confirm that shaking the hacked trees does not cause dead tiles or your game to crash nor does it corrupt your file. I posted evidence on my blog here.


----------



## Dormire (May 19, 2020)

naranjita said:


> I stand corrected on this point; the screen is likely real. I assume someone actually got their data corrupted, took a screenshot of that screen, and posted it somewhere. I still think that very screenshot is being used to claim that any number of random things cause save data corruption.


I'm one of the people here who relays Japanese info regarding save data corruption. This person is not just the only one who have experienced this but plenty of people. (However, they experienced a *different issue* rather than the trees.) I didn't respond to you because you have a point, however, there's _nothing_ to fear if you never actually touched illegitimate items (like, actual modified items). You agree that this isn't safe so there's not much for me to say. You're better than most people claiming that it is safe and "harmless".



lackless said:


> Ahh!! Yes that’s the one!
> A quick search around google and I was also able to find this one in German: https://www.archyde.com/animal-crossing-new-horizons-users-report-corrupt-scores/
> 
> Which appears to show the screen after you say no to restarting your data. I do think it’s prudent to be skeptical but at this point I feel like it’s safe to say that the glitch does exist, although the causes might be unknown.



To be honest, the game isn't as stable since you can glitch a lot (like being able to go out of bounds if you sit on a bench while holding a stool, multiplayer causing potential save issues, the duping glitches, textureless items (that uses nearby items to use as texture) etc.) I mean, I understand no one's perfect to actually catch all of these since it has certain conditions to happen but yeah.


----------



## Bethboj (May 19, 2020)

Reminds me of the seeds from action replay back in Wild world. I ended up having Gracies car permanently sat next to my gate because someone came and plopped it down there. Fairly certain I had a Redds tent in a corner of my world too. I had to restart


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## Dormire (May 19, 2020)

Zoella said:


> I can confirm that shaking the hacked trees does not cause dead tiles or your game to crash nor does it corrupt your file. I posted evidence on my blog here.


Can you try to terraform in those areas? I'll remove the title if you can. Also, maybe put items on those spaces? Ghosted tiles are still walkable using the table glitch but you can't place items on there. If it's not causing those then I'll go ahead and change it.


----------



## Zoella (May 19, 2020)

Dormire said:


> Can you try to terraform in those areas? I'll remove the title if you can. Also, maybe put items on those spaces? Ghosted tiles are still walkable using the table glitch but you can't place items on there. If it's not causing those then I'll go ahead and change it.



I can confirm that I can place items and terraform on both the tiles where the fragments/crystals have dropped and where the trees were. Let me know if you'd like another video because I'm not currently at my computer so I can't post another one at the moment.


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## Dormire (May 19, 2020)

Zoella said:


> I can confirm that I can place items and terraform on both the tiles where the fragments/crystals have dropped and where the trees were. Let me know if you'd like another video because I'm not currently at my computer so I can't post another one at the moment.


Sure! This isn't for me but more for everyone so, if you can give a video demo, it would be great! I'll link your vid/blog as proof if you allow me to!


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## Bioness (May 19, 2020)

@Dormire looks like you're famous.



			https://www.washingtonpost.com/video-games/2020/05/19/hackers-are-putting-star-fragment-trees-animal-crossing-planting-them-is-big-risk/


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## Dormire (May 19, 2020)

Bioness said:


> @Dormire looks like you're famous.
> 
> 
> 
> https://www.washingtonpost.com/video-games/2020/05/19/hackers-are-putting-star-fragment-trees-animal-crossing-planting-them-is-big-risk/



LMAO BUT I'M AT A PROCESS OF CONFIRMING IT WITH A USER NOOOO. I mean, how would I contact them about it? I just relayed a Reddit thread. (I will still stand on the point that it's not safe though.)


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## Bioness (May 19, 2020)

Dormire said:


> LMAO BUT I'M AT A PROCESS OF CONFIRMING IT WITH A USER NOOOO. I mean, how would I contact them about it? I just relayed a Reddit thread. (I will still stand on the point that it's not safe though.)



I don't know, I saw it and thought it was weird, I would try contacting the person who wrote the article.


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## Dormire (May 19, 2020)

Bioness said:


> I don't know, I saw it and thought it was weird, I would try contacting the person who wrote the article.


I hope it goes well. I'm not used to contacting journalists (that aren't local, I mean. I'm just a peasant girl of a 3rd world country lol) I'll link the video Zoella will provide once it's out. 

I think it's weird too since, I mean, to be honest, basing this with just one thread is kinda weird (for journalists I mean). Maybe it's different overseas?


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## Bioness (May 19, 2020)

Dormire said:


> I hope it goes well. I'm not used to contacting journalists (that aren't local, I mean. I'm just a peasant girl of a 3rd world country lol) I'll link the video Zoella will provide once it's out.
> 
> I think it's weird too since, I mean, to be honest, basing this with just one thread is kinda weird (for journalists I mean). Maybe it's different overseas?



It is their video game section. I didn't even know the Washington Post did video game stuff, but I guess that is what happens when a video game is popular enough.

Really since there is so little information about the game, game journalists are relying on forums and social media to get their information. Though I would say that particular journalist didn't do her job right since she is taking your post at face value AND not paying attention to the fact that it came from Reddit first.


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## Miss Misty (May 19, 2020)

Dormire said:


> I hope it goes well. I'm not used to contacting journalists (that aren't local, I mean. I'm just a peasant girl of a 3rd world country lol) I'll link the video Zoella will provide once it's out.
> 
> I think it's weird too since, I mean, to be honest, basing this with just one thread is kinda weird (for journalists I mean). Maybe it's different overseas?


Nah, this is pretty par for the course for online journalism everywhere in 2020. Entire articles get written about _tweets _these days, let alone an entire forum thread.


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## glow (May 19, 2020)

Dormire said:


> You mean this?
> 
> 
> __ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1250666455923699714



how is this evidence.....this tweet is from 4/15..... the star fragment tree thing is relatively new, i don't see any posts on their feed with pictures of hacked trees, nor does the tweet (roughly) translate into anything that mentions hacked trees.

idk Japanese so please correct me if i'm wrong.

but still the tweet is from over a month ago

(side note, they got their save data fixed so if they really did hack it a month ago before these trees were rly a thing then i guess Nintendo fixed it for them??)


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## Dormire (May 19, 2020)

glow said:


> how is this evidence.....this tweet is from 4/15..... the star fragment tree thing is relatively new, i don't see any posts on their feed with pictures of hacked trees, nor does the tweet (roughly) translate into anything that mentions hacked trees.
> 
> idk Japanese so please correct me if i'm wrong.
> 
> ...


I didn't say it is evidence to the Star Fragment trees. The person asked what the Japanese error message looked and mentioned there's a video. Which knew what they meant so I provided it.

This video is about multiplayer wiping save data which I linked to my response to Naranjita's. This is merely showing a variant of that error message.


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## Feraligator (May 19, 2020)

Related but not really:

I have ghost tiles in my town (unfortunately...). Not from hacks but just a glitch, where I can't place paths or terraform or anything (I have a Twitter vid if anyone is curious). I can place things on top though. Is it like that? Because I got that through moving buildings and not through this tree thing, but it is pretty annoying and it looks kinda ugly.


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## moonolotl (May 19, 2020)

its almost a shame they arent in the base game because they're so beautiful and would fit in so well with my islands aesthetic lol. I'd never ever risk hacking them or planting them though, this sounds terrifying


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## Bcat (May 19, 2020)

Oh lord, smile for the waPO everyone! If I’d have known this forum was famous, I would’ve done my hair...


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## Zoella (May 19, 2020)

Dormire said:


> Sure! This isn't for me but more for everyone so, if you can give a video demo, it would be great! I'll link your vid/blog as proof if you allow me to!



Here's a link to the proof, the part where I dug up the hacked trees was cut out because of the 30 second limit thing, but people can see that there were trees there by watching both videos I have and then looking at the timestamp at the end of both videos.


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## Dormire (May 20, 2020)

Zoella said:


> Here's a link to the proof, the part where I dug up the hacked trees was cut out because of the 30 second limit thing, but people can see that there were trees there by watching both videos I have and then looking at the timestamp at the end of both videos.


Thank you so much! I'll add this to the first post! Thank you so much as well for being polite, I don't have bad intentions about this but rather to just warn others of the risk of having them.


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## Zoella (May 20, 2020)

Dormire said:


> Thank you so much! I'll add this to the first post! Thank you so much as well for being polite, I don't have bad intentions about this but rather to just warn others of the risk of having them.



Of course! I'm glad I could help out with this  People who want to get these trees for their island should know of any risks so thank you for looking out for the community!


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## dragonair (May 20, 2020)

Zoella said:


> Of course! I'm glad I could help out with this  People who want to get these trees for their island should know of any risks so thank you for looking out for the community!


Nice, thanks for this! I commented on one of the asks that you responded to and realized after you asked for any other kind of proof of corrupted saves that none of the things I saw really had any lol. Now I get to whine more for these trees. TT v TT


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## Perri (May 20, 2020)

At this moment, no one has been banned from online from having these trees. I know a lot of people connect this occurrence to the hacked Pokemon fiascos, but this is not the same situation, so far. Anyone who is *directly* editing their save, and running unofficial, unlicensed content on their Switch is at risk of an online ban--that's just plain and simple. I believe people with the trees should not and most likely will not be banned from online services, unless they are the source of the hacked items.

I'm also not sure if Nintendo can patch these trees easily, because they would have to change how the money trees operate entirely.

I also want to reassure anyone with unreleased items that have not been modified, but have been introduced to the economy thanks to the save editor, that you are safe from corruption and bans. You are okay. Please trash or sell any items that flash/glitch out, though; those were added into the game improperly and may cause issues, if not headaches.


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## Hirisa (May 20, 2020)

I seriously hope people aren’t staying awake at night angsting over whether or not to risk their saves over these (sorry!) extremely stupid looking trees. Really not worth it.


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