Are you done your critterpedia?

[Kattea]

Is it a goal of yours to complete the critterpedia, or do you have a more "it'll happen when it happens" attitude?

Sea creatures - I finished today! This one was by far the least frustrating, the RNG is pretty fair. I managed to complete it within the year.

Fish - I'm just starting to do this seriously. I missed so many rare ones throughout the year so now I'm keeping a monthly calendar.

Bugs - How. I remember last July there were a whole bunch of beetles that were supposed to spawn on trees. I looked every day and hardly saw any on my island.

Which critters gave you the most trouble, and what advice do you have?

• I noticed my style of terraforming favours very thin streams and tiny ponds, so I made a temporary fishing section at the back of my island with thick rivers and several ponds to help the spawn rates.
• Fishbait, fishbait, fishbait.

 

[Millysaurusrexjr]

Not finished with bugs, fish, or diving, let alone the museum.. not sure if I ever will be! MAYBE diving. Even though I time travel a lot I don't love the idea of using time travel to complete the first three things, I prefer to complete it naturally

 

[Bluelady]

Congrats on finishing the sea creature category! I hate fishing in sim games like this one and Harvest Moon, so I usually leave those sections incomplete.

However, I might actually try to finish my critterpedia this time. I’m tired of my equipment always breaking after every 20 uses or so.

 

[Miss Misty]

Congrats on sea creatures!

I finished mine when the last ones became available in March (I believe). Been playing since launch and I tried to get every creature within the first timeframe it was available to me. I think some of the ones that gave me the most trouble were some of the sea creatures since some of them aren't easy to identify from their surface bubbles.

 

[Variety.Gamer 4438]

Just wanted to give a PSA for the critterpedia. Apparently, there are a few bugs, fish, and/or sea creatures that only start appearing when you have caught a certain amount of bugs, fish, and/or sea creatures. For example, the Giant Snakehead only appears after a player has already caught 50 fish total and the Tiger Beetle only appears after a player has already caught 20 bugs total. As long as a player catches 100 bugs, fish, and/or sea creatures total however, every species will be available to the player to catch (I'm assuming it's the same for deep sea creatures as I'm getting all this information from the Official Companion Guide, which wasn't updated for Deep Sea Creatures).

Anyway, as for me, I am probably halfway done for all three sections. I find the barreleye as one of the most annoying fish to catch, but the bugs are pretty easy since you always know what they look like. I suppose creatures that only show up during morning times are slightly annoying as well (if there are any I have left to catch) because I play more often during the afternoon/evening.

My advice is to always go for the critters that will disappear the soonest first and/or the creatures that show up during the fewest months. Of course, focus on catching 100 total in each of the critter categories so you can have all the species unlocked (I'm not sure if this is a new feature that Nintendo added or if it was also a hidden feature in the past games).

 

[oak]

Eventually I want to complete the critterpedia but for right now I've only finished the art section. I still have a lot of fish and diving creatures to catch.

 

[kiwikenobi]

I finished the critterpedia and museum and everything earlier this year, when the last few critters I needed appeared. Very satisfying.

Here's a tip: fish and bug spawns seem to be way more frequent on NMT islands. So if you go to one, and it's not a special one (tarantula island, bamboo island, fishing-trash island, etc.) you can often find rare critters more frequently, just because so many spawn so quickly, you get more chances for them to appear in a shorter amount of time. I caught several of the more rare fish on NMT islands. And the airplane dock counts as a pier for the pier-only fish, too.

I’m tired of my equipment always breaking after every 20 uses or so.

Gold equipment still breaks, it just lasts three times as long as regular tools. So, if a fishing rod lasts for 30 uses, a gold one will last for 90.

 

[Bluelady]

Gold equipment still breaks, it just lasts three times as long as regular tools. So, if a fishing rod lasts for 30 uses, a gold one will last for 90.

Yes. I’m aware that gold tools still break. I just meant that I find it more annoying using regular tools in comparison to gold tools because they break more often.

 

[kiwikenobi]

Ah, okay. Just wanted to make sure. I've seen quite a few people who expected the gold tools to be unbreakable and were unpleasantly surprised to learn that they break in this game. ^o^;>

 

[~Kilza~]

Yeah, I finished my critterpedia back in March, lol. Fish/bugs were done in December, sea creatures in March due to not time traveling and not going to other islands that weren't in real time to catch fish/bugs/sea creatures. On top of that, I wanted to get the models for all fish/bugs myself, rather than just buy them from others here, and I've actually got all the fish required for the models, and I'm super close with the bugs (just need to grind out 2 golden stags and 1 scarab beetle).

As for advice, in general, I would always make sure to focus my efforts on getting the new fish/bugs/sea creatures that appeared for the month right away. That way, once I got them, I didn't have to worry about any new ones until the next month. I'd have a list with the times and locations they appeared, then just work my way towards whittling down that list once the month started.

With bugs, the biggest thing that helped me (especially with the rare ones in July/August) was going to the NMT islands. It's a lot easier to get them to spawn there since you just need to run around the small area and scare any off that you don't want (provided they can be scared off), and you can help the spawn rate by getting rid of the flowers/rocks/trees if you don't need them to get that bug. Admittedly it is boring as heck running around and waiting for them to spawn, lol, and can definitely take awhile (golden stag took me like 3 hours to get whereas all the others I got within an hour iirc), but it's definitely the best and quickest way to get bugs.

For fish, NMT islands helped since it was easier to get them to spawn, much like the bugs, though the island could be more hit or miss than with bugs depending on what fish(es) you're going for. Going for fish on your own island with fish bait also works if you're willing to put in the time and effort (and materials for the inevitable broken shovels) to get a bunch of fish bait. Generally I preferred my island for ocean and most river fish, the NMT islands for pond fish and a couple of river fish, and was able to get all fish within a couple of days of the month starting (except the golden trout, that one took me a few days to get for the very first time, lol).

Also a helpful note with NMT islands is that the spawns lock in place from the time you arrive on the island. So if there's a bug that's only available from 3-7 PM, as long as you're there before 7 PM, you can find that bug any time after 7 PM.

 

[bebebese]

I've one more fish for the critterpedia (Napoleonfish), but I've learned that my museum is missing a bitterling so I have that to check off my list too.
I need a tiger prawn and a horseshow crab for the sea creatures, and I think just the giraffe stag for the bugs. Hopefully I'll get those done by July. Would be the first time across the series that I've completed all the creatures.

 

[Moritz]

I cant remember when I finished it exactly, but it was when they became available so I'm guessing December and March going off the replies here.

 

[Bugs]

Despite my username, I haven't actually completed the bugs section. Or any section actually...

I've never really cared about completionism in animal crossing games though. If I ever complete a part of the critterpedia it would be mostly by accident

 

[Croconaw]

I haven’t, but I’m not really trying to complete it. I keep my island in the summer months, so I don’t see all of the bugs.

 

[angelcat621]

I finished the art last fall and sea creatures this spring. Thanks to some time travel I'm now only missing Scorpion for bugs (such a low spawn rate!) Maybe I'll try some Nook islands.
After an intense time travel quest, I'm missing just 3 fish: Tuna, Napoleon fish, and Coelacanth. Currently sitting in last November LF size 6 Tuna but the only size 6 shadow spawning at pier is Blue marlin. Am I just getting unlucky RNG?
Edit: Caught Tuna right after I started game this morning.

 

[AccfSally]

Yes, I was done since December.

 

[moo_nieu]

i finished it about a month ago

cicada shell gave me the most trouble but i dont really have tips. just walked around looking at trees

 

[Chris]

I'm very inconsistent with playing the game so I doubt I'll ever finish it. It'd be nice if it does happen!

 

[Lullaboid]

Not even close, sadly. I get way into the decorating aspect of the game and get distracted from everything else.

 

[Darth Savage]

So I'm finished with all of the Fossils, Fish and Sea Creatures. Bugs I think I still have about 7 or 8 left and only about half way in colleting all of the Art Work from Red. Bugs have been a challenge, but the Art Work takes forever !