Figuring out Patterns to Gifts from Villagers

[Mountain_Elements]

It used to be that if I gave my long-time villagers a wrapped fossil from one of the fossil sets, they'd give me a new item for my catalogue in return. This was incredibly useful for getting the clothes and furniture that never show up in my shops, including the seasonal shopping items that I was out of season for. Unfortunately, it couldn't last.

At first, I thought that maybe I was giving repeats of fossils to my villagers, and that's why they weren't happy enough to give me a new item. However, giving new non-fossil expensive gifts (items that sell for 750 bells or more) wasn't working either, and I couldn't find anything online about villagers being upset with repeat gifts. Eventually, it occurred to me that maybe the problem was that my island rating had dropped. I got my island back to 5 stars last Sunday but no luck so far.

My current theory is that I need to keep my island at 5 stars for some unknown length of time to get new items again, but I wanted to see if anyone else has noticed this phenomenon. Or are there any other patterns in the gifts from villagers that people have noticed?

 

[Doo]

Hi, haven’t experienced this myself but my mum keeps telling me about how she’s getting new clothing items when giving gifts to her villagers (I don’t know what she’s giving them). But I can confirm she doesn’t have a 5 star island. Not sure what this is to be honest, I only found out about it a couple of weeks ago

 

[Mountain_Elements]

Hi, haven’t experienced this myself but my mum keeps telling me about how she’s getting new clothing items when giving gifts to her villagers (I don’t know what she’s giving them). But I can confirm she doesn’t have a 5 star island. Not sure what this is to be honest, I only found out about it a couple of weeks ago

Huh, maybe it's based on how complete your catalogue is, then? Like if your catalogue is under ??% complete, you'll get new items, but if you go over that, the game wants you to work to finish your catalogue?

It was really useful while it lasted. I got summer clothing in the winter and a missing winter furniture item during the spring. But then it stopped, and I was hoping to get the rest of the winter items I was missing. I'll probably have to buy them from this forum eventually, but I'll wait until closer to my planned break in July.

 

[Suguri]

I haven't done this trick before so I decided to try it out as a test. Note that a few days before the test I dropped a bunch of items I needed to deliver to someone on the ground, which would have lowered my island rating to 4 stars. After I delivered them today, it went back up to 5 stars.

So I wrapped up a random fossil, gave it to Zucker, and I got from him some coveralls with arm covers. I noticed that this was a different color variant (orange) instead since I had the same outfit in the blue variant. Then I went up to Reneigh with a similar gift and I got my first relay tank. Then I did the same for Toby and Broffina and I got a pilot's uniform and a pink shanty wall from them, respectively. All of these items were new catalog additions.

I could be wrong, but the only logical guess I can presume is that the villagers have this pool of possible items that they can give to you, and when they've given you all the possible items, they just recycle through them. Again, I could be wrong.

 

[Doo]

Hi, haven’t experienced this myself but my mum keeps telling me about how she’s getting new clothing items when giving gifts to her villagers (I don’t know what she’s giving them). But I can confirm she doesn’t have a 5 star island. Not sure what this is to be honest, I only found out about it a couple of weeks ago

Update: my mum says they’re giving her repeat items now

 

[Mountain_Elements]

I could be wrong, but the only logical guess I can presume is that the villagers have this pool of possible items that they can give to you, and when they've given you all the possible items, they just recycle through them. Again, I could be wrong.

Huh, if that's true, then the pool seems to be tied to the villager space on my island instead of the villager in question. After I stopped getting new items, I tried giving gifts to a new villager on my island, but I never got anything new, even after I got her friendship level high enough that Katrina stopped giving me a friendship blessing for her.

 

[Doo]

It could be linked to personality type?

 

[Mountain_Elements]

It could be linked to personality type?

Maybe? I was getting a mix of new items and old items for a week or two before I stopped getting new items altogether. It doesn't seem likely to me though because my Cranky was one of the first to stop giving me new items even though I didn't have a Cranky on my island for a while before recruiting Chief.

 

[Suguri]

So I wrapped up a random fossil, gave it to Zucker, and I got from him some coveralls with arm covers. I noticed that this was a different color variant (orange) instead since I had the same outfit in the blue variant. Then I went up to Reneigh with a similar gift and I got my first relay tank. Then I did the same for Toby and Broffina and I got a pilot's uniform and a pink shanty wall from them, respectively. All of these items were new catalog additions.

Update: I tried this with more villagers. I got the following…

• A pastel party garland from Bill
• A lime sleeveless sweater dress from Kiki
• A black floor seat from Twiggy
• A cone with red stripes from Bob
• A green fishing vest from Carrie
• A red plover cardigan from Elvis

Bob's gift was bolded because it was already catalogued before he gave it to me.

 

[Mountain_Elements]

Bob's gift was bolded because it was already catalogued before he gave it to me.

Hmm...Is Bob either one of your starters or living where one of your starters used to live? Because I realized that Chief is living where my Sisterly starter used to live so I'm wondering if the game gives you 15-30 new items per villager position as an incentive for the player to give gifts to their villagers.

Another possibility is that you catalogued all of the Miscellanous items available in stores. Even when my villagers were giving me new items, any wallpaper they gave me was a repeat because I had bought all of the wallpaper available in Nook's Cranny.

Edit: Also, it could depend on the value of the fossil. Amber and other fossils that are single items didn't work for me while fossils that were parts of sets did. I read somewhere that Wisp considers "expensive" to be 3,000 bells to purchase so I think that single-set fossils are probably worth less than 750 bells when you sell them. Selling price is generally 1/4th of the purchase price so it's 750 bells to sell or 3,000 bells to buy. Non-fossil gifts that can be sold for at 750 bells also work. I've seen recommendations that you give your villagers 2 wrapped, non-native fruits in a stack, but that was after gifting villagers stopped giving me new items.

 

[Suguri]

Hmm...Is Bob either one of your starters or living where one of your starters used to live? Because I realized that Chief is living where my Sisterly starter used to live so I'm wondering if the game gives you 15-30 new items per villager position as an incentive for the player to give gifts to their villagers.

Bob is not a starter villager and his house plot used to belong to Dotty, who is not one of my starters.

Another possibility is that you catalogued all of the Miscellanous items available in stores. Even when my villagers were giving me new items, any wallpaper they gave me was a repeat because I had bought all of the wallpaper available in Nook's Cranny.

I don't think I have all the Misc. orderables catalogued.

Edit: Also, it could depend on the value of the fossil. Amber and other fossils that are single items didn't work for me while fossils that were parts of sets did. I read somewhere that Wisp considers "expensive" to be 3,000 bells to purchase so I think that single-set fossils are probably worth less than 750 bells when you sell them.

I don't remember what specific fossils I gave to my villagers yesterday. I'm pretty sure it was a mix of single fossils and fossils from sets, and with those I got new catalog additions most of the time. Also, single-set fossils sell for more than 750 bells; the Amber you mentioned earlier can be sold to Nook's Cranny for 1,200 bells, according to Nookipedia (source), so I don't think value plays a role.

I've seen recommendations that you give your villagers 2 wrapped, non-native fruits in a stack, but that was after gifting villagers stopped giving me new items.

I'll try that and see what happens. I remember gifting non-native fruits was a way to increase friendship points with a villager, so at least I get something out of it.

 

[Mountain_Elements]

Bob is not a starter villager and his house plot used to belong to Dotty, who is not one of my starters.


I don't think I have all the Misc. orderables catalogued.


I don't remember what specific fossils I gave to my villagers yesterday. I'm pretty sure it was a mix of single fossils and fossils from sets, and with those I got new catalog additions most of the time. Also, single-set fossils sell for more than 750 bells; the Amber you mentioned earlier can be sold to Nook's Cranny for 1,200 bells, according to Nookipedia (source), so I don't think value plays a role.


I'll try that and see what happens. I remember gifting non-native fruits was a way to increase friendship points with a villager, so at least I get something out of it.

Huh. I keep hoping to narrow down the variables before posting this in the "Little Things Some ACNH Players Might Not Know" thread, but every time I think I've figured something out, it turns out I'm wrong.

Giving them fossils also raises their friendship levels because the fossils count as furniture. I've been trying to find a gift guide that I saw once, but I still can't find it. All the gift guides I see now don't mention food. I did find a reddit thread where they mentioned fossils that aren't worth enough to count as a "top-tier gift", and amber was one of them. The reddit thread also recommended giving wrapped 2 non-native fruits.

This guide recommends giving furniture gifts that are worth at least 10,000 bells. So maybe the furniture gifts have to be worth at least 10,000 bells while any other gift should be worth at least 3,000 bells, and that's why amber and single-set fossils don't work? I still can't find any guides about getting new items as gifts from your villagers.

 

[Suguri]

Huh. I keep hoping to narrow down the variables before posting this in the "Little Things Some ACNH Players Might Not Know" thread, but every time I think I've figured something out, it turns out I'm wrong.

Giving them fossils also raises their friendship levels because the fossils count as furniture. I've been trying to find a gift guide that I saw once, but I still can't find it. All the gift guides I see now don't mention food. I did find a reddit thread where they mentioned fossils that aren't worth enough to count as a "top-tier gift", and amber was one of them. The reddit thread also recommended giving wrapped 2 non-native fruits.

This guide recommends giving furniture gifts that are worth at least 10,000 bells. So maybe the furniture gifts have to be worth at least 10,000 bells while any other gift should be worth at least 3,000 bells, and that's why amber and single-set fossils don't work? I still can't find any guides about getting new items as gifts from your villagers.

And that leads to another experiment. My gifts this time (I made sure to take note of them) are:

• A wrapped stack of two cherries (oranges are my island's native fruit)
• A wrapped archaeopteryx (sells for 1,300 bells)
• A wrapped archelon skull (sells for 4,000 bells)
• A wrapped arcade combat game (costs 64,000 bells)
• A wrapped desk mirror (costs 1,600 bells)

And here's a log of what happened:

• Gave the cherries to Elvis and got a green parka undercoat (new!)
• Gave the archaeopteryx to Reneigh and got some tiny shades (new!)
• Gave the archelon skull to Bill and got some black full-body tights (new!)
• Gave the arcade game to Bob and got a white sleeveless tunic (new!)
• Gave the mirror to Twiggy and got a blue young-royal shirt (new!)

Something's not adding up here...

And can you give more details on the gifting guide that you couldn't find? Was it about something other than friendship? I'm curious.

 

[Mountain_Elements]

And can you give more details on the gifting guide that you couldn't find? Was it about something other than friendship? I'm curious.

The gifting guide I can't find again was mostly graphics and had more details about what kinds of gifts you should give and when in order to get the maximum friendship points. I think it said that furniture was the best gift most of the time, but food was the best gift when a villager was celebrating their birthday? I definitely remember getting the 750-bell selling value from there because I had been thinking of it as gifts worth 3,000 bells before then. It had a small table describing the friendship value of various gifts, but I think it graded the gifts by letters instead of numbers.

Wait, I found it! I just did a search again and found the guide through a link on a website. It's the most detailed gifting guide I've seen so far, but it doesn't mention anything about how to get new items from villager gifts. I think that part of it might also be out of date because I remember seeing somewhere that the fruit stack trick doesn't work any more after an update to the game.

 

[Mountain_Elements]

I come with more data! After summer started, I noticed that my villagers had started giving me new items again in return for requests and the occasional gift. I held off on testing things out because if my villagers really were going to give me items that were missing from my catalogue, then I wanted to get as many summer clothing items as I could from Abel's first and then have my villagers fill in the gaps. June is nearly over so I decided that it was time to finally test things out.

After giving gifts to all 10 of my villagers, I received back 6 new summer clothes items! My newest 2 villagers gave me items that were already in my catalogue, and 2 of my other villagers decided to give me wallpaper/flooring, but I already have all of the wallpaper & flooring that can be purchased at Nook's Cranny. It looks like my villagers are helping me fill out my catalogue again though I'll have to test things out some more. I don't think you can give your villagers gifts on the tournament days so I'll just have to wait until Sunday. I also need to start asking for friendship blessing from Katrina again for my newest villagers.

 

[Mountain_Elements]

I decided to test this out again. Today's results:

1 item already in my catalogue from a new villager
2 items already in my catalogue from a long-time villager
1 wallpaper
2 new items from a long-time villager

Complicating matters is that I couldn't remember which villagers I gave fossils and which got summer shells last time so I might have given a couple of villagers the same item two days in a row. Also, some of my villagers refused to stop listening to K.K. Slider so I couldn't give them gifts. I think I'll try to give them non-native fruits next time since I haven't given those to my villagers in a while.

 

[Mountain_Elements]

Trying again with non-native fruits! Today's results:

1 item already in my catalogue from a new villager
7 new items from old villagers
2 floorings

Things went a lot better today! Here's hoping this continues at least through the end of the month. Also, I definitely need to keep alternating gifts for the best results.

Edit: I forgot to mention it, but I got good luck in belongings with Katrina before giving out the gifts.

 

[Mountain_Elements]

Today, I plan to give everyone 2 Giant Clams, which should be worth 4,000 bells. I got bad friendship luck, but I paid to have it purified. Results:

1 item already in my catalogue from an old villager
1 flooring
1 wallpaper
1 item already in my catalogue from a new villager
5 new items from old villagers

Still pretty good, but that catalogued item from an old villager stings. I think I'll try non-native fruit again tomorrow.

 

[Mountain_Elements]

Today, I have good luck in belongings and am giving my villagers 2 wrapped peaches (non-native fruit). Results:

2 floorings
1 item already in my catalogue from an old villager
4 new items from old villagers
2 item already in my catalogue from a new villager
1 photo (Anyone want an extra Erik's photo?)

Hmm, I'm still confused as to why an old villager keeps giving me items already in my catalogue. I don't think it was the same villager both times. Maybe the color of the wrapping paper offends them???

 

[Mountain_Elements]

Today, I have good luck in health and am giving my villagers 2 wrapped cherries (non-native fruit). Results:

6 new items from old villagers
2 items already in my catalogue from new villagers
1 wallpaper
1 villager photo -NEW!!!

Wow, that's a good haul!