so yesterday i made a post asking about rarer bugs because i needed 6 more bugs to complete my collection. that number has been bumped to 2 (woohoo!)
i’m having trouble with one of the two remaining bugs, the horned hercules. even in new leaf i had trouble catching these, but not because i scared them off, because they just don’t spawn.
tonight i saw and caught my first golden stag i’ve seen since i’ve bought the game (and i bought it when it was released!), and i can say i am having no luck in getting the horned hercules to spawn.
i usually go to mystery islands to look for them, i chop down all the trees, flowers, rocks, weeds, etc. leaving the palm trees left, and i know to creep up slowly on bugs (specifically moving when it moves, and stopping when it stops). i’m not overly worried about scaring it, it’s just that it won’t spawn at all.
i doubt any useful tips can be given, but if you have caught one, where and how long did it take, and what tips did you use?
I know this isn’t helpful, but it really is just luck, there is no trick to increase your odds, other than trying to maximize the general chances of a bugs spawning on palm trees (as you described doing in mystery islands). I feel like I don’t see them for weeks sometimes (I am not actively looking for any bugs so can’t say if this is them not being around or me not noticing.) then last week I had two spawned on my island at the same time, so I think with patience and persistence it really will appear for you.
in terms of mystery islands - the trick of trying to get beetles to spawn will work significantly better on an island with no water, so I would try and find a bamboo island, or ideally, a hardwood tree island which is already specially geared toward spawning beetles and other bugs that spawn on trees. Stumbling upon these while island hopping last summer was what really helped me finish my beetle collection (I don’t have it in me to do much ‘grinding’ for hard to find bugs)
I had a house on the top left and top right of my islands. I would run alone the beaches from one hluse to the other and then enter the house and go on the beach again and repeat the process.
No, seriously. It's really RNGeezus not being nice to you. It took me 3 days before I was able to get a Goliath beetle... A GOLIATH BEETLE.
You know, the beetle that isn't THAT rare of a bug, but for whatever reason, my RNG decided to be laughing really hard at me. I was able to catch scorpions, golden stags, giant stags, and all of the other rare beetles. But the common Goliath? NOPE.
Keep doing what you're doing by going to a Nook Island. Chop all the trees, pluck all the flowers, break all the stones, and move all the shellfish away. You may want to dig up the palm trees and plant them in a better location, making it easier to stalk the bugs.
I personally prefer bamboo island because there are no ponds, so you don't get any of the water bugs. But you'll need to make sure to have an axe and a shovel to chop them down and dig up the stumps.
After that, run back and forth across the screen, making sure to scare away any bugson the trees (don't forget the ground bugs) and hermit crabs. I wouldn't recommend you to run with your net out... I've been stung too many times by scorpions waiting to ambush me. I remember I got stung three times in a row because the island had spawned 3 scorpions in a row after I fainted.
