Letters!

[Hypno KK]

I found this guide about writing letters, based on the game's own data!

The Animal Crossing letter system, explained

A Twitter user delves into one of Animal Crossing’s many hidden secrets

www.polygon.com

Basically, a few years ago a fan looked into the game's inner workings and figured out the system. The game does a bunch of checks and adds/docks points accordingly. I recommend reading the whole thing for details but the most surprising is that it compares what you've written with a list of common trigrams (three-letter combinations) and gives you points if you use those.

Anyway, I usually write "good" letters in NL and such, but today I was playing ACGC, felt lazy, and sent letters that were a bunch of hearts and stars. OOPS.

 

[KittenNoir]

I never realised there was so much into sending out letters that is so cool

 

[Zinnia.]

oh, nice! just a guess here, but maybe this is how you're supposed to get the secret stationaries? Villagers might have a higher chance of sending you one if you send them a 'good' letter, idk.

 

[BogusMeatFactory]

It is pretty wild how much went into the letter system. I am probably going to still just keep writing the old fashioned way as I like to write naturally and not game the system (no shade on folks who do though!). My favorite thing about the letter system, at least with the gamecube version, is how animals can pick up on certain keywords like the museum and respond to that! I feel like that aspect got lost in New Horizons, but maybe I just never got it to trigger.

 

[Hypno KK]

oh, nice! just a guess here, but maybe this is how you're supposed to get the secret stationaries? Villagers might have a higher chance of sending you one if you send them a 'good' letter, idk.

I had no idea there was secret stationary, now I wonder!

It is pretty wild how much went into the letter system. I am probably going to still just keep writing the old fashioned way as I like to write naturally and not game the system (no shade on folks who do though!). My favorite thing about the letter system, at least with the gamecube version, is how animals can pick up on certain keywords like the museum and respond to that! I feel like that aspect got lost in New Horizons, but maybe I just never got it to trigger.

If you're using actual words, punctuation etc. then that's probably fine! Those are the things the game tends to look out for, so writing naturally is a good call

 

[toxapex]

Interesting read! I always knew that "sounding like a normal person" was generally valued, but it's cool to see what the actual rules are.

I wonder if it's possible to write a letter that specifically looks normal when read by a person, but intentionally fails as many checks as possible so that the recipient hates it?

 

[Cakecrazy909]

Oh yeah, I remember hearing about this, but not the details! Thanks for linking this, it's so interesting seeing that full spreadsheet. I always imagined they were working with a word whitelist, but I didn't think that included segments of words too. I suppose that means you could realistically write a letter that doesn't contain any full words yet still get full points? Plus, seems like you'd want your word lengths to be multiples of three to save character space and get the most points, if that was the goal? At a certain point it's probably overkill though, haha. Good to have the rules to refer to either way!

 

[Hypno KK]

Interesting read! I always knew that "sounding like a normal person" was generally valued, but it's cool to see what the actual rules are.

I wonder if it's possible to write a letter that specifically looks normal when read by a person, but intentionally fails as many checks as possible so that the recipient hates it?

I guess this would be possible depending on flexible your criteria are! For example, I think most people would understand a letter with no capitals (in English, at least) but that would fail the game's check. Same thing with some punctuation, such as ending the letter with no period or ending it with, say, a comma. The checks also look at spaces, so I think you could have a letter where you write one sentence per line and, in particular, use spaces to change line instead of just the "enter" key.

Oh yeah, I remember hearing about this, but not the details! Thanks for linking this, it's so interesting seeing that full spreadsheet. I always imagined they were working with a word whitelist, but I didn't think that included segments of words too. I suppose that means you could realistically write a letter that doesn't contain any full words yet still get full points? Plus, seems like you'd want your word lengths to be multiples of three to save character space and get the most points, if that was the goal? At a certain point it's probably overkill though, haha. Good to have the rules to refer to either way!

I've often heard about letters in the games getting checked for "positive" keywords (like "friend", etc.) or negative ones, I wonder if ACGC does that at all or if any real-looking words would work. You could indeed write a letter that doesn't have any complete, real words: you'd just have to include the various trigrams on the list and could have a whole letter made up of that. Yeah, I don't think it's 100% necessary to adhere to every check to a T, you can probably get the best outcomes just falling within a certain range and not failing, and I'm guessing that's possible as long as you write something other than gibberish and mind your punctuation and formatting

 

[BogusMeatFactory]

I love that the game also very much reinforces what you need to include in your letters. Villagers say to be particular in your punctuation. They even call you out if you do use gibberish words. Sure there are ways around it, but overall they do a great job of letting you know what they expect. A game that reinforces people for good habits is something we need a lot more of honestly

 

[himekirako]

oh wow, interesting :0
i’ll definitely test this out the next time i’m on hehe thankfully i’ve sent out ”proper” letters but i’m tempted to just send out gibberish to certain folks >:3

 

[Suguri]

I don't play a lot of this game but I'm gonna see if the letter system on NH is just as in-depth as in AC:GCN once I get my Switch back. (my guess: it's not)

 

[Hypno KK]

I don't play a lot of this game but I'm gonna see if the letter system on NH is just as in-depth as in AC:GCN once I get my Switch back. (my guess: it's not)

Please let us know what you find! I've mostly written nice letters in NH but I wouldn't be surprised if it just awarded friendship points for sending a letter regardless of how it's written :c

I love that the game also very much reinforces what you need to include in your letters. Villagers say to be particular in your punctuation. They even call you out if you do use gibberish words. Sure there are ways around it, but overall they do a great job of letting you know what they expect. A game that reinforces people for good habits is something we need a lot more of honestly

Yes! I was having a hard time typing at first because I messed up my controller settings and they told me they didn't understand my letters haha. I've now sent them better letters and they wrote back! I generally love the way there's so many little things to know about the game but the game itself will give you tips if you look closely. And you're right, even though the villagers are meaner in the GC version, it seems like a friendlier, more social game? You need to be considerate to your villagers and earn their friendship, which I really like!

oh wow, interesting :0
i’ll definitely test this out the next time i’m on hehe thankfully i’ve sent out ”proper” letters but i’m tempted to just send out gibberish to certain folks >:3

Bahhaha to be honest I haven't written to all my villagers yet (and I don't even have a full town!) but Anicotti will get gibberish forever for mugging me the other day

 

[Suguri]

Please let us know what you find! I've mostly written nice letters in NH but I wouldn't be surprised if it just awarded friendship points for sending a letter regardless of how it's written :c

I remember someone said that writing letters would not increase friendship points in NH, so there's that. Anyway, I plan on doing some kind of informal experiment involving formatting... In one letter I write naturally, and in another letter I put in nonsense. I will start this as soon as I get my Switch back.

 

[Hypno KK]

I remember someone said that writing letters would not increase friendship points in NH, so there's that. Anyway, I plan on doing some kind of informal experiment involving formatting... In one letter I write naturally, and in another letter I put in nonsense. I will start this as soon as I get my Switch back.

That's just so disappointing if it's true Why else have letters if they won't really mean anything to your friendships? In that case, I'm guessing the only thing it might influence are the contents of the letters you receive and whether you get gifts, that would be better than nothing, at least!

 

[BogusMeatFactory]

I feel like, and I would love to be corrected if I'm wrong, in Animal Crossing New Horizons, letters have the criteria of if you include a present or not. It feels like they treat it like engaging in a conversation with a villager in person. They just pull from a pool of responses based on their personality trait and the two different pools are if the letter includes a gift. I don't think there is a negative response from the villagers. I am very curious to know how that experiment goes.

 

[Suguri]

I don't play a lot of this game but I'm gonna see if the letter system on NH is just as in-depth as in AC:GCN once I get my Switch back. (my guess: it's not)

Okay, I got my Switch back. The experiment starts now! Hmm… I dunno if I should log my findings here or go somewhere else but I’m just gonna post here anyway and see how it goes.

I’ll be sending out 4 letters to 4 random villagers. It was going to be two but BogusMeatFactory inspired me to do four so shout-out to him for that. Two of them will have normal writing and two of them will have nonsense. Two of them will have gifts and two of them won’t have anything. These are the letters I’m sending out:

Spoiler: Letters

The gifts are a stack of giant clams wrapped in purple wrapping paper.

 

[Suguri]

Okay, I got my Switch back. The experiment starts now! Hmm… I dunno if I should log my findings here or go somewhere else but I’m just gonna post here anyway and see how it goes.

I’ll be sending out 4 letters to 4 random villagers. It was going to be two but BogusMeatFactory inspired me to do four so shout-out to him for that. Two of them will have normal writing and two of them will have nonsense. Two of them will have gifts and two of them won’t have anything. These are the letters I’m sending out:

Spoiler: Letters

View attachment 556701
View attachment 556702
View attachment 556703
View attachment 556704

The gifts are a stack of giant clams wrapped in purple wrapping paper.

Update: OK, this is weird. I haven't gotten any letters back from my villagers related to what I sent out in the past two days. I'll have to wait and see what happens, and if nothing occurs I guess I'll have to try again because when I send letters to my villagers, I usually get a letter back from them. why did I even do this...

 

[Hypno KK]

That's really weird! I thought they were always guaranteed to send letters back

 

[Suguri]

That's really weird! I thought they were always guaranteed to send letters back

Update: I was impatient. Last I checked (a few hours ago), I got letters back from 3 out of the 4 villagers I sent my letters to. The last letter should be coming...I don't know when. I don't have my Switch with me so I will have to check my letters later.

 

[Suguri]

Update: I was impatient. Last I checked (a few hours ago), I got letters back from 3 out of the 4 villagers I sent my letters to. The last letter should be coming...I don't know when. I don't have my Switch with me so I will have to check my letters later.

Update of the update: I apologize for the delay. I got too caught up with real life to share anything here. So on Monday I got letters from Kiki, Bob, and Bill (who I didn't send anything to). Since the first two were subject to my little experiment, (ehehe...) I'm only showing their letters.

Spoiler: Letters

As for Carrie and Toby, I got nothing from them. It makes sense, since they probably couldn't understand what I wrote and tossed it out.

I feel like, and I would love to be corrected if I'm wrong, in Animal Crossing New Horizons, letters have the criteria of if you include a present or not. It feels like they treat it like engaging in a conversation with a villager in person. They just pull from a pool of responses based on their personality trait and the two different pools are if the letter includes a gift. I don't think there is a negative response from the villagers. I am very curious to know how that experiment goes.

I have hunch this theory here is correct, even though I only did one test.