Jeff's ACCF Blog

Catching valuable bugs (and sharks) on summer nights is always fun, in any Animal Crossing game. A long bug-hunting session can net you some serious bells. And even if you don’t need the money, it’s always exciting to nab a big beetle or catch a huge shark.

So why do I prefer bug-hunting in City Folk over all of the other Animal Crossing games? There are several reasons, so let’s begin.

Shop Hours

City Folk lets you downgrade your shop to choose better hours. It’s basically a precursor to the night owl ordinance in New Leaf and New Horizons. The City Folk version of Nook ‘n’ Go stays open until 1 a.m., which is ideal for late-night summer bug hunting.

Admittedly, a New Leaf town with the night owl ordinance lets you sell catches until 2 a.m., which is an hour later. But if you have a town with lots of hybrid flowers like I do, you probably need to use the beautiful town ordinance in New Leaf to keep your flowers alive.

The night owl ordinance in New Horizons isn’t nearly as beneficial; the shop closes at 11 p.m. New Horizons does have a drop-off box that you can use to sell things after the shop is closed, but it comes at a steep price: 20%. When you’re dealing with large quantities of valuable bugs and fish, 20% is a lot of money.

Chill Tunes

Even though I prefer the GameCube soundtrack overall, the City Folk tunes really shine in the late-night hours. In particular, the 10 p.m. through 2 a.m. songs are some of my favorites. They’re chill, relaxing, and they really set the mood. They’ve also become nostalgic for me, as those are some of my frequent playing hours.

Note: City Folk uses the same hourly tunes as Wild World, so this category is technically a tie with Wild World. 😛

Working Towards Long-Term Goals

This one is personal, and it can vary depending on what you’ve accomplished in each game. But the long-term goal of earning feathers (starting at 100 million bells in savings) is something that I’d like to achieve eventually.

The GameCube game does have a long-term goal, but it’s a bit too long-term: The 999,999,999 bells required for the post-office model would probably take several lifetimes to earn legitimately for most players (unless you’re a hardcore turnip trader).

The GameCube game is the hardest game to earn money in, and I don’t play the stalk market, time travel, or use cheat codes. It’s also the only game that doesn’t pay interest on your savings.

New Leaf has some reasonable long-term goals (the Tycoon Bell Saver badge and an A.B.D. at 100 million bells saved). But I’ve already met all of the long-term goals in New Leaf that related to saving money and catching bugs. So there’s nothing left for me to work towards.

Direct Comparisons

In addition to the reasons listed above, here are some direct comparisons as to why I prefer City Folk bug-hunting over the others.

Why City Folk over GameCube?

Bugs aren’t as plentiful on GameCube, as acre boundaries limit bugs to one per acre. Also, there are no sharks to catch. (Sharks were first added in Wild World.) Besides, GameCube has a different ultra-profitable activity: Catching ocean fish in early September when all of the sea bass are on vacation. 😛

Why City Folk over Wild World?

The lack of analog controls in Wild World makes bug-catching less precise, and there’s no quick way to swap tools (you have to go into the menu each time, and that’s a comparatively slow, clunky process in this game). I don’t particularly enjoy bug-catching in ACWW very much.

Why City Folk over New Leaf?

Admittedly, New Leaf’s island is more profitable than bug-hunting in City Folk. But it’s available year-round, so it feels less special when you don’t have to wait for summer nights. And as I mentioned above, I have no other long-term goals left to work towards in New Leaf.

Why City Folk over New Horizons?

Money is easy to earn in New Horizons, and there are no big-money goals to work towards anyway. Unless you still need to meet some bug-catching achievements for Nook Miles (and I don’t), it doesn’t seem as beneficial.

Happy Hunting!

Good luck if you’re doing any late-night bug-hunting in any Animal Crossing games this summer. Feel free to share your achievements and highlights in the comments below!

I opened my mail to an unpleasant surprise tonight: Stitches has moved out of town, without warning. 🙁

At the Roost, I asked K.K. Slider for a sad song, and he played K.K. Condor. That’s actually the same song he played for me in New Horizons tonight!

Marcel said he was sick with a cold, and I don’t think he was just clowning around. So I gave him some medicine.

Once I was done making my rounds, I went bug-hunting! I ended up making 140,000 bells on the night (in a 58-minute session, with not all of that being hunting time). That included one pocketful that earned me a nice 75,550 bells!

When I put it into the bank, my account balance topped 51 million bells. My pace is a bit slower than I anticipated to this point, but we’re still only about 1/4 through bug season. I’ll be sure to do some longer sessions at some point this summer.

I quickly noticed a heavy meteor shower as I started up the game tonight. Unfortunately, there’s no way to wish on those shooting stars, but it is a nice sight to behold. 🌠

In the shop, I was actually a bit impressed with how the tiki torches look in this game. That top circle looks wider than the one in New Horizons, and I like it. Okay, maybe I’m just weird. 😛

I got to see the inside of Boomer’s house, and he apparently thinks he’s living on a small island by himself. He has a bunch of totem poles, a campfire, a sleeping bag, and…a cannon?

If he thinks he’s firing at pirates, he’s actually going to be blowing a hole through his wall.

Once I was done talking to everyone and identifying fossils, etc., I got down to the serious business of bug catching. 😉 That time of year is here, and I’m ready for it!

The first valuable bug I saw was a tarantula. But the stupid little guy was about to walk right into the river and kill himself! So I had to hurry up my swing…and you can probably guess how this ended. Because I rushed my swing, my aim was off. And he jumped at the chance (literally) to attack me. The only consolation is that after he killed me, he also walked into the river anyway.

For the first 5-10 minutes of my hunt, I was only finding mid-range bugs (other than the tarantula I missed). My first good catch was this rainbow stag.

That seemed to kick things off, with better bugs popping up regularly after that.

My bug hunts generally don’t involve much fishing, unless I see a shark fin or an eel. (Eels are only worth 2k, but they’re a sure thing because no other fish have the same shadow.) But of course, I also stop to fish when I see a huge fish shadow. This one in the river turned out to be an arapaima!

My 50-minute hunt had a lot of variety. I caught three rainbow stags in total, thee goliath beetles, three scarab beetles, a golden stag, an atlas beetle, a cyclommatus, a tarantula, a scorpion, a hammerhead shark, a regular shark, a blue marlin, that arapaima, an elephant beetle, and of course, a bunch of mid-range catches.

My grand total for my 50-minute hunt was 213,057 bells.

That did include a couple items villagers gave me, and a balloon present, so that’s why it’s an odd number. But that’s not bad for under an hour’s work! There will be many more bug hunts throughout the summer. Good luck to you if you’ll be doing the same this summer! 🐛🐞🦋

See you again soon!