Month: March 2020

Day 6: Ladder, Saharah

I started up the game tonight, and I was disappointed to see that Nook’s Cranny was already closed. It was nice having Resident Services open 24 hours, and it still is… but with Timmy and Tommy moved to the store, now I’m having trouble buying things. I hope this game has something similar to the night owl ordinance like in New Leaf.

The good news is that I can still sell things by using the drop-off box. Unfortunately, Timmy and Tommy take 20% of the total amount as a handling fee…so that’s still not ideal, especially for valuable items.

Anyway, I looked through my recipes closer and saw that log stakes are indeed listed. They just look different (they’re sharpened to a point, unlike the logs shown in the bridge construction kit project). But they’re the right things! So I went out to gather wood.

Down on the beach, I ran into Saharah for the first time! How fitting that she showed up on hump day. 😀

Saharah: I have also mysterious flooring and wallpaper. Oh, how surprising you will find it! Are you ready to buy?

In New Horizons, she sells rugs, wallpaper, and flooring. I bought a wallpaper and flooring (for 3,000 bells each), and she gave me a construction-site wall and a lobby flooring. What I really like is that you can keep buying from her repeatedly in this game.

After I collected the lumber I needed, I built the bridge construction kit. I placed it just east of the museum, so it will provide access to the east coast of my island. It should be completed tomorrow.

The spot I picked out for my bridge in Animal Crossing: New Horizons.

When I dug up the daily glowing spot, my pockets were full. And there was no option to put the money away, so I canceled out…and ended up making another money tree sapling by mistake! 😛

Shari informed me that tomorrow is Louie’s birthday! I better remember to get a present for the big ape.

Shari: Ha! I won't tell anyone if you forgot. Bring a present for him and I'll hype it up for you. I got your back.

When I returned to Tom Nook, he had three housing kits for me. He expects me to not only place the three kits around town, but to furnish each one with furniture, both inside and out! Are you kidding me? That’s a lot of work…and it’s work that Tom Nook should be doing! I’m not his employee!

I started out by placing the three plots; I put them all in the eastern part of town.

I picked a spot for plot 3!

Now I just need to furnish the houses. Each house needs three indoor items and three outdoor items. That’s a total of 18 pieces of furniture! And it all needs to be crafted, so I’m going to need a ton of lumber for this task. This seems a bit overwhelming, and it seems like tedious busywork to be honest.

However, there is something good that came from this. Tom Nook informed me that one of the items I need is a flower wreath, which can be made from flowers up on the cliffs. So he gave me a recipe to make my own ladder! Yes!

With this, I can now finally explore the rest of my town! The cliffs, the waterfalls, and my upper pond, all within reach at last!

Jeff stands on a cliff in Animal Crossing: New Horizons.

Jeff climbs a ladder near a waterfall in ACNH.

I made three of the 18 items, but the rest will have to wait for another day. Have a great day (or night), and I hope to see you again tomorrow! 🙂

If you’d like to see my latest New Horizons video, here it is. It shows highlights from days 3 and 4. (The videos aren’t as up-to-date as the blog entries).

Day 5: Museum, Nook’s Cranny

Gulliver sent me a letter in the mail, and he included this Elder mask. I’m really not a fan of the stuff he’s sent me so far. Although this does remind me a bit of the snowman from Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer…

Jeff tries on the Elder mask in Animal Crossing: New Horizons.

Sebastian from the other night sent me a couple of apples, and Vinnie sent me a pear. Thanks, guys! 🙂 I also got a letter from Daisy Mae, telling me that she’ll be in town on Sunday morning to sell turnips. And the Nooks sent me my three-ball shirt.

I headed up to Resident Services, and Tom Nook was on the phone. He told me that he has three people that are interested on moving to Forest. He asked for my help in preparing their homes, and he told me the first step is to build a bridge. He gave me a DIY recipe for a bridge construction kit. Unfortunately, the recipe requires four log stakes, and I haven’t seen anything like that so far.

The big news of the day is that the museum and Nook’s Cranny are now open for business! I was able to attend the opening ceremony for both venues.

Ceremony for the grand opening of Nook's Cranny in Animal Crossing: New Horizons.

From the airport’s boardwalk, I stopped to take a look at both new buildings. Unfortunately, I couldn’t figure out a way to hide the date/time display. City Folk and New Leaf, at least, had a button for this purpose. Does anyone know a way to do it in New Horizons?

The view of Nook's Cranny and the museum from the airport.

Anyway, I went inside to check out the museum. It is beautiful, and it is huge. It will be easy to get lost inside here! 😀

Inside the museum.
How can an island with three residents support a museum this nice? 😛

After exploring it, I headed next door to Nook’s Cranny. This shop is making its first appearance since City Folk in 2008. When I first walked in, Timmy and Tommy were speaking with Mabel!

Timmy: You're too king, Mabel! We're just overwhelmed that you even thought to come visit us!

The Nooklings need a clothing supplier, and it sounds like Mabel is going to help them out with that. In the meantime, they welcomed me to the new store.

Timmy: Our shop is named in honor of a shop our beloved President Nook used to run.
Please don’t call him that.

I was going to buy the chair they had, but my pockets were full. But after I made room (by donating some things to the museum), I forgot about it. Once I did remember later on, Nook’s Cranny was already closed. Oof.

I visited Louie at his home, and there was an option to say “Do you want this?” I chose it, and then my inventory popped up. I gave him a stone. He actually liked it, and said it would be perfect for some heavy curls.

Louie: This looks like a nice stones.

Shari was walking around outside, and she taught me how to use emotions! Uh, I mean reactions.

I can use Reactions now! These gestures will help me express my feelings!

I have four reactions to start with: Joy, delight (clapping), greetings, and surprise. Not a bad bunch to start with, although I’ll definitely need laughter as well.

I dug up the daily glowing spot and re-buried the 1,000 bell bag. So I guess I’ll be getting a money tree; I’ll post the results when it’s fully grown.

On my passport, I browsed through the options for my title, and I changed it to City Folk Something or Other. 😛 I probably won’t keep it like this, but for the moment, that’s what I am. 😛

City Folk Something or Other.

On the beach, I found yet another bottle message. Do these come every single day (other than Day 1)? Anyway, this one was from Tom and contained a DIY recipe for a sleigh.

I saw a large fish shadow at the mouth of the river, and I caught myself a sturgeon! It was my first time catching one of these.

I caught a sturgeon! Wonder if it can perform sturgery...
Like a sturgeon… caught for the very first time.

After I crossed the river, I found an old friend: Wisp!

Wisp: YEEEEEEEEEEEKKKKK! A G-G-GHOOOOOOST!
I’m not a ghost, you are.

His role is basically back to the way it was on GameCube: You have to find his five spirits, catch them with your net, and return them to him.

As I was searching, I spotted a tarantula. I got my net out, approached it slowly, and paused repeatedly when it threatened me. When I finally inched close enough, I struck. I caught it!

I caught a tarantula! This situation just got hairy!

A couple minutes later, I finished up catching Wisp’s spirits. I was hoping to ask Wisp to weed my town, since that is what he’s known for in earlier games, although he offers rewards as well. However, that wasn’t an option here (the one time I actually need it).

He offered wallpaper…what does he think he is, a camel? I could choose one I haven’t had yet, or something expensive. I chose the latter, and he gave me a purple quilt wall.

Before ending my night, I also caught an emperor butterfly. It was quite an eventful day for me! What does tomorrow hold in store? See you then!

Never Stop Crossing! 🙂

Day 4: Mystery Island Tour

Today, Tom Nook informed me that construction has started on the museum. It will be built in the same spot as Blathers’ tent, which is a bit disappointing because I pictured having it further north in town. I guess I’ll be able to move it later in the game, but this will be fine for now. It will make it easy for donating ocean/beach catches, that’s one good thing! Oh, and the museum will be completed by tomorrow, so I’m excited about that! 🙂

I received letters from several of the people I played with yesterday. Thank you for the letters, and in some cases, the gifts you sent!

But for those who may be new to my blogs, I want to tell you a bit about how I play the game. I don’t time travel, I don’t duplicate items, I don’t accept large gifts like money bags/crowns/thrones, and I generally don’t consult guides (at least not early on). I like to earn everything myself, and I don’t rush through the game.

So for anyone that visits my town at any point, please don’t feel obligated to give me any gifts. In fact, I generally prefer not to receive gifts unless it’s something I’m specifically looking for. But thank you for the thought!

I also received a letter from Gulliver, and he sent me a Kaffiyeh. I tried it on, but I ended up selling it later. At this point, I’m not planning on collecting all of Gulliver’s items like I did in City Folk and New Leaf. But that could always change later.

Anyway, I noticed that Louie and Shari have now upgraded their tents to houses! Louie was so excited about it that he turned into an evil superhero.

Louie, looking particularly evil: It's got walls, a floor...even a ceiling! I can finally do jumping jacks without ripping a hole in my home!

I played in the early evening, and I caught a brand new butterfly: a paper kite butterfly! No strings attached!

I caught a paper kite butterfly! Do I read it, fly it, or spread it on toast?
Uh, definitely not the last one. Yuck.

For the third day in a row, I found a message bottle on the beach! This one was from Penelope, and she supplied me with a DIY recipe for a shell rug.

A message bottle from Penelope provides a recipe for a shell rug.

I got stung by wasps today. I was trying to bring up the tool ring, but I pressed the wrong button, and they got me. The funny part was that my character was kind of dancing as he was getting stung. 😀

Using the Nook Stop terminal, I ordered myself a three-ball tee. It will arrive tomorrow, so I can finally change out of my default clothes. 😛

When I played tonight, Shari noticed my face was swollen. (Saving and quitting does not heal it). So she gave me a DIY recipe for medicine! Thanks, Shari! But it’s going to be hard to make you the town villain when you keep being so nice! 😛

Shari: But tell you what, I'll show you how to MAKE medicine. My mom taught me when I was little.

After crafting the medicine and healing my face, I went to the airport. I used my Nook Miles ticket to take a mystery island tour. I landed on a small island, with some spiral-shaped land in the middle. It was raining pretty hard, and Boomer the penguin was hanging out there.

Boomer hangs out on a spiral-shaped island in Animal Crossing: New Horizons.

I wasn’t interested in trying to get him to move to Forest. But on the other hand, it’s Day 4 and I still only have two villagers. Not only do earlier Animal Crossing games start with more villagers, but they start moving in pretty rapidly at the beginning. That’s not the case with New Horizons.

Even though the island was small, it had a lot of materials that I needed…including a bunch of iron nuggets!

Jeff finds a bunch of iron nuggets.

In fact, I got enough materials to complete Timmy’s shop! So when I returned to Forest, I quickly gave Timmy everything he needed.

Timmy: Let's see. You brought in... Oh my! You brought in everything we need! All at once!
SUPPLIES!

He gave me the shop construction kit, and I was able to pick out a spot for the store! I put it near the airport and next to the museum. It’s going to be like a mini-Main Street there! It should be very convenient for donating and selling my catches!

This is where the shop will go! I bet this island is about to become a whole lot livelier!

I planted a peach tree, two coconut trees (I got coconuts from the island I visited), and I planted the bamboo shoots from Breezy in this spot here. I thought it might look nice from across the river, like a little wild-looking part of town (especially if the bamboo spreads).

Jeff plants three bamboo shoots near a bend in the river.

Gulliver was on the beach for the 2nd day in a row, and again, I found his communicator parts. He’ll be sending me another gift in the mail tomorrow. And with Nook’s Cranny and the museum both opening tomorrow, it’s going to be a busy day! See you then!

Update: My 2nd New Horizons video is up, showing highlights from Day 2 and part of Day 3: