Animal Crossing Series Mechanics & Secrets

The Animal Crossing series is a good series, but is it really a good series? The answer is yes, however every game has imperfections. This page will explain the many mechanics, exploits, glitches in the game, as well as rare objects you can get in the games in order to show how brilliant these games are, and to highlight the imperfections of each individual games. Please know that we do not intend to include bugs on this page, as bugs are a staple of this franchise, so don't freak out if you see one in the games.

This page exists to show why this series is loved so much by millions everywhere, and maybe once you're done reading it, you may want to try out these obscure classics. It is also one of QueueSS's favorite series of games, so it deserves a spot on this wiki.

Animal Crossing: Population Growing!
Ah, the first game. What can you say about it? Not much actually, as it was the one to start it all. Not as many fish, not as many bugs, and overall has less things to do. However, it was very unique, as it's the only game in the series to have the acre system, having the most amount of villagers in one village, and of course, has it's own unique mechanics, glitches and exploits.

Shovelnose Guitarfish
A very rare fish to obtain in Animal Crossing: Population Growing!. It also debuted in this version of the game, and was subsequently added to Dōbutsu no Mori e+, an expanded version of Animal Crossing: Population Growing! made only for Japan. You will need a Shovel of any kind, though a Golden Shovel is preferable, and maxed out Agility. Follow these steps in a specific order: This may not seem too difficult, however, the fish cannot be found without the maximum amount of agility, or at least 98 levels with the Golden Shovel. Even with all of that, the Shovelnose Guitarfish only has a .2% success rate, meaning it will likely take many months, possibly even a year to obtain this rare fish.
 * 1) Go to the ocean. The Shovelnose Guitarfish can only be found in oceans.
 * 2) Equip a Shovel.
 * 3) Face the ocean.
 * 4) Press the A button to get your character to scoop up something from the river.
 * 5) Hope that you get a Shovelnose Guitarfish. If not, you'll have to reset the map by going inside of a building and going back outside, and trying the process all over again. Unfortunately, this does not work if the building is on the same acre as the ocean, as the game will deload every other acre in the game aside from the one you're currently on.

Shovelfish (Beta Shovelnose Guitarfish)
Although not a part of the full release, it's worth detailing this obscure find in the prototype for Animal Crossing: Population Growing!. It takes up the same slot in the fish list as the Shovelnose Guitarfish in the game, implying this was what the Shovelnose Guitarfish was originally going to be. Although the prototype for the game comes with a debug menu which you can select any item you want in your pocket, the in-game requirements to actually catch it are not much different to that of the final version of this fish, with the only difference being that they are found in rivers instead of the ocean.

The Shovelfish looks nothing like the Shovelnose Guitarfish with many differences. To begin with, the sprite for this fish actually more closely resembles a shovel rather than a smaller manta ray. It has eyes on the side of its head rather than on top. The body itself is very thin to resemble the middle part of a shovel, with the tail as the handle. Something else worth noting is the fact that there's an alternate version of the Shovelfish that's unobtainable outside of the debug menu called shovelfish_m. It has a bigger tail with some markings on it. The "m" in it's name in conjunction with Blathers' description of the fish suggests that this is a male counterpart, possibly meaning that at one point there were 2 obtainable Shovelfish, with the grey-tailed version being female.

When given either version of the fish to Blathers at the museum, he will will laugh and explain that the Shovelfish is the single-most pathetic fish to ever grace this planet, with how it has survived for so long being the 8th wonder of the world. He also explains that the males tail is meant to attract female fish to mate not unlike the peacock.

It's possible that the Shovelfish was meant to be a joke fish that players could catch by random chance, and the development team at the time had no idea that the Shovelnose Guitarfish even existed. Once they found out it was real, the team replaced the Shovelfish for it's real counterpart, leaving the Shovelfish in obscurity. One thing to note is that, although it hasn't officially appeared in an Animal Crossing game until Animal Crossing: New Horizons, it can be found through the many prototypes of the series, and sometimes it's left in the games code as an unobtainable item.

Momentum-Sign Exploit
This exploit only requires you to use any sign in the game, though it will not work with the Dump sign for unknown reasons. The steps are as follows: Once this is done, you will go faster than the normal running speed. One thing to note is that you will have to do these steps all over again if you come to a complete stop, meaning you cannot do this across acres.
 * 1) Go to any sign in the game (Aside from the previously mentioned Dump sign)
 * 2) Run towards the sign. Walking towards a sign doesn't work
 * 3) Let go of the Control Stick before reading the sign, but keep holding down the B button. You must time it so you're character doesn't come to a stop before reading, but they cannot be running.
 * 4) Read the sign and exit the dialogue box.
 * 5) Once the dialogue box is comepletely closed, you have 2 frames to input the Control Stick to either 2 of the upwards diagonal directions. If done in any other direction, the player character will take too long turning around and cancel the the momentum. Inputting up will make the player character run into the sign, cancelling the momentum gained.

Crucial Catch
This exploit uses the Momentum-Sign Exploit to get a higher success rate when catching a fish. The name comes from a pun shown when fishing up a Crucian Carp in the game. To do this, you must follow these steps: Doing this will transfer the momentum into the fishing rod to throw the lure much more efficiently, making the fish more likely to bite and get fished out of the water. Because of how specific it is, this exploit was likely intentional, though the developers of the game have yet to say anything. Speedrunners have been experimenting with this exploit to try and get higher chances to obtain the Shovelnose Guitarfish, but no success has been documented thus far.
 * 1) Do the Momentum-Sign Exploit.
 * 2) Go fishing.
 * 3) That is all.

Platinum Shovel
The Platinum Shovel is an item you can obtain, though it's very hard to get only because you need the Shovelnose Guitarfish first. It looks much like the Silver Shovel from later games, though it constantly sparkles, and has a star imprinted on it, which pulsates a glow. Depending on the time of day, this glow can be faint, though noticeable, or it can glow very brightly. Once you have the Shovelnose Guitarfish, you must follow these steps: As for what the Platinum Shovel does, on top of the 5 buried items you can find once every day, you will be able to dig up 5 more items in spots that are not marked, excluding Pitfalls. To find these spots, you must use the pulsating glow coming from the imprinted star to guide you to which acre these items are in. The color of the glow will change depending on how far away you are from the item it is tracking: Once you're on the same acre, you will have to dig on every spot as it will not tell you the exact location of where the buried item is. Note that it will only keep track of one item at a time, which will be the item that's closest. It will also not switch to tracking another item if it already has started tracking one of them no matter how far away you are from it. After you've found all of the items, the glow will fade away. This is the only way to get all the Fossilized Caveman Skeleton parts, which is otherwise impossible with the other shovels.
 * 1) Donate your Shovelnos Guitarfish to the museum. Blathers will tell you that it's a rare fish and deserves it's own special room. It will be put inside a newly built room that will appear in the Aquarium after 3 days.
 * 2) Complete both the Aquarium and the Fossil Exhibition.
 * 3) Once the special room in the Aquarium is up, and both the Aquarium and the Fossil Exhibition are 100% complete, Mayor Tortimer will be waiting near the wishing well. Talk to him. After he's done congratulating you, he will give you the Platinum Shovel. Afterwards, your character will do the celebratory animation while holding up the Platinum Shovel.
 * Beyond 2 acres away: Blue
 * Within 2 acres: Yellow
 * On the same acre: Purple

Fossilized Caveman Skeleton
In order to get the Fossilized Caveman Skeleton, you must get all of the parts that make up the skeleton, much like any other fossilized exhibit in the museum. These parts are:
 * The head
 * The torso
 * The arms

It's important to note that Blathers will not accept the parts individually. You must first find all of the parts, then talk to him. Once you select one, he will ask for more pieces. If you don't have them all, he will give them back to you, wishing he could keep them. To get all of the pieces, you must follow these steps: Once you get them all, you can give them to Blathers to combine them into one. From here, you can let Blathers keep them for the museum, to which he will say he will put it in a special room, or you can keep it for yourself and put it in your house. You can donate it anytime after you choose to keep it.
 * The legs
 * 1) Obtain the Platinum Shovel. It's unique ability to get 5 more buried items on unmarked spots will give you the chance to get one of the pieces of the skeleton.
 * 2) Once you get a fossil, send it to the Farway Museum so they can identify it. Do this with every fossil you find. You must send the fossil on the same day of obtaining it, otherwise you'll have to start over a hidden chain that allows you to get one of these fossils for the next few days.
 * 3) Once you get a letter back with one of the fossils, you'll have to repeat the 2 steps above for the current day and the next 2 days. Missing a single day will make you start over the chain as well.

8th Bell Bag from a Rock
Hitting a money-producing rock with a shovel or an axe will usually give you 7 bell bags. If one were to hit it with a Platinum Shovel, it will produce an 8th bell bag containing 10,000 bells like the 7th bell bag.

Map Speed Buffer
A trick that has been made redundant by the more useful Momentum-Sign Exploit. To do this, you will need to learn a few things: Once you've done all of that, you will notice that your character goes slightly faster. You can repeat this an infinite amount of times to gain an infinite amount of speed, though if you stop you will cancel any momentum you have, meaning just like the Momentum-Sign Exploit, you won't be able to conserve your speed between acres. This trick is redundant as it takes too long to get to a high enough speed to do the Crucial Catch mechanic.
 * Running: In order to even start this trick, you will need to learn how to run. To do this, you must first stretch, as you might pull a muscle. Once you're done stretching, you will be ready to run. You must use your legs to push against the ground. Make sure you angle your legs before pushing so you get forward momentum and not only upwards momentum. It is a lot of hard work, but fortunately in Animal Crossing: Population Growing! you don't need to run in real life. Instead, all you have to do is push the B button while moving the Control Stick in any direction.
 * Open up the map: Before you can do this, you must purchase a map from anywhere. Once you have this, you can open a map, which will take some strength from your muscles to do. It should not, however, be as strenuous as running, so you will not need to stretch. Although this doesn't take as much effort, this is still something you don't need to do in real life, as all you have to do in the game is press the X button on the controller.
 * Closing the map: This is a bit tricky and may take critical thinking, so make sure you only do this when your mind is cleared. To clear your mind, you will have to do something like meditation. For meditation, you will need a cleaned up room to meditate in, as you don't want anything to disturb you. Once everything is ready, you will have to sit criss-cross-applesauce anywhere in the room and close your eyes. Breathe in through your nose and out through your mouth. Do this for about at least an hour. Once your mind is cleared, you will be able to close the map. To do this, fold the map in the reverse way the map was opened. Fortunately, Animal Crossing: Population Growing! only needs you to press the B button in order to close its map, negating any reason to clear the mind with meditation, and letting your room be as messy as you'd like.

Red Snapper


A Red Snapper is a very rare fish in Animal Crossing: Population Growing!. Although not as rare or as hard to obtain as the Shovelfish, this fish has a 1% chance of appearing. It can be caught with any Fishing Rod exclusively in the sea.

Bobberdashing
This glitch can be pulled off with either of the two fishing rods in the game. To do this, follow these steps: The bobber will clip into the wall, climb itself onto the roof, and roll off. There is no side effect to this glitch, and this will not corrupt your game. The only application for this is style, and that's ok. Not every glitch has to be useful to the player. It's just a funny glitch! Don't take it so seriously!!!!!!!!
 * 1) Equip a fishing rod.
 * 2) Go to either the same acre as the Post Office or Tom Nooks store. It has been only documented to work with any of Nooks stores with sliding doors.
 * 3) Run towards the building, and press A once you touch the wall.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons
So far, the best game in the series, and somewhat of a breath of fresh air, as it introduces a new crafting system, as well as progression in being able to explore more of your island the more you play. Everything in the game has a purpose even after the early parts of the game. Unfortunately, it doubles down on the worst aspect of it's predecessor, being that it's a better game if you're the first to play it (even more so this time with the game featuring a small story), and even worse, it has a bad local multiplayer experience. Still, if it's a game for your own personal Nintendo Switch, it's a great sandbox/life-simulation game, and with as much freedom as the game gives you, there's bound to be it's fair share of unique mechanics, exploits and glitches.

Shovelnose Guitarfish
The Shovelnose Guitarfish appears once again in Animal Crossing: New Horizons. The same steps are required as every previous entry in the series thus far.

Shovelfish
The Shovelfish officially appears in Animal Crossing: New Horizons for the first time. The same steps are required as they were in the unused code for New Leaf, however there are a few new steps: You can only catch a Shovelfish if the fish do not appear when throwing bait. This is only meant to cryptically clue the player. Much like Population Growing! and New Leaf, there is only a .2% chance of encountering a Shovelfish.
 * 1) Obtain the Landscaping and Waterscaping tools. To get these, have K.K. Slider preform Welcome Horizons in front of the Resident Services building for the first time.Shovelfish Pond.jpg
 * 2) Once you have them, use the Waterscaping tool to create the specific pond shown on the right. The pond must be connected to the river for this to work. Make sure there are at least 4 water spaces connected between the pond and the river.
 * 3) After the pond has been created, you will need to use some bait on the pond, as the Shovelfish can only be caught by using bait.
 * 4) If no fish appear in the pond, then use a shovel to scoop up the Shovelfish.

Mo Bamba Bee
The Mo Bamba Bee is a new fish introduced in New Horizons. The way to obtain this fish is very specific, so the steps are detailed here.
 * 1) Craft an Ocarina. You can learn how to make it with the DIY For Beginners pack from the Nook store.
 * 2) Obtain K.K. Bamba.
 * 3) Play K.K. Bamba on a music player outside.
 * 4) Plant a flower close to the music player.
 * 5) Play the Ocarina note-for-note to the lead of K.K. Bamba. Once done, the Mo Bamba Bee will come flying closer, and will land on the flower. At this point, you can catch it with the bug net.

Wavedashing
In order to do this exploit, your island must have 2 rocky structures that you can walk on, and they must be next to each other with a gap in between the two. Once you have these requirements, you must follow these steps: The benefit of this is mobility. If there's a fish that's just out of reach, you can use the wavedash to get to the other structure and reach the fish. This can also be used to get bugs that fly to the other structure. The developers may have added this exploit to reference a similar mechanic from Super Smash Bros. Melee, as the lead developer of the series, K.K. Slider, who also made Slider - Super Mario 64, said in a Google+ interview that Melee was his favorite game.
 * 1) Get on one of the rock structures.
 * 2) Walk or run towards the other rock structure right next to it. Your character will automatically hop towards it.

Broken Items Glitch
This is an unfortunate glitch that exists in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, which to many ruins the entire game for them. Using any tools a certain amount of times will break them, with the player character putting their hand on their chin, with them thinking about how their tool just broke. Sometimes the message will call the tool faithful, and other times they may thank the tool for its service.

Many people think that this is intentional, as the animation is not seen anywhere else, as well as the specific messages relating to an item breaking. The opposite is the case, however. The animation and messages are actually fail-safes in case the game glitches out and breaks an item when use many times. It seems to unfortunately affect the "flimsy" line of tools the most.

Bunny Day Balloon Oddity
When popping a balloon on the days leading up to Bunny Day, there will be a chance of the present turning into a Sky Egg. This is because the game was coded incorrectly. What's supposed to happen is the present falls, and once picked up, the player can open it to reveal the egg inside. However the developers mistakenly made it so the present gets opened once the balloon pops.

The unfortunate result of this is people getting Cracked Sky Eggs, which cannot be crafted nor sold, or the egg breaks on impact when hitting a hard surface. Fortunately, both rarely happen, as the game typically has the balloons usually spawn close enough to the ground as to not break anything that would normally be inside of a present, making this rarity a byproduct of good game design.

Mole Cricket
The Mole Cricket returns for the 5th time in the Animal Crossing series, and...uh...please remove it Nintendo.