*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~* Animal Crossing - Money-Making Guide *~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
1. Copyright Notice
This guide is ©2005 Bradley Kirk.
It is not permitted for distribution anywhere without express permission
from the author, except for fully private use. This guide may not be
hosted at any online location without specific written consent from the
author.
If you have any questions, comments or suggestions, feel free to email me at:
[email protected]
Any trademarked or copyrighted material mentioned in this guide, including
but not limited to the GameFAQs name, the name "Animal Crossing", and the
other guides I've referred to, are the sole property and responsibility of
their respective owners and are not in any way affiliated with this guide.
I did not so much as glance at any other guide while writing this one: It is
entirely my own work, and any similarities to pre-existing works is purely
coincidental.
2. Introduction
Hi everyone. I see it asked often enough with this game: "How do I make money
fast?" A fair question, and one that has a lot of answers. From someone simply
wanting to pay off their first house, to the person who wants to hoard money
like a miser, this guide has something for every Animal Crossing player. You
might be surprised at the number of methods out there. Rather than simply
giving the answer over and over, I thought a much better method would be to
write a guide on the basics of getting yourself some cash in Animal Crossing.
Read on...
3. Index
A. ERRANDS
B. FENG SHUI
C. FISHING
D. FOSSILS
E. FRUIT TREES
F. GOLDEN LIGHT - GOLDEN SHOVEL
G. GOLDEN LIGHT - MONEY GROWS ON TREES
H. INSECTS
I. LOST & FOUND SECTION
J. MONEY ROCKS
K. SEASHELLS
L. TREES
M. TROPICAL ISLAND
N. TURNIPS
O. UNWANTED ITEMS
To skip to a section that interests you, just hit Ctrl F and copy-paste the
above section name in to find it.
4. Methods
A. ERRANDS
Running errands for the villagers is never a bad idea, unless you agree
to deliver an item to a character who's moved to a friend's town and you
can't get hold of that Memory Card. The villagers will reward you with
packs of paper to write letters with, cash, clothing to wear around,
rare fruit, or furniture to decorate your house with. If you don't like
what you've been given, simply sell it - The villagers don't care.
They're definitely worth doing if you've got some spare time. Just
remember who you've agreed to do something for, and who you have to go
see - They really don't like it if you forget completely, ask someone
for work when you've already got a task from that villager, or take too
long to deliver an item.
---
B. FENG SHUI
An unusual name for an unusual effect. Depending on what color furniture
you have in your house (and where you place it), you can boost your "luck"
significantly in both money and items. One of the most easily seen effects
is with the Money Rocks: If you've set up your house well enough, you'll
find that most, or in some cases (like in my game) ALL of the Money Rocks
will give you 8 bags instead of 6 or 7. That's at least an extra 70,000
Bells a week just from the effect on the rocks alone. Plus the other subtle
effects it has on your gameplay...
Check out the Feng Shui guide on GameFAQs for an in-depth explanation.
---
C. FISHING
Fishing is one of my favourite AC pastimes, and can net you a lot of cash
(depending on what season it is). If you fish in the ocean, you can often
pull up a Red Snapper (worth 3,000 Bells), and sometimes a Barred Knifejaw
(5,000 Bells), especially when it's raining. If you're lucky, you can even
pull up some REALLY big fish, worth a LOT of money. If you fish in the
ocean you're also going to be seeing a lot of Sea Bass (they're worth a tiny
amount). During winter they're about all you're going to catch, with the
occasional Red Snapper. Your time would be better spent elsewhere.
If it's winter, then the stream is the best place to fish: Bitterlings are
very common, and worth 1,300 Bells each (they have a small shadow under the
water). For the other seasons, ocean or stream are both good.
USEFUL TIP: If you never ever want to catch a tin can, a tyre, or a boot, make
sure your inventory is completely full before casting with the rod. The best
way to do this is to keep grabbing 100 Bells bags out of your wallet (where it
says "Bells") and putting them in your inventory, then swapping them with the
fish and putting the bag back in your wallet when you catch one.
There are excellent guides to fishing and fish worth on GameFAQs if you're
after further information.
Rick D emailed me with some info on the best fish prices:
Stringfish - 15,000 Bells
Coelacanth - 15,000 Bells (fairly common during rain, found in ocean)
Large Char - 10,000 Bells
Also nice are:
Arapaima - 10,000 Bells
Arowana - 10,000 Bells
Barred Knifejaw - 5,000 Bells (quite common during rain, found in ocean)
Red Snapper - 3,000 Bells (VERY common during rain, found in ocean)
---
D. FOSSILS
There are 5 Fossils buried around the village every day, but you can only
send 3 of them to the Museum per day with each character. If you live in
the village without any other human players, then picking up 3 per day is
good; the 4th and 5th pretty much just takes up space unless you have days
where you don't bother looking for them, and just send off some of your
surplus supply. It has also been noted that fossils will not appear in lines:
That is, if you find a fossil in D-3, no other X-3 acres will have one, so
go looking in C-4, A-2 etc - Thanks to Sampough on the GameFAQs boards for
this advice!
These are an excellent source of income. It's recommended that you donate the
first of each type to the village Museum: If you get a Trilobite mailed back
to you for example, and your village Museum doesn't have one on display,
donate it to them instead of selling it. Same with fish and insects. Having a
good Museum makes your village more attractive. Once you've donated a Fossil
to the village Museum (one that's been mailed back to you, not one that's still
blue and round), you never again have to donate that same item, and can sell it
any time it gets mailed back to you. Of course, you do have the option of
simply selling every Fossil you get sent, and not donating anything, but
where's the fun in that?
Each Fossil is worth at least 1,000 Bells; some are worth 3,000 or more! All
you have to do is write a blank letter to the Museum, put a round blue Fossil
in it as a "present", and send it off (up to 3 per day), then check your
mailbox the next day to see what they've sent back. Don't bother actually
writing anything in letters to the Museum: They're only interested in the
Fossil, not what the letter says.
If you send anything else to the Museum, they'll simply send it back with a
letter that pretty much says "We only accept fossils." I tried mailing them a
Boot I fished up, you see. Oh yeah, and a Tin Can too...
Rick D emailed me with the following useful advice on the most worthwhile
fossils:
T-Rex Skull - 6,000 Bells
T-Rex Torso - 5,500 Bells
Tricera Skull - 5,500 Bells
That's some nice cash for something you dug out of the ground...
---
E. FRUIT TREES
Here's where you can set yourself up with a very nice, permanent income: Build
up a big base of fruit trees (my town has all varieties). An inventory full of
"rare" fruit nets you 7,500 Bells! Once you've got a couple of acres of these,
you've essentially got money on tap - Use the fruit from these to spread fruit
trees all over your town, and hey, you've quite literally got a cash crop!
How do you get different types of fruit? Well, if you've got 2 Memory Cards,
start another town on the second one. Get to the point where you can save, then
travel to it with your first town's character. Raid the fruit trees, travel
back, plant the fruit to grow that type of tree in your own town. Repeat as
necessary. Keep in mind that your "native" fruit type is only worth 100 Bells
per item, so don't bother planting too much of it around the place.
Of course, sometimes the "new" town won't have a new type of fruit, but it
doesn't take long to wipe it and start a new one. When you've got all types
of fruit, just delete the second town and play on your first one.
If you don't have 2 Memory Cards, the GameFAQs Trading Boards are an excellent
place to get fruit from... Or you can keep talking to your villagers with the
chat options "Care to chat?" "What's up?" etc, and sometimes they'll give you
fruit that doesn't grow natively in your town. Plant that and it'll usually
grow into a tree to get more fruit for planting from.
Some tips for planting fruit trees:
1. Keep each type of fruit to its own acre. Looks nicer, and makes things far
easier when you want to harvest the fruit to sell for cash.
2. Plant in formations! Planting trees here, there and everywhere without a
pattern in mind isn't the best usage of your space, and may cause some of them
to never grow at all. Observe:
* T * T * T * T *
* * * * * * * * *
* T * T * * R * *
* * * * * * * * *
* T * T * T * T *
* is a bare patch of ground
T is a fruit tree
R is a rock
In this way, you get horizontal and vertical lines of free space between the
trees. Looks good, is easy to pick fruit from, and is easy to get around in.
No trees touching and no paths blocked.
3. Do not plant right next to a rock - Trees don't grow right next to (or right
above or below) rocks. If there's a rock that "messes up" the formation, just
go around it - Continue the formation, just leave the area around the rock
bare. This is an especially good idea given that sometimes that rock will be a
Money Rock: Nearby "in formation" trees can act as one of the holes you'd
normally need to dig for knock-back prevention.
4. If a tree you've planted dies instead of growing up, just dig it up and
plant another of the same variety (cherry, pear, etc...) in its place. There
are certain patches of ground where nothing will ever grow, but not many of
them.
North of the Wishing Well and beside the Lake are two known "no-grow areas"
for trying to grow trees: Because there are events held in these locations
(fishing tournament, New Year celebration, etc etc), trees are not allowed
to grow and possibly interfere with those events. Inside the Dump is another
known "no-grow area". Outside the Dump is fine for planting; I have a nice
cherry tree grove around it.
A recommended strategy for finding where something will grow is to plant
one of your "normal" fruits in a spot. If it grows, cut it down and plant
a "rare" fruit there - Where a tree is already growing, other trees are
guaranteed to grow in that spot.
IMPORTANT: The current season has no effect on whether most fruits (except
coconuts, it seems) will grow: Most trees will grow whether it's winter or
not. Coconuts seem to have a lot of trouble growing during winter, but they
occasionally still do... There are just a lot of failed plantings.
---
F. GOLDEN LIGHT, GOLDEN SHOVEL
Getting this item requires two shovels: One to dig a hole with, one to bury.
If you see one of those special areas of ground with light shining out of them
like crazy and a sound like lots of little chimes going at once, dig it up:
It'll contain at least 1,000 Bells. With luck it can contain 10,000 or (in rare
cases) 30,000 Bells! Once you've dug it up and you've got light pouring out of
the hole, bury a shovel in it. A little tree will sprout. (No, I'm not
kidding.) Wait for this to grow into a full-size tree - its "fruit" will
be the Golden Shovel: Shake the tree once it's fully grown. Once you've got the
shovel, it becomes a normal tree. It doesn't grow anything else, but you will
be able to find furnture, bees and money in it in future, just like any other
normal tree.
NOTE: It can happen that the tree sprout will not grow, but will wither and die
instead just like any other fruit planting. If this happens, don't give up!
Just wait 'til the next day and bury another shovel in that day's golden light
section. You'll get it eventually.
This shovel acts like any normal one, except when you use it to dig up a bare
patch of dirt: There's a good chance that it'll dig up 100 Bells from that
spot, without one of those little ground-marks to show anything's there. I've
managed to dig up five 100-Bells bags in a row by digging bare patches of
ground with this neat little item. This is really nice when you're planting
fruit trees - It's like you're getting paid for your efforts, since the Golden
Shovel will often dig up the cash while you're digging holes with it to plant
in.
---
G. GOLDEN LIGHT - MONEY GROWS ON TREES
At least, in this game it does. As above, if you find one of those golden
patches of light, instead of burying a shovel in it, you can bury money! You
can bury 1,000 10,000 or 30,000 Bells in one of these holes. When you do, a
little sprout will turn up. If that sprout manages to grow into a tree, the
"fruit" of the tree will be three bags of whatever you buried. If you buried
30,000 Bells, that means you're getting 90,000 back - Not bad! Once it's bore
its fruit, the tree will simply be a normal tree - it will not keep producing
money. Too bad really...
NOTE: It can happen that the tree will not grow, but will wither and die as a
sprout, or grow into a full tree and not show up with any money at all. It's
especially annoying if you buried 30,000 Bells, because once that sprout
pops up, the game regards the money as gone: You can't dig up the sprout and
expect to get it back. That's the risk you take... It's also said that
30,000-Bells trees will rarely grow to bear "fruit", however this seems to be
simply hearsay. These trees rarely fail for me, so I'm getting 90,000 Bells
nearly every day (that's a profit of 60,000: 90,000 total, minus the initial
30,000 for planting).
Sometimes the Golden Spot will appear in a "no-grow area" - Make sure you are
familiar with where things will and won't grow (such as right beside a house or
water) before you bury the money! If in doubt, it's still up to you to risk
whatever amount, but I'd recommend going with 1,000 or 10,000.
---
H. INSECTS
One of the easiest pastimes in the game, catching insects simply requires a Net
and sometimes a shovel. Dependant on the season, there can be some very
valuable insects around and easily caught, such as the Jewel Beetle. If you
have a Gameboy Advance and a Gamecube Link Cable, you can even go to the
tropical island where it's always summer - And there are always summer-season
insects!
You need the shovel for digging up the Mole Cricket, or for knocking a Pill Bug
out of a rock: You know there's one in a rock when a villager stares at it. To
catch an insect, you either need to sneak up on it (if it's slow or not
moving), or run up fast and swing the Net before it flies off. Finding out how
to catch each type is half the fun! Except for the Bees... They're worth 4,500
Bells, but they're super-hard to catch without a good technique!
Rick D emailed me with info on some other very worthwhile insects too:
Giant Beetle - 10,000
Banded Dragonfly - 4,500
With the Banded Dragonfly, keep in mind that it will fly in a straight line
until it hits something: House, sign, tree... With this in mind, all you
need to do is aim the net at where it's going to be, time your swing...
And you've got it. The hardest part is seeing one heading in a direction
you can work with, but it's possible to see four or five in a day with a
bit of luck.
---
I. LOST & FOUND SECTION
Heh, it seems cheap to raid the local Lost & Found section at the Police
Station, but it's essentially just like the Dump: If it's there, noone will
care about it 'cept you, and it's all free for the taking. If the Lost and
Found section fills up, they simply start getting rid of the oldest items
one at a time. At least by raiding it yourself you're putting those items to
good use, hm? Some pretty nice stuff turns up there sometimes.
---
J. MONEY ROCKS
You're probably thinking "Yeah, it does. So what?" But I'm talking about
rocks that turn red when you hit them with a shovel,and drop bags of money
once per day. Unless you know about this little treat the designers have put
in, you probably think rocks are just a nuisance and wish you could break them.
Read on...
Here is the best way to take advantage of a Money Rock.
***X**
***OX*
**R***
******
* is bare ground
R is the rock
X is where you should dig a hole
O is where you should stand to keep striking the rock with your shovel, AFTER
you've dug the holes.
IMPORTANT: Dig the holes BEFORE you hit the rock! It's a bit late if you're
trying to dig holes to stop yourself being forced backward when the rock is
already red and fading fast.
Why this setup? With those holes to either side of you, when you hit the rock,
you won't be pushed backwards! With luck (or some pretty good Feng Shui, see
the Feng Shui section) you'll get 8 bags of money:
100 --> 100 --> 100 --> 1,000 --> 1,000 --> 1,000 --> 10,000 --> 10,000.
If you don't set yourself up with this pattern when hitting the rock, each hit
will push you backwards, and you'll have to run forward again, wasting valuable
time and potentially missing out on 10 or 20 thousand Bells due to having to
run back within range. That rock won't stay red for long, and once its color
fades, it's done for the day. You won't be able to find another Money Rock
until the next day.
Of course, you don't have to always stand up and right from the rock; so long
as you keep the holes where they will stop you from being pushed backward, you
can have 'em top-left, bottom-right, etc etc. It just depends on where the rock
is really. If it has water to its right, dig the holes on the left. Same
formation. Still works!
And if you find a tree growing near a rock...
***X**
***OX*
**R***
*T****
Where:
X are the holes you'd dig
O is where you stand after digging them
R is the rock, and
T is a tree, diagonally touching the rock
CUT IT DOWN. The way money-rocks work, they'll only toss moneybags onto vacant
areas directly around them (ie, where the *'s are and where you're standing).
If there's a tree there, even if you have enough rock-time to smack 8 out of
it, it'll only drop 7 (because the tree's taking up a "bag spot").
Bags of money will drop onto spaces you are standing on, so don't worry about
whether you're "in the way" or not. Only trees, holes, other items and the like
(including a buried item!) will stop a Bells bag from landing on a spot. In
short: Don't dig any holes right next to, above, or below the rock, and don't
drop or bury anything around it before smacking it with the shovel, and if
there is something already there (a buried item, a tree, etc) get rid of those
first (and fill in the hole!).
IMPORTANT: Near the start of the game, you will NOT usually get the 8 bags,
even if you've correctly dug the holes to stand near. See the Feng Shui section
for why.
ALSO IMPORTANT: Do NOT try to use an Axe / Golden Axe to hit the rock! If you
do, you'll end up out of range after around 3 hits, costing yourself valuable
time and possibly missing out on 10k or even 20k. It doesn't have the "reach"
that a Shovel / Golden Shovel does.
---
K. SEASHELLS
I paid off my house (plus one expansion) with seashells! Something different to
do, if you've "been there, done that" or just want something new. The seashells
to keep a look out for are:
* White Scallop
* Conch
* Coral
* Venus Comb
The others really aren't worth looking at.
They're only found on the beaches, but they reappear rather quickly. They're
not a bad source of income if you're just looking for the occasional quick
boost of money - it certainly adds up over time. Plus you can really annoy
your friends by burying them all over your friend's town (there's nothing
more irritating to them than you spelling "HI" with buried Lion's Paws and
the like...) Good fun.
---
L. TREES
Yep, trees. If you wander around grabbing them and shaking them, something will
usually fall out. Bags of money (100 Bells) are *very* common. Less common are
beehives (try to catch the bees!), 5 per day in random trees; pieces of
furniture, two per day in a random tree; and sometimes insects for you to catch
with the Net.
Furniture, money and bees will NOT fall out of fruit trees, even if they have
no fruit on them. Insects can still be found on the trunks, however. The pieces
of furniture can be items you've never seen before; it's certainly worthwhile
to go looking for them, even if you're not good with bee-catching.
Note also that if you manage to get a "fortune" (money) reading from Katrina,
trees will drop 1,000 Bells instead of 100. Nice!
---
M. TROPICAL ISLAND
If you have a Gameboy Advance and a Gamecube Link Cable, you can go visit the
Tropical Island. All you need to do is plug it in, turn on the Gameboy Advance,
then go to the beach acre with the dock in it. There'll be a turtle named Kap'n
there - He'll take you to the Island and back, and sing you some songs on the
way as well.
You'll notice that when you're on the Island, it's ALWAYS SUMMER! It doesn't
matter what the season is in your town, the Island's season never ever changes
from being summer. This means that you'll always see summer-related insects,
and fishing for Barred Knifejaws and Red Snappers will usually be more
productive, although the Island never has any Jellyfish around it (and there
are still the ever-cursed Sea Bass over there). You can get some very valuable
insects here if you're fast or careful (as required) and a little patient.
The next thing you'll notice is that it's got its own kind of fruit - Coconuts!
This exotic fruit will ONLY grow near the beach. It doesn't sell for as much as
normal "exotic" fruit; it's better used as decoration for your town's beaches.
The Island also has its very own villager. An interesting thing about this
villager is that they're quite willing to buy specific pieces of furniture from
you (mine requested a Pond Lantern) for a pretty good price... And then give it
back to you a few days later. Maybe they'll (oddly) ask for that same piece of
furniture over and over (always paying you for it, then giving it back later
for free), or sometimes they'll ask you for a different item.
Hang around over here out in the sun and you'll also get a tan...
---
N. TURNIPS
This requires a bit of patience. You have to find Joan wandering around your
village on any Sunday. She'll offer to sell you Turnips, and depending on the
price, you might want to stock up on a lot of them, in bunches of up to 100.
If the buying price is low, then certainly, grab a few. If the price is
unreasonable, don't buy. It really depends on how much you're willing to spend,
especially if money isn't easy to come by yet.
As for selling them: This is done at Nook's store. You select "Other things",
then "Turnip prices?" - Sometimes Nook will have had a price spike, and buy
them for 900 Bells or more per Turnip! Max I've seen is around 1300 Bells per
Turnip - HUGE cash income if you have some bunches of 100! Most of the time
though, he'll have some pretty poor prices on offer for you.
Turnips will go bad after a week; if you haven't seen a price spike by then,
too bad! Note that you CANNOT STORE THEM IN ENVELOPES to stop them from going
bad, regardless of persistent rumours saying you can.
This isn't the most reliable way to make money - Firstly, you have to have the
cash onhand to buy the Turnips, and secondly you have to keep them onhand until
you see a price spike; you risk having them go bad from not being sold.
---
O. UNWANTED ITEMS
One of the most common ways to get money in this game is to sell anything you
don't want/need anymore to Tom Nook. Whether it's furniture, fish, paper,
clothes or you name it, Nook will buy it. The only things he doesn't buy are
items that really have no value: Boots and tyres you've fished up, fossils that
haven't been ID'd by sending them to the Museum, etc. If you find or are given
anything with value and you don't want it, sell it! Doesn't matter if you find
it up a tree or in the Dump, or if it was given to you by a villager, it'll
have the same value to Nook no matter what.
This includes Gyroids - They aren't really worth that many HRA points, and can
clutter up your house. They're nice to sell; they're worth a pretty good
amount... Unless you want to arrange them into proper tunes; there are ways of
doing that to make your house sound really neat.
5.1 In Closing...
I hope this guide comes in handy. If you're able to make use of it, then it's
fulfilled its purpose nicely. If you spot any errors, have any questions,
suggestions or comments, feel free to contact me!
[email protected] is the
place to reach me. You'll usually get a reply pretty quickly. Thankyou for
taking the time to read this guide.
5.2 Thankyou's
A thankyou to Kittyangel44 for pointing out that I'd forgotten about the 2nd
piece of furniture up trees - When I wrote this I only remembered one, you
see.
A thankyou to everyone who's offered suggestions and given me positive feedback
for this guide too. It's certainly nice to know it's appreciated!
Last updated: 31 January 2005.
