One of the beautiful things aboutAnimal Crossing: New Horizonsand previous entries in the franchise is that there are no rules. Sure, there are some basic underlying quests, like paying Tom Nook off for building and expanding your house, or trying to achieve a five-star island. But you’re able to just as easily ignore those elements of the game and interact with the game however you want to, whether that’s decorating, searching for your dream villager, or simply walking around collecting seashells.
Still, despite this freedom to play however you want to, many players find themselvesfollowing a set of unwritten rules when playing anAnimal Crossingtitle. These are self-imposed rules that aren’t necessarily part of the game or noted anywhere, but are things that theAnimal Crossingcommunity seems to agree on intrinsically. So the next time you find yourself following a silly rule you made up for yourself, just know that you might not be alone.
10Don’t Run Through Flowers
Part Aesthetics, Part Throwback To Previous Titles
Running across flowers (i.e. pressing B when you’re moving over them) causes the blooms to fall off. This doesn’t hurt the flower in any way, butthere’s a chance it’ll be set back to the bud stage, and players will have to wait a few days for it to bloom again. For anyone trying tocreate flower hybrids, this is a practical choice, since it will delay their progress. But for others, this is just a stylistic choice. Plus, it’s just plain rude to run in flowers!
Running over unbloomed flowers won’t affect them in any way, so you’re safe to do so—though manyACNHmake it a point to never run through their flowers, even when they’re not in bloom.
This unwritten rule inAnimal Crossing: New Horizonsmight also be a throwback to previous games, whererunning over flowers could potentially completely destroy them(rather than just removing the blooms). It was easy to accidentally run into a nearby patch of flowers and undo days of progress or even a rare color bloom, so some players will now walk carefully even when they’re near their blooming flowers.
9Change Out Of Your Wetsuit When Not Diving
You Don’t Want To Be Running Around In A Wet Swimsuit All Day
SomeAnimal Crossingrules make sense in real life, but not in the game. For instance, you wouldn’t keep your bathing suit on all day after going for a swim at the beach, would you? Similarly, mostAnimal Crossing: New Horizonsplayers also change out of their wetsuits when they get back onto dry land after diving for critters around their island. However, like any tool,the wetsuit takes up inventory space, so it would absolutely make more sense to keep it on and leave one extra slot free for something else.
Still,it just feels wrong to walk around the island and into stores wearing nothing but a swimsuit and mask. It also hides your actual outfit, which is a waste if you’ve worked hard on styling your avatar just right. Some players go the extra mile and put on a different outfit depending on what they’re doing, the season, or when they’re heading out to visit a new island.
8Give Pascal The Scallop
It’s Just The Nice Thing To Do, Maan
While you’re out diving for deep-sea creatures near the island inAnimal Crossing: New Horizons, you have a chance to encounter Pascal, the red sea otter. The beloved character will be floating around nearby andwaiting to dispense his wisdom to passing players. The otter has been a staple of the series sinceAnimal Crossing: Wild World,and although his location has changed, his personality and interactions haven’t.
Whenever players speak to Pascal, he has something thought-provoking to share. Some key quotes include:
“Candles are just crayons in the color of fire.”
“Maybe when we get really dizzy, that’s actually us noticing how the world is always rotating.”
“If she’s sellin' seashells by the seashore, is that like some dude sellin' sticks in a forest? Whoa…”
“Pancakes, maaan… Just… Pancakes.”
Whenever you catch a scallop for the first time in a day, Pascal will appear and ask if you wouldn’t mind trading it to him. In return, players will receive a number of nice items, including the entire mermaid-themed furniture recipe set, as well as the pearls you need to craft them. Even after you’ve already gotten every recipe, it’s an unwritten rule toalways give Pascal your scallop when he asks for it. After all, how can you say no to that adorable face?
7Have One Of Each Personality Type
Villager Variety Makes The Game More Fun
This “rule” varies by player, as everyone has a different set ofdreamAnimal Crossingvillagers. Some players collect specific types of villagers, like cats or sheep, or themes, like circus orfood-themed villagers. Even if you don’t have a specific goal in mind for villagers,many players aim to have one villager per personality trait.
Smug
Big Sister
One criticism thatNew Horizonsoften gets is that itscharacter interactions aren’t different enough, and this is exacerbated by having multiples of the same personality type. To avoid this, and for variety’s sake in general, players often try to collect one of each type of character (with two more of a personality of their choice). This allows for avaried and colorful cast of villagers to interact with.
6Choose The “Nice” Option When Thanking Your Camp Caretaker
They Work So Hard In Your Absence
Animal Crossing: Pocket Campwas a mobile game that switched from a live-action model to a full,offline game in November 2024. Players can continue to play the mobile camp-decorating spinoff game even with the servers offline, decorating their campsite, cabin, and camper van without any microtransactions.Pocket Campplayers can appoint a villager as a Camp Caretaker, who willcontinue to collect critters and help out campers even when you’re not logged into the game.
“I ALWAYS say ‘thank you’ when it’s one of the options and I wish it was always there.”
Players can choose how they respond to the caretakerwhen they log back in, and although all the potential responses are positive, mostfans try to choose the “nicer"of the two options. “I ALWAYS say ‘thank you’ when it’s one of the options and I wish it was always there,” says Reddit userpotatoes-pls. The characters inAnimal Crossinggames might not be real, but many players still make it a point to be polite to their favorites.
5Put Your Tools Into Specific Inventory Spots
Each Tool Has An Unofficial Designated Spot
Inventory space is extremely limited inAnimal Crossing: New Horizons, with your pockets able to hold only 40 items when fully upgraded. At least six of these slots are always occupied by the game’s main tools: the axe, shovel, fishing pole, net, watering can, and slingshot, with the wetsuit and ladder usually taking up an additional two. Unlike many other games, which have specific equipment inventory tabs,tools can be placed anywhere in your pockets.
And yet,many players keep the tools in either the top or bottom row of their inventory.A Reddit post bycherylliumexplains the benefit of keeping the tools on the bottom (it prevents the spot from being filled by an item when the tool breaks), but for many—myself included—the tools just belong in the top row, in a specific order. There’s no rhyme or reason for this, especially since tools are rarely accessed via the inventory, but it just makes sense.
4Donate The First Find Of Any Kind To Blathers
Even If You’re Not Trying To Fill The Museum
One of the core aspects of theAnimal Crossingfranchise is the museum, hosted by the wise, bug-hating owl, Blathers. As players discover new fish, bugs, fossils, and artworks, they candonate them to Blathers to add to the museum.One of the most common unwritten rules is to always donate the first of each item that you discover.
Doing so prevents you from having accidental gaps in the museum’s catalog, since you can forget that you never donated a common specimen or fail tofind another of a rare critter. Even if you’re not striving for museum completion,the rule is so ubiquitous that it’s become somewhat of a meme, whichBigTucsonDadpokes fun at on X, writing: “‘First one always goes to Blathers’ I say as I hand my new born child to the owl.”
3Follow Proper Etiquette When Visiting Another Player’s Island
There’s A List Of Rules You Should Follow For A Polite Visit
AlthoughAnimal Crossing: New Horizonsis a single-player game, it does allow players to visit others' islands. During a visit, players can interact with the island in a very limited capacity, like being able to pick items and speak to villagers. To keep things fun for everyone, the community has createda list of rules that visitors should follow when visiting another player’s island.
These rules aren’t set in stone, but the general list is as follows:
Some of these rules are common sense, while others are a little more surprising, like not wearing a wetsuit—which is a rule toprevent visitors from bypassing blocksand accessing parts of the island that the island’s owner doesn’t want others going to. If you’re not sure what’s acceptable, you may always ask the host what they’re okay with.
2Don’t Hit Villagers
NPCs Don’t Have Feelings, But Hitting Still Isn’t Nice
There are many wholesome ways to interact with villagers inAnimal Crossing,like speaking to them, giving them gifts, and making reactions nearby for them to mimic. There’s one not-so-nice way to get a reaction out of a villager, which is easy to discover by accident while bug-hunting. As shown in a video byLeaf ArchivesforNew Leafand this one byGameSamforNew Horizons,hitting a villager with a bug net (or a hammer, inNew Leaf)is a quick way to make villagers mad at you.
There’s a myth that hitting villagers makes them more likely to leave, but the inverse is true: hitting counts as an “interaction,” so if you hit a villager you don’t like, you might prevent them from considering leaving the island.
When hit over the head, villagers react as someone might in real life, ranging from recoiling and wincing to chastising you for hitting them. For many players, hitting villagers on purpose is frowned on, andsome even feel bad about accidental taps.The only exception is with villagers that players don’t like, which some players enjoy hitting or trapping between holes.
1Don’t Re-Gift Villager Presents
A Gift Is To Keep Forever
Occasionally,villagers present players with a gift. This can happen when they’re gifting back in a player-initiated exchange, as a thank you for completing a request, or just as a sign of a high friendship level. Since the villagers sometimes use the gifts they’re given by players, it’s only fair to do the same in return.
There’s technically nothing stopping players from re-gifting whatever they were given, but most players will keep the gift. This is especially true of one of the most highly valued gifts inAnimal Crossing: New Horizons,the villager’s photograph. Many consider the photo a mark of great friendship and display them proudly, making this one of the most wholesome unwritten rules in the franchise.
