10 Myths & Misconceptions in Animal Crossing New Horizons 2023

Animal Crossing: New Horizons has captured the hearts of millions of players worldwide since its release in March 2020. The beloved game offers a relaxing escape into a virtual island paradise, where players can create their dream world and interact with cute anthropomorphic animal villagers. However, like any popular game, Animal Crossing: New Horizons has its fair share of myths. In this article, we'll be busting 10 myths about Animal Crossing New Horizons.

10 Myths & Misconceptions in Animal Crossing New Horizons 2023

1. Digging Holes

Leaving holes around your Island will upset Villages and lower your Island rating. Thanks to a turn of midnight for sharing this one and this is completely a myth, there are no negative consequences for having holes around your Island because they'll simply go away when you stop playing. The holes aren't really a permanent thing although we can understand why a lot of players especially newer ones might expect them to be. Generally, people just don't like having the whole around the island anyways, but you can quickly and easily just kick these back in. So they're not really a problem in any way at all and Blathers will probably be very grateful that you've gone around and dug up some fossils for him.

2. Clapping for Orville

Praising Orville at the airport will get you a better and rarer Nook Mile Island. So this is completely false and it's probably one of the most commonly shared Animal Crossing New Horizons myths. Clapping for Orville will have absolutely no effect whatsoever on what Mystery Island you get, it's just random. Mystery Island seem to have their own percentage chances of how often they will appear. Orville isn't the one in control of you getting to a special Island, although it certainly would be very cool if this was actually a hidden feature, maybe something they could add to a future game just as a little Easter egg, but it doesn't do anything in Animal Crossing New Horizons.

3. Bullying Villagers

Jonathan says hitting your villages with nets makes them want to leave your Island. This is a myth that has been in Animal Crossing since the very start that if you're really mean to your villagers they're going to want to leave faster. In Animal Crossing New Horizons, all this will do is lower your friendship with a particular villager and if you do that, it makes them even less likely to want to leave your Island. It seems like villagers you have a low friendship rating with will want to stick around even more than your besties. So by being mean to your villager and hitting them with a net, putting them in pit bulls and such, you're actually making them want to stick around even more. It seems like the best way to get rid of villagers is honestly just to treat them like normal, treat them like a villager you'd actually want to stay around and then they'll probably want to leave, it's kind of like some form of weird animal crossing reverse psychology.

4. Tom Nook Evil

This myth isn't really gameplay related in the sense of it's not a mechanic or something like that, but a lot of people do think that Tom Nook is an evil character and is something that has been spread around the Animal Crossing community. But this really couldn't be further from the truth, Tom Nook is really nice. This is a subjective thing maybe you don't like the fact that he can be a bit brash sometimes and he's getting lots of money from us. But at the end of the day Tom Nook is giving you a home, he's the one who's setting this all up and he's giving you a mortgage with no interest rate. There's dialogue in past Animal Crossing games that suggests he actually donates his earnings towards orphanages. And then he also uses some of his other earnings to better the town and islands that he lives on. Tom Nook is a really Community orientated animal, he's great. 

5. Mowing Weeds

Lawn mowers mow over weeds and flowers, so this is not true at all, once again this is completely false. Lawn mowers are just a decorative item in the game, they have absolutely no functional purpose. It'd be a really great way of easily getting rid of a ton of flowers and weeds when they take over your Island. But sadly, this item doesn't have any mechanical use, it's literally just for decoration which sadly is the case for most items in Animal Crossing New Horizons. 

6. Airport Color

The way you answer “if you could bring anything to a deserted island, what would it be?” questioned determined your airport color. For a long time, this question that they ask you at the very start of the game was a confusing one to some people, we didn't know what it actually determined, it seems like this question is absolutely meaningless. It has meaning in the sense of it's just a fun little bit of flavor text, but it doesn't really seem to do anything, it doesn't change your airport color or the positioning of anything on your map, it doesn't give you any special items. So you really don't have to worry about how you answer this question, it seems it's just there for a fun bit of dialogue for them to ask you a question when you're first starting up the game. 

7. Balloon Colors

That yellow balloons are more likely to give you money, so this is a complicated one, but there is actually some truth in this honestly. If you check this information from Nookipedia, they say balloons can now be multiple colors, red, yellow, green and blue. These balloon presents can contain DIY crafting recipes, Bells, furniture, clothing, or crafting materials, such as clay, wood, or iron nuggets. While all four colors can drop furniture, clothing or DIYs, only blue can drop crafting materials, and only yellow can drop Bells. So only yellow balloons seemingly will drop those bells for you. However, it does seem like you can get other types of items from yellow balloons as well, you just have a better chance of getting Bells.

8. Ocarina Secret 

That playing the ocarina yields better results for fishing. The ocarina is just a cool and fun little item, it would have made sense if it could have been used as some sort of functional tool as it acts like one, but it doesn't really do anything. 

9. Gold Roses 

That placing a gold rose next to a money tree guarantees 99k Bells. This rumor is just not true, it doesn't have any effect whatsoever. Gold roses in Animal Crossing are really cool and a super desirable item. But they don't really do anything special. The heads of them suddenly could be a good gift for your villagers, that would be a good idea and they do sell for quite a decent amount of bells too. But in terms of a functional secret purpose like this giving you more bells on the bell tree, it has nothing to do with it.

10. Villager Campfires

Putting out a villagers campfire on a Mystery Island makes them not come again. So once more this doesn't have any effect. The campfires are just there as a decorative thing, the villagers are camping out on these mystery islands and it helps illuminate them more at night time as well.