Guide:Animal Crossing: City Folk

''This is a guide on how to use Animal Crossing: City Folk for the Nintendo Wii. For information about the game, click here.''

Trees & Fruit
Each Animal Crossing town comes with a native fruit which grows on trees. Native fruit will net 100 Bells each when sold to Tom Nook at his store. Fruit which is not native to a town sells for 500 Bells. It can really boost profits if you plant some trees with fruits from other towns, although harvesting the fruit takes time. Foreign fruit can also be obtained by writing a short letter to a villager with a present attached.

Items
Some trees in the town may contain 100 Bells each, items of furniture and bees (which appear after a beehive has fallen out). These items can be obtained by shaking any non-fruit bearing tree once, though some trees do not contain any items as it happens at random. Beehives may fall from the tree, which release bees. These will chase after the player and possibly sting them, leaving a swollen eye.

There are different ways to deal with or avoid getting stung:


 * Avoiding them by running into a building, such a villager's house when they are inside, or a public building like the Museum or Town Gate.
 * Getting stung, but carrying medicine which will immediately remove the effects.
 * Put up with the sting until all the trees have been checked for items.
 * Save and restart the game, which will cure the sting.

Money Tree
Once you have obtained a golden shovel (see below on how to obtain it), you can use it to bury a bag of Bells. A sapling should sprout immediately. This may grow into a money tree which has a chance of producing 3 bags of Bells, each equal to what you buried with a maximum of 30,000 Bells each - more can be buried, but this would be useless as only 30,000 Bells can be produced. This means a maximum of 90,000 Bells per tree. For each 1,000 Bells, it gives a 1% chance of the tree producing Bells. In other words, 50,000 Bells will produce a 50% chance of the tree producing Bells (at 30,000 Bells each), while 99,000 Bells will produce a 99% chance of Bells appearing on the tree. It is impossible to bury more than this amount.

However, planting a 99,000 Bells, though giving an almost 100% chance of producing Bells, would be pointless as the tree can only produce 90,000 Bells, giving a loss of 9,000 Bells if the player attempts this.

Money trees, unlike fruit trees, will only produce money once before becoming a normal, non-fruit bearing tree.

Another alternative, which produces the same result with an absolute guarantee of producing money is by time traveling; if you (the player) have at least 50,000 Bells in the Bellpoint, one way of increasing your finances is to set the year to the year 2000 (you may keep the current date), saving your profile on your date and then time travelling to the year 2035 on the Wii Menu. You will receive a Bellpoint notice notifying you that you have accumulated 99,999 Bells in interest. Please note that by changing the the date via Rover will incur severe effects, such as mass weed growing (this can be avoided if the player has a magic lamp available), Rafflesia, and most, if not all of the villagers moving out and being replaced by new ones. By time travelling via the Wii Menu, the effects are less severe, and you can reproduce these results by executing the method above with little to no consequences.

Money Rock
Every day there will be one rock in the player's town that, once hit with a shovel or axe, will move and release a bag of Bells. Continue hitting the rock until it stops releasing Bells. The amount of Bells increases with every hit, in the follow order:


 * 1) 100 Bells
 * 2) 200 Bells
 * 3) 300 Bells
 * 4) 500 Bells
 * 1,000 Bells
 * 2,000 Bells
 * 4,000 Bells

This gives a total of 8,100 Bells. However, good yellow Feng Shui reportedly allows an eighth bag (worth 8,000 Bells) to appear.

Preventing Kick-Back
Kick-back is when the player hits a rock, and they move back slightly, pushing them further away from the rock. Hitting a money rock a few times will eventually mean the player will have to move closer to hit the rock again, which wastes valuable time and will reduce the chance of producing 2,000 and even 4,000 Bells. Kick-back can be avoided by digging holes around the player, preventing the player from moving. Two examples are shown below:

Tools
There are three types of tools; regular, silver and golden. Silver and Golden tools work the same way as their regular counterparts, but have additional advantageous properties. However, Silver and Golden Tools need to be earned and are not always easy to obtain.

Shovels
Shovels are tools used to dig holes in the ground. They can used to dig up fossils, gyroids, tree stumps and other things.

Silver Shovel
To obtain a Silver Shovel, the player must visit the City at night, after 8 P.M.. On rare occasions, the cones to the far right of the city may not be so close together and a yellow light will be shining through, allowing the player to walk into the lit up tunnel. Once the scene opens, the player will be inside the Resetti Surveillance Centre with either Don Resetti or Mr. Resetti inside. They will give the player a Silver Shovel and ask them to leave. The Silver Shovel is the ideal tool to use for hitting a money rock as it allows the chance to double some of the money knocked out of the rock. This only happens at random, giving a 10% chance of any of the bags doubling when knocked out of the rock, though this chance is increased by having a higher yellow Feng Shui count (ideally over 73). This means a total, if all Bells are doubled, of 16,200 Bells.

Golden Shovel
To obtain a Golden Shovel, the player should buy a second regular shovel from Tom Nook and then use the first shovel to bury it in the ground. The shovel will be golden when dug up the next day.

Fishing Rods
Fishing rods are tools used to catch fish.

Silver Fishing Rod
The Silver Fishing Rod can be bought from Tom Nook's Store (although not in Nook's Cranny) for 500 Bells. It is very rarely in stock, so check back often.

Golden Fishing Rod
To obtain a Golden Fishing Rod, a player must catch one of each fish available in the game. Once they have achieved this, a Golden Fishing Rod will be given to them by Tortimer. The Golden Fishing Rod makes it easier to catch fish, reducing the likelihood of a fish getting away.

Nets
Nets are used to catch bugs in/on the water, flying in the air, on trees or on the ground.

Silver Net
The Silver Net can be bought from Tom Nook's Store (except Nook's Cranny) for 500 Bells. It is very rarely in stock, so check back often.

Golden Net
To obtain a Golden Net, one of each bug in the game must be caught. Once this has been achieved, a Golden Net will be given to the player by Tortimer. The Golden Net makes it easier to catch insects, by having a larger catchment area therefore insects can be caught from more of a distance.

Axe
An axe cuts down trees, but breaks after a few uses.

Silver Axe
The Silver Axe can be obtained after donating 600,000 Bells total to the Town Fund. A fountain will then be built in front of the bus stop. Throw a regular axe in, and, depending on your luck and your answers to Serena's questions, you may get a Silver Axe, which never breaks.

Golden Axe
The Golden Axe is obtained by the same means of getting the Silver Axe, although it is more rare. It never breaks and cuts trees down quicker than the Silver Axe.

Slingshot
A slingshot can be used to shoot down balloons and Gulliver, who flies a UFO.

Silver Slingshot
Silver Slingshots are sold by Tom Nook for 500 Bells. They do not show up often, though, so check frequently. A Silver Slingshot shoots two bullets, rather than one.

Golden Slingshot
Golden Slingshots are obtained by shooting down 14 balloons. The Golden Slingshot will be in the 15th one. Shoot the balloon down to receive your Golden Slingshot. Like the Silver Slingshot shoots two instead of one, the Golden Slingshot shoots three bullets instead of two.

Watering Can
Watering Cans are used to perk up wilting flowers. Water a wilting flower one day, and it will be revived the next.

Silver Watering Can
Buy 50 packs of flower seeds from Tom Nook's store, and you will get a letter in the mail, containing the Silver Watering Can. The Silver Watering Can will revive wilted Red Turnips.

Golden Watering Can
Keep your town in perfect condition for 15 days straight, and you will be rewarded with the Golden Watering Can. Although it cannot revive Red Turnips like its silver counterpart, it can turn wilted black roses into golden roses.

Changing Shoes
The player can change the color of their shoes by talking to Kicks, a skunk character found on the steps of a run-down building in the City. He can change the player's shoes depending on color or style, both of which will cost 500 Bells. Shoes are mainly decorative, but some believe the choice of shoe design may have a contributing factor with how Gracie may rate you.