Animal tracks

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This grass has been severely damaged by repeatedly running on it.

Grass deterioration, also known as animal tracks or desire lines, is one of the new features implemented in Animal Crossing: City Folk, which continued in Animal Crossing: New Leaf. The game is able to keep track of your movements throughout town, and will wear down the grass in certain areas. This feature was originally intended to create paths in frequently-traversed areas, which would add to the town’s own unique character. In some instances, the feature has run amok, nearly completely obliterating all of the grass in the entire town. This process has been dubbed "desertification" by some in the Animal Crossing community. Many players seek to prevent desertification in their towns, not only for aesthetic reasons, but because the lack of grass can become a game-breaking issue, causing some insects, such as the Dung Beetle, or furniture, such as the Snowman Series, to be impossible to collect.

Prevention

While there is no way to play the game without wearing down any grass, players who wish to prevent grass deterioration in their towns can take certain steps to stem desertification. Since the game calculates grass wear at each game load, players can reduce the number of times each day they reload the game. Players can also walk along designated paths to limit wear to only these areas. Placing designs on the ground as paths is one way to accomplish this. Patterns will not protect the ground, but will establish a path that can be consistently followed. Walking along a path with flowers on the sides also negates the deterioration, as a plot of land with a flower will not lose its grass if it is only stepped on once daily. However, even stepping on the flowers while walking will still cause grass deterioration underneath the flowers.

*NOTE: Running wears grass more quickly than walking. (a.k.a. Jogging)

Repair

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An ideal way to prevent grass deterioration- the players stick to paths and flowers have been planted.

Grass regrowth in the game can take up to six months. There are a few ways in which a player can aid this process. Planting trees and flowers all over the trampled area will speed up regrowth. Flowers cause grass to regrow at about five times the normal rate. A flower takes about 30 days to convert dirt to grass on the plot of land on which it is planted, providing the ground there is not walked on more than once a day. Trees cause grass to regrow at three times the normal rate, as well as providing a physical barrier to prevent that particular plot from being trampled. Once these trees and flowers are planted, the player must avoid walking in the affected area other than to keep the flowers watered. Since running is slightly more devastating to grass than walking, a player should be sure to walk through an area if travel there cannot be avoided altogether. For players who are willing to time-travel within the game, the regrowth process can be further accelerated by advancing the game clock forward one day at a time, being certain that all flowers are kept watered each day. Setting the game clock backward in time or moving forward more than one day does not result in additional grass regrowth. The time of the year also affects grass regrowth, with spring and summer months being the best time for recovery. The regrowth rate is at its maximum in June. In December, the opposite is true: grass wears the fastest and regrows the slowest.

Petition

Template:External Currently there is an online petition requesting that Nintendo release a patch over the Wi-Fi connection that will fix the grass growth issue. It should be noted that due to the software and hardware designs of the Wii, it may be impossible for Nintendo to fix the issue through a patch alone.

Further Information

The Differences between Running, Walking, and Jogging

Running wears grass faster then walking, in fact, jogging, as it is called, wears more grass then walking. Jogging is when you pull the Wii remote as far away from your character as possible to move, but with out pressing B. Walking is keeping the Wii remote close to your character, so your arms move back and forth. While jogging, your arms do not move back and forth. If you use a Nunchuk, it is when you pull the Nunchuk's analog stick the farthest it will go while not pressing B. If you press B while walking you will jog, and if you press B while jogging you will run. Walking is better for grass, but it is harder to control your walking while using a Nunchuk.

Visible Wear and Slow Wear

Grass that has deteriorated in Animal Crossing: New Leaf. Note that there are patches of grass around the tree.

There are two types of wear. One is a sudden, visible wear that occurred when passing over a spot of grass, the other type is a much slower wear which could not be observed immediately but that accumulated over time. You may have witnessed the first type of wear, which is called “visible wear” firsthand in your town. If you have an area of grass that has started to wear and you pass over it once, you will see the grass wearing down immediately.

Public Works Projects and Villager's Houses

In Animal Crossing: New Leaf, whenever a new Public works project is built and completed in a certain spot then demolished later, or a villager has moved out of town, the grass will be completely deteriorated in that particular spot, leaving behind a dirt mark in the size and shape of where the public works project or the villager's home used to be. Grass can regrow in those spots, as long as it hasn't been walked around in.

Saving and Quitting Effects

Saving and quitting affects grass deterioration more than you would think. If you walk over an area, save, quit, then come back and walk over it again, then repeat, every time you will see that area wear once, going through a level of grass deterioration every time, until eventually being dirt. This is useful while trying to create paths.

Grass Regrowth

If you don't step on an area of complete dirt at all, it will take approximately 6 months for the grass to grow back completely. Trees and Flowers affect grass regrowth immensely. A flower will take approximately 30 days for the grass to regrow without being stepped on or dying. Stepping on grass affects the grass regrowth and actually decreases the grass that has regrown so it makes it take longer to regrow. Golden roses are recommended when trying to regrow grass because you may have to step on regrowing grass in order to water them. Trees take a little more time than flowers, for example, if a flower took 5 days a tree would take 7 to regrow the same amount of grass. And you can't step on an area with a tree, so you could plant a tree, wait for the grass to grow, and then chop the tree down and dig up the stump so the grass would be there. You can time travel the 6 months to regrow grass, but it is only effective if you get on every day of those six months. For example, you go to Rover and tell him to forward 1 day, then get on, then save, then repeat, until all the grass has regrown. Villagers may move away and flowers may die during this process, unless you have gold roses, then flowers will not die. If you time travel to recover a certain area that isn't very big then you should just plant gold roses in that area and only time travel 30 days.

Pathways/Roads

Pathways/Roads are very useful to help maintain grass deterioration. You can lay out patterns as a guideline for your path and then run on the path until it is complete dirt, then remove the patterns. At Nookipedia, we recommend when your path is complete dirt to stop running, because the path may spread to about 5 spaces wide in severe cases. Many people line their path with flowers to stop this from happening. If you line your path with flowers and stay inside the road it will not spread. Gold roses are recommended for this purpose because normal flowers wilt and die. However, people may prefer watering every day because they might not like the look of gold roses. Patterns and flowers do not stop the spread of grass deterioration.

Gallery

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  Grass that has been severely damaged. Note how grass surrounds the palm trees.

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  Grass that has been damaged.

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  These players have created paths by repeatedly running over the same spot every day.

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  Note that a minor little path has been made due to grass deterioration in Animal Crossing: New Leaf

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