Message bottle

A player finds a Message Bottle in New Horizons.

Message bottles (known as note in a bottle in Wild World) are items in Animal Crossing: Wild World and Animal Crossing: New Horizons. They are glass bottles that occasionally wash up on the beach. They always contain a letter, and they may sometimes contain an attached present. In Animal Crossing: New Horizons, egg message bottles appear on the beach during Bunny Day.

Appearances

In Wild World

In Animal Crossing: Wild World, notes in bottles can be found on the beach or purchased from Tom Nook's store for 200 Bells each. Unlike most items, the store will have unlimited stock. If the player writes something inside a bottle and releases it and a friend has done the same, when the two connect through Contact Mode/Tag Mode, they will each find their friend's note-in-a-bottle washed up on their beach. They can be saved in the town hall like letters. Presents can also be sent along with the notes, but it is unknown if they reach the other end. The player may also find various random notes in a bottle on the beach with a random message enclosed.

Mail differs depending on whether it is from a real person or Nintendo, as a note from a real player will always start with "Dear Some Stranger," unlike a Nintendo note-in-a-bottle.

In City Folk

Notes in bottles do not appear in an official capacity in Animal Crossing: City Folk. However, a dummy version of it can be obtained through hacking.

In New Horizons

In Animal Crossing: New Horizons, the message bottles now contain a note with a primarily seasonal background from a random villager along with a DIY recipe relating to that villager's personality. During Bunny Day, egg message bottles may be found on the beach. Similarly, they contain a themed note and DIY recipe.

In Gekijōban Doubutsu no Mori

Ai opening a note in a bottle on the beach in Gekijōban Doubutsu no Mori.

Throughout 🎬 Gekijōban Doubutsu no Mori, Ai finds several notes in bottles on the beach that tell her to plant cedar trees for the Winter Festival and are implied to be sent from an alien. It is later revealed that Gulliver sent the messages to impress the residents of Animal Village while he masquerades as an alien.