There might be nothing more relaxing in the current state of the world than kicking back on your own island, and that’s why Animal Crossing: New Horizons has been such a hit worldwide. It’s a super relaxing game consisting of an idyllic life on a tropical island, hanging out with cute animal villagers and filling a gorgeous museum.
But, New Horizons comes with its fair share of frustrating things. There are some irritating mechanics and features alongside some difficult tasks. Here are the most frustrating things in New Horizons.
10 Low Turnip Prices
Playing the Stalk Market can be a very lucrative source of much-needed income. It’ll be hard to complete all the island projects, pay off your mortgage, and move infrastructure around without a good source of income, so many people turn to this turnip-gambling hustle.
Unfortunately, the market can bust like any real-life stock market. Buying your turnips at 90 Bells each just to see the prices dip down to 35 Bells each over the next few days is infuriating. The solution here is to make some friends and annoy them with persistent inquiries into the price on their island. It’ll pay off eventually!
9 Native Fruits
One of the best ways to develop your island is to get your hands on foreign fruits. Everyone starts with one of the five fruit options as their “native” fruit, either oranges, apples, pears, cherries, or peaches. Foreign fruits sell for a nice 500 Bells each and produce endlessly, so it’s the first step of many players to find them and plant them on their own island.
Many turn to the Nook Islands excursions, but it seems like the islands that Dodo Airlines take you to always seem to have your native fruit.
8 Ironwood Kitchenette
New Horizons has introduced the crafting and DIY mechanic that has become the main focal point for many people. The ability to build your perfect dream home is wonderful, but it’s hindered by the availability of some recipes.
It feels near impossible to get your hands on the exact recipe you need. One popular example is the Ironwood Kitchenette, which seems like something everyone wants but no one has. The recipe itself requires two other recipes that seem nonexistent, frustrating many.
7 Tarantulas and Wasps
What a peaceful life — wandering around your island after sundown and enjoying the peaceful nighttime air, with some of your villagers hanging around and waving to you, watching the cherry blossom petals float by. Suddenly, a gigantic tarantula runs up to you and knocks you out, setting you back to your doorstep.
This is the terror of many players, alongside Animal Crossing’s classic wasps, which can also sting you. The first sting requires you to buy or make medicine, which is irritating, while the second sting will knock you out if you haven’t healed the first one.
6 Slow Multiplayer
Nintendo’s multiplayer mechanics have long been chided and have become a bit of an inside joke among fans. This is true for New Horizons as much as any other game. The multiplayer gameplay requires long, tedious conversations with Dodo Airlines staff, both leaving the island and returning to it, as well as opening the gate and having others over.
Whenever anyone arrives on your island, everyone there has to stop for what feels like an eternity while they land. Opening the gate requires you to head all the way to the airport and ask, despite carrying a cell phone on you at all times.
5 Limited-Time Critters
Animal Crossing has long had fish and bugs that rotate with the seasons, and the newest entry in the series is no different. There were a ton of critters that disappeared at the end of March, prompting many players to warn their friends that they’d better grab them before the month is up.
With the game releasing on March 20, that didn’t leave much time for many to grab the necessary creatures. Plus, some of them seemed impossible to find, like the notorious Stringfish.
4 Blathers’ Arrival
Speaking of collecting critters — many of them are caught in order to complete the museum, which requires a donation of every bug and fish to be finished. Unfortunately, the museum won’t be accessible for the first few days. First, a player has to donate enough to Tom Nook to get him to call Blathers. Then Blathers himself requires a few donations before deciding to set up a permanent museum.
In the meantime, many players have been laughing or getting angry at having to pile up dozens of critters in front of Blathers’ tent or construction.
3 Egg Festival
The first major event that came to New Horizons is the Bunny Day Festival, which is an almost-two-week-long event with Zipper T., who represents the Easter Bunny. Zipper has hidden eggs around the island that can be found in a variety of ways.
Some of these ways interfered heavily with other tasks, like showing up instead of a fish when fishing, or as balloons drifting across the sky. The spawn rates of these eggs were so frustrating and aggravating for players that Nintendo actually patched the game to reduce them.
2 Tool Durability
Anyone who has played Breath of the Wild knows this one all too well. Having your tools break in the middle of trying to do something is nothing short of infuriating, and New Horizons has been kind enough to force everyone to endure that frustration.
Your tools (save for the ladder and vaulting pole) each have a durability that seems to last no time at all. In addition to this, there’s no clear way to see how many hits each tool has left, with no durability marker being added to the game.
1 Crafting Batches
Animal Crossing has long been a series with tedious, repetitive dialogue. Given its slow nature, that’s fine, but in some cases, it seems unnecessary and like a huge oversight by the developers.
This is the case with crafting. Every time the player crafts an item, they have to click through a few dialogue boxes and animations. Plus, the game hasn’t introduced a batch crafting system, meaning you’ll have to make bait and other items crafted in batches one at a time. It’s boring, slow, and frustrating.
NEXT: Animal Crossing New Horizons: 10 Struggles We All Had In The First Few Days
