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Earning More Bells in Animal Crossing: Let's Go to the City (City Folk)

Now that you've read my first guide on earning bells in Animal Crossing, you're probably ready to experiment with making bells in a few other ways? Note: parts of this guide are specifically for Animal Crossing: Let's Go to the City (City Folk) and may not work in other Animal Crossing games.

A Spot of Beachcombing

In all of the Animal Crossing games, bells (money) can be made by scouring the beach for the shells. Although the majority of the shells are low-value, the more often you collect them, the more likely you are to happen across a valuable shell like the Pearl Oyster (see bell values below) or perhaps even a washed up coconut. Cocunuts should be buried somewhere along the beach line, and will then produce 2 coconuts every two days which you can sell for 500 bells each.

Give to Receive

The residents of your town are generous folk. If you send them a letter with a small gift attached — something of low value, like a shell or flower — they will often send gifts of furniture and wallpaper back. Although these are not normally rare items, they can be sold for 2-3 times the value of your original gift.

So that you don't waste money buying letter paper, check the Lost and Found frequently with Booker at the town gate as paper is often 'lost'.

Save, Don't Spend

If you're the patient type, you may find that saving is for you. Instead of spending your hard-earned bells on items and your mortgage, save it all up in a Town Hall bank account. At the end of every month, you will be awarded interest on your savings. The more you pay in, the more interest you can earn.

Running Errands

If you get a little bored of fishing and bug-catching, try getting friendly with your neighbours in town. Sooner or late they will ask you to run an errand — delivering furniture or letters within a specified time period — if you complete these errands quickly, you will be rewarded with 500 bells or items that you can sell to Nook.

Have you got some Animal Crossing: City Folk / Let's Go to the City bell making tips that aren't included here? Feel free to contact me on jem@jemjabella.co.uk

Earning Bells in Animal Crossing: Let's Go to the City (City Folk)

Bells are the in game currency for the various Animal Crossing games. They're used to buy items for your house, clothing for your little character and somewhat more importantly, pay off your mortgage so that you get can get a bigger house! This guide is a top ten list of ways to earn bells in Animal Crossing: Let's Go to the City.

Although this list was written with Animal Crossing: Let's Go to the City in mind, many of the bell-making tips are applicable to other Animal Crossing games on alternate platforms.

#1. Shaking Empty Trees

Start every morning by shaking trees with no fruit on. Random trees will contain 100 bell coins which you can collect, up to a total of 2,500 bells. Beware of the bees though: these are hard to catch and will sting your face, costing you 400 bells to fix with medicine!

#2. Shaking Fruit Trees

When you first start out in your town, you will only have one type of fruit tree. These are your 'native' fruit, and are worth 100 bells each. Shake the trees to release the fruit.

#3 Banging Rocks

Each day, one random rock will contain several bags of bells and coins that you can collect. To get the money (bells), move next to the rock. Start by digging two holes with your shovel: one directly behind where your character is standing, and one below, as per the diagram:

Once the holes have been dug, bash the rock as quickly as you can with the shovel until every space around the block has a bell bag or coin on it. These will earn you a nice 8,500 bells!

#4 Fossil Finding

Before you put away that shovel, why not go on a bit of a fossil hunt? Each day, there are 3 fossils to be found in your Animal Crossing town. These can be spotted by way of a small "X"-shaped crack in the ground. Dig up the fossil and take it to Blathers to be identified. You can then choose to sell the fossil to Nook for big bells, or donate it to the museum (but donating doesn't earn you money!)

#5 Go Fish

Fishing has two benefits. 1) you can fill your museum with nice things to look at; more importantly, #2) you can earn lots and lots of bells. The more rare a fish is, the more bells it is worth.

The quickest way to fish in Animal Crossing: Let's Go to the City is to take out your fishing rod, and use the C button on top of the nunchuck to throw in the bait. As soon as the fish pulls it down under the water (it will make a "sploosh!" sound) press the button again to pull up the rod, complete with tasty fish.

#6 Have a Bug Hunt

During the Spring, Summer and Autumn months bug-hunting can be very productive. Rare and beautiful bugs and butterflies can be found around the town which, when caught with your Net, can be sold for a small sum to Nook. In the Winter, bugs are much harder to find. However, all is not lost; keep your ears out for Mole Crickets in the ground which can be dug up with your shovel, and Pill Bugs hiding under rocks (bash the rock with your shovel).

#7 Become a Farmer

On a Sunday, Joan the turnip seller comes to town. If you are willing to hand over 1,000 bells she'll provide you with a Red Turnip Seed. If you plant this seed on the Sunday, and water it every day until the following Saturday, you can dig it up and sell the big fat red turn for 16,000 bells! Be warned though: if you forget to water the red turnip it will rot.

#8 Dabble in Stalks (Stocks)

While Joan is in town, think about buying some white turnips off her. These can be sold Monday-Saturday the following week to Nook. White Turnip re-sale price varies day by day; just ask Nook for his current turnip prices. Note: there is no guarantee you will make a profit with white turnips, so best not to buy if they're priced too high.

#9 Finders Keepers

Be sure to check with Booker at the town gate every day to see if anyone has lost anything of value. Almost everything can be resold for a small profit.

#10 Recycle? Sure!

Go green and regularly check the recycling bin in the Town Hall — especially before it gets emptied at 6am on Mondays and Thursdays — as you may find rare or expensive furniture and other goodies that you can sell to Nook.

Still Stuck?

The official Animal Crossing: City Folk / Animal Crossing: Let's Go to the City guide books (by Prima Games) contain information on special events, full item lists (including furniture), neighbour's birthdays, how to feng shui and other vital game information.

Available in all good book shops, or online via Amazon.co.uk.

Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life Review

I first came across Harvest Moon: AWL at my almost-Sister-in-Law’s — she was tending to one sick cow and complaining that her other had stopped producing milk. A few moments later and she was chopping grass and picking weird fungus from the ground while I watched, rather unexcited from what I’d seen so far. How I went from tedium to buying the game, I do not know.

In the game, you play a young man whose father has recently passed away. A friend of your dear departed father, a guy named Takakura, comes to visit and informs you that you’ve inherited an abandoned farm in a place called Forget-Me-Not Valley. You and Takakura have to take on the farm and make it successful over a 30 year (6 chapter) period.

Fortunately, 30 years in the game is not 30 years of your life, although after a few hours of playing it might feel like it. The game takes forever to see any kind of result — if it’s not the incredulously long auto-scenes featuring hard to read white text on a varying background, it’s the crops which have to be watered anything up to 3 times a day and the goat you can’t get rid of.

The game is littered with little mistakes — everything from grapes that grow on trees (no vines?) and “an unique scent” coming from your Goat milk — hardly enough to spoil the game but certainly noticeable (well, to a picky and perfectionist arse like myself).

There doesn’t seem to be any consistancy when moving your items around either. Choose an item you have more than one of to sell to Van and it’ll sell 1 by default, put food in your refrigerator and it’ll try and place them all. Then of course you have to confirm you want to place something on your shelf 2-3 times, and the seedmaker which takes about 6 pushes of your big green button to put things in and take things out.

Overall, the game is mostly repetitive crop-watering, cattle-feeding and chicken-tending. However, there’s something endearing about naming your chicks after they’ve hatched from their fertilised eggs and having your pregnant cow lick your face. Despite its flaws, the game is incredibly addictive and I’ve not put it down since I got it. If you’ve got a long attention span and the ability to remember the last time you milked your cow, this game is for you. Otherwise: stay away.

Harvest Moon

I bought Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life for the Gamecube. It is incredibly like that TV program from years ago where the guy and his missus give up their jobs to do things the old-fashioned way.. growing their own food etc. I'm sure it's called something similar too.

It's funny actually, in a not funny way.. I checked out the price on play.com first because I remembered they were having a sale. Even in the sale, it was £14.99: the words "haha no" sprang to mind. So, I went to Amazon and bought a copy for £8.99 from the Used/New section thinking it was a used copy. Turns out it's a brand new copy at a saving of a fiver. Hoorah!

Anyway, I was just wondering if any of my fellow bloggers were Harvest Moon players and if anyone had any tips for a newbie to the game? I say tips: not cheats.. I don't want to ruin it before I've even started!