Forest Turns 12

A few weeks ago (on September 29th), my town passed its anniversary date. Of course the game doesn’t celebrate that fact or anything, but Forest is now 12 years old and still going strong!

It was raining in Forest tonight, so I got to enjoy the peaceful rainy day music. When I checked my mail, I got a goodbye letter from Biff the hippo. So long, Biff.

Biff's goodbye letter.I had quite a few weeds around town, so I pulled all that I could find. In Nookington’s, I saw that Tom Nook is now selling candy. I don’t plan on playing this game on Halloween though, so I passed on the candy.

Tom Nook: That's candy. The price is 100 bells.Over by the lake, Genji asked me if a wagon wheel he found was mine. I said no, and he admitted that it was really his. He was just testing my honesty (by being dishonest). But I passed the test, so he let me keep the wagon wheel.

Genji: This is the first time I've met an honest person!When I spoke with Maple, she asked me if I like fish sticks. I said no, and she got all bummed out because it’s her favorite food. Well excuse me for having my own opinions!

Maple: But it's my favorite food! Now I'm sad.In the upper part of town, I met my newest villager: Hector the rooster. He is one of the animals that has not made it to any of the more recent Animal Crossing games. He seems pretty cool, though.

Hector: I go by Hector.After a stop at the post office and a quick scan of the dump, I returned home for the night.

Making Money

A goodbye letter from Sally was in my mail today. So long, squirrel!

Sally's goodbye letter.I got quite lucky when I found today’s glowing spot. It contained 30,000 bells instead of the usual 1,000!

Digging up 30,000 bells!I saw a new house and met my newest neighbor, Lucy the pig. She’s both friendly and adorable.

Lucy: Would you like to be friends with me?Baabara told me she was thinking about moving out of town. She asked me if I thought she should move on, but both of the options said no! This is rigged!

"Absolutely not" or "No, thanks."Over at the wishing well, Tom and Biff apparently just had a fight. Tom was quite annoyed when I went to speak to him.

Tom: Buzz off! You're annoying me!After pulling all the weeds I could find, I decided to do some September fishing. There are no sea bass in the ocean this time of year, so every fish you catch in the ocean (if you avoid the mouth of the river) will be worth at least 3,000 bells! For more information about it, check out my new September Fishing Guide.

I emptied my pockets and headed down to the ocean. Fishing goes so much quicker in this game as compared to New Leaf. They’ll make all five nibbles in the time it takes for one nibble in New Leaf. It only took me six minutes to fill up my pockets with 15 fish (14 red snappers and one barred knifejaw). I went up to Nook’s and sold them all for 47,000 bells.

I made another fishing run, and six minutes later, I had 15 more fish. This time I caught 10 red snappers and 5 barred knifejaws.

Pockets full of fish.That earned me 55,000 bells. So in total, I made 102,000 bells in 12 minutes of fishing. After catching just a few more fish, I had enough money that my bank account balance reached 17 million bells for the first time!

Pelly: Your balance is 17,000,000 bells.After checking the dump, I headed home. It was definitely a good day and I made a lot more money than I usually do, that’s for sure!

Founder’s Day

Aziz has moved out of Forest, as I found out when I checked my mail today. He “kept it real” from A to Z.

Aziz's goodbye letter.I spoke with Candi, and she asked if I was an early bird. Definitely not! As she continued, I realized why she asked: She has no interest in the morning aerobics that are held each summer. They’re too early in the day for me, although I did participate in 2011–just so I could try it out and get the aerobics radio.

Candi: Those early birds can do all the aerobics they want!When I talked to Genji, he was telling how to connect a Game Boy Advance to my GameCube using the appropriate link cable to visit the island. He told me he didn’t have a GameCube or a GBA, so he was unable to visit the island.

Genji: I don't think I can visit the island, on my bum.I also had a chat with Belle, and she wanted to sell me a mystery item without even telling me what it was. But she said it would cost all of the money in my pockets, which was over 16,000 bells. Did I buy it? BELLE NO!

Belle: It looks like you have 16,421 bells on you. That'll be enough.I met up with my buddy Hank, and I accidentally asked him for a favor. He requested that I catch a bug for him, any kind. That’s an easy task to complete…especially when I already had a darner dragonfly in my pockets. I gave it to him and he rewarded me with a killer bamboo wall. Unfortunately, the item was actually just called a bamboo wall. Having the word “killer” in the title would have made it so much cooler.

Hank: You gotta take this killer bamboo wall!Over by the wishing well, I was surprised to see Tortimer standing around. He couldn’t be going on vacation, since he does that in winter. Was today a holiday? I honestly didn’t think it was. But it turns out that today is Founder’s Day. Tortimer was talking about how town used to be so peaceful before anyone moved in.

Tortimer: This town was peaceful before anyone came.Honestly, there’s not much to this holiday at all. Tortimer has a few phrases he speaks about the “brave forecritters” that founded the town and that’s about it.

Tortimer: Do you know who founded our town? Our forecritters!But if it’s your first time attending the event, Tortimer will give you a weed model for your house. Believe it or not, the first time I attended the event was just two years ago (even though I’ve owned the game since 2002). Here’s a video of the event recorded in 2012:

After talking with the mayor several times, I continued my walk around town. I had a lot of weeds to pull up. At the top of my ramp, I saw a new house and I went to meet my new neighbor Biff. After introducing myself, he asked about my bamboo wall. He said it looks “so killer!” How did he know?!

Biff: Check out your bamboo wall! That looks so killer!He asked if he could have it, but he said he didn’t anything to give me in return. So I agreed to give it to him…and he gave me a fine painting. He was lying about not having anything. He was just testing my friendship…of a person he just met 30 seconds beforehand.

Biff: I lied about not having anything to exchange.After a quick stop at the post office, I ran by the dump and then returned home.