Odds and Ends: Quarantine Edition

I had honestly forgotten that this site even existed for a period of time but suffice it to say, I have much more indoors time now to poke at my blogs and personal projects. So as such, I have taken it upon myself to post more regularly. Here’s the catch though, I started a personal-ish blog a while back and have been posting there. So if anyone is interested in mostly non-gaming related nonsense: Here is is.

I have been actually, kind of wondering what to do with this site given that it’s never updated since I’m not really that much into MMO gaming anymore. I have decided that, so long as the domain renewal on hokage.org is available and not unreasonable I might as well just keep it since I’ve had this domain for almost 20 years.

I guess we should count our blessings that between all of the streaming services available, all of the video chat options, and all of the games that are out, there is quite a bit to watch/do/and play even if we can’t really go anywhere too incredibly interesting. So here is what I have been playing as of late:

  • Animal Crossing New Horizons: If there ever was a time for a new Animal Crossing game it is now.
  • Final Fantasy VII Remake: I haven’t finished FF7R yet, but I am pretty sure that I am approaching the end portion of the game. Really enjoying seeing both Midgar and the characters really fleshed out. There are a couple of portions of the game that feel a little padded out but as a whole, I hav been having a lot of fun playing it.
  • Slay the Spire: So, the Switch update was finally released a while ago (with the new character) and I haven’t had a chance to play it because of the other games on this list. Favorite game of 2019 by far. Such a great game.
  • Dwarf Fortress: I still play DF, but in an on-and-off basis. Current fortress was just promoted to Mountainhome. Trying to find the hell layer with a massive amount of lava later exploration. Have find adamantium! No luck on hell.

ACNL: Bunny Day

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I have fallen out of habit of playing Animal Crossing daily for the sake of fawning over Diablo III: ROS when I have spare time. So the fallout of not having played ACNL for two weeks? Cherry moved out and there were a few weeks to pull, otherwise not a whole lot. Sadly, now that I have all pictures from all current Chulak residents thanks to April Fool’s Day, I really don’t care. (Cherry least of all, I wanted her to leave).

I did remember to turn on my 3DS for the Bunny Day event. The problem with the egg event was that you needed a wetsuit in order to obtain one of the six eggs which I did not have. Luckily the island had one on sale. Unluckily I had zero badges and the only tours that were available were the ones that I disliked the most. It took about 40 minutes or so to farm all 40 badges. Yay completionism.

ACNL: More Frog People

I have had good luck breeding black roses this week; Quadrupling my black rose inventory even! Despite having used the fertilizer on my pear trees every day, I have still had no luck with growing a perfect pear. Don’t sell your perfect fruit kids (by default all towns have one perfect fruit)! If you do, you aren’t going to get it back for a while unless you are super lucky.
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Puddles moved into town on Wednesday. We like puddles because she is cute and has for once, moved into a plot that does not interfere with any existing path or plant. On a similar note: Does anyone else have a villager that they kind of dislike but don’t want to move out because their house is located in literally the perfect spot? This is the way that I feel about Chester.
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I do not however share the same feelings about Rowan, who’s house has destroyed the one and only apple tree in Chulak. I unfortunately did not realize that villagers could spawn so close to Re-Tail as well as another player’s house (immediately to the right). Oh well :/
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ACNL: Monthly Picture Dump (Yay Spring)

Huzzah for the snow finally being gone and not having a dejected looking town tree. I really wish that the ability to remove ground patterns was locked to each character. If only I was given a dollar for every instance in which I had kicked one of my paths off of the ground while picking up a piece of fruit or shuffling flowers around.

I finally built enough public works projects to obtain perfect town status and the golden watering can. Still no new exotic hybrids.
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Gaston is my new favorite villager because he is the only one thus far who has chosen to wear my custom designs (yay the Wesley Crusher sweater).
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Yay flowers.
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Freckles came and Freckles went. No villager picture sadly.
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Yes Gaston, your banana.
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Layed down flowers, trying to make town pretty.
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Sadly Ava, one of my favorite villagers moved this morning. I have been preoccupied with other activities and had not even noticed that she was moving :/. The vast majority of my PWPs have been unlocked by Ava. On the upside, I can finally fix the paths (her house was placed in the exact wrong place).
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ACNL: Out With the Old and in With the New

Only one villager (Tutu) had moved out as a result of mostly neglecting Animal Crossing for a few weeks for Bravely Default and other activities. I guess that isn’t too bad, given that she mailed me her picture. Why can’t I seem to get any villager pics unless they move out?
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I was pleasantly surprised to see that Lucha had moved into town as he was on my dreamie list.
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After speaking with Ankha last night for about 20 minutes straight, I finally got her to move into Chulak. She better be worth it since getting her to move in cost me about 20k and my Saturday night K.K. Slider boot (left it in my inventory, whoops). When campers agree to move in, is that guaranteed or is there a chance that they will bail out? About a month ago, Skye agreed to move in but never did.
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Woot woot, an actual visitor.
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ACNL Island Beetle Farming Guide

Want to make 300 bells in 15 to 20 minutes without using the stalk market or resorting to duping? Farm beetles on the island. The basic idea is that the island has a low creature spawn limit: As in, only about 4 to 5 bugs can be on the island at any time. You can increase the chance of an expensive bug spawning by decreasing the chance of a cheap but spawning. The expensive bugs only spawn on palm trees.

First off remove absolutely everything (trees, bushes, stumps and all) from the center grassy area. When you are finished, the grassy area should be bare. Next, remove the trees along the bottom of the island. These trees are way too close to the edge, making it difficult to sneak up to anything that spawns on them. This should leave you with a total of 8 palm trees, 4 per side. Now, you can do one of two things depending on your farming preference: 

  1. Leave all 8 palm trees, farm by continuously walking around the island. Pro: easy to check for and scare off hermit crabs and locusts that spawn on the top half of the island. Also makes it easy to check for large fish and shark fish, which are worth quite a bit. Con: you have to be really careful when looping back down to the bottom of the island. It’s easy to scare beetles off as they come into view.
  2. This is the method I use: Chop down the top two palm trees from either side, leaving two on the lower right and two on the lower left. Run/walk back and forth along the bottom. Pro: it’s much faster in my opinion. The bottom two trees on either side are very easy to se from the bottom of the island. Con: not very good for fishing and you still have to check the top half of the island for cheap bug spawns occasionally.

Tips and observations:

  • If you are hitting a beetle dry spell, run a circuit around the island/center and check for hermit crabs as well as other cheap undesirables. Remember that they are taking up a “bug slot” and will greatly decrease the chance of an expensive beetle spawning.
  • If I recall correctly beetles will spawn after 5pm but the best time to farm is after 7pm (locusts do not spawn after 7).
  • Golden Beetles and Horned Hercules’: Creepy slowly. Holding the stick all the way forward, even while holding down A is still too fast. If you hold it down about half way when you get within about 2 spaces, you should be okay.

If you are still having trouble catching bugs, try digging a hole in front of each tree, as the optimal bug catching distance is exactly 1 space. However, keep in mind that any hole sthat you dig will reset eventually (after about a day?). Any bananas and shells that you move will remain.

Toy Day and What Not (ACNL)

I am glad that there are other people in this world who have spreadsheets and odd notes devoted to Animal Crossing and the like. It’s worth noting for future reference that the gift hints do reset when a villager moves in.

Villager Hint 1 Hint 2 Gift
Ava Orange Wallpaper Astro Wall
Baarbara Aqua Outfit Cloudy Tee
Cherry Yellow Toy Bingo Wheel
Chester Pink Furniture Lovely Table
Cousteau Yellow Wallpaper Cheese Wall
Freckles Black Instrument Upright Piano
Hans Pink Plant Plum Bonsai
Prince Brown Household Appliance Retro TV
Rudy Red Musical Instrument Electric Guitar
Tutu Red Plant Poinsettia

Thus far, Jingle is the only picture that I have :/. Sadly even with all of the hints documented, I still had to reset the game one time in order to achieve a perfect match for each villager. Mixed up Chester and Cousteau’s gift, whoops.
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The frogs are pissed off at each other again (conflicting personalities, Prince is a lazy villager and Cousteau is a jock). I am pretty certain that Cousteau was dudebroing it up way too hard for Prince’s liking. We could also blame Hans…
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Good riddance Hans and your creepy-ass stare. Please don’t let the door hit you in the ass on the way out.
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Animal Crossing New Leaf: House Tour

I am mildly obsessed with Animal Crossing New Leaf. Currently sitting at about 170.2k HHA points and working on expanding the rest of my house. The entry room contains the full exotic set as well as several other harmonious item sets. When I get around to building and expanding the right room on the first floor, I will probably turn it into a zen set + item set display room for the sake of decluttering the entry room

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The second floor is reserved for seasonal furniture sets. I for the life of me cannot get the Ice Floor. So so so many snowflakes were gathered but alas, no dice
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First floor left room with most of the modern wood set pieces. Haven’t quite decided what set I want to collect and display here yet. Actually, I love the cabana series but that’s a lot of medal farming…
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My trophy room is located in the back room of the first floor. It is obviously influenced by Covet of Latte, the Nintendo SpotPass home that appeared in October. I will most likely move the bugs, both of which are December lucky items upstairs with the rest of the seasonal items and replace them with cafe set pieces as I obtain them from Brewster. Sadly as of yet, none of my villagers have graced me with the honor of possessing their pictures, despite running numerous errands. Y U NO LIKE ME? /sad.

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