AC:NL Guide

Hello and welcome to my guide for the 2012 Nintendo 3DS game, Animal Crossing: New Leaf! Image of Animal Crossing villager.

Animal Crossing: New Leaf is a 2012 game developed by Nintendo for the Nintendo 3DS family of systems. It suceeds Animal Crossing: City Folk which was devleoped for the Wii, and preceeds Animal Crossing: New Horizons, developed for the Nintendo Switch.

This game recieved a major update in 2016 called Welcome Amiibo. It was a free update that was rolled up to everyone who owned the game. It added a new campground and amiibo card functionality, as well as new villagers and more.

Image of the villager Bob from Animal Crossing.

Game Plot and Objectives

When you start a new save, you are greeted on a train by a cat named Rover. He will ask your name, gender, the name of the town you are travelling to, and other questions. These questions will determine your players name, gender, the towns name and your players apperance.

You then get off your stop and are greeted by Isabelle and 2 random villagers. They welcome you as "mayor". Even if you try and explain you are not the mayor, they don't believe you and order you to go to the town hall for a meeting. You are now the mayor of this town. Isabelle explains how everything works, and you move into the town, starting with a tent.

To upgrade your house, visit Tom Nook on main street (North of the map) and you will require a deposit then a final fee. The first upgrade from the tent has a deposit for 20k bells and a fee of 40k bells.

The name of the currency in this game is called Bells and there is multiple ways to obtain them. This is explained on the "How To Get Bells Quickly" page.

You start the game with 4 villagers living in your town. They will own houses that are randomly placed on the map, and you will see your villagers doing their daily routines and activites. Make sure to greet them all and become friends. Villagers can come in many species. As your villagers grow a bond with you, they may ask you for favors like to deliever mail to another villager, or ask to hang out. More villagers will move in gradually until you hit the max villager limit of 10. Want specific villagers? Check the "How to Move in Your Favourite Villagers" page.

As mayor, your job is to maintain and expand the town. Villagers and Isabelle will give opinions and advice on how to do so. Make sure to clear weeds and trash, and also build public works projects via the town hall, but these will cost bells.

To make sure you are progressing the game correctly, make sure to follow the in-game guidance. If you are stuck, you can talk to Isabelle and she will most likely remind you what to do.