Time-skipping has long been a source of controversy in the Animal Crossing community. In Animal Crossing: New Horizons, you can time travel by changing the internal system time in your Nintendo Switch.
Time traveling isn't generally encouraged, but it's still an option. Before you choose to time travel, you should be aware of its benefits, as well as the inevitable consequences that come along with it.
The Advantages of Time Traveling
Time traveling comes with its advantages, although some players might argue that time traveling ruins the point of Animal Crossing. If you're getting tired of the waiting game that Animal Crossing is famous for, you might consider skipping through time.
Complete Your Critterpedia
In a previous post, I mentioned that you can obtain the recipes for the golden net and golden fishing rod by catching every fish and bug in the Critterpedia. As you move to the future, you can find and catch the creatures that spawn in all four seasons. Not only does this allow you to get the golden tools faster, but it also allows you to fill your museum collection.
Build Upgrades Faster
Tired of waiting a whole day to complete home upgrades and construction projects? Time travel one day in advance to see those projects come to fruition. That means no more waiting around for the shops, bridges, and inclines to get built. If you redeem your Nook Miles for items, you'll also get these shipments faster.
Earn More Bells
When you time travel, you start a whole new day. That means you can hit the money rock and dig up fossils like you normally would. The fruits on trees will grow faster, and special characters (like Gulliver, Wisp, Flick, and C.J.) will appear more often.
Travel far enough into the future, and you'll earn tons of interest on the bells in your bank account. You can also try to get the best prices on turnips by time traveling within the week.
The Disadvantages of Time Traveling
Nintendo considers time traveling cheating, so they've thrown in some consequences for any time-skipping addicts. If you choose to time travel, you'll have to accept the disadvantages that come along with it.
Villagers Moving Away
Can you bear the thought of your favorite villager leaving your island? By altering the clock, you risk losing villagers. Any villager that's on the cusp of moving out will likely make the move when you time jump.
Island Cleanup
Time traveling far into the future will leave your island overgrown with weeds, and your house filled with cockroaches. Unless you're willing to pick up dozens of weeds one-by-one, you might not want to time travel. Not to mention that you'll also have to get rid of your house's nasty cockroach infestation by shifting your furniture, and squashing the bugs that appear.
Rotting Turnips
If you paid big bells for the turnips in your inventory, you shouldn't time travel past the next Sunday. Jump ahead any further, and your pricey turnips will instantly rot.
Special Events Won't Exist
Although you might want to jump ahead in time to experience future holidays, time travel in New Horizons doesn't work that way. Since New Horizons gets special events (like Bunny Day) in the form of an online patch, you won't receive those updates by time traveling to a future holiday.
Should You Time Travel in Animal Crossing: New Horizons?
Ultimately, time traveling is your decision to make—it's up to you to decide whether the benefits outweigh the risks. Just keep in mind that Animal Crossing is a slow-paced game that's meant to be played over the course of months and years. Time traveling can ruin that casual, long-term gaming experience.
If you're just itching for more to do, check out these secrets in Animal Crossing: New Horizons that you may have missed!