The April update to Animal Crossing: New Horizons brought about some changes to the economy.
One of the changes made to New Horizons through the new patch has to do with the bank. Players were notified via a letter in their mailbox that the interest rate for the Bank of Nook had been reduced, in an effort to stop players from raking up Bells through time travel.
Players learned earlier today that this was not the only change Nintendo implemented. According to dataminer @_Ninji, the April patch also silently implemented a change to reduce the rate of appearance of high-ticket bugs like the tarantula and the peacock butterfly—bugs that many of the players had been catching and selling to stockpile Bells. This change will also affect players trying to create their own ‘tarantula islands’ to earn money quickly, a tactic that was already made more difficult by the addition of the giant water bug at the start of April.
The datamine also revealed that bug spawn rates have been equalized. Before, some bugs appeared more frequently in some months during their availability. This has been removed, so bugs show up the same amount in their availability periods. However, this change shouldn’t have as much of a drastic effect on the economy as the rare bug nerf.
A lot of Animal Crossing: New Horizons players are pretty ‘bugged’ by these changes. Earning Bells is important for players who want to expand their houses and customize their town, as these changes can cost hundred of thousands of Bells at a time. While Nintendo probably saw the players as abusing the system, most people who are stockpiling Bells want to take advantage of the new customization features available in New Horizons and change their island to fit their vision, especially during the pandemic, when everyone has more time to play.
What do you think of the changes? Should Nintendo have the right to nerf the habits of their own players? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.
