Was the game designed not to time travel? Should time-traveling be banned? Should you start time-traveling? These are all hot topics for Animal Crossing: New Horizons. In the previous Animal Crossing games, you were punished hard for time-traveling - even if it was a mistake! Even if you simply forgot to save!
In New Horizons, there are no repercussions. This begs the question of if the game now encourages it. If these lingering thoughts are stopping you from partaking in the act or are making you want to stop, there are some defining answers that may help. Take a look at this list of pros and cons as to why you should and shouldn't time travel.
10 PRO: Access To Power
If you skip a week or more into the future, you receive access to more power within the game that makes things all the more fun. In the beginning, Tom Nook only allows you the ability to build one singular log bridge. Later on, you can build as many as you want and with different styles.
Not only this, but you gain the ability to demolish and redo bridges and to change locations of buildings and houses.
9 CON: R.I.P Turnips
Turnips are a popular investment in the Animal Crossing franchise that can raise your bell count exceedingly if you play the market correctly. The catch is that you must sell your turnips within the following week of getting them. If you wait too long, they spoil and are worth nothing.
If you decide to time travel more than a week ahead, you will ruin all your precious and expensive turnips you spent all your money on!
8 TO DO: Creative Freedom
A big thing about this new game is that you can create the island of your dreams from head to toe. If you're eager to shapeshift your basic island into a paradise of wonder, time-traveling may be an option for you.
You get to terraform after K.K Slider visits your island. Though you still have to earn your way to K.K by beautifying your island as is, you can time skip days by to get your hands on that terraforming skill quicker.
7 NOT TO: Weeds, Everywhere
Any OG fans of the Animal Crossing games are traumatized with memories of accidentally, or purposefully, time skipping and having their towns ridden with millions of weeds.
If you decide to travel more than a month ahead into your island life, you'll have a buttload of weeds to deal with and take out one by one. Luckily, you can sell them for something in New Horizons.
6 TO DO: Get Stuff Done Faster
Something that often drives people to teleport to the near future is all those island projects. It can be a gruesome task being able to only do one project per day in small increments.
For example, if you want to change your log bridge into a zen bridge, you need a day to demolish the log bridge and a day to construct the zen bridge, assuming you can pay off the donation the same day you place it! And if you want to change all your bridges to zen bridges? Take the week off, chum. If you have a busy life, it might be easier to time travel through these building processes.
5 NOT TO: Enjoyment Dies Off Quicker
If you're zooming through all the work and day by day experience it takes to achieve terraforming and more, you might find yourself enjoying the game less. Or maybe even realizing it was never your thing, to begin with.
Racing to "the end" of Animal Crossing: New Horizons is a task that doesn't exist because what lies ahead after you get all the power to do what you want, is true Animal Crossing. No objectives and no competition, just enjoying island life for the simplicity that it is. If you rush through the exciting events, you might find yourself bored afterward.
4 TO DO: Experience The Seasons At Will
The new Animal Crossing game comes out. Whatever season it comes out on, you have to wait a year to play through the other seasons. This is exciting to some, anticipating the next snowfall to see how it looks with these new graphics, to see how beautiful their island will become.
Others, though, may want to just get to it. With time-traveling, you can quickly experience these different seasons, along with the unique seasonal items!
3 NOT TO: Villagers Get Sad
When you leave for a very long time, all those friendships you built will come crumbling down. What seems like two seconds for you was really 7 weeks, 3 months, 5 years for your villagers. The longer you're gone, the higher is the chance of villagers moving away or becoming solemn at your presence.
This can be a heartbreaking experience seeing your favorite villagers wondering where you have been or finding out that your favorite villager moved away days ago!
2 TO DO: Bugs And Fish!
There are rare and seasonal fish and bugs all year long throughout every season and time. With time traveling, you can skip to the seasons or months in which certain insects or fish appear.
This can be a steal if CJ and Flick visit often and you're looking for bells. This is also useful if the last thing on your island to-do list is finishing that museum!
1 NOT TO: Disconnect
The last reason you may not want to time travel is because of a disconnect. Rushing through your peaceful island experience can detach you from feeling anything for your precious piece of land and it's villagers.
A big factor that makes Animal Crossing so emotionally-tying and nostalgic is the relationships we create with our favorite villagers and the times spent destressing to relaxing hourly music. If your only goal is to quickly "succeed" the game, you may not get that special attachment to the game.