Animal Crossing: New Leaf players are working together to do everything they need to before Nintendo shuts down the life sim’s online servers.
Last year, Nintendo announced that it would be shutting down the online service for its 3DS and Wii U games – meaning games like Mario Kart 7, Splatoon, and Animal Crossing: New Leaf will no longer be able to connect online. The decision is heartbreaking for anyone who’s still regularly playing these games with friends, but even more so for New Leaf players who have started preparing to close their town’s gates for good.
Now that we’re just three days away from Nintendo’s deadline, I’ve seen several posts in the New Leaf subreddit where players are asking for help obtaining a specific item or ticking off certain achievements, as once April 8 rolls around, they’ll no longer have the ability to visit other towns or trade items.
Playing Animal Crossing New Leaf before the April 8th shutdown 😀 from r/AnimalCrossing
For example, a lot of players are now rushing to collect the dream and visitor-related achievement badges, which require players to have guests or venture to other towns at least 50 (Bronze), 200 (Silver), and 500 (Gold) times – with many attempting to cross off all of the medals within the next few days.
Others have started asking for last-minute fruit and flower trades so they can have all 10 types of fruit in their town or rare hybrid flowers growing before they can’t head out to other towns to pick them up anymore. It’s so heartwarming to see players asking for a specific item in the community and then someone volunteering to come over to their town to drop it off before it’s too late.
I’ve also spotted a lot of players desperately trying to find someone to take NPC Katie off their hands. In New Leaf, the friendly feline can be found traveling around different towns and asking the player to help them find somewhere new to visit. Here, they’ll need to send Katie to one of their friends’ towns and will receive a thank-you gift in return. Without online functionality, it will be impossible to get Katie’s special edition item – plus, she might not ever get back home.
I’m aiming to get the Good Hostess Badge! Please visit if you’re able! from r/AnimalCrossingNewLeaf
It’s hard not to see this as the end of an era for Animal Crossing: New Leaf. Although you’ll still be able to maintain your town, you won’t be able to share it with friends or easily pick up hard-to-find items. The 3DS game did release over 10 years ago now, and we’ve since had Animal Crossing: New Horizons to keep us busy, but it’s still sad to see the connectivity aspect of this game come to a close.
