Animal Crossing New Horizons Bug Offs First Thoughts and Tips

So today we had our first Bug Off in Animal Crossing New Horizons for the Northern Hemisphere. This is something that I have heard will be a regular monthly recurring event on the 4th Saturday of every month during the summer. I only had a few hours to play around with it today, but I wanted to stop by here and give my thoughts on the event as well as some tips and tricks I thought of that I’ll be making for the next one to come along. So let’s jump into what this bug off was in case you missed it and my thoughts on it.

So if you weren’t on Animal Crossing today and thus missed the Bug Off Event, this was a special event in the Northern Hemisphere that will be taking place on the 4th Saturday every month during the summer. Flick (the Awesome punk lizard that comes to your island in search of bugs) comes to your island to host the Bug Off which is a tournament, for lack of a better word. Mostly, you’re just competing to beat your own high score but the whole gist of the Bug Off is Flick gives you three minutes to run around your island like a mad man and catch as many bugs as you can. At the end of three minutes,Flick gives you points for the bugs you catch and you can win trophies based on how many points you end up with total. 

You can also use your points like currency to get a random bug relic, but don’t worry spending on the relics does not take away from the points to get the trophies. In about an hour and a half, I was able to collect over 200 points so tomorrow I should be getting a Silver trophy in the mail (I’m not sure if they will send both trophies or just whatever the highest you get to is so I’m just going to expect the one and be pleasantly surprised if I get two.) Some of the relics you get are pretty cool, some are odd in how they work and some are just meh. My biggest gripe at this part is there are only a handful of relics basically but if you want a gold trophy you need 300 points. By 200 points, I was already doubling up on the items and clothes so I can only imagine how many items would be doubled and tripled by the time you hit 300 points, and if you did this all day to get the good bug prices from Flick then my god you could easily have 7 or 8 of each item!

The items themselves range from items to clothes to umbrellas and wands and even wallpaper and rugs! There is a nice Ladybug Umbrella and matching Rug. Also, you can get a butterfly wand, backpack, and wallpaper. You can get a very Halloween looking spider welcome door plate as well as some spiderwebs for in your house. There is a toy cockroach and centipede you can plop down as well as termite mounds. There is a cool artisanal bug cage that while it looks cool does not actually hold bugs but if you interact with it will work like a wardrobe (yeah it’s kinda weird but then again you can change clothes from a wardrobe, a locker, a refrigerator, a freezer, and a cooler so why not a bug cage?) There is also a purse that looks like a bug cage and a bug-themed Hawaiian shirt. As for points and trophies, it’s very easy: you get a bronze, silver, and gold for the different point levels just like the Olympics or other tournaments and the spacing is a simple 100 for bronze, 200 for silver and 300 for gold. Flick will tell you whenever you reach these levels. I made it to Silver at 200 in just an hour to an hour and a half-ish so next month if I get an early start instead of having insomnia the night before, which then makes me crash all day, then I’ll easily make it to 300 and the gold prize.

One really cool thing about this event is that while the timer is going any bugs you catch do not go into your inventory but get teleported right to a cage that’s in your town square with Flick so you can have a full inventory and still go out spamming the Bug Off and never worry about having to dump your catches somewhere. One bad thing about this which I thought really sucked is even though this is still a timed event every time you catch a bug you still have to deal with the stupid speech bubbles telling you what you caught and giving you the corny jokes to go along with it. This wastes some valuable time and can be quite annoying especially if you’re down to your last few seconds and have two bugs nice and close to each other because that catch animation will most likely mean you lose out on that second bug as the timer ends. After each round, Flick will give you a chance to sell your bugs for his typical 1.5 times over the typical selling price which is good because while the first time you play is free anything past the first one is a charge of 500 bells, which really is nothing since you typically can make anywhere from 3k-12k per run depending on the types and numbers of bugs you catch. Also, note you still break nets during this so be sure to have plenty in your inventory so you don’t get slowed down but the prize money you get from selling the bugs can easily cover an arsenal of flimsy nets from Nooks Cranny.

So this is an enjoyable little event and can get you some good money if you don’t mind the grind. Unless you’re new to the game and are still playing I would assume you don’t mind the grind so a twist to the grind plus new items is a good thing. But now on to some tips and tricks I think I’ll be using next month.

~Make sure you have a good bug spawn area near your town hall…include flowers of all kinds for bugs on them as well as butterflies, tree stumps and pieces of trash. Bug spawns are up on this day it seems and you start your 3 minutes at the town center so the closer the catching field the better.

~Find lots of rotten turnips to put around as they continually spawn ants once out of sight. Every bug you catch counts for the same 1 point, so an ant is as many points as a hermit crab, is as many points as a madgascan sunset moth. If you’re only looking for points a mine field of turnips might be the best way to farm them.

~Make sure your hunt area is big enough for prime spots to go off screen as you hunt different areas so respawns on flowers or stumps can occur.

~Try to spread things out in a way that you can get to them easily but they are not too close together where catching a bug on one flower can scare off bugs from another.

~Unless you have mastered the dragonfly, go after easier slower moving bugs first.

~Spam your inventory with nets and stock them all into your tool ring for quick access when one breaks. Also line them up in your inventory so you can just scroll through them with the left and right buttons easily. 

~Points roll over to the next bug off so don’t be panicked on spending them if you already have the things you’re looking for….we don’t know yet whether these relics will be changing up each month or staying the same.

~Time starts about 2 to 3 seconds after you talk to Flick so use that time to head towards your hunting area.

~Bugs may spawn in your square so be aware of anything right around you before you run off as your timer starts.

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