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Animal Crossing: New Horizons FAQ
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Gifting

Gifting is the act of giving your villagers presents. This can be done once daily, and is the primary way of raising friendship once the interaction for gifting has been unlocked. There are several nuances to gifting, and this section will aim to address those.

Section titled “Is there any gameplay related benefit to gifting villagers?”

Yes, it increases your friendship level with them. For more info on gifting, please refer to Yue’s gifting guide here - https://yuexr.github.io/acnh/gift.html.

These items can be displayed when gifted by hand, via the mail, or on the villager’s birthday.

  • Furniture1
  • Food & drinks
  • Certain clothing
    • Tops
    • Dress-up
    • Wearable headwear
    • Accessories
    • Unwearable headwear
    • Bottoms
    • Socks
    • Shoes2
    • Bags
  • Certain tools
    • Nets
    • Fishing rods
    • Watering cans
    • Umbrellas
    • Sparklers
  • Insects
  • Fishes
  • Sea critters
  • Art
  • Music
  • Plucked flowers

Credit to Soleil#6271 on Discord for writing and maintaining this list!

How do I get a villager’s framed photo?

Section titled “How do I get a villager’s framed photo?”

Villager framed photos are sought-after items due to being difficult to obtain. In order to receive a villager’s framed photo, you must first be best friends with them. That means you have a level 5-6 friendship with the villager, which can be achieved multiple ways. We recommend reading this page of the FAQ as well as Yue’s Friendship Guide to get a good idea on how to do this most efficiently.

After you’ve achieved a high enough friendship level, there is a chance of the villager giving you their framed photo in return for a gift. The gift must have a sell-back value (that is, the price the item sells to Nook’s Cranny for) of 750 bells. The chance of receiving their framed photo at this point is 6 - 10%, so you may need to gift multiple times before obtaining their framed photo.

Please see Yue’s Gifting Guide for more detailed info.

Does the fruit stack trick still work?

Section titled “Does the fruit stack trick still work?”

If you are familiar with grinding for villager framed photos, you may know of a popular trick called the “fruit stack” trick, wherein you can obtain a villager’s photo by gifting them a fruit from a stack of fruits with a full inventory. Because the villager cannot give you back an item, they must mail it to you, which has the chance of being their framed photo. Additionally, there is a higher chance of receiving their photo by doing this method, so it was very popular with those trying to get photos quickly.

Unfortunately, the fruit stack trick no longer works as of version 1.9.0, as the game now always checks if the sell price of the item is 750 or more. You can still do the stack trick as mailed gifts still have a higher chance of yielding their framed photo, but you must now choose an item that is stackable and has an individual sell price of 750 or more. Here is a list of items that meet this criteria and are safe to gift (meaning they do not get placed in the villager’s home, so they can maintain an “ungifted” state):

  • Giant clams
  • Elegant mushrooms
  • Rare mushrooms
  • Gold nuggets
  • Pearls

And some additional, “unsafe” (can be displayed in villager homes) options:

  • Blue roses (plucked)
  • Gold roses (plucked)

If I complete X quest for my villager, will they keep that item in their inventory?

Section titled “If I complete X quest for my villager, will they keep that item in their inventory?”

It depends on the type of quest and friendship levels! These are the storing rules for quests:

  • Buy/Trade an item from your pockets: Always stored
  • Appreciation or Apology Gift: Always stored
  • Wrongly Delivered Item Return
    • Friendship level 1-2: Always stored
    • Friendship level 3-4: Stored 70% of the time
    • Friendship level 5-6: Never stored
  • Left Item Return
    • Friendship level 1-2: Always stored
    • Friendship level 3-4: Stored 70% of the time
    • Friendship level 5-6: Never stored
  • Borrowed Item Return: Never stored
  • Catch Request: Never stored

My villager wears clothing I gifted them, how do I reset it?

Section titled “My villager wears clothing I gifted them, how do I reset it?”

Report the villager to Isabelle using the option The way they dress. This will remove from their wardrobe whatever clothing items and/or custom designs the villager is currently wearing.

My villager placed a furniture item (or a mannequin of a clothing) I gifted them in their house, how do I remove it?

Section titled “My villager placed a furniture item (or a mannequin of a clothing) I gifted them in their house, how do I remove it?”

If you do not own the Happy Home Paradise DLC, you cannot remove the furniture/mannequin, but you can replace it using this guide. Replacing mannequins forces the clothing item (if wearable) to go into the villager’s clothing inventory and thus be able to wear it.

If you do own the Happy Home Paradise DLC, you can report the villager to Isabelle using the The way their house looks option. This option only becomes available once the full storyline of HHP has been completed. Please see our HHP unlocks page for details.

Footnotes

Section titled “Footnotes”

  1. Wall-mounted furniture is not safe even though it’s not visibly displayed, because enough of it will overload a villager’s inventory to the point where they will start removing wall-mounted furniture and surface furniture. ↩

  2. Birthday-gifted/mailed rugs don’t get physically placed but are stored in their inventory. ↩

  3. Although you can’t hand-gift vaulting pole, ladder, villager photos, or posters, mailing these will actually cause them to get added to their inventory. ↩