Nintendo Killed the Animal Crossing Duplication Glitch

A new Animal Crossing: New Horizon update has been sent out, and it removes a bug that people had been exploiting to build their fortunes. The Animal Crossing duplication glitch has been removed by Nintendo, meaning a person can’t use local multiplayer and a second villager to help amass a horde of items after updating to the latest version. Folks were using the issue to cheat their way to riches.

The Animal Crossing duplication glitch was wiped out by the 1.1.1 update for Animal Crossing: New Horizons. Its one descriptive sentence stated, “Fixed a serious bug affecting game balance.” That bug was the cloning cheat people were using with items like the free Nintendo Switch doled out to each player to acquire a large amount of bells.

Here’s how the Animal Crossing duplication glitch worked. Your island had to have two villagers on it, which meant you must have two accounts on your system. You used the Nook Phone to call over the second player to visit for local multiplayer. Then, the leader in the duo placed an item. like a Cardboard Box or table that is 1×1, with an item like a Nintendo Switch or crown on top of it. The person who is the follower continually spun the Cardboard Box by holding A and pressing either up or down on the analog stick, while the person who was designated as the leader pressed the Y button continuously. If you had a good rhythm going, the leader could keep getting duplicates of the item that could be sold for cash.

On the plus side, people don’t have to immediately update Animal Crossing: New Horizons to version 1.1.1. You can opt to temporarily not update and amass a wealth of bells either alone after working out the timing or with a friend locally. However, if you want to play online with other people or continue participating in the events Nintendo will be releasing, you will have to eventually update the game.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons is available for the Nintendo Switch. If you need help getting by, you can use Siliconera’s guides to learn how to unlock certain buildings and services, get villagers to move, or be useful to other players.