What Makes You 'Lucky' in Animal Crossing?

Luck is featured in every mainline Animal Crossing title, but how did it all start in the original game? Today we explore some of the ways luck is determined and some humorous scenarios where "luck" is a factor.

Special thanks to Phil, Cuyler, Chubby Bub, and the Nookipedia staff team for their work in documenting a lot of the information in this video:

This video was recorded with an HD community texture pack for the game ran through Dolphin emulator. You can find info about this highly detailed, custom-drawn pack here:

Assets and other information were pulled from the Animal Crossing GameCube community megasheet:

🎵 Music credits:
• The Roost - Animal Crossing New Leaf:
• New Year's Day - Animal Crossing New Horizons:
• 2 P.M. - Animal Crossing City Folk:
• 5 P.M. - Animal Crossing New Leaf:
• Go K.K. Rider! (Qumu Remix):
• Working at the Roost - Animal Crossing New Leaf:

0:00:00 Introduction
0:00:58 Fortune Luck
0:04:14 Fêng Shui Luck
0:06:56 External Luck & RNG
0:9:46 Conclusions

[gnore_me.]

the fact you can trip and lose your balloon is actually so fucked up lmao

[username]

Imagine an old lady does a little dance and sings about a monkey playing hopscotch in an airport and suddenly everyone hates you

[SmileOmega]

I legitimately didn't know that Luck was a thing at all in Animal Crossing. I had assumed Katrina's fortunes were purely cosmetic, just flavor text people try to connect to the events that happen. It feels like not knowing about the mail system or something, just an entire mechanic I scarcely interacted with.

Amazing video.

[citricdolphin]

I would LOVE a video discussing gameplay-affecting oversights. That was the most interesting part of this video to me and I want more!

[GigantTech]

I don't even play animal crossing but i still watch your videos

[HalfBreadChaos]

Heck yeah I've been dying to know about Animal Crossing Feng Shui for so long you have no idea. Way back in ye olden days I was one of the people trying to brute force it on a massive online google-doc. Putting furniture in my room and then recording how many hits I got from the money rock, how much I got from the money hole, etc. So it's wonderful to finally have some closure on how all this works.

[PaulFisher]

I think you might be the first person to ever talk about “minmaxing feng shui”, a delightful turn of phrase.

[SSeiten]

Man I just thought I tripped randomly. I used to run around trying to trip because it was funny.

[giftgiver]

I agree that I like the luck system of New Leaf better. I got the Lovely Phone and would use it daily to see what my luck was and what the lucky clothing items were for that day. Then I would incorporate that item into my outfit to boost my luck. It would also help decide what it was I did that day outside of regular To-Dos. If I had good luck with a specific activity, I would make sure to add it to my day even if the results were not really beneficial. On the flip side, if I had bad luck with an activity, I would hold off doing things related to it until I had better luck. It helped keep things from getting too monotonous. Nowadays I never get my luck read because Katrina is so far away from all my regular activities that I can’t really justify going to her just for that. I wish that they had combined the phone mechanic with Katrina’s blessing so I would have a reason to go see her if I had bad luck that day and wanted to have her lift it.

[CheesyLizzy]

Holy cow this explains why I thought oranges were a new fruit when I played New Leaf
(I grew up with the GameCube version and then New Leaf was my 2nd AC game)

[Luigi]

I'd love to hear more about the oversights and bugs, that was interesting. such a simple code mistake haha

[antarcticolors]

i’ve been playing animal crossing on gamecube every day for a few months now. just yesterday i got my first trip from katrina- your video found me perfectly. thank you so much for another excellent animal crossing video

[jettisonyurei]

00:12 that's ok. I wanted to put it outside my house anyway.

[djinnspalace]

i didnt know feng shui had anything to do with luck tbh. i thought it was just for hha.

as a suggestions i would love to know how sending letters work and how the game knows youre not just writing gibberish (if the game can even tell).

[thescrimble]

Gotta love completely unexplained mechanics in games that are impossible to understand or even know exist unless you use a wiki

[RawrFizzy]

Oml, the Roost theme was just the icing on that whole tragedy. Congratulations on your well-deserved channel growth! Hope you get more eyes on you now! ❤

[GoldenKitty]

Duct tape and glue? More like scotch tape and dreams.

[starthea]

when i heard the term "min-maxxing feng shui, " i had to pause the video to laugh because while it makes sense in animal crossing, that phrase makes no sense like. Anywhere else and i think that's beautiful

[Totavier]

Well thanks to your video finally I know of why was darn hard to me to get oranges, actually back then (2003 year) I didn't know that the fruit was in the game until I got it by the islander on the Animal Island mini-game.

Also you brought me back memories with the color classification of the items, never understood of why the Blue dresser was "Red" or the Ranch couch and armchair was "Green".

Sometimes I thought that was by the extra item or fabric design that the item had but that made me more confused about it, like the Blue dresser had a yellow-red lamp on it, so why it was only red and not both?, ugh... better leave as it is and not overthink that 😂.

[trinitybingham]

Thanks for the link to the mega sheet. I always wondered how the feng shui color system worked, cause it seemed like my luck wouldnt change at all. Love your videos, and the original animal crossing. I look forward to whats coming soon.