I had a whole scheme planned: I recently started a new island so I made sure I didn’t learn any DIY recipes except for the ones that Tom Nook sent directly to my phone. That meant I had the lowest pool possible for the game to pick as my Hot Item.
I’m so happy I can now start upgrading my house and buying clothes! However, not many people talk about how annoying it is to fill those boxes 1.000 bells at a time.
I guess I’m a criminal now.
Ooh which two?
Tax evasion and money laundering!
I don’t know about y’all but my island does NOT have an extradition treaty with the United States 😹
Good luck defending yourself against the US armed forces then.
We heard there was OIL on this island!!
Wait until they find out a few us of are using treasure islands 🫠
Mine also has potatoes as well as oil barrels in the leaders basement (Mine is a country)
I have cannons, fire-breathing monster statues, and giant robots...I like my odds. (However, if they attack by air, I'm screwed, lol.)
that's what the slingshot is for!
Would market manipulation not be one? OP did admit to purposely not learning new recipes to force the game into picking the one they wanted. Sounds very manipulative if you ask me!
That's part of the reason I said "at least two." The lists I could find only listed STOCK market manipulation as a federal offense, nothing about the consumer market.
Consumer market manipulation is anti-trust enforcement territory. Like cornering the market on something, or in this case limiting the market to give yourself an unfair advantage.
Ah I missed the "at least" part. Guess that's what I get for skimming your comment....
Would time travel qualify as stalk market manipulation?
Nah, I tried that but the game wouldn’t let me put bells in the washing machine 😟
Good thing this game doesn't take place in america
Wait so what is the donation box and why is it worth so much?
Apparently you can actually put Bells in the donation box (which is a DIY you can get with Nook Miles from the Nook Stop) - then you can pick it up, Bells and all. Since the ‘hot item’ sale is programmed to pay 2x the value of an item, and the donation boxes become worth however much is in them, the Nooks will pay you 2x whatever you put in the boxes (which I believe is limited?)
the limit is 99k per box but the thing that makes this process difficult -so less done overall- is that you have to put 1000 bells at a time.
You also have to be very careful not to accidentally take that 99k out because it's just one tap to remove it all once it's full 😭
I'm guessing this happened to you.
The best way I found to keep that from happening was to have exactly 98k in my pockets.
This sentence made me never want to do the donation box trick. Because I just KNOW I would press that button.
But if you didn't like slow, repetitive and time consuming tasks, you wouldn't be playing animal crossing
You can also do the same with the pile of money.
And if you accidentally take the bells out, you have to do the whole thing again 🥲
If these are used as decor on your island, can villagers donate to them too? I haven’t paid much attention to this item to be honest, I never knew it was actually functional.
In my experience villagers are basically the stingiest people on the island even more so than Nook and Co.
They WILL donate to bridges, not sure about boxes, but they won’t do so on days you don’t play, and even if you played every day it could take over a real world year before they’ll get to it, and they won’t finalize it - they’ll get bored of helping and make you do that last bit.
Not to mention they try to sell you shit all the time so you’ll give them money instead of them giving back to the island.
Villagers just want to be sugar babies and that’s about it. And, no, they don’t fully understand that term so they just mean they want you to take care of everyone and would likely be horrified if you tried to explain.
Dagnel on youtube made an experiment where he tried to make the villagers pay off a bridge and it took them 2 years and 1 day before they stopped donating and he had to make the last donation to finish it.
They donate their friendship in Bells to project but you need to pay the last bell yourself.
They don't donate to the box I've tried. Cheap bastards.
I'm 99.9% sure that only players can load bells into them. I have one near my airport, just for decor, and the only time the value ever goes up is if a visitor pops 1000 bells into it. (And you know they did it because the game tells you)
They're for humans who live on or visit your island. Villagers don't acknowledge their existence unfortunately 💀
This is amazing wtf
Wait, wait, wait, I just want to make sure I'm reading this correctly. So the ultimate criminal plot is: 1. to craft a bunch of donation boxes. 2. Fill exh box with up to 99k bells. 3. When Nook's eventually has Donation boxes as the "Hot item" you sell the filled donation box for double to price of not the actual box, but the value of EVERYTHING in the box? 4. Profit
Did I get that right??
If so, this is incredible!!!!! Now I actually have to start checking the hot item if so!
If you have the patience to fill them that far at 1000 bells a time, then yes!
Goodness. I never knew! Going to fill my boxes asap!
TIL how to commit crimes in Animal Crossing. I’m going to start checking the hot item more often now!
i’m not. or i will feel obligated to spend 5 hours of my life filling virtual boxes /s
Having a turbo controller has changed my gameplay for the better. Swimming, picking weeds, filling boxes. It’s a magical upgrade and I don’t have to give Tom nook any bells for it 😂
What‘s a turbo controller?
What u/dravos011 said!
Also, you can choose between “hold down this button to have the input rapidly repeat, and stop when I release it” or, “press this button rapidly until I press the button to stop “
So you can set it to, say, fill a donation box for you in 1,000 bell increments while you put the controller down and go make a cup of tea.
Some third party controllers have a "turbo" button. Its a button that causes an input to be repeated rapidly (pretty constantly). Its good games where you need to repetitively press the same button a lot
Yeah what’s that I need it lol
Right? Me too!!!
When the pile of cash is a hot item you can make profit, but only if you have the bell boom ordinance active.
Oh this is devious and I love it might have to stock pile some of these and try this out what's the max amount of bells they hold?
99,000
Tyty
I've been watching for that to be a hot item myself, filling it regularly with bells.
I recently started a new island, I didn't know about this trick. I literally saw a Crossing Channel YT video just the other day. I've got one sitting out in front of the Cranny, I've been putting 5000 in everyday.
It’s crazy that I too just restarted my island and got a his video recommended to me…..👽
i did that one time for 2M bells… im never doing it again. my thumb was screaming.
A Turbo controller is a necessity
Now I’m just accidentally imagining using a turbo controller to fly somewhere and ending up in dialogue hell infinitely going back over and over without ever ending the conversation or progressing.
fr
Sorry I did try to Google, but what is a turbo controller and how does it help in AC?
It’s a controller that helps you spam a button repeatedly. I use it to craft fish bait since it’s just spamming A mindlessly.
Ah so you used it to spam making donation boxes?
Yes, for making them and then for filling them with money
8Bitdo Pro 2 Bluetooth-Controller für Switch, PC, macOS, Android, Steam und Raspberry Pi
I leave a few donation boxes around my island and every time I walk by, I put in 1,000 bells. That way, when it’s hot item of the day, I already have a box or two at least partially filled.
I scattered 6 of those boxes around the island thinking „everytime i walk past i can quickly put something in“, filled them up to approximately 8-10k each the next days but then i started ignoring them. so when the hot item day came i still had to spam that stupid a button
Well I’m logging back in to make donations boxes
How much can you put in one total?
99k I believe
Thanks.
Can you put in any amount up to 99k? Like the money trees?
Yes although you can only deposit 1k at a time. Any amount you put in will be doubled if you sell on a hot item day 😄
Yeah, no thanks. I didn't want 1k at a time. Lol
I will stick to my field of gold roses. 127 of them makes me over 200k every two days if I make them into gold rose wreaths. Before hot item deals btw. and I plan to have 200 roses before I stop propagating more.
Yea its a pain in the ass lol i dont know why they didnt let the amount be customisable. Especially when I use it as an actual donation box like on other peoples island and want to leave a tip of say 10-20k but Im not gonna stand there doing it 1k at a time 🤦 And that sounds like a solid money making plan! and probably looks beautiful too
I used to have people on my island often, so my rose field was for exchanging for tickets. You can come pick gold roses for x tickets.. I'm hopping back into the game after over a year not playing, so I don't have online anymore right now.
Short explanation of what the h*ll you're talking about. Why donation box makes you a criminal? I've always thought the inability to commit crimes is a missing element in the game.
I’m basically ripping off two small children. I’m selling them small wood boxes I made (poorly) and filling them with cash to exploit their policy of paying double the value for an item. What about that doesn’t seem like a crime? I mean, I wouldn’t be surprised if they have to close their little store tomorrow.
So basically you put 1000 bells in it and when you sell it it becomes 2000?
Yeap
Oh. I’ve never picked up a donation box with bells in it. So the bells stay in the box, increasing the base value?
Exactly, the money you put in them is doubled. But don’t tell Tom Nook.
Well. I’ve got crimes to commit!
Never knew this was a thing. Might have to hop on and make this a goal! 👀
he FOR SURE doesn’t know.
“timmy tommy how did we do today?” “well…”
I haven't touched the game in what feels like forever, what's so special about the donation box?
It's an item that you can insert bells into. If you do this and then pick it up, the bells stay inside, and if you sell the item to the store it will be worth the money stored inside it
Because it is a diy, it can occasionally show up as the hot item of the day. The hot item doubles the sell price of the item.
So this functions as a tedious but functional way of doubling money over and over
Oh wow, I can see how that would be pretty lucrative. Is there a limit on how many bells you can put in?
99k per box, inserted 1k at a time.
Is there a way to get them out without selling them?
Yeah, you can just interact with it and withdraw all the bells from it in one interaction
Which I hear can actually be a bit of a pain if you're not paying attention when filling it. Since you have to insert 1k at a time, that's 99 interactions to completely fill it. I think the add money option is the first one, so it's easy to get to button mashing. But once it's full, the add money option goes away and the first option becomes withdraw. So if you aren't paying fun attention, you can accidentally just undo everything you just did.
if anyone needs bells pls let me know! i have too many
I need bells! I just restarted my island because the island transfer tool didn't work for my old island!
ill dm you in the morning!!
If it's legal in Animal Crossing...
I’ve been waiting for someone to put some on the donation box but, no one has given me anything 😭
Villagers can't put bells in the donation box, only players can do that
Ah yes a casual day in animal crossing where you get and absurd amounts of bells because of the donation box
Why would you be a criminal? What did you do wrong here?
When I started my other island, I had the donation box as a hot item twice in a week! Howver it has been over two years now and nth :(
I make sure to have one ready and I place $1,000 there everyday, so when the day comes again I'll be ready! It is a pain to fill those boxes up in one go :/
I put 1000 bells in a donation box each day until donation boxes become the hot item. I'm currently sat with 4 boxes of 99000 bells and 1 box at 31000. Kinda crazy to think that I've been doing this for over a year.
I‘ve had the donation box 4-5 times as a hot item the past month, at this point i‘m tired of filling them up for hours
Who knew virtual philanthropy could be this addictive?
Oh snap! Is this today only? If I time travel, can I still do this?
The hot item isn’t the same for everyone! I think it’s random on your island each day.
It’s supposed to draw from the DIY recipes known by the island’s players, so it should be possible to stack the odds by learning as few recipes as possible… but there are quite a few that get forced on you whether you like it or not.
Note that buying and selling turnips is significantly faster and earns you more. This is a neat trick, but it's really not worth the effort.
It’s good only if you have the boxes already and throw in some money every so often. It’s good when you’re sick of the turnip trade but not if you are building up your island and wealth
No you have to check your daily hot item list and when it says donation box, that's when you can double your money.
can someone explain what is happening here?
I totally forgot about this function but basically:
(1) A donation box is a DIY craft. Once you build it, you can fill it with bells (up to 99k, altho apparently you can only deposit 1k at a time).
(2) Hot buy items are one random diy item chosen each day which, if you sell to the Nook Bros., they’ll pay you double their usual worth. So if you sell a donation box you basically get twice the bells you deposited in. It’s a 100% roi on the bells you put into those donation boxes.
But for my money (no pun intended), the quickest way to make money is having a friend with an island and time travelling to sell turnips.
I feel like I see an exploit here even without hot item of the day.
Are donation boxes subject to the ordinance that increases all costs and sell values by 20%?
Oh I didnt even think of that one, that'd be even better, especially if it stacks with the hot item buff
Big brains
You’re a genius
Damn. I have just started a new island on a new console. I need to stop learning new DIY till this happen.
I did this early in the game, but now my house is fully built with max storage and i have almost 10 million bells
Now I'm hoarding fish just to fund that bridge!
It’s okay, Tom Nook is the original criminal.
Honestly, I have 800m bells. If you need bells just ask.
When I got pile of money as my hot item, thus was a happy day if you have the perk to sell higher but things cost more.
Just those gave you THAT MUCH BELLS??
They put bells in the boxes, so when they sold the boxes they got double what an empty box is worth, plus double the bells that were inside.
Yes! That’s the amount of bells they gave me for 10 boxes containing 990.000 bells
Hi! I'm pretty new to animal Crossing,looking for friends! SW-3944-8204-6313
Oh.... Well isn't that interesting?
I wanted to try it out too but I wasn’t patient enough to donate 1k by 1k 😫
Hell yes it sounds good 😅
Whoa! Cool!!
Can you sell them with money in them? Does it make them worth more?
Yup. You load up the donation boxes and then sell them as a hot item.
I did a few experiments and found that donation boxes are not thay good unless you are willing to just hang out and keep pressing a while you do something else. Hot item Donation boxes 133 bells/second Growing and watering crops 310 bells/second Hot item recepies 213 bells/second Harvesting foreign fruit 270 bells/second Traveling to a friend's island to sell turnips at 100+ bell profit: 900+ bells/second Ocean diving 65 bells/second
Interesting. However, what I like about donation boxes is precisely that you don’t have to pay attention. I put my turbo controller on for 10 minutes and 50 seconds and then change to the next box. With all the other methods I would have to actually pay attention and it would burn me out.
Congratulations on committing at least two US Federal Offenses!