It’s a common frustration in Animal Crossing: New Horizons (ACNH). You and your friend are eager to collect all the beautiful fruit types the game has to offer for your islands. You’ve been diligently visiting mystery islands via local play, hoping to expand your orchard beyond your native fruit. But something feels off. You and your friend are starting to wonder, “Why can’t my friend and I travel via local play ACNH to get different fruits?” It turns out, you’re not alone in this fruity dilemma.
Many players venturing onto mystery islands with their local play connections quickly discover a seemingly limited selection of fruit. You might find your island’s native fruit growing abundantly, and perhaps, if you’re lucky, you’ll stumble upon what’s known as your “sister fruit.” But beyond these two types, the mystery island fruit basket appears stubbornly bare. Is this just bad luck, or is there something more to it? Let’s dive into the fruity facts, backed by data and player experiences, to understand why your local play fruit expeditions might be yielding the same results.
The Mystery Island Fruit Limitation: Native and Sister Fruits Only
For those hoping to discover a rainbow of fruits on their mystery island tours, especially when playing locally with friends, the truth can be a bit disappointing. Extensive data analysis of ACNH’s game code, conducted by reputable dataminers like Ninji, reveals a clear limitation: mystery islands are programmed to primarily offer only two types of fruit. These are your island’s native fruit – the one your island started with – and your “sister fruit.”
The sister fruit is essentially the second type of fruit that is programmed to appear, albeit less frequently, on mystery islands for your specific game. Datamining suggests that the chance of encountering your sister fruit is around 9%. This means that while it’s possible to find it, native fruit will overwhelmingly dominate your mystery island fruit finds.
Alt Text: Lush fruit trees laden with vibrant fruit in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, illustrating the desire to collect diverse fruit types.
This coded limitation is the reason why you and your friend, even when exploring numerous mystery islands through local play, are likely encountering the same limited fruit selection. It’s not a matter of rare luck preventing you from finding other fruit types; it’s simply not programmed to happen. The game’s mechanics are designed this way. Claims of finding other fruit types on mystery islands often lack concrete evidence and are usually based on misremembered details or unreliable sources. The burden of proof, as they say, lies with those claiming to have found other fruits, and so far, solid proof remains elusive.
Understanding the “Sister Fruit” Phenomenon
The concept of a “sister fruit” adds a slight layer of variety to your mystery island explorations. It’s that second fruit type that, while rarer than your native fruit on mystery islands, still has a chance of appearing. Identifying your sister fruit through mystery island tours can feel like a small victory, expanding your fruit collection beyond just your starting fruit.
However, it’s important to remember that “sister fruit” still falls under the umbrella of limited mystery island fruit availability. It’s not one of the other “foreign” fruit types you might be yearning for to complete your orchard. Think of it as a slight variation within the same limited pool, rather than a gateway to the full spectrum of ACNH fruits on mystery islands.
How to Obtain All Fruit Types in ACNH
So, if mystery islands visited via local play (or online play, for that matter) won’t provide you with all the fruit types, how do you complete your fruity collection? Thankfully, Nintendo has built in other ways to acquire those elusive fruits.
One method, available even without a Nintendo Switch Online (NSO) subscription or internet access, is through your in-game Mom! Early in your ACNH journey, Mom will send you a letter with a gift of fruit. This fruit is guaranteed to be a “foreign” fruit – a fruit type that is neither your native fruit nor your sister fruit. However, there’s a slight chance, albeit frustratingly for some players, that Mom might mistakenly send your sister fruit instead. While less ideal, the majority of players receive a truly new fruit from Mom’s thoughtful gift.
Alt Text: A heartwarming scene from Animal Crossing: New Horizons depicting a letter from Mom arriving with a gift of fruit, a key method for obtaining non-native fruit.
Beyond Mom’s gift and the limited mystery island finds, the primary method for acquiring all six regular fruit types (apples, cherries, oranges, peaches, pears, and your native fruit) and coconuts is through trading with other players. This is where the multiplayer aspect of ACNH truly shines.
The Power of Local Play and Trading for Fruits
Even if “my friend and I can’t travel via local play ACNH” to find diverse fruits on mystery islands in the way you hoped, local play is still incredibly valuable for fruit acquisition. Local play allows you to connect with friends who also own ACNH and are nearby, without needing an NSO subscription or even an internet connection.
Through local play, you and your friend can visit each other’s islands and trade items, including fruit! This means if your friend started with a different native fruit than you, or has already acquired other fruit types through trading, you can exchange fruits with each other to expand your collections. Local play becomes your gateway to overcoming the mystery island fruit limitations and achieving a complete orchard.
If neither you nor your local play partners have NSO subscriptions, local trading is essential for obtaining all fruit varieties. Nintendo cleverly designed the game to encourage player interaction, and local play trading is a fantastic way to experience this aspect without additional costs. Imagine the satisfaction of finally getting those missing peach and cherry trees thanks to a local fruit exchange!
Don’t Forget Bamboo!
While we’ve focused on the six main fruit types, it’s worth mentioning bamboo. Bamboo shoots, while technically not classified as fruit in the game’s achievements, are a valuable resource. The good news is that bamboo is relatively easily obtainable from mystery islands. Bamboo islands have a reported spawn rate of around 10%, making them much more common to encounter than hoping for a specific “foreign” fruit island (which, as we know, doesn’t exist).
So, while your fruit-seeking adventures on mystery islands via local play might be limited to native and sister fruits, remember that local play itself is a powerful tool. Use it to connect with friends, trade fruits, and ultimately, unlock the full fruity potential of your Animal Crossing: New Horizons island!
