Map

The map is a key item in the Animal Crossing series that gives a top-down overview of the player's town. In Animal Crossing, the player will get it while working part-time for Tom Nook, and will be allowed to keep it through the whole game. In Animal Crossing: Wild World, Pelly will show the player how to use it in the town hall. Rover gives it to the player in Animal Crossing: City Folk on the bus ride. The player receives one from Porter after leaving the train in Animal Crossing: New Leaf. In Animal Crossing: New Horizons, the map is now an app on the player's NookPhone.

The map shows the player where buildings are, along with the town's geographic features. Geographical features shown include sea, rivers, ponds, bridges, grassy areas, and dirt/sandy areas. Maps do not show the location of trees, rocks, flowers, rafflesias, dropped items, cracks in the ground (where fossils, etc. are buried) signs, other animal villagers, bugs, or fish. There will be an actual list of each building on the side of the map.

Appearances

In Animal Crossing

A typical town map in Animal Crossing

The map in Animal Crossing is organized in a grid, with each square representing an acre. Visible are homes in purple, along with other buildings represented by red icons.

In Wild World

A town map in Wild World

In Animal Crossing: Wild World, Pelly gives the player a map in the town hall once the player first gets out of Kapp'n's car and goes inside at the beginning of the game. She tells the player how to use it and says that the map can be opened by pressing or by entering the inventory menu and tapping the house icon on the Touch Screen.

In City Folk

A town map in City Folk

In Animal Crossing: City Folk, the map is given to the player by Rover on the bus ride into town so the player can see the possible places the player can live, where the town hall is located, and all the other buildings. The map can be opened two ways; either by pointing the Wii Remote at the screen and clicking on the house icon, or by pressing to show the main menu. Like in the two prequels to this game, all maps are randomly generated and two are very rarely identical.

Icon	Meaning
	Bridge
	Bus stop
	Empty or other player's house
	Checkpoint
	Pond
	Museum
	Tom Nook's store
	Player's location
	Ramp
	Able Sisters
	Town Hall
	Villager house
	Waterfall
	Current player's house

In New Leaf

A map from New Leaf

In Animal Crossing: New Leaf, the map is more or less the same as previous games, though appears more visually detailed. However, when the player creates their new town, they are given a choice of four maps by Rover. Public works projects do not appear on the map, with the exception of the police station, campsite, The Roost, and bridges.

In Animal Crossing: New Leaf - Welcome amiibo, a signpost icon is added to the left or right side of the map, which shows the location of the campground entrance.

In Happy Home Designer

A map from Happy Home Designer

The map also makes an appearance in Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer. It is used to select a location for a villager's house that the player is about to design.

In New Horizons

A map from New Horizons

In Animal Crossing: New Horizons, Tom Nook will give the player a NookPhone after they sleep in their tent at the end of their first day. The NookPhone has a map app which will allow the player to view the town's map, as well as toggle the presence of the minimap which shows up in the bottom-right of the screen; they can choose to have it hidden while they are moving, or to have it always on or always off. Much like with New Leaf, the player gets four randomly generated choices for their map layout while creating their island, though the use of terraforming tools, which are unlocked later, can allow the player to alter the layout of their island. The map is even more detailed than in previous games, even showing the icons for villagers which live in each house on the right-hand sidebar, and graphics for the Airport, Resident Services, and any facilities constructed by the player will show up to the left of the map, even reflecting the state of the building; whether it is completed or currently under construction. Bridges and inclines the player has built will also show up on the map, along with a thin outline for structures that have yet to be built.

Gameplay elements

Player Player Mayor approval rating Catalog Catch quotes Hairstyle Passport Pockets Photo Reaction Reputation Resident Representative Skin tone Tool Town Pass Card Town Town/island Hemisphere Amenities Animal tracks Rebuild the town Acres Objects Public works projects Town fund Town initiative Town ordinance Lost and found Group Life House Happy Home Academy Balloon Event Fashion check Fêng shui Home loan Letter Luck Moving NookPhone Savings Visit Activities Badges Bug catching Constellation Designing Fishing Mystery Island Tour Part-time job Stalk Market Swimming Tour (Tortimer Island) Character AI Villager Starting villager Special character Catchphrase Compatibility Conversation Episode Friendship Hobbies Scrapbook Memory Nickname Personality Petition Sickness Star sign Quests Ball Favor Hide-and-seek Lost item Time Capsule Minigames NES games Doubutsu no Mori e+: Doubutsu-tachi to Asobou! Desert Island Escape Animal Crossing Puzzle League Currencies Bells Caps Leaf Tickets Medals MEOW Coupons Nook Miles Play Coins Poki Vouchers Vehicles Bus Camper RV Taxi Train Transportation Connectivity Multiplayer Dream DS Suitcase Friend Code Happy Home Network Design Contest Nintendo Network Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection NookLink Tag Mode Transfer WiiConnect24 Cheating Cheating device Glitch Gameplay modification Seeds Time travel Fourth Wall • Reset • Secret code • Category