Animal Crossing: New Horizons has a bevy of mechanics that are never explained to the player, which means that the game is ripe for all sorts of myths and rumors. With the latest update that introduces new vendors, the misinformation has spread further to incorporate the added content.

At the moment, there are a few different viral posts purporting to show grave errors hiding in the Earth Day-inspired update, often revolving around Leif the sloth.

There are a few variations of the same idea. For instance, there’s an extremely deep-fried screenshot of a random Discord message where someone claims that talking to Leif while having three types of bushes in your inventory will screw your game up. However, neither appear to be true, as they include images that hail from Google Images, rather than screenshots from a corrupted Switch, according to known Animal Crossing data miners.

There is a tweet going around claiming that Leif crashes your game if you have presents in your inventory.



This is false.



The provided proof is taken from Google Images. One shows a Switch running CFW on FW 6.0.0. The other is of Yuzu, a Switch emulator.



(thx: Jake from SMH) — OatmealDome (@OatmealDome) April 23, 2020

Then again, it’s possible that the posts circulating these rumors were never meant as serious PSAs, but rather riffs on a recent Team Fortress 2 scare that, while not true, raised widespread security concerns for a while.

JUST GOT HACKED IN TF2 STAY SAFE GUYS DISREGARD WHAT VALVE SAID THE GAME IS *UNSAFE* RN pic.twitter.com/5gxyiEbIpM — yahiamice. (@Yahiamice) April 23, 2020

There have also been legitimate game-crashing glitches found in first-party Nintendo games this year, which might explain why folks were willing to believe the latest Animal Crossing rumors — better safe than sorry.

Another popular bit of misinformation I’ve seen repeated on social media, though to a lesser degree, revolves around mystery islands and your inventory. Some folks noticed that when they flew to Photopia, Harvey’s island, Wilbur the dodo will apparently give you the option to clear your inventory space. Screenshots of this new ability led to confusion, as some folks thought it might apply to mystery islands — meaning, expanded options to farm without having to leave anything behind — but that’s not the case. Polygon tested it last night, and Wilbur does not give you the option anywhere other than on Harvey’s island, likely in preparation for the upcoming wedding event, where players will be rewarded with new items.

While some of the whispers floating around right now aren’t true, they have led to memes where people jokingly tell one another to not download the new update, lest a curse befall them and their entire family.

PSA: Do NOT use your Nintendo Switch under ANY circumstances, it reportedly decreases the lifespan of the hardware and it will eventually BREAK DOWN. I have contacted Nintendo about this — Akfamilyhome (@Akfamilyhome) April 23, 2020

raymond is no longer a villager and has been replaced with a static png of donkey kong from donkey kong 64 https://t.co/Zu49qYyGQU — Cameron (@mariokartfunnym) April 23, 2020

do NOT download the new animal crossing update. there’s a new bug where Tom nook will piss on your turnips and they WILL spoil. stay offline to be safe — Patricia Hernandez (@xpatriciah) April 23, 2020

ATTENTION #AnimalCrossing #ACNH #NintendoSwitch



DO NOT HIT #LEIF THREE TIMES WITH A #NET WHILE WEARING A CUSTOM DESIGN BEFORE READING YOUR BULLETIN BOARD NOTIFICATIONS



IT WILL BRICK YOUR SYSTEM AND #NINTENDO WILL SUSPEND YOUR ACCOUNT#AnimalCrossing #ACNH #NintendoSwitch pic.twitter.com/E0r9xDDShJ — Stellarity the Poochyena (@KupferudelWolf) April 23, 2020

WARNING: DO TALK TO ROALD IN ANIMAL CROSSING!

NINTENDO HAS CREATED A BUG IN UPDATE 1.2.0 WHERE IF YOU SO MUCH AS THINK ABOUT TALKING TO ROALD, YOUR SWITCH WILL BREAK IN HALF.



ROALD HAS BEEN BUFFED TOO MUCH AND HAS BECOME TOO POWERFUL. NINTENDO PLEASE FIX. pic.twitter.com/RUeZVLSPzc — Roald from Animal Crossing (@AC_Roald) April 23, 2020

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