I'm wondering what other people who have either finished or nearly finished (like me) their critterpedia found the hardest to find, not just because of something being out of season.
For me:
Scorpion/tarantula - part of this is psychological for me after one terrified me in Wild World when I was 8 and I really haven't liked either since. This is the first game that I have managed to catch one, let alone both, and I had trouble finding both of them.
Wasp- I'm really bad at the ones that can get at you! I'm terrible at lining myself up for these before they get at me.
Mole cricket - I always dig in the wrong places, and then have to spend ages filling all the holes in. More than anything else for me, this was a 'catch to fill out critterpedia and never bother with it again' bug for me. I don't waste my time trying to dig in the right location any more.
'Pier' fish - I didn't realise these existed for a while. However, when I did realise, I always seemed to be catching sea basses. I have caught blue marlin and tuna now though, and will have to wait on the other two until they are in season.
I haven't had nearly as much trouble with diving for some reason. What have you found the hardest to catch?
The mahi mahi took me forever to get.
Spent hours and hours trying to get it.
For some annoying reason fish don't seem to naturally spawn at my pier so I had to use so much bait.
Bug spawns seem to be the trickiest. Especially after the nerf. It can take several hours to find a tarantula/scorpion now, and takes a lot of patience to get a fly to spawn.
The fish are a little easier I feel as it just comes down to whatever the RNG decides to spawn in the water you as you run left and right. If there's a fish you don't want, scare it away. The bug spawn limit can be affect by all the bugs, including mole crickets, and it's not easy to clear it. Mole Crickets especially.
I think for the bugs it was either the elephant or giraffe stag. I kept scaring one of them away by being too impatient and they were already difficult to spawn. I got lucky and found the cicada shell early in the summer.
None of the fish gave me any issues. I find them all and the rare ones I manage to get with very little bait.
The sea pig gave me the most trouble so far but I haven't finish the diving creature collection yet. I have to wait until March
For bugs I have trouble with cicada shells, literally every other bug took me at most an hour but the cicada took me an entire day off of work just for one. Nightmare critter right there.
For fish it's the arowana and barreleye. They are some of the only fish that I don't have their models yet, I've gotten 2 arowana and 1 barreleye on my current island.
Diving... Gigas Clam 100% Nightmare and a half right there, the elusive clam that I just want for a dang decoration. I get one of those bad boys and I'm pushing the museum aside, gonna display that thing like a trophy.
No bugs took forever for me to get, since if there's a new bug/fish available, I can always get them at a mystery island at the right time, but only if they're rare.
For the fish, the fish that are only found on the 2nd cliffs of your island and the Mahi Mahi were the hardest. It's possibly the only fish IMO to take advantage of the fish bait due to the aforementioned mystery island trick.
The same with bugs, I didn't struggle with any. Well, except for the lobster. That guy took 5 hours to find, until I swam at the back of my island to finally find one.
For bugs, scarab beetles and giraffe stags were pretty hard for me to get! The cicada shell was technically easier to get, but it was more annoying.
For fish, it was the pier fish in general. The mahi-mahi probably took me the longest!
I haven’t had any real trouble with diving.
Took me a long time to complete all the small fish in the river over Summer as there's so many possibilities for them, and for a good while I thought I had them all and was solely going after larger fish.
Diving wise, not remotely completed, but the first Gigas clam I found I chased around for 15 minutes with the fear it would despawn like New Leaf. And I don't recall ever doing something like that for a single spawn on any game. Now they're easy to trap though, and kinda makes me wish they could despawn cause it was a wild ride at the time.
No actual bugs screwed me about this time though. Normally there's one that takes me like an entire year to find, but I got all the rares this Summer.
I've completed my fish critterpedia and didn't really have any problems catching all the fish at least once but I'd say the Stringfish was the hardest as it was the one that took the longest to catch and I think I've only ever caught two while playing the game. I've also only caught a few Napoleonfish but I think that's just more due to the fact they're only around for two months rather then them been tricky to catch. On the other hand I've never had problems with any of the pier fish despite their low spawn rate, they seem to often appear on my island.
The bugs I've found to be a lot harder then the fish but that's probably down to the fact I've done a lot more fishing in the game and haven't spent as much time on the bug catching. Generally I've found that the hardest ones are usually the ones on the coconut trees, I often don't spot them till I've accidentally scared them away and they're flying off.
Sea creatures haven't really been much of a problem, the quickest ones are usually the trickiest and I've found the Gigas Giant Clam to be a particular pain to catch but most of the others weren't too difficult to find.
I haven't really had issues with the bugs or sea critters, but some of the fish have driven me crazy. I seem to remember the stringfish in particular taking me hours and countless stacks of bait! I missed a couple of the rarer river fish back in September/October ish, and am missing one or two pier fish from around the same time as well. Because when are you ever just hanging out on your pier, you know? Most of the others you can just spot while you're running around, but the pier ones mean setting aside bigger chunks of time and focus, for me at least. I'll get them next time around, I'm sure!
I have thankfully completed my critterpedia, but I still loathe certain critters.
Bug-wise, the Cicada shell will taunt me during my entire life. My mom got 2 of them before I even saw one, and then I find one during a Bug-Off while playing as the invited character so the not Shedinja wasn't registered on my critterpedia. I finally caught one by myself later, so I had the 4 needed. But I know that broken vessel was laughing at me.
For fish, I struggled to find the Mahi-Mahi at first, but got 3 on a night. However, the Giant Trevally and the Barreleye are the only creatures on the game that I don't have enough for the model and I despise them. I hope that by the time I run out of other fish models, I manage to find these fish again.
And finally, the lobster was caught almost at the end of its final month, so I think that was the worse diving creature. Thankfully you only need 1 of these (or not because sea creatures models would be amazing).
sea pig was a pain to catch, everytime I thought I had it it ended up being the venus flower basket. I'm not complaining because they sell for a lot, but when you're searching for something in particular, especially with diving, it becomes more of a chore lol.
for fish it was the stringfish. I think I must've used over 50 fish bait and then when I finally found one it was without the help of fish bait.
generally I have no problems with the bugs. I haven't seen a tarantula on my island ever, but I managed to catch one on a mystery island and I haven't tried seeking another one out since.
Probably the mole cricket. I'll never dig the hole correctly but I will dig until I get it. Definitely looked like tiny artillery shells hit my island after I found it.
Basically any diving creature. I think I caught one venus flower basket and one sea pig for the museum and didn't see either one again. There seems to be a lot of trouble to get the hard ones considering Flick doesn't make models for them...so the only pay off is donating them to the museum or using them as decorations.
Honestly i think it was the mahi mahi on my old island. That took forever and i kept getting other rare fish instead. I thought id never catch it in time. I got it close to the end of its season.
There was one of the beetles that i thought was hard because it was super similar in appearance to a more common beetle. Id have to look up the name.
... Giraffe stag was the hard one. Saw stag is smaller and more common.
