Is there anyone who’s playing NH without a Nintendo Online?

[moon_child]

I’m curious. How do you do it? The items are often mismatched and very very random that I imagine it’ll be so hard to achieve a cohesive island theme without trading for items at all. Is there anyone who’s played the game solo this entire time? How’s your experience so far?

 

[Insulaire]

I played for the first month without it. Then I got the free trial to get the other fruits. Then I realized how much fun it could be to trade with other players and I gave in and never looked back. I know for me, the reason I hesitated was I wanted to do everything myself and I was also paranoid that something could happen if I went to other islands or other people came to mine. But thanks to all the great and trustworthy members here, I soon learned I had nothing to fear and everything to gain by playing nice with others

 

[TraceyJ]

I've played without online play since release. I don't have an island theme so I haven't really noticed any problem with the color selection I have. The only thing I miss is not having all the different fruit, but realistically, it's not that big of deal to me.

 

[Skyfall]

I am still “off line” and have never traded.

To be honest I think I burnt out during NL. I heavily adopted villagers, items, etc.

This time I’m much more casual and it’s making the game fun and relaxing. I don’t even have all the fruit! Villagers come and go. I decorate when I feel like it, I stop when I’m tired. I feel like I’m less strict with myself

 

[Insulaire]

Other than fruit, I can’t imagine breeding hybrids without the help watering from visitors. It would take at least a year to get everything that way! I admire the long view from players, but that’s a bit much! Thank goodness for those golden sparkles

 

[ceribells]

I used the trial to get all the fruits and do a couple trades (mostly swapping DIYs), after I realized I wouldn't be able to get them playing purely offline.

I've been on the fence about paying for the membership (my S.O. would likely benefit too). The cost isn't an issue, I just don't feel like I need it? My reasons are similar to @Skyfall. I'd like to have all the black antique furniture, sure, but I'll just keep shaking trees and popping balloons until I get it! (Just for example)
And like everybody else, I want the dev team to add more items, but I feel like working with a more limited selection actually forces me to be more creative and break outside of my box a bit. If we had all the old NL furniture I probably would end up rehashing a lot of the same ideas. Same thing with having a slow and limited item selection without trading online - I have to, or maybe get to, work with what I have.
(Also I wouldn't trust myself to pace myself on seasonal items and it'd just spoil the progression for me, lol. I know my limits.)

 

[Skyfall]

I used the trial to get all the fruits and do a couple trades (mostly swapping DIYs), after I realized I wouldn't be able to get them playing purely offline.

I've been on the fence about paying for the membership (my S.O. would likely benefit too). The cost isn't an issue, I just don't feel like I need it? My reasons are similar to @Skyfall. I'd like to have all the black antique furniture, sure, but I'll just keep shaking trees and popping balloons until I get it! (Just for example)
And like everybody else, I want the dev team to add more items, but I feel like working with a more limited selection actually forces me to be more creative and break outside of my box a bit. If we had all the old NL furniture I probably would end up rehashing a lot of the same ideas. Same thing with having a slow and limited item selection without trading online - I have to, or maybe get to, work with what I have.
(Also I wouldn't trust myself to pace myself on seasonal items and it'd just spoil the progression for me, lol. I know my limits.)

Yes! Once I know that all things are possible, a weird perfectionist/collect them all instinct starts up in me and I drive myself bonkers.

This time I know it’s not possible. I get what I get and if I don’t get everything in a series or a new villager, it doesn’t bother me so much. I kind of like the feeling of, there are things I can’t get to.

 

[John Wick]

It's so limited even with trading.
I can''t imagine how it would be without it.

 

[fluttershy300]

I didn’t have online service for awhile. It bugged me cause I couldn’t get all the fruit. Honestly it’s weird that they’re pushing the “Trade with people” agenda down our throats since the only reason they’re doing that is so you can buy online subscription...

 

[MatchaMoonlight]

I play offline most of the time, though I do redeem the My Nintendo reward trials when I can. That gives me about a week of online play each month. I try to get what I desperately need during those times. If some of my outdoor furniture is the wrong colour, I just deal with it. It's more important to me that I acquire indoor furniture of the same colour (cute set, antique set, etc.). That being said, I do have 2 siblings that I can trade with locally. That helps a lot during the times when I don't have an online subscription.

 

[Mayor Todd]

I didn’t have online service for awhile. It bugged me cause I couldn’t get all the fruit. Honestly it’s weird that they’re pushing the “Trade with people” agenda down our throats since the only reason they’re doing that is so you can buy online subscription...

I heard that there's a trick to get non-native fruit. You can send letters to your villagers containing gifts of fruit, and they'll sometimes return the favor by sending you a type of fruit you don't already have. I remember this working in New Leaf, and it might have carried over to New Horizons.

 

[ceribells]

I heard that there's a trick to get non-native fruit. You can send letters to your villagers containing gifts of fruit, and they'll sometimes return the favor by sending you a type of fruit you don't already have. I remember this working in New Leaf, and it might have carried over to New Horizons.

Everybody I asked seems to think it doesn't work anymore. I remembered the same trick.

 

[SirSean]

I took a small month break from trading so I cancelled my subscription then. I pretty much am just keeping it to be able to trade and visit other peoples islands for now

 

[minimoon]

I played offline for the first few weeks and was lucky to be able to get all the fruits except peaches (I got my native fruit, my sister fruit, one from mom, and two from trading locally with my husband). I think that it would be fine to play without online trading if you never looked up online or in a guide all the things that are available!
People say Nintendo only encourage trading to sell online subscriptions, but before the virus they were probably hoping kids would get together and play too. I used to see groups of adults get together to play NL when I lived in a big city as well. And their commercials still show families playing locally together.

 

[Shellzilla_515]

I don't have online aside from the free trial that my sister took advantage of. I still don't have all of the fruits in the game and I'm not really bothered that I'm missing some stuff such as diy recipes and various furniture. It actually makes getting that said thing more rewarding as your patience paid off!

 

[JSS]

I mean, you can get item variations from balloons and trees, and Redd now. It is up to chance though. I have online but haven't done any actual item trading just yet. I will soon but I think I'll just pay to check out people's Nook's sometimes. It's more fun that way to me. My only pet peeve is that I can't order stuff myself from others' Resident Services machine.

I hope they reimplement Cyrus' customizations eventually for these also. Otherwise it'll feel a bit DLC-ish if people without online can't get specific item variations without getting extremely lucky.

 

[loveclove]

I did on the beginning.. It's completely different and more chill. But after I started watching YT vids I felt like I was missing out and have been doing lots of trades. Online play is a lot of fun

 

[Altyran]

Other than fruit, I can’t imagine breeding hybrids without the help watering from visitors. It would take at least a year to get everything that way! I admire the long view from players, but that’s a bit much! Thank goodness for those golden sparkles

You'd be surprised. I ended up with two blue roses "just because" when I left a bunch of roses out to sit (not even spaced, they just eventually did it). My first black roses were also just kind of random. I should not that I did just drop flowers into same-flower-groups and left them alone during a rainy few weeks. Not one of my blues or blacks has been traded or intentional.

Mums, on the other hand, have been very disobedient.

 

[Starboard]

I've always been a super casual gamer so I've never played online before. I also didn't have friends who played the games I did so I got used to just playing on my own and that's how I enjoy them. I did get brokenhearted after I bought this game because all of a sudden there are so many things I can't have or are extremely difficult to get without trading.

I never considered getting the subscription before buying the game because I didn't have any desire to play with others, and the thought of getting all the hundreds of things I want actually makes me anxious and I think it might end up stressing me out.

I'm all for encouraging communication between players but I just don't think the way they did it was that... fair? Because then you have people who don't care to play online being locked out from a lot of stuff even though they paid a lot of money for the game.

So atm I feel a bit left out, but I'm trying to enjoy what I have and taking it slow

 

[moonbell]

Me, aside from a free trial.