PSA: About Star Fragment Trees (updated!)

[Jacob]

If you truly honestly think about it, the game shouldn't get corrupted with this kind of hack. I guess it's possible, but it seems to me like the game should corrupt the second one of these trees is loaded into the game/planted on an island, but that isn't what's been happening... It's unlikely Nintendo will put out a patch for it imo, and if they do, I'm sure they would make sure the patch won't corrupt thousands of people's games. It's pretty bad publicity for Nintendo regardless of what lead to it. It seems likely to me that people would make up corruption horror stories to stop people from having these

I'm remembering all of the hacking that went on in City Folk and New Leaf, much more deep edits we're done in the code that loaded fine. Ex. Lightsabers in City Folk, they did the same thing with changing the Axe's code that these trees do with the Bell Bag's code, and afaik they didn't lead to mass corruptions. Those weren't even using code that was in the game like the star fragment trees are. Just don't buy one of these trees if you don't want to get banned from online play

 

[nafrawle]

Fake news

 

[Zoella]

I can confirm that shaking the hacked trees does not cause dead tiles or your game to crash nor does it corrupt your file. I posted evidence on my blog here.

 

[Dormire]

I stand corrected on this point; the screen is likely real. I assume someone actually got their data corrupted, took a screenshot of that screen, and posted it somewhere. I still think that very screenshot is being used to claim that any number of random things cause save data corruption.

I'm one of the people here who relays Japanese info regarding save data corruption. This person is not just the only one who have experienced this but plenty of people. (However, they experienced a different issue rather than the trees.) I didn't respond to you because you have a point, however, there's nothing to fear if you never actually touched illegitimate items (like, actual modified items). You agree that this isn't safe so there's not much for me to say. You're better than most people claiming that it is safe and "harmless".

Ahh!! Yes that’s the one!
A quick search around google and I was also able to find this one in German: https://www.archyde.com/animal-crossing-new-horizons-users-report-corrupt-scores/

Which appears to show the screen after you say no to restarting your data. I do think it’s prudent to be skeptical but at this point I feel like it’s safe to say that the glitch does exist, although the causes might be unknown.

To be honest, the game isn't as stable since you can glitch a lot (like being able to go out of bounds if you sit on a bench while holding a stool, multiplayer causing potential save issues, the duping glitches, textureless items (that uses nearby items to use as texture) etc.) I mean, I understand no one's perfect to actually catch all of these since it has certain conditions to happen but yeah.

 

[Bethboj]

Reminds me of the seeds from action replay back in Wild world. I ended up having Gracies car permanently sat next to my gate because someone came and plopped it down there. Fairly certain I had a Redds tent in a corner of my world too. I had to restart

 

[Dormire]

I can confirm that shaking the hacked trees does not cause dead tiles or your game to crash nor does it corrupt your file. I posted evidence on my blog here.

Can you try to terraform in those areas? I'll remove the title if you can. Also, maybe put items on those spaces? Ghosted tiles are still walkable using the table glitch but you can't place items on there. If it's not causing those then I'll go ahead and change it.

 

[Zoella]

Can you try to terraform in those areas? I'll remove the title if you can. Also, maybe put items on those spaces? Ghosted tiles are still walkable using the table glitch but you can't place items on there. If it's not causing those then I'll go ahead and change it.

I can confirm that I can place items and terraform on both the tiles where the fragments/crystals have dropped and where the trees were. Let me know if you'd like another video because I'm not currently at my computer so I can't post another one at the moment.

 

[Dormire]

I can confirm that I can place items and terraform on both the tiles where the fragments/crystals have dropped and where the trees were. Let me know if you'd like another video because I'm not currently at my computer so I can't post another one at the moment.

Sure! This isn't for me but more for everyone so, if you can give a video demo, it would be great! I'll link your vid/blog as proof if you allow me to!

 

[Bioness]

@Dormire looks like you're famous.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/video-games/2020/05/19/hackers-are-putting-star-fragment-trees-animal-crossing-planting-them-is-big-risk/

 

[Dormire]

@Dormire looks like you're famous.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/video-games/2020/05/19/hackers-are-putting-star-fragment-trees-animal-crossing-planting-them-is-big-risk/

LMAO BUT I'M AT A PROCESS OF CONFIRMING IT WITH A USER NOOOO. I mean, how would I contact them about it? I just relayed a Reddit thread. (I will still stand on the point that it's not safe though.)

 

[Bioness]

LMAO BUT I'M AT A PROCESS OF CONFIRMING IT WITH A USER NOOOO. I mean, how would I contact them about it? I just relayed a Reddit thread. (I will still stand on the point that it's not safe though.)

I don't know, I saw it and thought it was weird, I would try contacting the person who wrote the article.

 

[Dormire]

I don't know, I saw it and thought it was weird, I would try contacting the person who wrote the article.

I hope it goes well. I'm not used to contacting journalists (that aren't local, I mean. I'm just a peasant girl of a 3rd world country lol) I'll link the video Zoella will provide once it's out.

I think it's weird too since, I mean, to be honest, basing this with just one thread is kinda weird (for journalists I mean). Maybe it's different overseas?

 

[Bioness]

I hope it goes well. I'm not used to contacting journalists (that aren't local, I mean. I'm just a peasant girl of a 3rd world country lol) I'll link the video Zoella will provide once it's out.

I think it's weird too since, I mean, to be honest, basing this with just one thread is kinda weird (for journalists I mean). Maybe it's different overseas?

It is their video game section. I didn't even know the Washington Post did video game stuff, but I guess that is what happens when a video game is popular enough.

Really since there is so little information about the game, game journalists are relying on forums and social media to get their information. Though I would say that particular journalist didn't do her job right since she is taking your post at face value AND not paying attention to the fact that it came from Reddit first.

 

[Miss Misty]

I hope it goes well. I'm not used to contacting journalists (that aren't local, I mean. I'm just a peasant girl of a 3rd world country lol) I'll link the video Zoella will provide once it's out.

I think it's weird too since, I mean, to be honest, basing this with just one thread is kinda weird (for journalists I mean). Maybe it's different overseas?

Nah, this is pretty par for the course for online journalism everywhere in 2020. Entire articles get written about tweets these days, let alone an entire forum thread.

 

[glow]

You mean this?

https://twitter.com/x/status/1250666455923699714

how is this evidence.....this tweet is from 4/15..... the star fragment tree thing is relatively new, i don't see any posts on their feed with pictures of hacked trees, nor does the tweet (roughly) translate into anything that mentions hacked trees.

idk Japanese so please correct me if i'm wrong.

but still the tweet is from over a month ago

(side note, they got their save data fixed so if they really did hack it a month ago before these trees were rly a thing then i guess Nintendo fixed it for them??)

 

[Dormire]

how is this evidence.....this tweet is from 4/15..... the star fragment tree thing is relatively new, i don't see any posts on their feed with pictures of hacked trees, nor does the tweet (roughly) translate into anything that mentions hacked trees.

idk Japanese so please correct me if i'm wrong.

but still the tweet is from over a month ago

(side note, they got their save data fixed so if they really did hack it a month ago before these trees were rly a thing then i guess Nintendo fixed it for them??)

I didn't say it is evidence to the Star Fragment trees. The person asked what the Japanese error message looked and mentioned there's a video. Which knew what they meant so I provided it.

This video is about multiplayer wiping save data which I linked to my response to Naranjita's. This is merely showing a variant of that error message.

 

[Feraligator]

Related but not really:

I have ghost tiles in my town (unfortunately...). Not from hacks but just a glitch, where I can't place paths or terraform or anything (I have a Twitter vid if anyone is curious). I can place things on top though. Is it like that? Because I got that through moving buildings and not through this tree thing, but it is pretty annoying and it looks kinda ugly.

 

[moonolotl]

its almost a shame they arent in the base game because they're so beautiful and would fit in so well with my islands aesthetic lol. I'd never ever risk hacking them or planting them though, this sounds terrifying

 

[Bcat]

Oh lord, smile for the waPO everyone! If I’d have known this forum was famous, I would’ve done my hair...

 

[Zoella]

Sure! This isn't for me but more for everyone so, if you can give a video demo, it would be great! I'll link your vid/blog as proof if you allow me to!

Here's a link to the proof, the part where I dug up the hacked trees was cut out because of the 30 second limit thing, but people can see that there were trees there by watching both videos I have and then looking at the timestamp at the end of both videos.