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PSA: balloon gifts no longer spawning after 300 balloons popped achievement

Hi all!

Thank you so much for responding! I called Nintendo customer support again because I wanted to add some additional findings to my previous call to include unable to receive upcoming seasonal items and completing nook mile+ goals.

The representative (very very helpful and patient) has said if we want this to be fixed sooner rather than later, Nintendo will need more reported cases of this bug/glitch. I implore anyone who HAS the achievement or is concerned about this once they reach 300 balloons to call in instead of waiting around for a patch. If currently they only have my case reported on file, it will not be a high priority for them to fix sadly.

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It could always be that this isn't a bug but rather an intentional thing but I doubt it. The game as it stands seems to be a bit buggy. We have this error. The already mentioned error of lights being on at night and the door opening when nobody is home and others (myself included) have experienced load times of something like 10 minutes on at least one occasion as if the game is getting stuck when trying to load.

Patches needed. And upcoming I'm sure.

At first I thought it was intentional as well but as the days went on, I am beginning to doubt this is the case. It's one thing if Nintendo wants to time-gate people getting the Golden Tools recipes but people have already received the axe, watering can, fishing pole, and net (as far as I know from reading various reddit posts and discord chats). It would be incredibly cruel for them to single out the golden slingshot to time gate since balloon popping isn't game breaking in any way.

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Wow this is very serious. Thank you for posting this or I wouldn't have known.

I won't pop any more yellow balloons as I don't need money, I just need items. I'm sitting at 103/300 right now!

Hey! I want to let you know that I've gotten DIY recipes and even clothing from yellow balloons! Majority of the time they do drop bells but not always the case. :)
 
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Wow, I didn’t realize this, I’m at 52 popped, they patched the dupe glitch real quick, this I hope will be taken care of as well, thank for the heads up.
 
I'm not at the 300 popped (not even halfway, I commend you for getting that maxed rank so quickly! you must have some solid dedication to balloon popping), but hearing about a glitch like this is pretty alarming. Hopefully as more people start to get this achievement, we can have input from more people and get this reported/figured out.
 
Well this is concerning! I've been popping balloons lately to pass the time waiting for upgrades, but I think I'll stop for now. Not many people probably have the achievement yet... but it's something Nintendo should fix before it becomes an issue, especially with the event starting soon.

I would send feedback but I'm at 118/300.
 
Well this is concerning! I've been popping balloons lately to pass the time waiting for upgrades, but I think I'll stop for now. Not many people probably have the achievement yet... but it's something Nintendo should fix before it becomes an issue, especially with the event starting soon.

I would send feedback but I'm at 118/300.

Truth be told, if a lot of people are put off with getting the achievement, it may actually have the opposite effect since they won't be reporting this issue.

I would recommend to continue to popping balloons if you see one just to keep the counter going. It may suck in the short run but I think the more people getting the achievement and experiencing this issue, the faster Nintendo will take action as it'll be in their best interest to fix something that is affect a larger group of people!
 
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This just happened to me during the Bunny Day Event. The egg balloons were appearing every minute, so I was running around popping them all and then I hit 300 balloons. Now no more eggs are appearing, so I can't collect all the Bunny Day DIY recipes.

I tried to make a post on the official Nintendo support forum, but it seemed to vanish into thin air after posting it. I posted about it on reddit, so hopefully it gains some traction.

I think this issue will become more widespread now, due to how fast the egg balloons spawn. It's easy to hit 300 balloons within a day.
 
I'm at 293 balloons... now i need to wait Nintendo to fix this... (i want my sakura set so bad!) ;-;
 
So, it stops once you hit 300 Balloons or only when you revieve the Achievement with the Miles?
 
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I was wondering why all of a sudden after getting the achievement my balloons stopped. Thank you for the contact info. I will be calling and complaining. Hopefully it will quickly be fixed. I didn't want to add another person to my town. I am trying to keep a small island feel.
 
Ugh, this bug hurts. And just when they made balloon hunting something I really want to do: no more yucky balloon furniture, decent loot variety, and special events that reward aggressive balloon hunting.
 
Hopefully with more and more people running into this issue due to the increased spawns during the event Nintendo will fix it very soon. Just keep reporting it if it's happening to you!
 
Considering how quickly people will experience this issue, I'm sure a patch will happen within the week, and they may extend the Bunny Day "event" a few more days due to it.
 
I haven't hit 300 balloons yet, but I do intend to call and report this. I'm sorry to be so negatively critical of Nintendo but, due to the items being limited time and the possibility of new items coming next year AND the fact that affects game play directly, this should be a priority issue no matter what.

Therefore, I think we as a community should do our part by reporting the glitch even if it hasn't affected us. And convince people we know in other Animal Crossing communities to do the same. We need to force them to make it a priority. The patch may not be ready in time to give people a chance to obtain the missing recipes and craft them, but at least it will prevent this issue in the future.
 
I haven't hit 300 balloons yet, but I do intend to call and report this. I'm sorry to be so negatively critical of Nintendo but, due to the items being limited time and the possibility of new items coming next year AND the fact that affects game play directly, this should be a priority issue no matter what.

Therefore, I think we as a community should do our part by reporting the glitch even if it hasn't affected us. And convince people we know in other Animal Crossing communities to do the same. We need to force them to make it a priority. The patch may not be ready in time to give people a chance to obtain the missing recipes and craft them, but at least it will prevent this issue in the future.

No need to feel sorry for that. Let's be real, the game feels unfinished. It was delayed once and by the looks of it, it shouldn't be considered ready for shipping. There's a lot of bugs that directly affect the gameplay, like this one, the "amiibo into the void" glitch, the "empty house" glitch (with lights on), some strange loading glitches... Let's not forget about the lots of cuts. Also, for some very strange reason, the game feels like it pushes the switch's hardware a lot when you play it docked. Lots of people are talking about that (especially on gamefaqs).

They've dropped the ball HARD with this game.

I turned my 3dsxl on a few hours ago just to play the April Fool's event in New Leaf because that was a fun event that isn't present in New Horizons.
 
No need to feel sorry for that. Let's be real, the game feels unfinished. It was delayed once and by the looks of it, it shouldn't be considered ready for shipping. There's a lot of bugs that directly affect the gameplay, like this one, the "amiibo into the void" glitch, the "empty house" glitch (with lights on), some strange loading glitches... Let's not forget about the lots of cuts. Also, for some very strange reason, the game feels like it pushes the switch's hardware a lot when you play it docked. Lots of people are talking about that (especially on gamefaqs).

They've dropped the ball HARD with this game.

I turned my 3dsxl on a few hours ago just to play the April Fool's event in New Leaf because that was a fun event that isn't present in New Horizons.

The island is so small I doubt new facilities like The Roost or Kicks could be added. Probably not the six New Leaf exclusive fruit trees as well. Furniture sets were cut and it feels like it was done to force the crafting as the main focus instead of making it just a new feature. The lack of April Fool's in favor of extended events feels like more events will be cut for this system. The removal of gyroids, the art wing of the museum (and the art work, of course). Cut content, watering down.

Thankfully, I play on a Switch Lite (I keep my OG Switch around for local multiplayer with friends though), but I haven't noticed any heating issues so I wouldn't know what the hardware being pushed looks like, unfortunately. The reason I gave this game a 5 out 10 is because of how smaller and watered down it feels.

I mean the Nook Miles furniture could've easily been actual PWPs and they could've brought back more old stuff then they did too. I like the game, but I feel that all the 8s, 9s and 10s are way too generous. I love me some Nintendo and Animal Crossing but lately it feels like they're dropping the ball. I didn't even like Super Mario Party outside of River Survival and playing mini-games with friends. It feels they're pushing for "make as much money as possible, forget about quality" and it feels like New Horizons pushes it.

I DO enjoy what little there is, but I could write a whole essay on how the game could vastly be improved. Unfinished? Yes. Watered down? Also yes. I kinda wish they'd think about all the cut content and how much complaining has been done about Bunny Day, plus the bugs and glitches...and just do an enhanced remake adding a lot more content. Plus some quality of life changes.
 
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