What are some things you wish you had known when you first started playing New Leaf?

[Leo King]

For me, I wish I had known that perfect fruit were so hard to get! I had gotten a tree with one perfect orange, and like a fool, I sold it

 

[LadyDestani]

For me, I wish I had known that perfect fruit were so hard to get! I had gotten a tree with one perfect orange, and like a fool, I sold it

Ugh, same for me. I sold my first perfect cherry to help pay for tools and felt like a fool later. I didn't get another one until over a year later when my husband started his own town and luckily got cherries as well. He gave me one of his after he grew his first perfect cherry tree. If not for that, I'd still be waiting for another one to spawn in my town.

 

[Leo King]

Ugh, same for me. I sold my first perfect cherry to help pay for tools and felt like a fool later. I didn't get another one until over a year later when my husband started his own town and luckily got cherries as well. He gave me one of his after he grew his first perfect cherry tree. If not for that, I'd still be waiting for another one to spawn in my town.

I'm currently trying to re-grow some, a friend gave me some perfect peaches and I was inspired!

 

[Seastar]

I wish I had known the things I told Rover affected my character's face... I hate my eyes in my first town.

 

[Leo King]

I wish I had known the things I told Rover affected my character's face... I hate my eyes in my first town.

I hadn't known about that either! I'm pretty happy with my character's appearance, so that's good

 

[Xara]

i wish i had known how i wanted my town to look so that i would’ve been more mindful of where i placed the permanent buildings lmao

 

[Clock]

Having a nice town layout, but i'm happy with the villagers I have; so its not that of an issue.

 

[Leo King]

i wish i had known how i wanted my town to look so that i would’ve been more mindful of where i placed the permanent buildings lmao

Honestly I just put things wherever there's space XD like I try to choose a nice place to put things but otherwise, I just put things where I can XD

 

[NeighborNoon]

Like you all have said: I didn't know that you could have different facial features (not that I mind the one I have necessarily), and that I should save perfect fruit (or other types of fruits! I remember getting an exotic fruit from a villager and selling it :/ ).

I also didn't realize that the villagers would put the items they requested (bugs, furniture, fossils I was carrying around...) in their homes like a centerpiece--Phil refuses to part with his random giant brachiosaur tail no matter what I bribe him with. Something else that I didn't know until just a week ago was that you could work at Brewster's Cafe! I saw some of the items in someone's Dream Town and looked them up, learned that I first had to spend days buying coffee from Brewster before he offered to let me work behind the counter, then look up each villager's order preferences so I didn't mess up their order, then he'd pay me in beans and give me a random item. I've been playing (albeit on and off, casually) for five years! I actually love this about the game though, it keeps things fresh. The sewing machine unlock came as a surprise too, lol.

 

[s i r e n t i c]

Beware of the answers you give Rover!
Also save your perfect fruit and plant it as soon as you can! I ended up selling mine and waited nearly 2 years for another to spawn because I didn’t know about trading online yet

 

[my-peculiar-dream]

i wish i knew that ordinances were a thing. i watered all my flowers everyday and it made the game boring quickly

 

[necrofantasia]

i was very dumb and ended up placing my buildings in random places, which made me hate my town.
i seriously put the cafe in front of a bridge for some reason...

 

[Yusuke_Star]

Well I hardly remember the first time but I do remember later on in the game I found out you can hop from a waterfall and dive in the ocean that way a month later when I started NL.

 

[katfromaramist]

I didn't know about diving for the longest time!

 

[RoscoeNRosie]

I wish I knew that if you weren't sure which villager was Blanca on April Fools Day you could say "Not sure" without losing a chance at the picture! I guess wrong on Rosie's and still haven't acquired that picture yet...

 

[AntiJupiter]

I wish I didn't TT so much. It burned me out pretty fast.

 

[Belle T]

I wish I had known the things I told Rover affected my character's face... I hate my eyes in my first town.

This, so much this.
I dislike the way my character's eyes look and hate that there's no way to change it without resetting everything, and I'm too many hours in to do it now.

I even ended up making a second character where I answered Rover very differently AND STILL GOT THE SAME EYE SHAPE. I honestly think the fact that you can't customize it later down the road is one of the worst aspects of New Leaf (which is to say "worst aspect of an otherwise great game" so not the biggest of deals, but still quite annoying). In a game that is overwhelmingly about customization, the fact that it's pretty much the only thing you CAN'T customize makes it incredibly jarring, compared to something like the original Animal Crossing where your options for customization are so limited that the fact that your villager is kind of ugly is a bit more tolerable if not kind of charming.