The Perfect Town

In Animal Crossing: City Folk (ACCF), just like in other Animal Crossing games, you can change your town’s landscape by planting trees and flowers. Not only can you choose where to put them, but you can also remove them, if you want. The game also adds weeds to your town each day. You can choose to get rid of them or to let them grow.

How you manage your town’s environment (trees, flowers, weeds, and a couple other things) is rated by your villagers in an Environment Report. You can check your town’s overall rating by speaking to Pelly or Phyllis at the Civic Center (the counter window on the left) in the Town Hall. Select “Environment Report” to hear what your villagers have to say.

There are five different overall ratings. The best rating is called the “perfect” rating. Here is what your villagers say when your town is “perfect:”

"Fantastic! [town name] is in great shape right now! Yep, it's pretty sweeeeet!"

When you hear this rating, you have a “Perfect” Town. If you maintain your “perfect” rating for at least 15 days in a row, you will receive the Golden Can!

To maintain your town:

  1. Remove any weeds that appear
  2. Do not leave any trash on or buried in the ground
  3. Remember to water any withering flowers so that they won’t disappear
  4. Make sure your Environment Report is “perfect” before you end your play for the day

The Environment (Trees, Flowers, and Weeds)

An Animal Crossing town is divided up into acres. There are 25 acres in an ACCF town, five across by five down. These acres are used by the game to determine your town’s overall rating. They are also used to define where cedar trees and coconut palms can grow.

Cedar trees can grow only in the northern 40% of your town. That’s the northern two rows of acres (ten acres in total).

Coconut palms can grow only in the ocean acres. That’s the southernmost row of acres (five in total).

There are two general rules for all tree growth:

  1. Trees will not grow immediately next to cliffs, water, buildings, rocks, house signs, bridges, plazas, and other trees.
  2. There are certain “spots” or paths where the game will not allow trees to grow, so that there is room for villagers to move around when they are walking outside.

You do not have to water saplings in order for trees to grow. Also, walking on or running over saplings will not affect their growth. The only thing that matters when growing trees is location, or where the tree is planted.

Get rid of trees by chopping them with your Axe, then digging up the stumps with your Shovel. Use a Shovel to dig up saplings.

One way to guarantee the growth of a tree is to chop down an existing tree, remove its stump, then plant fruit/a coconut/a sapling/money in the exact same spot. This is a good way to start producing coconut palms or foreign fruit trees.

You can grow flowers by planting bags of seeds purchased at Tom Nook’s store.

Each day, at least one "brand new" flower is generated in your town.

Also each day, a random number of flowers in your town wither, or turn brown. (But, if it rained or snowed in your town or city on the previous day, no flowers will wither.) If you try to pick a withering flower, it will disintegrate. Instead, bring them back to health by watering them with your Watering Can (once is enough). Otherwise, they will disappear. Any precipitation, rain or snow, will water your withering flowers.

Watering a "spot" with the Watering Can will also water the spots immediately above, below, to the left, and to the right. Watering the same spot with the Silver Can or Golden Can will also water the spots to the northwest, northeast, southwest, and southeast (i.e., all eight surrounding spots).

From late February to early December, Dandelions, Dandelion Puffs, and Clovers may randomly appear in your town. Dandelions will eventually turn into Dandelion Puffs. When picking Clovers, they often disintegrate, but you may occasionally find a Lucky Clover.

Flowers, Dandelions, and Dandelion Puffs can disappear by trampling (running over them). Alternately, you can get rid of them by picking them and selling them to Tom Nook.

Every day, two weeds will appear in your town. You can get rid of them by picking them, using the “B” or “Z” button.

If your town has so many weeds that you get the “worst” rating, a Rafflesia may appear in your town. This “super weed” cannot be picked or dug up with a Shovel. To get rid of it, you must remove all the weeds from at least one of your acres. The next day the Rafflesia will wither. On the second day, it will disappear.

Environment Report

Here are the five town rating reports:

  1. The “perfect” rating -- "Fantastic! [town name] is in great shape right now! Yep, it's pretty sweeeeet!”
  2. The “decent” rating -- "This town is fantastic! But even so, it still seems to be missing something"
  3. The “so-so” rating -- "Hmm... it's not a passing grade, but it's not a failing grade either. I'd give it a D plus. Maybe a C minus on a good day."
  4. The “bad” rating -- "I'm not sure what good it will do to write this, but... Could you try and be a bit more thoughtful about your town? Because at this rate..."
  5. The “worst” rating -- "This place is the pits! Everything that can go wrong has gone wrong! There's not a single thing I like in this town!"

After you hear what your villagers have to say, Pelly and Phyllis add their own comments. These comments are clues about what you should do to either maintain or improve your town. Here are the comments and what you should do:

Pelly: “Hmm... You know, I think the problem is there are those gross flowers that keep showing up. You really have to work daily to prevent eyesores like that from sprouting.”
Phyllis: “There must be a flower that smells terrible somewhere in town. Well, if that's the problem, maybe they should just stop planting them! (Come on, genius!)”
What to do: Get rid of the Rafflesia by removing all the weeds in at least one acre.
Pelly: “Hmm... I guess my hunch was right. All those weeds around town are really stirring everyone up.”
Phyllis: “It must be because of the weed problem in town... (Talk about disgusting!)”
What to do: Get rid of the weeds.
Pelly: “Hmm... It sounds to me like the problem is all the garbage lying around.”
Phyllis: “It's because there's so much garbage cluttering up the town! (Ugh, how gross!)”
What to do: Remove the trash (Cans, Boots, Tires, or Spoiled Turnips).
Pelly: “Hmm... It sounds like the problem is that there's too much stuff on the ground.”
Phyllis: “I guess there's just too much stuff lying around town.”
What to do: Pick up the items. (Fruit, seashells, mushrooms, and buried gyroids or fossils are OK.)
Pelly: “Hmm... Yes, it seems this problem might be a result of having too many trees in some areas.”
Phyllis: “Maybe it's because of all the trees around town... (What am I, a scientist?)”
What to do: At least one acre has more than 17 trees without enough flowers to “make up for” the excess. Either remove the excess trees or plant more flowers.
Pelly: “Hmm... Maybe people are sending in these comments because there's not enough greenery in some areas.”
Phyllis: “Problem is, some areas just don't have enough trees. TREES! I said TREES! (Try listening for once!)”
What to do: At least one acre does not meet the required “decent” tree and flower counts. Plant more trees or flowers.
Pelly: “Everyone's got to work together so we can make [town name] shine. Make sure to do your part.”
Phyllis: “I don't know about you, but I'd sure rather live in a nice place than a bad place.”
What to do: You don’t yet have at least eight acres with three or more flowers. Plant more flowers.
Pelly: “I feel like the luckiest pelican in the world to be able to work in a wonderful town like [town name].”
Phyllis: “Well, isn't living here better than you expected? (...Or maybe not.)”
What to do: You have a “perfect” town! Maintain your rating in order to get the Golden Can.

Acres and What Counts

Overall town rating uses tree, flower, and weed counts in each of your 25 acres to determine your Environment Report. If you place patterns on the ground to mark the boundaries of your acres, you can figure out how many trees and flowers to plant or remove around your town.

Each acre is a square made up of 16 x 16 = 256 “spots.” A “spot” is a place where you can plant a tree or dig a hole. To mark the boundaries of your acres:

  1. Starting from the northwest corner of your town, count “spots” horizontally (heading east), either by digging holes or placing patterns on the ground, until you reach 16.
  2. Place a pattern on the “spot” that is number 16, indicating the eastern edge of the first column of acres.
  3. Place a different pattern on the next “spot,” indicating the western edge of the second column of acres.
  4. Continue counting, remembering to use the pattern in step 3 above as count 1, until you reach 16 again.
  5. Place patterns to indicate where the second and third columns of acres meet.
  6. Continue the process, placing patterns to mark where columns of acres meet, until you reach the waterfall. Count carefully by your Gate (try placing patterns on the plaza).
  7. Go to the northeast corner of your town and repeat the process heading west.
  8. Return to each of the edging patterns and drop those same patterns in a vertical line all the way from the northern cliff until you reach the ocean. You may have to dodge around existing trees. If you should reach the river, you can go to the other side to continue the line of patterns: use your line of sight to find the right column of “spots.” Do the same thing when you reach the cliff between the levels of your town. When finished, your patterns will mark the eastern and western boundaries of your acres.
  9. Repeat the entire process to mark where rows of acres meet. You can return to the northwest and northeast corners to start counting south. Alternately, you might use the now existing vertical lines of patterns, if they have something on them to let you count each “spot.”

When all your acre boundaries are marked, you can count how many trees and flowers are in each acre

In order to get that “perfect” rating, at least eight of your acres must be “perfect.” The other acres must be “decent.” Here are the required tree and flower counts for a “perfect” acre and a “decent” acre:

“perfect” acre “decent” acre
0 trees and 27 or more flowers, or 0 trees and 21 or more flowers, or
1 tree and 25 or more flowers, or 1 tree and 19 or more flowers, or
2 trees and 23 or more flowers, or 2 trees and 17 or more flowers, or
3 trees and 21 or more flowers, or 3 trees and 15 or more flowers, or
4 trees and 19 or more flowers, or 4 trees and 13 or more flowers, or
5 trees and 17 or more flowers, or 5 trees and 11 or more flowers, or
6 trees and 15 or more flowers, or 6 trees and 9 or more flowers, or
7 trees and 13 or more flowers, or 7 trees and 7 or more flowers, or
8 trees and 11 or more flowers, or 8 trees and 5 or more flowers, or
9 trees and 9 or more flowers, or 9 trees and 3 or more flowers, or
10 trees and 7 or more flowers, or 10 trees and 0 or more flowers, or
11 trees and 5 or more flowers, or 11 trees and 0 or more flowers, or
12 trees and 3 or more flowers, or 12 trees and 0 or more flowers, or
13 trees and 3 or more flowers, or 13 trees and 0 or more flowers, or
14 trees and 3 or more flowers, or 14 trees and 0 or more flowers, or
15 trees and 3 or more flowers, or 15 trees and 0 or more flowers, or
16 trees and 5 or more flowers, or 16 trees and 0 or more flowers, or
17 trees and 7 or more flowers, or 17 trees and 0 or more flowers, or
18 trees and 9 or more flowers, or 18 trees and 3 or more flowers, or
19 trees and 11 or more flowers, or 19 trees and 5 or more flowers, or
20 trees and 13 or more flowers, or 20 trees and 7 or more flowers, or
21 trees and 15 or more flowers, or 21 trees and 9 or more flowers, or
22 trees and 17 or more flowers, or 22 trees and 11 or more flowers, or
23 trees and 19 or more flowers, or 23 trees and 13 or more flowers, or
24 trees and 21 or more flowers, or 24 trees and 15 or more flowers, or
25 trees and 23 or more flowers, or 25 trees and 17 or more flowers, or
etc. etc.
  • There must be two or fewer weeds in each acre to be “perfect” or “decent.”
  • Flowers can “cancel” the effects of weeds, one-for-one.
  • There is no specific number that is a limit to the number of trees that can be in an acre. Each acre has obstacles (e.g., buildings, water, cliffs, etc.) that will limit the number of trees that will grow.
  • Live saplings and partially grown trees “count” as trees.
  • Dead or dying saplings and tree stumps do not “count” as trees.
  • Healthy and withering flowers, including Jacob’s Ladders, “count” as flowers.
  • Dandelions and Dandelion Puffs also “count” as flowers.
  • Clovers and Lucky Clovers do not “count” as weeds.
  • Patterns on the ground have no effect on town rating.
Thanks to Liquefy for writing this guide.