So, it’s been a while since I showed off more random Pocket Camp screenshots from when I randomly poke in and with New Horizons so close, it feels appropriate to make it my first post in 2020. I also wanted to give my impression on the Pocket Camp subscriptions after using them both and even keeping one of them for a few months (Speaking of which, I ended up being one of the giveaway winners so I’m really excited for the bag to arrive!! I may do a little unboxing post/video when it does…).
In general, most of what I thought when they first gave out the details still holds true. I think the Happy Helper Plan is genuinely the better of the two, but it does have a couple of huge flaws that really make it not as great as it could be.
What I really like about the plan especially is having a helper villager is just a really cute aspect, I love having Merengue follow me around and occasionally, there’s even cute unique dialogue and interactions.
And as someone who will get really anxious checking in every three hours, having Merengue helping out is great… only you don’t really get all the benefits of it which is the biggest issue. At this point, I have more materials than I know what to do with. What I need is friendship and the only friendship you will get when your assistant is doing these tasks is from your assistant. While I suppose it’s expected not to earn friendship if you’re not the one doing the tasks yourself, it’s still kind of frustrating as that’s one of the biggest reasons to do the tasks in the first place.
The other issues with the pack is that:
1. Only up to 24 hours of tasks are stored, so you still have to log in daily. Which for a lot of people is fine, yes, but as someone who generally enjoys having days where I don’t have to bring up an app daily (I understand the irony of having no issue bringing up main Animal Crossing games daily– I’m weird, okay?), part of the purpose is kind of ruined.
2. Not much event stuff gets picked up. Pocket Camp has a tendency to do so many events which is part of why I’m as burned out with the game as I am. I had really been looking forward to this as sometimes I do like some of the event items, but they are usually the much more high-end ones and most of the time, I just don’t reach them as I’m still too burnt out to play super often.
3. Excessive items aren’t sold off automatically. One of the newer Pocket Camp features I liked was that if you were maxed out on an item (999 of it), it would automatically turn into bells. Unfortunately, this doesn’t apply to items from balloons and even more frustratingly, not from your assistant who is doing all these tasks for you and thus, these extra items add up quickly.
Right now, I have over 50 different stacks of materials just sitting in my mail box (which also means I get to see the “lovely” red alert constantly…). That doesn’t count how many have expired at this point because I have no use for them and selling them just to gather more got tiring really fast.
I think it can still be helpful in some ways, not to mention your assistant villager can get 40 Friendship points a day though doing tasks if you only check in once every 24 hours. If you don’t mind switching out your assistant, that’s a really good way to grind up friendship, but while I’ve thought about it, I’d genuinely feel bad switching.
Unfortunately, I don’t have as much good to say about the Cookie & Depot Plan. If you’re that desperate for items from older fortune cookies, maybe? But they do rotate. You can’t pick your items or anything– only the specific fortune cookie itself. What you get from it is still random. I would say the only way I’d recommend it is if someone pays that amount anyway to get some fortune cookies every month as it’s 200 Leaf Tickets for the same price which would only afford 4 Fortune Cookies and this gets you 5 plus storage, but if you rarely buy leaf tickets or generally try to get fortune cookies only when up for bells, it just feels kind of pointless. If you actually got to pick which item you wanted from a few fortune cookies, maybe I’d find it more worth it? (I know you can for scratch cards, but it’s still a lot even if they have lessened the amounts)
Despite my complaints though, the leaf tickets from them plus the fortune cookies did let me get this coat I wanted and finally manage to get this fountain which was the one item I really wanted from Julian’s cookie:
One interesting thing is that while you will get your rewards on whatever day you do your subscription, further rewards are given out the first of every month (or the next time you log in after the first)– so if you subscribed to one of the subscriptions on the 16th for example, you would get your reward on the 1st of next month despite it not having been a full month. Your subscription will still renew 30 days from the original date.
The crafting time going down is a nice perk for both, but at the moment, there’s just nothing I am crafting beyond occasionally maybe some event items and more often than not, I don’t manage to earn enough stuff to make them so… The Pocket Camp Club Journal is really cute and I’ll miss it if I don’t keep a subscription, but it’s nothing groundbreaking either. I still enjoy it though. Cyrus’ sketchbook is probably my favorite part of the book, but it’s kind of just taunting myself with how rarely I manage to get some items nowadays…
The Design tips can also be a lot of fun. While I have used some of the tips before myself, I love seeing the different rooms they create. Plus, this month’s wallpaper actually featured one of my favorite villagers: Flurry! :D I sure hope I’ll get her again in New Horizons…
Regardless, I have to say that the Member Card is SUPER CUTE and I really love the ribbons. If there’s one thing I’m sad about is no longer having the purple ribbon and probably soon, neither ribbon.
(As of posting this, my character is up to 824 days on the job)
Moving onto non-subscription-based stuff, we’re going to be covering the last few months with a handful of screenshots. For one, like Valentine’s Day, we got a special Thanksgiving thing too! I even recorded it:
I honestly like Merengue, Diana, Cookie, Peanut, Flurry, Marina, and Maple pretty evenly and I wish I could give all of them gifts. Just if it wasn’t clear between my love of Mega Audino, Alcremie, and Slurpuff, I absolutely have a certain aesthetic. :P But yes, for those who’d rather not watch a video, some pictures of it!:
And the gift we received in return:
I just wish I had somewhere better to put it… I’m genuinely pretty happy with my camp site and room to the point where it’s hard to fit new items in the first place. I had to work really hard to get this fountain to fit and while I love it more, I miss the fancy bath:
I also, shockingly, got this amazing dress:
I think the only thing I’d still want is a way to customize more of the background (I miss my cherryblossom trees and would prefer a pink mansion… but I love the fountains… but it also hides my moon-rainbow sky) and better hair– I really want a long wavy ponytail and while this kind of gives the allusion of such, it’s just a wavy partially down style with part of it pulled into a bun.
I still have been doing a pretty awful job with events. While I finished the Anniversary one, I failed both Jingle’s and Isabelle’s next one:
I’m happy I at least managed to get some of the flowers though. I will admit it makes me a bit nervous for New Horizons for just how much the flower system could expand… So many flowers. Maybe there will just be some new flower furniture item that includes one of each color in a pot or something.
Anyway, to finish this off, I just want to bring up the cute image Pocket Camp had for 2020:
Things have been rough on my end, but I’m doing my best to keep going. And New Horizons is only 54 days away now :)