When Animal Crossing: New Horizons fans play the Stalk Market, the goal is to sell turnips for an immense profit — sometimes upward of a million bells or more. It’s become especially lucrative to open up your island to the public if your Nook’s Cranny shop is buying turnips for a good price, because fans usually leave tips for hosts in the form of money, items, or mystery island tickets. The problem is, when you invite strangers into your house, things can get messy.
“There’s been a few horror stories about others inviting strangers to their islands and having their items ransacked, or trades not being carried out in full,” says New Horizons player ottermochi, who spoke to Polygon over email. “People have started to create measures to combat this, such as setting up trade posts at the front of their islands to limit the areas where strangers can run.”
And, in ottermochi’s case, they’ve even begun hiring other players to act as ‘security’ within their islands, and these guns-for-hire are referred to as in-game bouncers. Ottermochi hired two bouncers with whom all tips and profits were shared — but the idea in general has gone viral, with other players trying out the concept, too.
You know its real when the island you visit for turnips has a BOUNCER
— Angela (@EmberwoodForest) April 8, 2020
#AnimalCrossing #ACNH #turnipcode #turnips pic.twitter.com/2ztuuM5HRs
The bouncers aren’t there for decorations. They have duties. In ottermochi’s set-up, one bouncer was set to block shop access, to make sure people didn’t enter before honoring their initial trade agreement that was discussed prior to arriving on the island. The other bouncer, meanwhile, was tasked with picking up whatever folks donated in tips. The goal was efficiency, which is key when you’ve got a bunch of strangers running around your island.
“I wasn’t particularly afraid of being ’scammed’ because in the end, I don’t lose anything from people selling their turnips at my store and not giving a donation,” ottermochi clarifies, adding that, “but my idea started when I wanted to start sharing my prices because my shop is kind of in an inconvenient location, so I wanted to fence off a path toward the shop so people can quickly move in and out.”
The bouncers are, of course, ottermochi’s pals, but when the New Horizons player talked them into it, she wasn’t expecting her friends to turn up in an actual security outfit. That was a bonus that fit the theme perfectly.
big thanks to my security guards for helping me out during the full day sta/lk market! pic.twitter.com/eUTkm0KZCM
— erin (@ottermochi) April 6, 2020
“Another friend of ours just suffered a huge turnip loss the previous day,” ottermochi says, “so we decided to invite her too and promised her an equal cut of the profits so she could break even again, so we got a second security.”
Initially it started out as just a “cute” and “funny” concept to try out, but the idea got enough compliments that she’s glad she went through with it.
“I ended up enjoying the scenario itself over receiving gifts from sellers,” ottermochi says.