A player of Animal Crossing: New Horizons has taken to gifting bugs to their villagers thanks to non-existent hitboxes which make it impossible for characters to capture bugs and fish. Animal Crossing is home to many villagers who can inhabit players' islands, but once there, the characters are limited in terms of what they can do.

One of the many draws of Animal Crossing is the villager characters, who can interact with the user, gift DIY Recipes and presents, take part in group stretches, and even offer mini-challenges in the form of lost items and other fetch quests. With different personality types, catchphrases, and outfits, there's lots of variation to make each villager unique, but dialogue is often repeated, items gifted to the player are typically lackluster, and even recent game additions, like the ability for ACNH villagers to visit players' homes, have become a source of frustration for many. Lots of players are still hoping for improvements to the game's NPCs, to help make them feel more alive and unique.

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Redditor and Animal Crossing player The_Great_Emu has highlighted another frustration with villagers - the inability for them to capture their own bugs and fish thanks to non-existent hitboxes. The user demonstrated the issue in a gameplay clip, which shows their villager Flora trying - and failing - to capture a butterfly. The incident left the player frustrated enough for them to go and capture the Great Purple Emperor themselves, just to gift it to Flora. Calling out the annoyance to Nintendo, the user writes: "Dear Nintendo, Flora is a good friend of mine and a great bug hunter. So how's about you quit it with the dodgy hit boxes and let her catch something once in a while?!?!?"

No matter how long a player might watch their villagers, they'll never see them catch a bug or fish in ACNH, even though the animals can wield the necessary tools, and can make attempts to catch them. This is due to the game's coding, which prevents NPCs from capturing critters, digging up fossils, and more. It's likely this design choice was made to ensure that rare seasonal bugs and fish aren't accidentally captured by an NPC when a player needs them for their collection, but as The_Great_Emu notes in the comments of their post, this could have a workaround with scripted events, which would help keep the game feeling realistic without any detriment to the player.

It seems unlikely that NPCs in the game could get an upgrade that might add hitboxes. Nintendo has confirmed the November 2.0 update will be Animal Crossing's last major update, meaning any big game overhauls have likely been ruled out. While it's implied that villagers can catch bugs and fish - seen on display in their homes - it seems players will have to gift their catches if they really want to see their favorite characters get lucky with bugs.

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Animal Crossing: New Horizons is out now on Nintendo Switch.

Source: The_Great_Emu/Reddit