The Secret to Balloons and Mush DIYs

I have only been playing Animal Crossing New Horizons since the day it came out, but there are still so many new things you learn on a daily basis. If you've been playing, either one day or for eight months, you know that the game updates very regularly. We started with awesome sets like the Cherry Blossom DIYs in the Northern Hemisphere, Easter, the Wedding set (one of my favorites), the Mermaid collection, and so many new additions since then like the Pirate set! We just wrapped up Spooky season, and with what's been going on in the US I know a lot of people weren't able to get all the DIYs. I myself started a mini pumpkin farm on day one of October, which grew into a very large farm/carnival over the last few weeks.

Alas, Jack allowed me to finish my Spooky collection and it was time to move on to the most coveted set in the entire game.

The Mushroom Set.

I was SO excited to see those mushrooms growing on November 1st. While I raced to tear down my Halloween decorations in real life to throw up my Christmas ones, my town, named Kore's Key, is still sporting its Spooky Carnival with some new Mush additions.

I started the first day with a new DIY from the lovely and ever so lovable Isabelle, the Mushroom wreath. Obviously, not everyone is into the mushroom DIYs, but I am part of several groups on social media where people are constantly asking for the mush log and mush lamps. On the second day I got the mush lamp DIY from a villager building, but that was the last time. Days have gone by and the only things I've managed to obtain are the wallpaper, flooring, and the forest dress (I'm wearing it in the photos) through gift exchange with my villagers, but even that has stopped. I had started to get frustrated every time my villagers were crafting something that wasn't mush related.

The mushrooms ONLY grow for the one month and after that the only way to get to them is by time traveling which is risky business since early New Horizons players reported that sometimes they would time travel and find their villagers had left without notice.

I'm not willing to risk my dream team, as you could probably see why.

So I looked into how I can get these mushroom DIYs. I still had eight more to get, and I wanted them fast.

Turns out the fastest way to get them is with balloons.

I'm not sure about how everyone else plays, but I'm not entirely adept with balloons. I was really good with them in New Leaf, I acquired every piece of balloon furniture several times over and then some, but with New Horizons I've spent so much time just learning about terraforming and crafting. It really took up a lot of time, so today I learned the secret of being able to shoot down those presents.

They spawn every five minutes.

Now I spent several hours testing the theory that I got from the internet stating that if your balloons will spawn twice within a ten minute time frame, exactly five minutes apart. So when you see a balloon, pop it, then go into Nook's about two minutes before that next five minute mark, talk to him about selling, and then either sell your undesirables, or back out. Finally, go back to the beach and five minutes from the last one, there will be another.

I tested this out just about every five minutes (I was terraforming so I forgot about it one or two times) but what I learned is that it's not always a guarantee, BUT it does work most of the times.

I've popped more balloons today than I have since I started playing back in March!

Now real quick, I'm not a video game expert or a spokesperson for Nintendo/ACNH, I'm just a normal person wanting to spread the way to access those mushroom DIY's based off of my own personal experiences through trial and error, many, many, errors.

Here are some things I noticed when trying to get the most out of your slingshot.

Start at the bottom of the beach.

Your balloons come from one direction during the day, and another direction during the night. Once you've figured out which way they're coming from you can keep an eye on the sky from the bottom, tilting your screen up so you can see further away.

I got lucky around 11:50am and realized I had a balloon flying above me near where I stash my bugs for Flick. This let me know my balloons are set to comes every five minutes from then, which helped me keep track and eased my OCD. It could have been at any minute like 11:52 and then I would of had to remember to check every five minutes from then.

Your balloon won't always spawn in the same place so be prepared to run up your beach the second that five minute mark is there but if it's not there, don't fret, it's just further up.

They can get really high in the sky.

This is one of the reasons I say it's not a guarantee because sometimes they fly really high above you and your camera struggles to see it. I lost a couple due to falling in the ocean, and not noticing them until it was too late.

You have to talk to the Nook brothers.

Whether it's to sell something or not, if you don't talk to them, the balloons don't show up at all. I got distracted trying to terraform and redo some areas within those five minutes and decided to just see if the balloons would respawn. It took fifteen minutes before I saw another one, and when I didn't talk to the brothers again, it didn't come back for a while. Lots of missed opportunities that hour, but every mistake I made lead me to being able to time it perfectly.

Doing requests for your villagers, even if you went to Nooks, keeps the balloons from coming.

Coco and Lucky had a fight, and she wanted me to give him a consolation prize. I had just come out of Nooks at the three minute mark and figured, why not? I delivered the gift in record time (going into his house) but when I got back to the beach there was no balloon. Bummer.

Eventually after hours of getting random clothes, furniture, new acorn DIYs, I started to see more Mush stuff. I got a repeat of the flooring and mush wallpaper, not to be confused with the forest wallpaper, that is BEAUTIFUL, and I got the Mush wand DIY.

This takes time and isn't always convenient.

For a method that isn't always one hundred percent guaranteed I can see why this set is considered to be so rare. I thought that getting the mushrooms would be the hardest part considering only five grow a day, and there's a rare mushroom considered VERY rare, but it's the DIYs themselves that are hard to come by.

Having a five star town helps get those more rare mushrooms.

Your timeframe is reliable.

I took a much needed break and logged on later to see if I could pick back up with the balloon farming, and voila, I got another Mush DIY. So if you want them they're there, it just takes dedication and work to complete this set, but haven't all of the different sets?

The hardest one behind the mushroom collection was probably the mermaid one considering diving for pearls isn't easy and getting all of the actual DIYs seemed impossible!

As a five star island I take pride in keeping my collections up to date and completed, but all good things come to those who wait, or to those who know the secrets and use them to their advantage.

However you use your tricks and tips, remember that there's always some poor sap out there that could use your extras so utilize those social media groups or even Nookazon and spread the Mush love.

If you need a little reminder on the different types of Balloons, here's my hottake based on what I've experienced.

Red - more likely to be DIYs and furniture/wallpaper and flooring

Blue - some DIYs, clothes, and furniture you probably already have catalogued

Yellow - Bells, Bells, and more Bells! Ya'll know that scene in Pocahontas when they realize the gold they're looking for is corn, it's like that except the yellow really does equal money.

Green - random decorations, iron/clay, and clothes. This balloon is the most random, on a lot of websites they just call it the mixed bag balloon.

I love playing Animal Crossing and through the months of getting to know New Horizons all I can say is I'm excited to be able to go on this journey with Nintendo and adapt as the game continues to have excellent updates.

As my villagers say, "Cool beans, homeskillet."