Time travel is a fun topic to explore, and it’s one of my favorite plot types in fiction. When it comes to video games, it’s been popularized by Animal Crossing players as a way to access additional content sooner than they would have by playing normally.

I have previously taken advantage of time traveling in Animal Crossing over the years, although New Horizons wasn’t my favorite. I’ve played a lot of Disney Dreamlight Valley and the recently released Hello Kitty Island Adventure though, and with them come some warnings about time travel.

Animal Crossing does have its own disadvantages to time travel, but I suppose the Time Variance Authority has decided to preserve Hello Kitty’s “Sacred Timeline” in Hello Kitty Island Adventure by blocking access to multiplayer for those who try to mess with time.

They do warn players about this, but as I’ve seen on several posts, some players do not end up seeing the message before it’s too late. Additionally, players who share a Switch with others may need to ensure that their family/friends do not time travel on the shared console.

In the Discord server for the game, the FAQs indicate that traveling and switching time zones shouldn’t do anything to your save. Additionally, they said that “as long as you do not open Hello Kitty Island Adventure while your time is manipulated, it should not affect your save file.”

Sunblink support has allegedly stated that players must wait the amount of time they time traveled for the game to “catch up.” Then it will begin to offer daily quests and resource spawns again.

If true, it may be worth waiting until your save is fixed that way instead of having to start the game from the beginning again. (Of course, this depends on how far ahead you’ve traveled…)

It’s my understanding that the fix is similar for Disney Dreamlight Valley. Some people have said that you can time travel in Animal Crossing: New Horizons and then restore the system to the correct time again before playing Hello Kitty Island Adventure or Disney Dreamlight Valley and your save files will be fine.

But in my opinion, it’s far too risky. At some point, you’ll likely forget to change the time back once and mess up your files for both games. But ultimately, it’s your decision.

Tips to Speed Things Up Without Time Travel

Hello Kitty Island Adventure

Blossoms & Bouquets

One way to move things along more quickly in HKIA is to use the blossom and bouquet items you get (usually as a daily reward from My Melody).

Options include:

• Friendship Blossom: give to a friend to reset their daily gift allotment, allowing you to give them an additional 3 gifts
• Friendship Bouquet: resets the daily gift allotment for all friends. Warns you if you haven’t given gifts to some characters already that day so you don’t waste this item
  • Deluxe Friendship Bouquet: same as above; unsure what the difference is?
• Island Bouquet: resets resources around the island to make them respawn
  • Deluxe Island Bouquet: same as above?

The Friendship Blossoms and Bouquets are a good way to quickly increase friendship levels so that you can access some quests and items sooner.

The stock in the clothing and furniture stores changes daily, and you must have the materials for each item on hand that same day to buy them. Otherwise, you’ll miss out on the item until it comes back to the shop. Resources in this game don’t respawn on the same day, but if you use Island Bouquets, you can really stock up on materials!

Deluxe Edition

The standard version of HKIA is $39.99, but if you spend an extra $20 to purchase the Deluxe Edition you’ll gain access to a massive amount of clothing and furniture items from events in previous years. (Plus some bouquets and crafting materials!)

I have the Deluxe Edition and am quite happy with it, as you can only get a few pieces of clothing and furniture in the shops every day. With the Deluxe Edition, you do have to complete a few quests first to unlock access to these items, but you’ll have a lot more to work with than you would have otherwise.

Multiplayer

You’ll need a Nintendo Switch Online subscription to play multiplayer in HKIA. It is possible to collect materials on the host’s island, but be polite and ask first!!!

Once you’ve completed the first multiplayer friendship task, players should be able to gift each other “most furniture and most non-clothing items.”

Disney Dreamlight Valley

Growth Elixirs

Certain quests require you to plant something, which means waiting for that item to finish growing. Once you’ve unlocked the Sunlit Plateau and have access to the Vitalys Mines, you can mine for the Vitalys Crystals necessary to make either the Miracle Growth Elixir or the Even More Miraculous Growth Elixir.

When you use the elixirs, watering crops will cause them to finish growing immediately, and you won’t have to wait several hours – or even days – for the item(s) you need!

Multiplayer Shopping Spree

Newer players don’t tend to have as much decor for their houses or a full wardrobe of clothes yet. In multiplayer, you can go to Scrooge’s Store when you visit another player’s Valley and purchase any items that are on display.

Apparently only one person can purchase that specific item from the host’s store, but there are many kind players out there who will help you find what you’re looking for. You will need to have a Nintendo Switch Online subscription to use the multiplayer feature, but using it can help you get ahead with furniture and clothes without risking your save with time travel.

In Conclusion…

Every gamer has their own preferred play style, and many do enjoy time traveling to get ahead. Others may consider it “cheating.” Regardless of one’s stance, the fact of the matter is that players time travel at their own risk in these games.

Sunblink and Gameloft continue to work on their games, providing players with additional content and requested features. I don’t know too much about programming, but I don’t imagine that it would be very easy to figure out how to let players time travel without breaking their saves in addition to the aforementioned work they’re already putting in.

The risks of time traveling won’t change any time soon, but if you decide to do it anyway, be careful! I think Hello Kitty Island Adventure and Disney Dreamlight Valley are both a lot of fun; I’ve put more than 50 hours into HKIA since its launch on Switch, and over 800 (!!!) hours into DDV. I hope you continue to enjoy them, and if you ever get impatient, try the tips listed above! 💕