So, You've Helped Wisp on 'Animal Crossing' — Now What?
Updated May 5 2020, 2:16 p.m. ET
Animal Crossing: New Horizons is so full of endearing visitors even the ghosts are cute! If you've played at night enough times, chances are good you've encountered Wisp, a ghost that gets scared a lot easier than he scares others, and no matter how many times you encounter each other, he will always freak out every time you approach him. While that's bad news for him, it means you get to help him out in exchange for a gift. But how do you decide which gift to accept from him?
Here's a guide to dealing with Wisp on 'Animal Crossing.'
If it's your first time seeing Wisp, don't be scared. He may look like a ghost but, like the family in The Others, he thinks you're the ghost, and when you approach him, he will be so frightened his spirit will leave his body and split into five parts. The spirit pieces he'll ask you to collect will spread out all over your island.
Careful of other nighttime creepers, though!
The pieces look like small little flickering flames, but apparently they're quite cold. While they do move around a bit, they don't travel very fast, so it's not an endless game of chase to track them down. To collect the spirit pieces, use your bug net and snatch them out of the air. When you have found all five, track down Wisp again and talk to him once more to return the pieces to him. The grateful ghost will offer you a reward for your time.
"Something new or something expensive" — which Wisp gift do you choose?
Wisp gives you two options for the type of reward you will receive. He will usually indicate what kind of gift it will be; sometimes it will be furniture, sometimes clothing or decor for your home. No matter what category the item he offers, Wisp will ask whether you want something new or something expensive.
So which do you choose? Well, we will warn you that choosing something expensive doesn't mean you'll end up with a fancy violin or some other, equally high-dollar catalog item. As Wisp will tell you (after the fact, sadly), he doesn't have a good grasp on the value of objects and therefore you actually could end up with something cheap and on top of that, it could be something you already have, which is a real double bummer.
If you ask for something new, no matter what you receive, it's almost certain to be an item you don't yet have cataloged, meaning you have never purchased or received it during gameplay.
How often does Wisp come to my island on 'Animal Crossing'?
Wisp tends to wander onto your island once a week or so, so you'll have plenty of opportunities to bump into him and scare the buhjeezus out of him, so long as you are playing between the hours of 10 p.m. and 5 a.m. If you have an early bedtime, you might need to put on a pot of coffee or time travel by manipulating the date and time on your console to a few hours in the future.
