For ease of access, I have taken the popular Fresh from NewArbor Guide to Breeding Hybrids and given it its own page. Gone are the days of scrolling through the archive to find it because it now has its own handy tab at the top! If you still long for the nostalgia of the original post, click here.

Animal Crossing New Leaf Hybrid Guide

I absolutely love hybrids! Most Animal Crossing players do. Breeding them can be tricky business for those new to Animal Crossing, so here is a basic guide.

Arranging the Flowers

There are many different placement patterns to breed hybrids. However, the one that I have found to work the best is what I call the "Checkerboard Pattern."

In the Checkerboard Pattern, flowers are arranged so that they form a "checkerboard," alternating flowers and empty spaces. In the diagram below, an "o" represents a flower, and an "x" represents and empty spot.

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Some hybrids arranged in the Checkerboard Pattern.

One of the best things about this placement is that if you are breeding hybrids for more hybrids, it is easy to tell if a new one has grown because there will be an obvious disruption in the pattern.

Something to Note: Your animal villagers will plant flowers. With this pattern, they tend to plant them in the center of the checkerboard in the empty spaces and disrupt the pattern. These excess flowers will need to be removed to increase the chance of a hybrid spawning in that spot.

Combinations

Many different combinations of regular flowers will breed hybrids. Bidoof Crossing has an excellent chart illustrating the different combinations of hybrids. Click here to see their chart.

However, the most effective way of breeding hybrids is still to simply start with two of the hybrids that you are planning on breeding more of. You might want to try buying them on one of the online Animal Crossing forums, such as the Bell Tree Forums, or borrowing them from a friend until you can breed your own pair.

Watering and the Beautiful Town Ordinance

Watering is essential for breeding hybrids. You could describe it as the trigger that tells the game to spawn them. I would suggest only watering your hybrids and the flowers that you are using to breed hybrids to decrease your chance of spawning more normal flowers.

One common misconception is if you have the Beautiful Town Ordinance, you don't have to water your flowers at all. This isn't the case if you plan on breeding hybrids. Although you don't have to water the flowers to keep them alive, you should do so anyway. As stated above, watering acts like the trigger to spawn hybrids, and without it, the odds of spawning one are not in your favor.

I certainly know that watering flowers can be quite a chore if you have the normal watering can, but it is still essential. It will only take you 25 days to get a silver watering can if your buy flowers from Lief everyday.

Fertilizer

Fertilizer is a wonderful asset to any hybrid gardener. Fertilizer increases the output of hybrid breeding significantly. The best way to use fertilizer is like this, where o  is a flower, x is an empty spot, and f is the fertilizer:

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As you can see in the chart above, the fertilizer should be buried in the center of a field of flowers. This way, it is able to affect a large number of hybrids, and produce the maximum output of hybrids.

To conclude...

The best way to arrange hybrids is in the Checkerboard Pattern. The best way to breed a specific hybrid is to get two of that type in order to breed more. Watering is essential, even with the Beautiful Town Ordinance. Fertilizer is a wonderful addition to your hybrid breeding arsenal, and I would begin using it as soon as you can get your hands on some!

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