How to Get a Gold HHA Trophy in Animal Crossing: New Horizons
And proof Feng Shui in ACNH doesn’t work
If you have struggled (or are still struggling) to get the Gold Happy Home Academy (HHA) Trophy — like I did for a while — I’d like to offer my thoughts based on my own experimentations (I’m no data miner). I achieved an HHA score of 185k+ without the so-called (and poorly-named) “feng shui” technique.
<TL;DR>
Scroll down to “HHA Tips That Actually Work”, but you’re missing a lot of photo examples!
Feng Shui Doesn’t Work
In my initial quest to find out information on how to score more than 150,000 points, I came across loads of articles about “feng shui” (that caused more confusion and frankly didn’t work). Nothing I did up until this point worked. And, neither did “feng shui” — or at least it seemed in the way I was applying it.
Feng shui doesn’t work in ACNH — at ALL.
There seems like there is a lot of misinformation on the web — much of it bleeding over from ACNL based purely on presumptions that don’t actually work in ACNH.
As a result, “feng shui” not only makes your home hideous, but it provides zero value. In other words: “Feng shui” is a load of bunk.
Then, I stumbled on a Reddit thread that made quite a bit more sense, and prescribed actual, useful steps in addition to the “feng shui” idea on a smaller scale (via potted ivy). So, I followed Pinkandgray’s advice and it worked!
But, I wasn’t satisfied.
How and why did it work exactly? And, why were my previous attempts at “feng shui” unsuccessful?
So, I ran a little experiment which took a few weeks.
First, Successful Attempt
Using a mixture of Pinkandgray’s advice with what I thought I understood about “feng shui” and “lucky items,” I set out to get the highest score possible — higher than Pinkandgray!
And, I did it! I got a 185,063 (see post header photo)!
Main Room
My approach was to use matching furniture (same color) from a single furniture set per room, with the exception of the main room where I’d attempt some “feng shui”. The only furniture set I could get the necessary red, green and yellow colors in was the Wooden DIY set.
In addition, I added as many “lucky items” as I had on hand and could reasonably (i.e. aesthetically) fit, including a green Kanji shirt for the south wall (gotta “feng shui,” right?).
Items like the gold Bug & Fish Tournament trophies, the ring, Gulliver’s katanas, the ACNH Nintendo Switch, golden candlestick, and a koi and a pop-eyed goldfish were added. I even hung up the customized/colored potted ivy that Pinkandgray suggested and placed a seasonal item for good measure (see the Tree’s Bounty Lamp in front of my red couch?).
The North Room (Bedroom)
In my bedroom, I used all black Antique furniture suitable for a bedroom. No need to add a table and chairs, per Pinkandgray’s note about only needing one table, one wardrobe, etc. “somewhere within the house.” And, I made sure I had something hanging on the wall in every room (Pinkandgray’s suggestion as well).
The West Room (Kitchen)
In my kitchen, I opted for the Ironwood DIY set, since it afforded me the most bang-for-my-buck regarding kitchen furniture as a “full set”. Plus, I love the way the set looks.
The East Room (Guest Room)
In my guest room, I went with more Antique furniture, but this time, in brown. I had a full set in this color (thanks to some amazingly generous folks in some friendly Facebook ACNH groups).
The Upstairs Room (Living Room)
Upstairs, I built myself one of my favorite rooms: a stereotypical “masculine” living room complete with brown leather couches, a stereo, a grand piano, etc. But, instead of mixing furniture sets — which I think actually looks great sometimes (“why can’t I rattan some things?”) — I focused on the easy-to-build Wooden DIY set again.
The Basement Room
For my basement — or “man cave” — I threw all the Throwback set items I had into one, somewhat tacky, boy’s dream room. Because why not? And, “what else am I gonna do with that ridiculous Throwback Hat Table?”
First Attempt’s Mistake: Negative Points
The only problem was that in my haste, I forgot about a few gifts/items I left “dropped” on the floor!
Did this affect my score?!
So, I time-traveled back (sorry, I had to, I couldn’t wait another week over some dumb mistake) — and in the name of “science” — I picked up the items, and traveled back to the current day (Sunday).
Well, did it affect my score?!
Yes. Marginally.
Apparently the 6 gifts/items “dropped” counted against my score as a -6 points. Thus, one can safely presume this means for each item dropped in your home is a single negative point (-1).
Second Attempt: Less Feng Shui
Now that I received the Gold HHA Trophy, I could stop, satisfied. But, as I mentioned earlier, I needed to know how the scoring works. And, out of my previous frustrations with “feng shui,” does “feng shui” actually work?
For this next week, I decided to change only one variable: remove the “feng shui” furniture. I even resisted the urge to proudly display my new Gold HHA Trophy! That would have certainly added more points, and affected my experiment.
So, to limit the variables changing, only the stuff I felt I introduced to the equation (by mixing my reading about “feng shui” with Pinkandgray’s suggestions) were swapped.
Everything else about my house stayed exactly the same (even the “feng shui” customized potted ivy and my green Kanji shirt on the south wall), I customized my Wooden DIY furniture back to dark brown, and I put it back in the exact same place. I even swapped out the yellow and red argyle rugs for equally-sized brown wavy rugs.
All the other rooms remained untouched.
My hypothesis
If I changed the amount of “feng shui,” it wouldn’t affect my score, because I didn’t believe “feng shui” worked based on all my previous, ugly attempts before reading Pinkandgray’s post. If I was wrong, however, I might discover how much “feng shui” is needed. Just the potted ivy? Or the furniture too?
The result
Same. Exact. Score. 185,069 points.
This proves “feng shui” furniture has no real affect on your HHA score.
Third Attempt: Zero Feng Shui
To go even further on proving that “feng shui” in ACNH is a load of garbage, I decided on my third and final trial: to remove all “feng shui.” To do this without changing too many variables again, I had to swap out the colored/customized potted ivy and the green Kanji shirt with their respective, “un-feng shui-d” versions — in the exact same spot.
The result
The. Exact. Same. Score. Again. 185,069 points.
Conclusion: Feng Shui Sucks
“Feng shui” in ACNH doesn’t actually help your score. In fact, the only thing “feng shui” does is make your rooms look terrible — which, ironically, is not feng shui at all.
HHA Tips That Actually Work
So, borrowing concepts from Pinkandgray’s post — and improving on them — I’ve arrived at the following tips will actually get you that Happy Home Academy Gold Trophy:
- Fully expanded home. You need all six (6) rooms to score the most points possible. Makes sense, right?
- Theme each room: make sure each room has matching furniture, from the same set in the same color. Each room can showcase a different set, but mismatching furniture in a single room will count against you.
- Matching floors and walls. From my reading (though I didn’t test this variable), it seems matching wallpaper and flooring gives you extra points. Though, I didn’t hold to this precisely, because I didn’t have complete matching sets for each room (as you can see in my photos). But, I tried to make them look good, at least.
- More furniture equals more points. The more pieces you can fit aesthetically in a room, the better. There’s no need to go overboard, like adding a kitchen table to a bedroom (unless that’s how you roll).
- “Have the essentials”. Per Pinkandgray’s advice, it seems logical that having at least one essential furniture piece somewhere in your house is important. I read this as “have a kitchen, a bedroom, etc.” Make the rooms realistic (see tip #4).
- Wall hangings. Make sure each room has something on at least one wall. I didn’t test this variable either, but per tip #4, it would make sense that adding “furniture” to the walls increases your score (and makes for a nice home).
- Furniture with a “front” and “back” must face the appropriate way. Earlier in my failed, hasty attempts at “feng shui,” I accidentally place a mirror backwards only to receive an HHA letter telling me this specific rule (and that I earned negative points for that mirror). In some of my reading, I’ve found that a lot of people misinterpret this “facing front” as meaning the furniture must face the south camera. However, it just means not facing a wall, like my mirror mistake.
- Bonus points can be earned from “lucky items”, Mom’s items, and seasonal items. Though, I didn’t test this either, because I wasn’t sure of the appropriate way to “control” this variable in my experiment. There’s a reasonable assumption, too, that other special items like Gulliver’s or Celeste’s space items have higher point values too.
- Deducted points come from any “non-furniture” items or “dropped” items, like DIYs, gifts, cockroaches (of course), etc. in addition to backward-facing furniture (see tip #7).
- No need to “feng shui” any room — even your main room. In my experiment, changing this one variable had no affect on my HHA score.
I hope you found this all helpful! And, if you do experiments of your own, I’d love to learn about them too. Cheers!