Tools

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Tools are handheld items in Animal Crossing that use the "Use" button to perform various tasks, such a digging a hole, catching an insect, or watering flowers. There are 8 tools in Animal Crossing: New Leaf, and all of them (with exception for the Megaphone and Timer) have silver and gold varieties. To quickly access tools in Animal Crossing: New Leaf, press the +Directional Pad to the left or right.  Pressing left or right again will swap between the tools that you have in your pockets.  Press the +Directional Pad down to put the current tool back into your pocket.

Megaphone

The Megaphone is an item exclusive to New Leaf that is used with the 3DS's microphone to call villagers, as well as any special characters that may be outside. The villager or special character will respond once their name is called, alerting the player where they are located in a chat bubble like the multiplayer chat bubbles.

Villagers who are inside their homes, awake or asleep, will not react. Also, if the player is near the villager they are calling, the player can see them being shocked, and if they are directly next to the villager, he or she will become angry at the player for yelling in their ear.

The player can also use the megaphone as an alternative to waking up Gulliver, and he will quickly get up and react as if he were still on a ship. When used while Gulliver is in town, but the player is not on the beach, a message reading "No answer..." will appear. And if a snowman is called during every other season besides winter, the message "There aren't any snowmen around this time of year!" appears.

Timer

The Timer is a tool that made its debut in Animal Crossing: Wild World. It is used to set a countdown for either 3, 5, 10, or 15 minutes. This can be done by selecting the timer's icon in the player's pocket, tapping "Time", and then the desired amount of time. Once a time has been set, a blue bar displaying "Start timer!" appears, a long with the sound of a whistle. The timer may be stopped at any time by tapping it's icon again and selecting "Stop". The blue bar will appear again, with "Stop timer!" and another whistle blow.

Timers are often used in Wi-Fi multiplayer sessions, during custom games, or fishing, bug catching, or deep-sea creature diving contests. A useful feature of the timer, other than counting time, is that it can display how many fish, bugs, or deep-sea creatures each player has caught. When the timer ends, chat bubbles showing how many of each were caught appear above all players, so one player may see how many creatures another has caught. The timer also works while not playing multiplayer.

The timer is also used by Tortimer during tours on the island, and has the same function. However, it will only keep track of one specific type of item, the item relating to the tour the player is doing. For example, if the player is playing a fossil hunting tour, the timer shows how many fossils. If they are on one of the item-matching tours, the number of pairs of furniture left to match is displayed.