Posted December 03, 2023 by 3 Halves Games
It's been years since we released our first game, Animal Crackers, and for years people have asked us for a guide. At the time, back in 2015, we weren't so keen on sharing secrets for games and wanted to encourage players to explore and discover. There were external conversations trying to find and document steps to achieve the best ending, which we really enjoyed watching. That said, it being the end of 2023 now at the time of writing, a guide is long, long overdue.
In the game, your goal is to go around and prepare a party. To do this, you must gather eight collectibles:
Each collectible has a score value associated with whether or not it is liked or disliked by the President. There are four endings in the game: Worst, Bad, Good, and Best. These endings are obtained as follows:
Broadly, if the cumulative value of your eight collectibles is positive, you get the Good ending, and if negative, you end the Bad ending, with exceptions existing for the Worst and Best endings.
We will go through every single item in the game, how to get them, and what their score value is. Even if an item isn't good for the party, it still may be fun to show it to the President to see her reaction!
There are a handful of quests in the game, including the one necessary to get the Best Ending. This section details all of them, step-by-step.
Al is the cow that works at Bee Industries, forced to wear a bee costume, who hates his job. When you talk to him, you will hear a mystery jingle play, implying that there is a quest for him. His quest is easy to complete: talk to him with Black Coffee in your inventory. If you do so, you will get extra dialogue explaining a rather unfortunate incident he had with a pot of coffee.
Talk to Olivine at the Dragon Emporium to learn about a missing shipment for the Golden Goddess Statue. Following that, talk to Ren at Starling Boutique to learn that the package might be with a different flying animal. Afterwards, talk to the Winged Mythical Panda to convince them to finish the delivery of the item. Talk to Olivine once more to learn that they got the wrong shipment, a Crystal Goddess Statue instead of a Golden Goddess Statue. This will spawn the item on the counter for you to pick up.
The Lily of the Valley is a necessary item to collect in order to get the Best Ending in the game.
To start the quest, talk to Lilia. You will want to start the quest with as few collectibles in your inventory, because if you reach 6 collectibles without finishing the quest, the quest will be impossible to complete, as the lily will have wilted.
After starting the quest, collect the Sunflowers near her. Then, to learn more about flowers broadly, go talk to Harold McCormick. If done right, he will tell you about how an Island Water can help preserve the flower. Go to Octomart and pick the item up, then return to Lilia to provide the water to her.
At this point, Lilia is hungry, but cannot leave to tending the flower lest it wilt, so it is up to you to feed her. If you pick up the Milk near Geoff, you will learn from him that Lilia's favorite food is pears. Thus, you will want to pick up the Bartlett Pear. To do this, you must first have 4 collectibles in your inventory, and you will need to have not ever picked up a fruit prior to this.
Take the Bartlett Pear to Slow Dancer to have her process it into Pear Jam, then talk to Lilia again. She will eat the jam and, thankful for your help and for even bringing her the food she loves the most, she will tell you to come back in the evening. After you fill your inventory with 8 collectibles, talk to Lilia again, upon which she will drop the Lily of the Valley. If you talk to her again after that, she will give you a lot of hints about the significance of this flower for the President.
There are four endings in the game. With all the information on the items and quests given above, we can now showcase each and every one, and the conditions necessary to unlock them.
Invite Brother Bear to the party without meeting the requirements for the Best Birthday.
Have the cumulative score of your items sum up to below -1.
The default ending, meet no other conditions for the other endings.
You will need a specific set of collectibles in your inventory to meet the requirements for this ending.
Many of these items are time-limited. Here's an efficient route to ensure you get everything you need in time.
Above is an example of an inventory that will give you the Best Ending.
Each of these items has a special significance for the President, all of which is explained by various characters in the game if you spend time to talk to them. The item categories not listed, such as Main Course, can be whatever you want--even bad items!
And that, finally, is all of it! Thank you so much for playing Animal Crackers! ♥