Balloons

Note: If you came to this page looking for information about balloons from Phineas in the City, that page is located here.

Balloons occasionally float over your town with a present attached. You'll hear a wind noise when there's one nearby. If you hear the noise and can't see a balloon, try moving around and pressing up on the d-pad to look up. Balloons can be shot down with a slingshot. If the player retreats into their home or Tom Nook's store to quickly obtain a slingshot after they see/hear it nearby, the balloon with disappear when they come back outside. The only way to shoot down a balloon is to have your slingshot in your pockets at the time you see/hear it. When you see the balloon, stand underneath it where the shadow is, and shoot it down by clicking A. The present will then fall to the ground.

When you open the present that was attached, you may get a regular piece of furniture, or you might find a piece of the 8-Bit Mario Theme (besides hacking or online trading, balloons are the only way to obtain this series). When you shoot the balloon down, be careful that it is not over water, or over an area where there are no blank tiles (e.g. where patterns have been laid on the ground, or where there are lots of flowers growing) as the present will simply vanish when it lands. Also if you see a balloon, do not go inside a building! The balloon will vanish and you will not be able to obtain that present.

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The easiest way to find a balloon is to wait for the time to end in a 5 (X:05, X:15, X:25, etc.) and simply walk up and down the eastern and western borders of your town by the cliffs. If a balloon has appeared you will either see the balloon itself or hear the sound of wind signifying it is nearby. The balloons will appear on either the 16th, 32nd or 48th tile from the top (i.e. on the borders of sectors as used in Perfect Town). At least one balloon appears each hour.

After you've shot down at least eight balloons, there is a chance that you will find an item attached to three golden balloons ("three-balloon" balloon). This item is the Golden Slingshot. Unlike other balloon items, this item is not inside a present, but is just attached to the three balloons. The ninth item shot down may not be the golden slingshot, but any balloon item from number nine and on has a chance of being a golden slingshot.

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The present you get will either be something from the Mario Theme, or a regular item you could buy from Nook's (see here for a list of regular items people have obtained from balloons).