Animal Crossing New Horizons has changed the way players obtain golden roses compared to past games. With the removal of withered flowers, the new system is quite simple to understand. In this article, we will go through everything there is to learn about gold roses based on data mining conducted by Psi and Ater.
First things first, to get golden roses, you’ll need to obtain a golden watering can. To do this, you must get a 5-star town rating from Isobel, who will teach you the recipe. It takes one golden nugget and a regular watering can (not flimsy) to make, and it can be used 180 times before it breaks. The golden can waters flowers and hydrates the ground in a 3×3 square instead of a 2×3 rectangle and has the ability to create golden roses.
So, how do we get golden roses? It’s quite simple; you need to water a black rose with the golden watering can. Black roses have a hidden flag that is usually off by default. But when you water it directly with a golden watering can, it’s enabled. Only the flower in the center of the 3×3 square is flagged and not the surrounding eight. Therefore, you have to water each of the black roses directly if you want to farm them, which can quickly eat up the durability of the golden can.
It doesn’t matter if the black rose is on its own or if it’s part of a breeding pair, as long as a black rose with the golden flag turned on is used to generate a new flower. If a gold rose is produced, any black rose with the gold flag used to create the offspring has its golden flag removed and has to be watered with the golden can once again to produce more gold roses. But what if it doesn’t produce a gold rose? Well, you don’t have to re-water it with the golden can until it makes a golden rose.
The gold flag, once turned on, is indestructible. The only way the flag is cleared is if it makes a golden rose. Actions like time-traveling, producing another color of rose, and even digging up the rose to replant elsewhere will not clear the golden flag. This is why some people have found that rain has made a Golden Rose spawn. Because somewhere at some point, the black rose has had its golden flag enabled, wherever it was watered by the island owner with a golden can or a visitor. The flag remains active until a golden rose is produced, and so the rain makes the black rose spawning offspring, and it still has that 50% chance to be gold.
Once you have a golden rose, it cannot clone under any circumstance ever. If you separate it and water it alone, you’re just wasting the durability of your watering can. Two gold roses also do not produce more gold roses.
To farm lots of gold roses without quickly using up the durability of your golden can, you can exploit a mechanic in the game to make it last longer or even infinite if you’re careful enough. A watering can will only lose durability if it has to water a tile that hasn’t been watered yet that day. Therefore, if you pre-water all 9 spaces around a black rose with a regular can first and then water it with the golden watering can, the black rose still gets its flag switched on without the golden can losing its durability. At the cost of 2 normal uses of a regular watering can.
It’s important to know that a tile doesn’t have to have a flower on it to take durability away from your watering can. This means that when it rains, every tile of your Island is considered watered for you, and you can use your golden can to enable the flag on the black roses without the golden can losing durability. However, the game tracks water tiles from visiting players separately, so they will always lose durability, no matter what.
In conclusion, obtaining golden roses in Animal Crossing New Horizons is a bit different than in past games, but with a little bit of patience and strategy, you can farm them without quickly using up the durability of your golden watering can.