The Happy Room Academy (HRA) returns in Animal Crossing: Wild World! Roughly once a week, the HRA finds the time to sneak into your house, inspect your interior design, and then ships a letter off to you with the points your design earned. The HRA, however, never bothers to tell you the mysterious criteria they're using to grade your room. Be confused no more: Animal Crossing Ahead has produced a breakdown of how the HRA tallies their scores. Enjoy!

This page was revised in January 2006 thanks to extensive research done by Liquefy. Liquefy determined that the HRA scores printed in the Nintendo Power Official Guide to Animal Crossing: Wild World were incorrect; they instead corresponded to Animal Crossing for the Nintendo Gamecube. After gathering information from Oideyo Doubutsu no Mori guides, Liquefy conducted numerous experiments and verified the accurate HRA point awards for the North American version of the game and submitted revisions to this guide on January 19th. The scoring tables reflect Liquefy's research. Liquefy also explained how to score color and genre.

To understand the HRA there are some basic definitions you need to know:

Series: A group of ten, matching, traditional furniture pieces, with accompanying wallpaper and carpet. A Series includes such items as beds, lamps, and tables. An example of a Series is the Classic Series. Series include the Necessities of Life.

Themes: A large or medium sized group of related items, with an accompanying wallpaper and carpet. Unlike Series, Themes consist of unconventional furniture. An example of a Theme is the Boxing Theme. The furniture reflects what one might find in a boxing arena rather than in a regular house.

Sets: A small group of related items, sometimes containing as few as two or three pieces. Furniture sets do not have matching wallpaper or carpet. An example of a set is the Froggy set, consisting of only a Froggy Chair and a Lily-pad Table.

Categories: Categories are large groups of related items that may include smaller sets. There are four different Categories in Animal Crossing: Wild World. These consist of Musical Instruments, Plants, Paintings, or Models. Plants, for example, may contain single, unmatched pieces as the lady palm, but also contain all the pieces of the complete Bonsai Sets. Since you need at least eight pieces from a single Category to receive a Category Bonus, if you were to place an entire three piece Bonsai Set in a room with five additional Plants, you would receive a Category Bonus and a Complete Set Bonus.

Necessities of Life: These are the four pieces of furniture the HRA deems necessary for any house: Table, chair, wardrobe, and a dresser OR bureau.

Color: Every item has two colors. Colors are designated as yellow, green, red, blue, pink, orange, colorful, gray, black, white and brown. Items that have a color of yellow, red, or green can be placed in designated Feng Shui yellow, red, or green areas of your room. Arranging yellow, red, and green items in their corresponding areas will not only bring you luck, but a Feng Shui Bonus from the HRA. In general, items placed on the south side of the room should be green and will bring more luck concerning items, items placed on the west side of the room should be yellow and will bring more luck concerning money, and lastly, items placed on the east side of the room should be red and will bring more luck concerning items, as well. Items set in corners can cover more than one Feng Shui color and receive double bonuses if applicable; for example, a Glow Clock (yellow/green) set in the southwest corner of the room. When animals ask for certain colored items they are refering to these colors. Regarding floating presents, the color of a balloon will also correspond to one of the colors of the present it carries.

The HRA Color Bonus (different from the Feng Shui placement bonus) is calculated per room; there must be at least ten items in the room to be eligible for a color bonus. Additionally, a certain percentage of the room must be of a certain color. Bonuses are awarded for color percentages in excess of 70% or 90%. However, if you meet the 90% color criterion, you will not be awarded an additional 70% bonus. When calculating this fraction or percent, you count both colors of each item in the room.

As an example, let's use the Robo Series. Here are the color designations of the ten items of the Robo Series:

Example Calculation

Item Colors Robo Bed gray/blue Robo Dresser gray/gray Robo Closet gray/gray Robo Sofa gray/blue Robo Chair gray/gray Robo Table gray/gray Robo Stereo gray/blue Robo TV gray/gray Robo Clock gray/black Robo Lamp gray/green

The count of each color is as follows: gray (15), blue (3), black (1), green (1). To calculate the Gray bonus, divide the gray "count" by the total color "count" in the room. The result is 15/20 or 75%. This result is compared against the HRA Color bonus thresholds:

In the example, a room with the ten Robo Series items would get a HRA Color bonus of 2,000 points (= 200 x 10).

Genre: There are four genres of furniture: Modern, old school, Lovely, or Chic. Items can be either Modern or old school, OR Lovely or Chic. An item can not be Modern AND old school or Lovely AND Chic. You need to have 10 items in a room to be eligible for a Genre Bonus. Genre Bonuses are calculated for the percentage of Modern vs. old school pieces and Lovely vs. Chic pieces. Thus, unlike color, you can receive two Genre Bonuses per room. Genre bonuses are calculated similarly to how HRA Color Bonuses are calculated. Let's revisit the Robo Series:

Example Calculation

Item Genre Robo Bed modern/lovely Robo Dresser modern/lovely Robo Closet modern/lovely Robo Sofa modern/lovely Robo Chair modern/lovely Robo Table modern/lovely Robo Stereo modern/lovely Robo TV modern/lovely Robo Clock modern/lovely Robo Lamp modern/lovely

The genre count is as follows: modern (10) vs. old school (0) and lovely (10) vs. chic (0). The percentage of modern furniture is 100%, qualifying for the 90% bonus. The percentage of lovely furniture is also 100%, qualifying for the 90% bonus. The following bonuses apply for either Modern vs. old school or Lovely vs. Chic.

In the example, a room with the ten Robo Series items would get a Modern Genre Bonus of 3,000 points (= 300 x 10) and a Lovely Genre Bonus of 3,000 points (= 300 x 10).

Lucky Items: Lucky items are a group of items that have a special Feng Shui value. They increase your luck regardless of where they are set in the house. Lucky items that also have Feng Shui colors can also receive Feng Shui Bonuses in addition to Lucky Bonuses. For example, a Lucky Cat (which has yellow Feng Shui) if placed on the yellow side of the room will receive a Feng Shui Placement Bonus and a Lucky Bonus.

Lucky Items

Arwing Garden Gnome Lucky Cat Raccoon Figurine Big Festive Treee Ivory Piano Master Sword Samurai Suit Birthday Cake Jack-in-the-Box Music Box Treasure Chest Dracaena Lefty Lucky Cat Piggy Bank Triforce Festive Tree Lovely Phone Pikmin Washer/Dryer Four-Leaf Clover Lucky Black Cat Portrait

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All items that have a function must be able to be used. For example, if you have a dresser in a room, a player must be able open the dresser without having to move it in order to receive full HRA points. Smaller items set on tables must be placed such that a player can use the item from at least one side of the table.

In Animal Crossing for Nintendo Gamecube you could not put a chair up against a table without the HRA deducting points. This was because a chair could only be sat upon when a player was facing its front. This has been changed in Animal Crossing: Wild World. You can now sit on a chair from the front or the side. This does not necessarily apply to couches, so always check to see if you can sit on seats.

Items with faces, such as dharmas and gyroids, must never face the wall. To clarify--yes, items will always face a wall, but they must not be placed directly up against a wall and facing it. Players commonly place gyroids next to the entry way so the player can see their faces as he or she walks in. The wall there is invisible to the player, but the HRA can see it. Items such as character pictures should never face another item if they are set on a table.

Items should not be left on the floor if they can be put away in a cabinet or placed on a table.

Common items, such as those that can be regularly purchased at Tom Nook's shop, do not generally bring in a lot of HRA points. Usually, rarer items, like those obtained from special visitors, are worth more HRA points. Lucky items are worth a lot of HRA points.

The HRA gives Bonus points if the majority of furniture in a room is of a certain color, such as blue or white, or of a certain genre, such as modern or chic.

The HRA examines your entire house, excluding your attic (the save room).

To determine the special features of a furniture item, look it up on the Master Item List.

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HRA guidelines may not yield a room that's fully "you," but there is a point to following them. The first time you achieve certain HRA scores, the HRA will send you a present in the mail with your report letter. Below is a table of rewards you will receive at certain scores.

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