Animal Crossing has long had a collaboration with Mario, with items from the classic platforming game being available for players' homes since Animal Crossing: Population Growing. With Animal Crossing: New Horizons being the biggest entry in the series to date, it was only fitting that the Mario items added would hit another level.
One item, in particular, has stood out in the collection: Mario's classic Warp Pipe. In past Animal Crossing games, this pipe would sit in the player's room with a Piranha Plant occupying it. Now, New Horizons allows players to use it as an actual teleportation device around their island. Because of this, there's a lot of ideas of how to use this new mechanic.
10 Establish Four Island Corners
One of the downsides to the warp pipes is that using more than two on the island means that the game will randomly decide which one the player comes out of each time. That said, even having the pipes available is a quick way to get from one side of the island to the other without having to run into any obstacles. Getting four pipes and establishing one at each of the island's four corners could help in zipping between different sections and making navigation a little bit easier in a town that is filled with decorations.
9 Fall Down Into A Pipe
For visual purposes, it's understandable not wanting to have a pipe just sitting in the middle of the island decor, especially when it doesn't quite match. Luckily, if players are on a higher tier, players could place the pipe below them and surround it with cliffs so that it doesn't stand out. Then, while walking around on the second tier, players can just walk right on top of the pipe in order to activate the teleportation. It may look a little weird that players are just randomly disappearing into the ground, but it's worth it to keep a certain style.
8 Make Accessing Gardens Easier
Fencing has become a massive part of decorating in Animal Crossing, but unless it's absolutely unnecessary to enter a specific area, players tend to not close off areas that have fences around them. This can change with the addition of the pipe.
Players who are looking to grow out gardens but wanting to keep them enclosed in a fenced-in area can place a pipe inside the fences so it can be used as the main entranceway. It can easily make the gardens look prettier and more private this way.
7 Teleport To Your Interior
While bouncing around outside using the pipes can be a lot of fun, the one really cool mechanic is the ability to easily reach the interior of the player's home by using the pipes. If players are on a different part of the island and quickly want to unload important things in their inventory. they can hop into a pipe and enter their home to go through their storage. Then when they are done, they can go back through the pipe back to where they originally were.
6 Create An Island With One Entry
The ability to create rivers in the game has made it possible for people to place an island in the middle of the bigger island. The problem is, the island doesn't look as exclusive with bridges attached to it. With the pipes, players can tear down those bridges and teleport back and forth between the mainland and the smaller island. Cutting off the bridges may even cut-off access to any potential villagers, so it truly is a personal paradise that is reminiscent of growing to an island using Nook Miles.
5 Stand Above The Town Without Interference
In a similar vein as the island, players can even create their own towering oasis to escape to without the worry of outside contact. Warp pipes work on all town levels, meaning players can enter a pipe on the first tier and travel to a pipe on the third tier of the island. Knowing this, players can place a pipe on a piece of land that is high-up and get to it from below. This way, players don't even need to spend the cash to place inclines or worry about getting to it by using a ladder.
4 Play Guessing Games With Friends
As mentioned earlier, there is no formula as to which warp pipe a player will teleport to unless there are only two warp pipes placed on the island. Because of this, it could be fun to take advantage of a randomized system.
Since pipes work in multiplayer, players can invite friends over and have some laughs with them. Set up an area in town with a bunch of warp pipes and designate someone as the person who uses the pipe. Take guesses as to which pipe the person will come out of and see who gets it right the most.
3 Disguise The Pipe As Other Locations Or Items
There are plenty of unique ways to make the warp pipes blend into their environment, but one way that can make it look really cool is if players disguised the area around the pipes to make it look like a different mode of transportation. An example of this could be having stairs going down to a hidden pipe to make it look like entering a subway. Players can even make other items appear to be doing the teleportation, such as hiding pipes behind lighthouses or silos.
2 Recreate Mario Levels
The most obvious suggestion, but one that is potentially the coolest, is using the pipes to recreate actual Mario levels. The easiest level to use is World 1-1 as it is the least complicated, but it also gives players the opportunity to actually have the pipes be usable. Players can create a strip of land where people could run down pretending to be in a Mario game, then allow them to use the pipe to enter a room in the player's house where they can "collect" coins and then leave.
1 Create The Perfect Pose
Beyond just letting people use the pipes for teleportation, the warp pipes in the game actually allow players to temporarily become Mario. This is because there is a brief moment after players resurface that they jump into the air and land. If players are able to snap a photo at the right time, they can capture their character posing like Mario hopping out of a pipe. This has led to some wild shots of players high in the air, something that wasn't possible prior to the warp pipe addition.