How your face is decided in Animal Crossing on GameCube

Rover asks you three questions on the train. Your answers pick one of eight faces from a lookup table. This page is that table, read out of the game's code rather than worked out by trial and error.

The short answer

There are eight faces for each gender. Three of Rover's questions each set one bit of a three-bit number, and that number is an index into a fixed table of eight faces. Nothing is random, nothing is weighted, and no face is rarer than another.

There is a fourth question, and it is the one that decides whether any of that counts. Near the end Rover asks whether you have money. Answer "Just a little..." and the table below is used. Answer "Oh, yeah!" and the game throws your three answers away and picks a face at random from all eight.

What the eight faces look like

Every face, labelled with the number the table below uses, on one character so only the face changes between them. We took these ourselves by writing each face index into a save and running the game.

The eight face types in Animal Crossing on GameCube on the same character, each labelled with its face number from 0 to 7.

The table

Find your three answers on the left and read off the face. This assumes you told Rover you have "Just a little..." money; say "Oh, yeah!" instead and none of it applies.

The face assigned for each combination of answers to Rover's three questions, by gender
Mind if I sit here?	What are you going for?	Where's your new place?	Male	Female
Please!	I'm moving.	Don't know yet.	Face 5	Face 0
Please!	I'm moving.	Leave me alone!	Face 6	Face 5
Please!	What's it to ya?	Don't know yet.	Face 1	Face 2
Please!	What's it to ya?	Leave me alone!	Face 4	Face 6
No way!	I'm moving.	Don't know yet.	Face 0	Face 4
No way!	I'm moving.	Leave me alone!	Face 2	Face 7
No way!	What's it to ya?	Don't know yet.	Face 7	Face 3
No way!	What's it to ya?	Leave me alone!	Face 3	Face 1

If you skip the questions

There is a second, quieter rule underneath. Before Rover says anything, a new player is given a starting face chosen at random from the faces no other player in the town is already using. Rover's answers then overwrite it. So in a town with several players, a face assigned before that point is deduplicated against your housemates.

Changing your face later

The original game gives you no way to change your face after the train. On this site you can: the character editor shows all eight faces and nine skin tones on your own character, and writes the one you pick straight into your town.

That editor is something we added. It is not part of the GameCube game.

Pick your face

Or read how house upgrades work.