Author: Trafficblast

One of the many quirks to island life in Animal Crossing: New Horizons is that balloons carrying presents will periodically float overhead. These balloon gifts can contain a variety of items, from crafting materials to bells to rare DIY recipes, and you can even farm balloons to get the gifts you want–provided you have some patience. While there’s no specific way to get balloons to spawn on your island, there are specific times and locations they’ll spawn. Below we detail where and when you can look for balloons, what you can expect to get from them, and more.

For more Animal Crossing tips, be sure to check out our lists of all the fish and bugs you can catch in the game. For even more advanced tips, check out our full turnip stalk market guide and our guide to terraforming.

Balloon Basics: How To Pop Balloons

As you go about your business you may see a balloon floating by–or you might hear it first, since balloons have a windy sort of sound to them. When you encounter a balloon, pull out your slingshot–which you can craft yourself or buy at Nook’s Cranny–line yourself up underneath the balloon, and shoot. If your aim is correct, the balloon will pop and the gift will fall to the ground.

Be careful about where you shoot balloons, though. If you pop a balloon while it’s floating over water, you run the risk of the gift falling into the water and disappearing. The gift can also disappear if it falls in a patch of flowers or weeds that’s too big for it to safely bounce out of–there needs to be at least one free space in the vicinity for it to land in, including spaces covered in paths so long as they don’t have any furniture or other items on them.

Types Of Balloon Gifts And Balloon Color

There are four colors of regular balloons: red, yellow, green, and blue. These balloons can contain a variety of items, including:

• Furniture
• Clothing and accessories
• Crafting materials (ex. clay)
• Bags of bells (amount varies)
• DIY recipes

You may have heard that the color of the balloon determines what’s in its gift–that yellow balloons always contain bells, for example–but that’s not true, at least with the normal balloons. While we can’t be sure that it’s completely random, it’s absolutely possible to get furniture from a yellow balloon instead of bells (for instance), and you shouldn’t ignore certain colors if you’re hoping to get a specific type of item.

There are some event balloons, however, like the striped Bunny Day balloons you may have seen in the beginning of April, that only contain event-related items. In this case, it’s fair to assume that color determines what’s in the gift!

How To Get The Golden Slingshot

There is one other type of balloon, and it’s ultra-rare. This golden balloon contains a special DIY recipe for a golden slingshot. It’s one of several golden tools you can acquire in the game, and while it still breaks, it lasts a lot longer than your average slingshot.

It appears that the golden balloon doesn’t appear until after you’ve popped over 300 other balloons. Once you unlock that Nook Miles reward, keep your eyes on the skies!

When And Where Balloons Spawn

If you’re wondering how to get balloons to your island, we haven’t yet tested any methods to force spawn conditions for them the way players do when they farm tarantulas. Luckily, it’s pretty simple to determine when a balloon will appear, so you won’t have to spend all your time looking upward if you’re trying to get balloon gifts. You just have to know the spawn rules.

First, balloons always spawn from the edge of the screen and will come in from over the ocean. Depending on the orientation of your island, they’ll come in from one direction during the day (5 AM to 6 PM) and the other direction at night (6 PM to 5 AM). For example, my island is left-oriented–the pier is on the left side of my island–so balloons spawn from right to left in the morning and from left to right at night. It seems to be the reverse for island layouts in which the pier is on the right side, but if you aren’t sure, just keep an eye out for a balloon and see which direction it’s headed.

Second, balloons only spawn at certain times–specifically any time ending in either 0 or 5. (While the balloon might technically spawn at a time ending in 4 or 9, it’ll still be over the ocean and out of reach, so we’re going with the easier-to-remember numbers). In our tests, balloons spawned every 10 minutes on average, but we saw gaps as low as five minutes and as high as 20 minutes. For example, during an hour of our tests, we found balloons at 2:55, 3:00, 3:05, 3:25, 3:40, and 4:00 PM.

Event balloons follow these same spawn patterns (times and location), but they don’t replace regular balloons and can show up either at the same time as a regular one or on their own. Based on the Bunny Day balloons, it seems that event balloons also make a louder whooshing sound than normal ones.

How To Farm Balloons

Because balloons are a main source for seasonal DIY recipes (like the rare cherry blossom recipes or bamboo DIYs in spring) and other handy items, there are times when you might want to grind out balloons until you get what you want. If you follow the spawn rules above, it’s easy to do as long as you’re patient.

After you’ve determined which direction balloons spawn from on your island, we recommend waiting at the bottom of your beach until a time ending in 4 or 9. At this point, you should walk up the shore with the sky visible and look for a balloon over the ocean. If you still don’t see one when you reach the top of the beach, walk back down the shore and check as you go. If no balloon has shown up after a minute, wait a few minutes and check again at the spawn time.

If you’re having trouble spotting balloons, try adjusting your camera using the right analog stick so you can get a better view of the sky. You’ll have to stop walking in order to view the sky this way, as your camera will reorient itself when you move, but it can be a good way to spot balloons that you can hear but can’t see.

Martin Scorsese may be looking to work with a streaming service again for his next feature film after traditional movie production outfit Paramount Pictures is reconsidering the project due to its $200 million price tag.

According to a report from the Wall Street Journal, Scorsese’s representatives have been talking with Apple and Netflix, which produced and distributed his last film The Irishman, to potentially produce his next movie.

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Titled “Killers of the Flower Moon,” the movie was originally set to be produced by Paramount Pictures, but the talks between Scorsese and Paramount hit a snag after the budget grew to more than $200 million.

According to the report, Paramount previously agreed to make Scorsese’s next big-budget movie in 2019 before the global coronavirus pandemic. However, due to the hit from the economic downturn and the impact of COVID-19 on Hollywood’s movie production this made Paramount reconsider. The company has allowed Scorsese’s representatives to reach out to other studios, like Apple and Netflix on the project.

Killers of the Flower Moon is based on a bestselling 2017 nonfiction book about a federal law enforcement agency, the precursor to the FBI, as it investigates the murder of the Osage Nation Native Americans living on oil-rich Oklahoma in the 1920s. The movie is set to star Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro.

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Scorsese previously worked with Netflix on his last big-budget picture, The Irishman about a hitman who reportedly killed Jimmy Hoffa. Netflix reportedly paid $173 million to produce the movie.

As traditional movie producers are looking to develop cheaper movies, streaming services like Apple and Netflix have been stepping up to fun big-budget projects. However, there’s a chance Scorsese’s movie could go forward at Paramount, though with a co-financier.

In the meantime, you can still watch The Irishman on Netflix, or perhaps just Tiger King again.

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Matt Kim is a reporter for IGN.

The classic 1980s Steven Speilburg film The Goonies still holds up today, no arguments there. You’ll be pleased to know that the IGN Store just added a brand new selection of awesome shirt designs celebrating Sloth, Chunk, Mikey and the rest of the kids living in the Goondocks. If you want to show your love for the film, these are available right now.

New The Goonies Shirts

There are plenty more designs alongside The Goonies shirts currently available on the IGN store. This includes more classic filmography such as Ghostbusters, Jaws, Star Wars, or critically acclaimed Netflix shows such as Castlevania, Stranger Things. Notable video game additions to the store include and a slew of Nintendo titles, such as Animal Crossing, The Legend of Zelda, Mario, and plenty more. Don’t miss out on our full selection, and keep an eye out for our weekly sales.

Final Fantasy 7 Remake is a massive game with a mostly straightforward structure. Throughout its 40-plus hour playtime, you’ll go from dungeon to dungeon, completing some side-missions along the way, while pushing the story forward and rarely looking back. If you allow yourself to be swept up in the momentum of your mission to liberate Midgar, it can be easy to miss valuable collectibles accidentally. Some of the most important is Materia, which are colored orbs you can equip to characters to beef up their base attack skills by providing them spells, abilities, and summons.

You’re not going to want to bypass all the useful Materia you can collect throughout your journey. Below, we’ve detailed the easiest ones to miss, which includes info on what they do and how to find them.

Be sure to check back often as we update this feature with even more essential Materia you might’ve missed. For more about Materia, you should also read our Materia loadout guide about how to build the proper set for your party. Otherwise, read our FF7 Remake review.

HP Up

The HP Up Materia is one of the easiest you can miss early on. As you’re exploring the streets of Midgar Sector 1 during Chapter 2, you’ll come upon soldiers guarding a checkpoint with a white van on the other side, and beside it is a purple orb of HP Up Materia. Unfortunately, you can’t grab it, so keep moving until you hit a cutscene, followed by an attack by Shinra Security Officers. Before going further, head back east towards the checkpoint, and then grab the Materia.

Deadly Dodge

From a tactical perspective, the Deadly Dodge combat Materia is essential for early fights as Cloud. It allows you to dodge towards enemies with an area damage attack, which is excellent for opening up most battles.

You can purchase a Deadly Dodge Materia from the item shop later in Chapter 3, but you can get one for free during Chapter 2. Continue heading south from where you got the HP Up Materia we mentioned above. Just before the fountain plaza, you’ll fight off three more troopers. Once they’re dealt with, check beside the car for a Deadly Dodge Materia.

Auto-Cure

Auto-Cure is an excellent safeguard for keeping a party member healed during a tough encounter. At its base level, it’s capable of healing weakened party members up to three times per battle. However, it won’t activate if you don’t have not enough MP or ATB Charges to go around or if you’re controlling the character in need of emergency curing.

To get the Auto-Cure Materia, sync up with Chadley, the weird kid in the Sector 7 Slums, who wants your help developing new Materia. He’ll give you the Assess Materia when you take on the quest; use it on any enemies you fight in Scrap Boulevard to get the data you need. Later, he’ll give you Battle Intel assignments with a variety of objectives to unlock additional Materia–some of which we highlight later in this guide–that you’ll generally want to prioritize completing on the side to gain more access to varying Materia types. For this report, return when you’ve analyzed two different types of enemies to buy the newly-developed Auto-Cure Materia at a discounted rate.

First Strike

Completing Chadley’s third Battle Intel Report nets you a First Strike Materia. It’s not too hard to miss, but it’s worth mentioning just in case you don’t check in with Chadley often. First Strike is super handy for boosting the amount of ATB you naturally earn at the start of a battle. You’ll want to consider equipping it onto Tifa if you’ve made her your party leader, as her Unbridled Strength ability is good to start building up as soon as possible during a battle. After purchasing an Iron Sword for Cloud during Chapter 3, you should have no trouble earning First Strike from Chadley, as completing the associated Battle Intel Report simply requires that you use different abilities on enemies while they’re staggered.

Cleansing Materia

Cleansing Materia is foundational. With this handy orb of Materia, you can heal the poison status effect with MP–eliminating the need to use antidotes. After earning enough AP from using it numerous times, you can use Esuna, which heals all status conditions.

To get yourself a Cleansing Materia, you need to complete the Rat Problem side mission during Chapter 3. To do so, talk to the Item Store owner once the game tells you you’re free to tackle optional quests. Then take the path going north that’s on the west side of Seventh Heaven. Duck through the pipe to enter a vacant lot full of rats. Take them out and open the chest on the east side of the area for three grenades.

Return to the lot and fight the Doom Rats. They’re pretty quick, so try using Punisher mode’s counter attack to whittle down their health, and use magic to hit them at a distance. If you can do some sustained damage, you’ll Stagger rats, which allows you to knock them out. When you return to the Item Shop owner, you can buy a Cleansing Materia for a discounted price.

Revival

Phoenix Downs are expensive, and while you can find them in the occasional chest, your supply of them is mostly limited. So why not have a Materia on hand that’ll help bring your friends back from the dead with MP? Revival is a must-have that you can get relatively early on, but end up missing if you’re not paying attention.

After beating the boss in Chapter 4, follow the objective back to the Sector 7 Plate Edge. Just before the first right turn, grab the Revival Materia lying on the ground to your left just before the walkway.

Chocobo And Moogle Summon Materia

After getting your first Summon Materia at the start of Chapter 4, you’re probably going to be champing at the bit for the next one. The next Summon Materia is available during Chapter 6 and is pointed out to you by Tifa as you’re slowly passing by some industrial ventilation fans. Unfortunately, you can’t access it until after you power down two out of the three sunlamps in the area.

Once that deed is done, return to the H-01 section to use the gondola that will take you back toward the ventilation system. On the far side, take the ladder up to a service room where you activate a console that orders you to do some cleaning maintenance in the next room within a minute. Kill all the enemies and press the button on the console at the end of the room in time to complete the job. Don’t worry if you fail to kill everything within the time limit, though. You can double back out of the room and hit the console again to start a new, easier fight with some weaker enemies.

Once you activate the other console, you can head into the fan corridor and snag the Chocobo and Moogle Summon Materia. It’s a useful one to have equipped when up against enemies weak to the Wind element.

MP Up

If you’re in the market for another MP Up Matera, but would rather not fork over the 2,000 Gil needed to purchase a new one, then you can snag yourself a freebie during Chapter 6. The positive effects of this Materia are apparent, and you’re likely going to want a couple for a special somebody who’ll inevitably end up joining your party later on.

Return on the second gondola to the area you entered when you climbed down the ladder from Sunlamp 2. Go around the cargo containers to find a ladder down, leading to another platform where you’ll fight two Queen Grashtrikes. Dispatch them, then use the control panel to lower the walkway ahead. Don’t align it with the gate so you can cross; instead, keep lowering it until the MP Up Materia sitting on top of the frame is low enough for you to grab.

Elemental Materia

The Elemental Materia is a handy way to imbue a party member’s melee attacks with elemental power when attached to a weapon or increase their magical defense against a particular element when attached to armor. To explain, weapons and armor feature sockets that you place Materia into, and there are two variants of sockets: single, isolated ones and joint ones. The joint sockets are what you can use to activate Elemental on weapons and armor. We highly recommend you give this one to Cloud, but try to be cautious when you face an enemy whose elemental affinity matches the current element of whoever is using this Materia.

To get yourself an Elemental Materia, follow the directions we detailed above about how to get MP Up during Chapter 6. After manipulating the walkway to get the MP Up Materia, put it back in place so you can cross it. Head to the far end of the next platform to grab the Elemental Materia.

Binding

Binding Materia is a must for party members you’re speccing to become powerful mages. It allows you to cast status ailment spells like Sleep, Silence, and Berserk. It’s possible to purchase one at the Wall Market Materia shop during Chapter 9, but that’s 3,000 Gil, and who wants to burn that much hard-earned cash on something you can get for free?

A Binding Materia is up for grabs earlier on during Chapter 9 when you need to use a robotic hand to pick up some cargo containers. Right after fighting three Terpsicolts, look for a ramp heading down on the east side of the area where you’ll find a split path. Head up the path with the slope to find controls for the big robot hand. Use the hand to pick up the cargo container and move it to the right, so that it makes a path with the wood walkway nearby, which has the Binding Materia on top of it. When Aerith heads down, pick her up, and place her on top of the cargo container. She’ll then run over and grab the Binding Materia for you.

Magnify

The Magnify Materia works much like Elemental in that it’s one you attach into joint slots. When you connect a spell Materia to Magnify, you can cast that respective spell onto multiple targets. So, if you have Magnify attached to the Healing Materia, it will cure multiple characters instead of just one. It also works the same way for offensive spells, but it’s important to note that the primary target receives the bulk of the damage, and those around them get a reduced amount.

You can find a Magnify Materia not long after you get Binding during Chapter 9. After you’ve first confronted a fella named Beck and his goonies, proceed until you reach another section with a robot hand you can operate to move some containers around. You can grab the Magnify Materia by moving the first container up and to the right to make a path to it, then dropping Aerith off on tor for her to procure it in your stead.

All The Summon Materia From Chadley’s Intel Reports

If you’re gunning your way through FF7’s story, you’re guaranteed to miss the majority of the game’s Summon Materia. Because if you’re not talking to Chadley, then you’re going to lock yourself out of getting these powerful battle allies–for a while, at least.

To start the process of getting more Summon Materia, talk to Chadley again as early as Chapter 8 to access your first VR Mission, which is a unique challenge where you fight a summon creature to earn its respective Materia.

Make it a rule of thumb to find Chadley every time you come upon a new semi-open area where you can explore and do side missions because chances are he’ll have a new VR Battle for you to complete. Pivotal moments where you can talk to him to get a new VR Mission include Chapter 8 (Shiva), Chapter 9 (Fat Chocobo), and Chapter 14 (Leviathan). There is another one you can earn, but you can only access that by completing all of Chadley’s Battle Intel Reports. We’ve listed their identity under this spoiler tag: Bahamut.

Trolls World Tour was originally meant to open theatrically but was changed to a VOD debut due to the coronavirus pandemic. The movie is now available on Amazon Prime and other digital platforms.

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Seeking something peppy and diverting? Trolls World Tour is here to deliver that, but not much else.

Anna Kendrick and Justin Timberlake reunite, reprising the roles of the ever-perky Queen Poppy and the worrywart Branch, as the twee trolls set out on a new adventure. Don’t remember the details of the 2016 film Trolls? No worries. The troll-eating Bergens who were the antagonists there have no impact on the plot here. Plus, the splashy sequel kicks off with a broad strokes recap: despite their differences Poppy and Branch teamed up to save the world. Now, they’ll have to do it again, once more with the power of music.

When an unusual invite arrives to Poppy’s Kingdom, she and her tribe realize there are many more trolls in the world. Hers are Pop Trolls. But neighboring kingdoms have trolls defined by Funk, Country, Techno, Classical, and Rock music. Each of these kingdoms contains a relic, a magical string that keeps the songs humming. However, the Rock Trolls’ queen, Barb (Crazy Ex-Girlfriend’s tour-de-force Rachel Bloom), is on a “world tour” to claim all the strings. Once collected, she plans to play a power chord that’ll turn all trolls into “rock zombies.” And if you’re wondering how that rebellious music form became the “conformity is good” bad guys, you’re overthinking Trolls World Tour. This plot isn’t remotely concerned with making sense.

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For instance, don’t get too hung up on “there are only six kinds of music” thing. Poppy and her posse soon learn that’s untrue as they cross paths with bounty hunters representing smooth jazz, K-pop, reggaeton, and yodeling. Then in a Frozen 2-like twist, Poppy learns that the history lesson unspooled by her father is willfully papering over her ancestors’ colonizer crimes. (“Scrapbooks are made by the winners.”) Then, that shocking reveal is glossed over when the Funk contingent instantly forgives them with a hip-hop song about love and unity.

The music is the rollicking heartbeat of this movie, sometimes literally. Trolls World Tour is easily entertaining, bouncing across an array of familiar songs, including, Daft Punk’s “One More Time,” Ozzy Osborne’s “Crazy Train,” and Spice Girls’ “Wannabe.” Some songs are covered with a sparkling spirit by the likes of Kendrick, Timberlake, and Bloom. More musical talent is brought on board with cameos, which include Hamilton star Anthony Ramos, a country-singing Kelly Clarkson, R&B diva Mary J. Blige, funk icon George Clinton, rapper Anderson .Paak, and Ozzy Osborne, who plays a trolls version of himself.

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Speaking of silliness, Trolls World Tour is stocked with daffy characters new and old. James Corden, Ron Funches, and Kunal Nayyar return to bring some laughs and shine as Poppy’s pre-established pals. Kenan Thompson joins as Tiny Diamond, a newly spawned Pop Troll who bursts out of his father’s head in egg form, then bursts into a rap song introducing himself. As the mohawked bad troll Barb, Bloom slays it, offering an avalanche of attitude and pipes that don’t quit. Sam Rockwell brings swagger as a suave cowpoke called Hickory. Charlyne Yi plays a maudlin pennywhistle, while Deadpool’s Karan Soni lends his voice to a rocker minion, and Jamie Dornan of Fifty Shades of Grey plays a brainwashing creep called Slow Jazz Chaz. It might sound like my mind has snapped, but this is just the zany spectacle of Trolls World Tour.

For grown-ups who might want more than slapstick, loud sounds, and toilet humor, the sequel folds in comical allusions to more mature cinema like Mad Max: Fury Road, Monty Python’s Holy Grail, and Laurence of Arabia. But that’s about it.