How to beat Animal Crossing New Horizons
// written in 2020: tools, versions and prices may have changed since.
Beginning
In the beginning, you awake in a tent without anything to your name, or so you think until you talk to Tom Nook, who will politely inform you that you owe him 5000 Nook Miles.
To pay him, you’ll have to do specific tasks to earn Nook Miles.
Also, he’ll mention to bring him any unique creatures you find to him because he has a ‘friend’.
So broadly, speaking the objectives for the beginning part of the game is the following:
Must do
1.) Obtain a museum
2.) Obtain a house
3.) Big Challenge: Obtain a store
Optional
Buying these things will make the grind easier, but they’re not mandatory to advance the story.
- Purchase Pocket Organization Guide from Nook terminal for 5000 nook miles
- Purchase Tool Ring for 800 nook miles
To obtain a tent museum
Catch Tom Nook 5 different critters. After giving them 5 various critters, he will make a call to his friend to have them come to the island.
Tip: You can put the tent museum anywhere and can move it at a later time for 30,000 Bells
After placing the museum where you want go and catch 15 different critters and place them around the tent to obtain the brick museum later on.
To obtain a house
Do enough tasks for Tom Nook that are worthy of 5000 Nook Miles, and almost everything that you do will earn miles, so start pulling up weeds now.
Once you have 5000 Nook miles, talk to Tom, and he will offer to build you a house for only 98,000 Bells!
But he will, in typical Tom Nook fashion, tell you after the fact. Get used to it.
Big Challenge: Obtain a store
You’ll have to collect the resources for Tommy and Timmy, and no, you will not be getting a cut of any of the sales that the store makes.
Use the chore loop
Each day do the following:
1.) Go to each rock and hit it up to 8 times
- make sure the stomach is empty else stones will break
- keep all iron need 30 for store
2.) Go to each tree and strike it with the flimsy ax
- Keep all hardwood need 30 for store
- Keep all softwood need 30 for store
- Keep all wood need 30 for store
3.) Collect all the fruit from the trees and save them will need them for the middle game.
4.) Use cellphone to see what Nook+ miles are available
- Collect as many as possible
- every 2000 miles buy a Nook travel ticket
- go to the islands and hit the rocks
Once all of the materials have been gathered, then give them to Timmy and Tommy, and select where you want the store to be, then one day later, the store will be built.
Tip: Do not sell your excess wood or use the iron for upgrading tools.
Middle
Once you have gotten through the beginning of the game, Tom Nook will talk to you about attracting more residents to the island.
Of course, they will need a bridge to access other parts of the island. So, build a bridge to connect your island pieces together.
Big Challenge: Building Villager Houses and Furnishing them
Now that the bridge has been placed, Tom will have you select three plots of land for three new residents.
And, have you build furniture for both inside and outside of the houses for all them!
However, if you’ve saved wood, iron, and fruits as suggested above, then this should be easy.
After, building the houses the next thing to do will be to go on island trips each day to get new residents to move into the newly furnished homes, but you can only get one resident each day, so at a bare minimum you will spend 3 days in the middle of the game.
During that time, the resident services hall should be built as well as the museum.
Also, Mable, a hedgehog selling clothes, will begin showing up in front of the resident services hall. Make sure to by 5000 Bells worth of clothes. Then she’ll move in, and you’ll get a new clothing store.
End
After going through several days of having new residents move in and a clothing store built.
Tom Nook will share with you his most fabulous idea yet, getting K.K. Slider to perform a concert on the island.
Big Challenge: Obtaining K.K. Slider Concert
To get K.K. Slider to perform, Tom Nook will have you build a Campground to attract residents. So after creating the campground and waiting one day, a camper will arrive, and you must let them move in.
After having them move in, you’ll have access to the ability to sell plots of land for future residents.
Find island residents to move in
Go ahead and buy all of the plots of land and then go on island trips to find residents to move into them.
Get your island rating up to 3 stars
In between the island trips, while waiting for the resident to move in, you must get your island rating up.
The best way to do this is to design the town in the way that you want it. That means creating fences, putting trees where you want them, and building spaces with town furniture.
K.K. Slider
After you have 2-3 residents move in and have your town looking the way you want, go ask Isabelle for your town rating, and she should say “someone has left some feedback,” and Tom Nook will go crazy. Because that someone will be none other than K.S. or K.K. Slider!
All that is left to do is wait, and K.K. Slider will appear the next day and play a show, and you will be taking to the end game credits.
Conclusion
There you have it by doing all of the above and nothing else it will take 40 hrs min to however long you want, to reach the end of storyline.