Top 10 tips for Animal Crossing New Horizons
// written in 2020: tools, versions and prices may have changed since.
Intro
I joined the Animal Crossing New Horizons wave, and as a new player, here are things I wish I would have known during my first 40+ hours of play.
1.) Do not Sell Wood, Stones, and Iron
I made the mistake of selling everything that I could early on in the game to pay of the loan but ended up wasting nook miles just to go to islands to get wood, stones, and iron.
Sell everything else but not the above because you’ll need them, later on, to progress further in the game.
2.) The first thing to buy with Nook Miles
The first thing to spend nook miles on is the pocket organizer, which will expand the pocket and allow for more things to be carried.
3.) Connect with other players
There will be fruits that will not show up on your island, so you will need to connect with other players to get them.
Also, their shops will have items that yours won’t have, so it’ll be faster to build your nook catalog inventory.
4.) Do not break rocks on your island
Keep them so that you can optimize the number of stones, clay, iron, and sometimes gold ore that come out of them because they will show up the next day and give out things.
5.) If you see a glowing hole…
Bury the money found so that it becomes a money tree that will give 3000 Bells instead of 1000 Bells, but it will only do it once.
6.) Optimize Bell Making by Taking Nook Miles Trips
Island hopping, in general, is a productive activity because you will get the chance to visit a randomly generated island, and some are lucrative.
So far, Emperor Butterfly island with exotic plants, Shark Island, Tarantula, Iron, Gold, and money island have been glimpsed on social media.
However, suppose your trip takes you to an island that isn’t full of useful things, maybe trash or bamboo, then you might be thinking about your journey and the 2000 nook that miles have been wasted.
But, if you are willing to put in a little work, then you can change the island to be lucrative.
There are two options for two scenarios so far to date, and they both revolve around the game’s respawn rate of rare critters, which are even higher when on a trip.
How to Increase the Respawn Rate of Rare Critters
1.) Create Tarantula Island
If you take a trip at night, then there will be the chance of encountering tarantulas, so to get them to spawn faster do the following:
1.) Clear all of the trees by chopping them down with a metal ax and dig out the stumps. 2.) Pull all of the weeds and flowers up 3.) Run around the island to scare all the bugs into the water that are not tarantulas
Then the tarantulas will spawn.
2.) Sturgeon Mining
Sturgeons are rare fish that will only spawn at the mouth of the river that meets the ocean, so if that is not present, then this will not work, but if it does then do the following:
1.) If there is a waterfall that feeds into the stream, then go to the top of the waterfall and scare the fish by slapping your net into the water.
2.) At the bottom of the stream, there will be a large shadow, and it will be a Sturgeon.
7.) Talk to Villagers
In the attempt to get as far as possible in the game each day, it can be easy to not speak with villagers, but make time to talk to them because they will give you presents. Also, if you give them gifts when given the choice to then they will either respond with a bag of bells or a gift of their own.
8.) Beware creatures and critters are seasonal
No matter which hemisphere you are in, there will be creatures and critters that will be disappearing.
So make sure to pay attention through social media to know when they are and to catch them.
Otherwise, you may have to wait up to a year to see the critter again.
9.) Meteor Shower
Pay attention to Tom Nook’s morning announcements for mention of the Meteor Shower.
Do not be like me and skip through Tom’s speeches to get started with the day because you might end up with a hazy memory of whether or not you had it.
Because it is only during the meteor shower that you can both quickly get star fragments and recipes to make things with star fragments.
To catch a star do the following:
1.) Go to where the meteor shower is happening
2.) Tilt the camera up with the R joystick , make sure there are no tools in your hand, and the press A.
A wishing animation will happen, and the next day star fragments will show on your beach.
Also, make sure to talk to Celeste, Blather’s sibling, who will give you a lot of really cool recipes for things to craft with the star fragments.
10.) Use the flimsy Ax
Once you have broken it 100 times, a DIY recipe will be unlocked to craft a golden ax that will never break.
The golden ax is a handy golden tool that’s easier to unlock than the golden fishing pole and golden net, so get one to save your iron ores.