Key Takeaways
- Choose an island map with space to explore and involve other players in the decisions.
- Plant fruits to grow trees and resources, then strategically sell items to maximize your income.
- Be prepared with plenty of inventory space, eat fruit to build up strength, and watch out for spiders and wasps.
Animal Crossing: New Horizons is one of the most popular games on Nintendo Switch, Switch OLED, and Switch Lite. You may have already played it. If you haven’t played it yet, you’re missing out. Despite its cartoony appearance, the game is incredibly addictive. You might find yourself getting serious about upgrading your home and developing your island.
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One of the coolest features in Animal Crossing: New Horizons is the NookPhone, which allows you to take screenshots.
If you’re thinking about giving Animal Crossing: New Horizons a try, you might be looking for some helpful tips and tricks for beginners. If so, we’re here to help. Here are 10 tips for those just starting out with Animal Crossing: New Horizons.
Animal Crossing: New Horizons
Create your own cute island and welcome and visit friends.
1 Choose your starting map wisely
Make sure you have enough space to explore
Nintendo
When you first start up Animal Crossing: New Horizons, you’re given four randomly generated maps to choose from as your island home, and if you don’t like the look, you can quit and relaunch the game to see if it gives you a different option.
You won’t have access to everywhere at first, so we recommend choosing a location with at least one large open area adjacent to the sea – for example, you’ll need to craft a vaulting pole to cross a river, or a ladder to reach higher ground.
If after exploring a bit you decide you don’t like the look of your island’s layout, you can just restart the game before the tutorial mission is complete (at the end of day 1) and choose it again.
If your family members plan to play on the same Switch, they have a right to have a say, as they will be confined to the same place. You can only have one island per Switch, even if multiple players can live there, even if they are using separate accounts.
If after exploring a bit you decide you don’t like the look of your island layout, you can restart the game before the tutorial mission is completed (at the end of day 1) and choose it again. When naming your island, it’s important to remember that you can’t change it later, so choose carefully.
2 Space out your tents
You will need more space in the future
Nintendo
When you finally arrive on the island, Tom Nook will give you a tent and some basic supplies, and you’ll need to find a suitable piece of land to put it in. The tent will eventually become your home and garden, so you’ll want to make sure it has enough space to expand.
As you lay out each section, try to imagine what it will look like when it is much larger than a tent.
You’ll then be asked to find plots for a few neighbors, after which you’ll need to decide where to place your museum, Nook’s Cranny shop, and visitor center. As you place each plot, try to imagine what it will look like when it’s much bigger than a tent.
For example, don’t put the museum tent directly in front of your house (we did); when fully built, it will be one of the largest buildings and block the view of your house. The starter tent can be set up in a tree, so you don’t have to find a natural clearing. Also, once you learn to craft a decent (not flimsy) axe, you’ll be able to chop down any trees that get in your way.
3 New resources appear every day, collect them all
If you find any, pick them up. There may be more tomorrow.
Nintendo
One of your first tasks in Animal Crossing: New Horizons is to pay off a loan for a tent and move in. This loan is paid with Nook Miles, a new form of currency that’s essentially awarded for every action you perform on your island.
An easy way to make some cash fast is to write down the items you pay the most for and look for them more often.
Once you’ve paid off your first loan, you’ll need to pay off a larger loan for your first home (as well as other increasingly expensive loans as you move up the property tiers). These subsequent loans must be paid off with Bells, not Nook Miles.
Thankfully, Timmy and Tommy Nook are happy to give you cash for anything you bring in, and an easy way to make some quick cash is to write down the items they’re most willing to pay for and then look for them frequently.
Four Donate all unique items and sell everything else
Save every single thing and store it in a museum
When looking for items to sell, you should keep at least one of each fossil you dig up or new bug or fish you catch. The museum bracers won’t give you money for them, but they’ll look cool to display. Fossil pits, indicated by a jagged cross in the ground, appear once per day. The fossils you find can be worth a fair bit of money, or they’ll just look cool to have on your mantelpiece at home.
The only exception to selling items is to store them for crafting. Resources such as wood, sticks, stone, iron nuggets, clay, etc. found around the island may not be needed for some of your first DIY recipes, but you may need some of them later on.
Do not sell iron nuggets or clay, as these are hard to come by and you will need a lot of them in a few days.
Five Manage your “pocket” inventory smartly
If you are visiting other islands, make sure you have enough space
Nintendo
When you start New Horizons you only have a few tools to work with, so the number of “pocket” inventory slots is plenty – but as your crafting skills improve or you visit other islands you’ll want to make sure you have enough free slots to accommodate new things you find.
If you plan on visiting other islands, you’ll want to make sure you have enough free slots in case something new is discovered.
Luckily, items that are dropped around your island will remain there indefinitely, so you can always pick them up later. Evolving the tent into a house will allow you to store things inside your home that you don’t want to carry around with you.
6 Look out for your guest visitors and keep an eye out for surprise packages
You might win some great rewards
As well as Nuke, his nephew, and a few fellow settlers, you’ll encounter guests who will give you simple hidden object quests. They always reward you with items for your home or clothing, so it’s well worth seeking them out. Your neighbours will also occasionally have items for you, so make sure to talk to them often.
Air parcels arrive regularly, often multiple parcels per day.
Flying parcels arrive regularly, often several per day. Look carefully for the sound of the wind, which will tell you that a gift box is tied to a balloon and is nearby. You’ll need your slingshot to pop the balloon and drop the parcel to the ground.
Don’t pop the balloons on the water, your cargo will sink but you’ll still be rewarded with Nook Miles.
7 Use Nook Miles to visit other islands
Discover new resources by island hopping
Nintendo
Some resources are hard to find on your own island. However, you can travel to other randomly generated islands to search for items instead. Simply exchange 2,000 Nook Miles for a ticket and head to the airport. You’ll travel to islands similar to yours and be able to plunder new resources that you might not find on your own island.
When visiting a different island, be sure to pick plenty of fruit from the trees as the fruits available now may be different.
We recommend clearing your pockets of all unnecessary items before your trip; you’ll want to pack up with new insects and fish. When visiting different islands, make sure to pick lots of fruit from the trees, as you’ll likely find different fruits than those currently available. It’s also useful to have some Animal Crossing friends; once you’re far enough along, you can visit their islands to collect new items.
8 Plant the fruit you find or receive
You Reap What You Sow
Nintendo
One of the reasons to collect as many fruits as you can on other islands is because you can use them to grow certain trees yourself. For example, you can grow a coconut-bearing palm tree on the beach. Just dig a hole and plant one of the fruits you collected, and after about three days, you’ll find a new, fully grown tree bearing the same fruit you brought back.
You can then collect fruit from your new trees and plant them elsewhere on your island, allowing you to plant more fruit all over your island.
9 Do everything you can to eat fruit and become even stronger.
The fruit literally destroys the tree
Sometimes resources and bugs can be found in the strangest places – for example, centipedes only appear when you hit a rock with an axe – and you’ll be surprised by what appears at the end of your fishing line, such as boots or a tin can that can be used for crafting.
Eating fruit also gives you superhuman strength: you can dig up whole trees with your shovel or break rocks, but you can only do this once per fruit eaten.
Ten Beware of spiders and wasps
Being stabbed is unsightly
Nintendo
Not everything on the island is cute and friendly. Shake a tree too hard and you might loosen a wasp nest, resulting in a nasty sting that will have you rushing for medicine to heal. You might also laugh at the sight of a tarantula scurrying around at night, only to get a nasty shock when it lunges at you. In case of spider encounters, make sure you have a net handy.
Animal Crossing: New Horizons is an amazing game with a lot of depth. The handy tips above are just the tip of the iceberg – there’s a lot more to discover for yourself. But we hope these tips help you get started in the game. The rest is up to you.
