Animal Crossing New Horizons is a bright, colorful, creativity-filled world that gives players the chance to express themselves in a newer style, compared to the older games in the series. Even now, months after its release it still has new players jumping in left and right! Full of updates, events and fun possibilities, New Horizons is a fantastically unique kind of experience. However, jumping into a game when so many seem to have it all put together can be pretty daunting at times. But fear not! I’ve put together a list for all the newbies out there with some of the questions I’ve heard, and advice based on experience! So, without further ado, let’s hop right into it!
1) Placing Resident Services
One of the first things Tom Nook asks you to do in-game is find a location for your resident services area. This is a pretty important detail right off the bat! Resident Services, unlike other buildings on the island cannot be moved later on, so choose wisely!
2) Get Your Museum, Quick!
If you want to be able to focus on getting your museum set up, give Tom Nook as many bugs and fish as possible! Make sure to sell your duplicates at the beginning to help build up those extra bells, too!
3) Farming Resources
As you complete tasks you’ll gain the ability to make and use tools. Make sure you use them wisely! The flimsy tools break faster than the regular ones, but they get the job done until you get the proper DIY recipes. On your island there are six rocks to hit, one of which is always a money rock. There’s a great trick to make sure you get the full eight items from the rock every time!
4) Earning Nook Miles
Nook Miles are an important asset, and earning them is pretty simple, but requires building some habits! You’ll want to try to talk to your villagers every day, catch fish, bugs and do a number of other activities that earn you miles so that you can buy things like furniture to spruce up your island or tickets to visit mystery islands! Try to experience as many things as you can and leave no stone unturned! You never know what might earn you some extra miles along with the ones that pop up daily!
5) Building Inventory Slots
As you complete your tasks and earn Nook Miles you will gain the ability to expand your pocket space by quite a bit. To help you complete tasks more efficiently this is something that you’ll want to take care of as soon as possible at the kiosk in your resident services building!
6) Fruit Facts
At the very beginning of the game you will receive a fruit in the mail that is different than your island’s native one. DO NOT EAT IT! Make sure you plant that fruit so that you can start growing different kinds of fruit trees. Non-native fruits sell for more than your native ones, so you want to try to get your hands on those quick.
If you eat a fruit, it will give you some extra strength. This extra strength gives you the ability to break rocks or dig up entire trees so that you can move them! Be cautious, though, you don’t want to accidentally break the rocks on your own island (or at least not all at once). The rocks will reappear, but it happens slowly and on new random areas on your island.
RELATED: 12 Things to Do Every Day in Animal Crossing: New Horizons
7) The Able Sisters
When Mabel starts showing up on your island, buy things from her every time you see her so that you get the clothing shop quickly! Once you have your shop, make sure you talk to Sabel every day. At first she will not respond, but once you befriend her you’ll get free patterns you can use to decorate furniture.
8) Custom Patterns
Speaking of the Able Sisters’ shop, once you have the store you’ll also be able to use a kiosk in the back to download custom codes and designs for your clothing or to decorate your island! You can search Twitter, Reddit, Instagram and websites, such as Nook’s Island, for all sorts of interesting custom patterns to experiment with.
9) Online Groups
There are all kinds of groups on Discord and Facebook full of wonderful people who are looking to provide new ideas and assistance to all players. The people in those groups range from new players to those who have been playing since the moment ACNH launched and pretty much all of them are willing to provide a helping hand or opportunity! Guides for flowers, people to trade with, and all sorts of other opportunities become available! There are also wonderful resources like Nookazon for players looking to trade anything and everything.
10) Apps
There are a few apps that can help you keep things organized on your island. Personally, I use ACNH Life, which can be found in in both the Google Play and Apple App Stores. It is completely free and helps you keep track of everything imaginable! It also provides tips on how to earn certain achievements as you play. If you’re someone who likes to keep organized definitely check it out!
11) And last, but certainly not least…
Have fun! Take your time, and enjoy the game! All those crazy islands on the internet are gorgeous, but just take things one step at a time and you’ll figure out what you want as you go. Your island is just that. Yours. Make sure that whatever you do is because you love it!
Now, admittedly, there are a TON more tips and tricks to the game, but many of them can be discovered as you go and fiddle around with the game and its many features. So go on, get out there, and build your dream island!
Animal Crossing New Horizons is available now for the Nintendo Switch.
This article was originally published on 6/21/20
- ANIMAL CROSSING NEW HORIZONS: Beginner’s Survival Guide - July 19, 2020
