Animal Crossing: New Horizons is upon us. For real. You can go play it right now, and I think you should. It’s wonderful.
But what can you do to get the most out of the game? Well, I’ve put together a list of tips that will help you get started in Nintendo’s latest social-life simulator. Let’s get right to it.
Talk to Tom Nook
Above: Talk to Tom Nook.
Image Credit: GamesBeat
Here’s a basic guideline to live by in Animal Crossing: New Horizons. If you find yourself lost about what to do next, just go have a conversation with Tom Nook. His dialogue option for “What should I do?” will always point to the next thing you should get done if you want to progress you capabilities, your home, or your village.
Get the pocket organizer and tool wheel early
Above: Expanded pocket space.
Image Credit: Animal Crossing: New Horizons
Once you get through the tutorial, you may want to start spending your bells and Nook Miles on frivolous things like cosmetics. And you should do that if you want. But there are a couple of items you can buy early on that make the game easier. These are the tool wheel and the pocket organizer.
The pocket organizer expands the size of your pocket. And the tool wheel gives you a quick-select wheel to make it easier to get out your shovel, ax, and other handy items.
You can get these from the Nook Stop ATM in Resident Services.
Don’t put off the quests
Above: And don’t forget to talk to Tom Nook about celebrations.
Image Credit: GamesBeat
In the first few weeks of Animal Crossing: New Horizons, Tom Nook will guide you through some light quests. These include paying off your moving fees, crafting furniture for new villagers, and improving your town. These are easy to ignore, but you shouldn’t.
While you might want to spend all your time decorating your house or designing clothing, you’ll miss out on some features if you don’t go through the quests. These are important, game-changing features like the ability to create paths and roads.
Eat fruit
Growing and selling fruit is a great way to earn bells, but you have another option. Eat the fruit! This gives you super-strength that enables you to do things like break rocks. If a rock is in your way, you can destroy it by eating fruit and then hitting it with a shovel. Don’t worry. These rocks will respawn, so you can still get resources from them.
Put up a fence by rocks
Pro tip #AnimalCrossing #ACNH #NintendoSwitch pic.twitter.com/mB57UfUsWC
— Jeff Grubb (@JeffGrubb) March 19, 2020
Speaking of getting resources from rocks, there’s a trick to maximize your daily haul. If you played New Leaf on the 3DS, you’ll know that hitting a rock with a shovel or an axe pushes your character backward. And this is a problem because the rock acts on a timer. If you waste time running back into position to hit the rock, the timer may run out before you get get all eight hits in.
The solution to this is simple: build a fence behind you. Of course, you can also dig holes because they will also keep you in place. But fences look better, and you can even leave them up permanently if you want.
Always buy every new thing in the shop
Every day, the store on your island will have new products in stock. And while you may not always want everything, you should still buy anything that you haven’t seen before. Doing this will fill out the catalog in Resident Services. This will enable you to reorder any of the things you previously purchased whenever you want.
So buy the new goods and then give them away to other villagers or immediately sell them back to Timmy and Tommy. And then, when you need a specific item to complete a certain look in your house or town, you might already have access to it.
Do your dailies
Above: Do your daily challenges.
Image Credit: GamesBeat
Each day when you first play Animal Crossing: New Horizons, you’ll get a list of daily challenges in the Nook Miles app. These quests will give you double Miles for completing small tasks like catching five fish or chopping some wood. This is a great way to get miles, but it’s also a good way to keep you engaged with some of the game’s system you might otherwise ignore.
Harvest islands for resources
Above: Clear-cutting foreign islands for their natural resources? I’m OK with this?!
Image Credit: GamesBeat
Finally, you may find yourself hurting for resources like wood and iron early on. If you’re in that position, use some of your Nook Miles to buy an airplane ticket and travel to a special island. These procedurally generated islands are yours to strip mine. And if you can ignore the unfortunate politics of that, it’s a great way to get what you need to keep crafting items or to complete quests.