If you’re new to the world of Animal Crossing, it can be quite intimidating. With so many areas to explore, things to craft, and items to collect, New Horizons can begin to feel like a burden if you’re not sure what’s going on. To help you feel more at home, here are a few Animal Crossing New Horizons beginner tips and tricks to help turn your island into your own paradise.
Pay Your Debts Quickly
Say what you will about Tom Nook as a person…errr racoon, but he is quite the businessman. He’s convinced you and a bunch of strangers to move to a desolate island and is charging you to do so! Towards the beginning of the game, he will inform you that you owe him 5,000 Nook Miles and 50,000 Bells.
While this sounds like a lot, don’t worry, because it won’t be too hard to gather the Miles and Bells needed to pay off your debts. If you’re looking to pay off what you owe quickly, there is a fish in the game that can be sold for 15,000 Bells, which will go a long way to paying off your debt. If you’re interested, here’s a guide for how to catch a Golden Trout.
Once you’ve settled your debts, you’ll be able to ditch the tent and build a home of your own. Additionally, you’ll also be given more storage, which you’ll quickly realise you desperately need.
Don’t Break the Rocks
I know it’s tempting to eat a piece of fruit and crush a rock – but don’t – you’ll regret it. You see, if you break a rock, it’ll take a full day (a legit 24 hours) to come back and it will spawn somewhere random on your island.
Instead, you’ll want to use a shovel or an axe to hit the rock, without ingesting any fruit. Not only will this prevent the rock from breaking, but it’ll give you multiple items at one time, whereas if you break a rock, it’ll only drop one item. If you’ve already broken a rock or two, don’t worry, just be more mindful in the future.
You’ll Be Able to Get Better Tools
Let’s be honest, the toolset you start the game off with sucks, but as with most games, you’ll be able to upgrade your tools as you progress in the game so that they won’t be constantly breaking on you. Thankfully, you can purchase the “Pretty Good Tool Recipe” at the Nook Stop to get a completely new set of tool recipes.
The set can be purchased for 3,000 miles and will give you upgraded recipes for your axe, shovel, net, fishing rod, and watering can. Of course, these new recipes will require more materials to craft, but it’ll definitely be worth it.
Miles can be Turned into Bells
If you’re like me, you’re wondering why one island needs two different kinds of currency – seems unnecessary. Anyhow, if you’re trying to buy something and find yourself running low on Miles, you can purchase a Bell Voucher to turn some of your Miles into Bells. The voucher will cost 500 Miles and can be redeemed for 3,000 Bells.
Plant Money Trees Whenever Possible
Despite the popular “money doesn’t grow on trees” adage, it turns out that in New Horizons it actually does. Once you’ve unlocked a shovel, you can grow a money tree by planting and digging up a glowing spot on the ground.
Once you’ve dug up the glowing spot, you can plant up to 10,000 Bells in the hole and the tree will produce three bags of however much you bury. So if you bury 10,000 Bells, your tree will produce 30,000 Bells in a few days. Not bad, huh?
We hope some of these Animal Crossing New Horizons beginner tips and tricks have been beneficial to you. Now that you know how to start, get out there and turn your island into your own personal paradise!
