Animal Crossing New Horizons (ACNH) gives players the opportunity to explore and discover new things on their own instead of giving too much away with a tutorial or walkthrough. That means you could be playing for days, weeks, or even months without knowing some critical elements of the game! If you’re hoping for a bit of guidance on some of the things you can do, check out my top 15 tips and tricks! For new Animal Crossing fans or experienced players, hopefully this list helps you in ACNH!
- Building Home Locations for Villagers
If you build all of your villager home plots and don’t fill them immediately, Tom Nook will fill them for you. If you want particular villagers, build the plot once you have a preferred villager to invite! Whether you use amiibo cards or search mystery islands using Nook Tickets, make sure you find a villager that you want before Tom does it for you!
- Bugs and Fish
Hold onto expensive bugs and fish to sell to CJ and Flick! These visitors typically come to your island once a week and pay more for each animal! I highly recommend saving any fish or bug that has a sales price of 5,000 bells or more. Some examples are… barreleyes, coelacanths, blue marlins, sturgeons, oarfish, tarantulas, and scorpions.
- Fishing
There are preferred times to go fishing because they give you a higher percentage chance of getting expensive, rarer fish. First… the ocean is more likely going to give you more bang for your bite compared to ponds or rivers. Go fishing in the ocean at night, around your pier, or when it’s raining to find fish like barreleyes, coelacanths, blue marlins, great white sharks, and saw sharks.
- Harv’s Island
At first, you might think that Harv’s island is a waste of time. But once the island includes the additional shops, you will want to go every day! Make sure you go to Katrina immediately to see if she improves your luck with belongings, friendship, or money! That will make a huge impact on the rest of the day. Depending on the type of luck, you could have indestructible tools, get more villager gifts or earn more bells from your trees and money rock!
- Nookazon
Do you really wish you could sell some items for more bells? Have you been looking for that one item for weeks with no luck? Check out Nookazon! It is an app and website that lets you sell unwanted items and buy desired items with other players. Your trash is someone else’s treasure and you’ll be surprised at how many bells someone is willing to pay you for something.
- NookFriends
This is a website that lets a player share their island’s dodo code to have other players come visit! This is the fastest way to get different types of fruit or produce for your island. Also, many players will have giveaways where you can find some really cool items for free! (Donations are always appreciated. Look for a donation box.)
- Happy Home Paradise expansion
I highly recommend that you get the Happy Home Paradise expansion to get access to additional items and NPCs! It’ll become a part of your daily routine where you can go to work to build homes for Animal Crossing villagers who are visiting the paradise island!
- Able Sisters
Be sure to talk to Sable in Able Sisters every day. Once she likes you, she’ll give you custom designs that you can use to customize furniture, wear as clothes, or set up as items to decorate your island!
- Villager Gifts
The best items to give to your villagers are extra fossils that your museum doesn’t need and non-native fruit. These items sell for a higher price at Nook’s Cranny and because of their sales price, they earn you more points towards your friendship with that villager. If you wrap the gift, that’ll also give you extra points. The benefit of giving villagers fossils and fruit is that villagers won’t keep them around to use as decorations that ruin the look of their home.
- That glowing spot on your island…
First, go see Katrina before digging up that glowing spot! If your luck improves your money, that glowing spot will earn you 5,000 bells instead of 1,000. Second, bury 10,000 bells once you dig up the glowing spot. You will get 30,000 bells once the tree fully grows!
- Wasps
Make sure to hold your net when shaking trees so you can catch wasps. Also, shake the trees at a 45 degree angle (the 5:00 and 7:00 spots on a clock). If a wasp appears, you’ll turn to face the wasp automatically making it almost impossible to miss the wasp!
- Tarantulas and Scorpions
Those creepy crawlers who make you nervous about walking around your island at night… yes, I’m talking about the tarantulas and scorpions. There’s a method to approach them in order to catch them!
First… once you see it, stop moving and get out your net.
Second, hold down the A button to get your net ready to release.
Third, while holding down the A button, slowly approach the creepy crawler stopping every time it rears up on its back legs. Wait for it to drop back down and slowly approach again. Do this until you’re close enough to catch it.
Fourth… release your net by letting go of the A button!
Fifth… celebrate because you just caught it!
- DIY Recipes
If your villager is at home, stop by for a visit to see if they’re working on a DIY recipe! If they are, you can talk to them in order to learn the DIY recipe too. This could include cooking recipes or building recipes.
- Toilets Actually Have a Purpose.
Yes, you can actually use the toilet in ACNH! You get energy points if you ingest anything (food or drink). Sometimes you want these energy points in order to destroy a rock or dig up a tree! But if you have energy points that you want to get rid of, stop by a toilet! You’ll use the toilet and your energy points will be gone. Your rocks will thank you for not accidentally destroying them.
- Nintendo Switch Online
Getting tired of the Nintendo Switch keyboard? Yeah, me too. That’s why I downloaded the app called Nintendo Switch Online. This allows me to type messages in through my phone! Much faster… less frustrating. Win, win.
And there you have it! 15 tips to hopefully help you make the most of your time with ACNH! Let me know if there’s a tip or trick that you use in ACNH!
Caroline’s Library 