Tips When Starting an Island in Animal Crossing: New Horizons
Animal Crossing: New Horizons released on Nintendo Switch March 20, 2020, and it seems like everyone is playing. With many social distancing or self-quarantining due to the COVID-19 virus, not to mention the fear, anxiety, and stress it has brought, Animal Crossing: New Horizons seems to be the uplifting, positive break from reality we all need. After spending a few days living the island life, myself and some friends have curated a list of basic tips that may help you as you start to live this island life for yourself.
1. Choose the Right Island for You
One of the first choices you have in the game is which island you wish to live on. You are given four unique layouts to choose from, but all share some common characteristics such as rivers, inclined areas, and an icon that represents the Resident Services building, which is where you’ll start. The island layout you choose will heavily dictate some of the early-game resources you’ll have access to, including weeds, wood, rocks, and fish. Choosing a layout with lots of space around the Resident Services building means you can gather more resources on your first few days. That being said, you should get access to a vaulting pole within a couple of days of starting your island, so don’t let rivers necessarily hold you back. You won’t, however, have access to the inclined areas for a while, so just keep that in mind.
2. Pay Off Your Moving Fees ASAP
When you move to your island, you’ll be given a tent and a few basic items to start your new life. As most Animal Crossing players are familiar with, Tom Nook will charge you for these items, which means you start your fabulous island life… in debt. Luckily, you have two methods of payment: traditional bells OR the brand-new Nook Miles system! Nook Miles are easy enough to garne if you focus on those tasks, so be sure to take advantage of this offer (especially because future debts can only be paid off using bells). Paying off this first debt allows you to build your first island home, which also means storage access which is a MUST as you start to gather more resources, tools, and furniture.
3. Focus on Nook Miles
One of the exciting new features of Animal Crossing: New Horizons is the introduction of Nook Miles. Nook Miles are a type of currency that is earned through completing specific tasks around your island, such as talking to neighbors, shooting down presents, and fishing! Nook Miles come in handy in the early game by offering you an alternative means of paying off your debt to Tom Nook, but there are also other reasons you’ll want to focus on earning them. You can later redeem them to get a Nook Miles ticket, which allows you to visit mystery islands that can be loaded with resources, fruit, and rare bugs/fish! You may even find an occasional visitor who you can convince to move to your island. As your island grows, you’ll find more ways to redeem your NookMiles to make improvements to your island, home, and character design!
4. Upgrade Your Tools
You’ll start the game learning how to craft basic “flimsy” tools, which as their title suggests means that these tools will break rather quickly as you use them. Once you receive the DIY recipes for the axe, shovel, net, and fishing rod, be sure to upgrade those tools to ensure longer tool life and more power to knock down those trees and boulders (after you read Tip 6). You can also buy flimsy tools from Nook’s Cranny or the Dodo Pilot (when on a mystery island) to reduce the amount of resources you use to craft your tools.
5. Get Multiple Resources at a Time
This may be an obvious tip, but the first couple of days on my island I had no idea that you could get multiple resources from one tree, boulder, etc! Shake trees multiple times to get up to 8 tree branches from a single tree. Also keep in mind that whenever you use an axe on a tree or boulder, you have the ability to gather multiple resources as well. You can gain up to 3 varying woods from a single tree (be sure to use the stone axe if you don’t want to cut the tree down!) and up to 7 varying resources from boulders (see below).
6. Don’t Destroy the Boulders
It may be tempting to use your upgraded axe to break up the large boulders scattered around your island, especially when you’re in clean-up mode after picking up those weeds. Resist the urge! Especially in the early game when you may not be travelling to mystery islands frequently, those large boulders can provide valuable resources such as clay, stone, iron nuggets, and the occasional gold nugget. By leaving them on your island, you can gather these resources everyday, which will come in handy when trying to build Nook’s Cranny.
7. Dig Up Trees from Other Islands
Selling fruit is one of the most popular ways to earn bells in the game. However, the fruit that is native to your island will not earn you as much bells selling to Timmy and Tommy Nook as other fruits. One way to help boost your income is to plant new fruits on your island. You can do this by planting actual fruits you find from friends or mystery islands, or by uprooting an entire tree and replanting on your island. To uproot a tree, you’ll need to eat one fruit and use a shovel. And that’s it! Place multiple new fruit trees on your island and you’ll be earning bells in no time.
Using these tips will help you make the most of your first few days of new island life in Animal Crossing: New Horizons! Do you have any tips for new island residents? Leave your tip in the comments below!