Animal Crossing: New Horizons Declassified Island Survival Guide From a Seasoned AC Veteran
A friend of mine recently bought ACNH and was very confused as this was her first foray into AC, so I made this info dump guide. I thought somebody else in the world might be able to benefit from it as well. Hope you enjoy! Happy Animal Crossing-ing!
Talk to your islanders. talking to them, completing favors, and giving them gifts will increase your friendship level. Don’t forget to check up on villagers that are inside their houses! They might be crafting a DIY and they will give you the recipe if you talk to them!
Shopping. Everyday the items in the shops will change, this include the items on the nook store, accessible through the Nook Kiosk in town hall/the tent in the plaza
Log on to the Nook Kiosk every day for free nook miles!!!
Walk your beaches. You’ll find shells, and a message in a bottle with a DIY will spawn every day.
Watering flowers. Watering your flowers will lead to hybrids growing. this is how you get colors of flowers such as purple and orange, etc. If it rains, you don’t have to water the flowers, but if you do, then you have a higher chance of hybrids growing.
Money Rock. Every day there will be a money rock. hit it with your ax or shovel (I use the shovel) for cash. Don’t forget to dig a barricade behind yourself to keep you from sliding so you can get all 8 hits in.
Money tree. Every day there will be a glowing fissure on the ground. Dig it up and you’ll find bells. HOWEVER DO NOT FILL THE HOLE. Instead, bury bells there. This will result in a nursery money tree growing. Trees take 4 days to grow. IMPORTANT AND I DIDN’T KNOW THIS AT FIRST money trees will only grow money once, so after you’ve collected the bells, it’s just a regular tree. I personally have four money trees with one being used and then replaced every day for an endless loop. However many bells you bury is how much money will grow X3, however keep in mind that sometimes it will only grow bags of 10,000 bells, despite planting more than that. To be safe, never go above 50,000 bells, as the likelihood of not getting back what you buried seems to increase after that, but do whatever you’re comfortable with.
Fossils. Everyday you will see star-shaped markings on the ground throughout your island. Those markings indicate that a fossil is buried in that spot. Dig it up! Then, (once he is unlocked on your island which shouldn’t be too far off) take your fossils to Blathers at the museum to get them assessed. He will tell you what the fossil is. From there they can be donated to the museum if it doesn’t have that fossil yet, or if you already have it you can place it on your island or you can sell it. ALWAYS GET YOUR FOSSILS ASSESSED BEFORE SELLING THEM. An unidentified fossil is only worth a few hundred bells, where an identified fossil is worth a varying couple thousand depending on what it is. There will be 4, sometimes 5, fossils to find on your island everyday.
Catch bugs and fish! bugs and fish spawn throughout your island everyday all day. Different bugs and fish have different conditions for spawning. Some spawn all day in any weather, some only can appear at night, others only during the day. Certain fish only are catchable in the rain. Also most bugs and fish are seasonal, with new bugs and fish being able to be caught every month. Donate your fish and bugs to Blathers to fill up your museum, and sell the rest! It’s one of the main ways to make money.
Dive for scallops! Go swimming and dive for sea critters. If you catch a scallop and you have space in you pockets, Pascal the otter will spawn and ask you for it. In return he will give you either a pearl or a special DIY recipe. He will spawn once a day. Also the critters you catch can be donated to the museum and also sold.
* Potential weekly visitors include Leif, Kicks, Sahara, Flick, C.J., Gulliver, Gulllivar, Label, and Redd. Characters that can be found on the Plaza are Leif, Kicks, and Label. Leif is a sloth who will sell you plants, Kicks is a skunk who will sell you bags and shoes, and Label is a hedgehog who will ask you for fashion help. Characters that can be found wandering around your island are Sahara, Flick, and C.J. Sahara is a camel who will sell floorings, wallpapers, and rugs, Flick is a chameleon who you can sell bugs to, and C.J. is a beaver you can sell fish to. Both Flick and C.J. will buy their respective creatures for a higher price than the Nooklings will so it may be a good idea to save your bugs and fish for when they visit to make bank XD. Another character that you will initially find wandering around your island is Redd. Redd is fox who you will unlock later after you have donated enough stuff to your museum. Once you have, you will see him wandering around your island. Talk to him, and then the next day his boat will appear at your secret beach which is the tiny stretch of beach off by itself. Redd will sell you art work which can be donated to your museum. BE CAREFUL Redd will sell fake artwork!!! You can only donate real artwork, so choose wisely, as one player can only purchase one piece of art per Redd visit. Other players can purchase one piece of art from him too though. Gulliver and Gullivar are seagulls you will find washed up on your beach. Talk to them or hit them with a net until they wake up (just keep at it!) Talk to them and they will explain what you need to do for them. If you complete the task, you can expect a letter and a gift from them in the mail the following day. You will get one of these visiting characters everyday save for when K.K. Slider is in town. They are random, but characters that did not make an appearance one week are more likely to show up the next.
if you’re early enough in the game that the clothing store is still a visiting event, One day you’ll walk into the Nooklings and see a Hedgehog. After that, the hedgehog will be selling clothes in the plaza on random days. After I think 3 visits she will ask you about setting up a permanent shop. After that, this is store you can buy clothes from, clothes change every day so check often!
Don’t sprint near water if you are looking for fish. Sprinting will scare the fish away.
Just regular running and walking will scare away bugs that spawn on trees, stumps, and flowers, so proceed with caution when hunting for bugs. When holding a bug net, hold down A while you walk to creep towards bugs without scaring them away. Release A to swing your net. Bugs like butterflies, dragonflies, and bugs that spawn on the ground will not disappear when scared, they will just try to get away.
Fishing tip if you find yourself struggling: it’s easy to get trigger happy when fishing. Something I do to make it easier is closing my eyes and relying on the rumble of the joy con and the sound of the of the bite. You register sound better than you do visual cues. This is how I catch all fish cause I get to nervous and anticipate bites.
If a villager has a thought bubble above their head, TALK TO THEM! They have something important to say! They either are thinking about moving (which you can encourage or tell them to stay) or want to give you something.
The same goes for if a villager runs towards you calling your name to get your attention. They either have a reaction to teach you, or a gift!
Don’t be upset with your island layout. Eventually you will unlock terraforming which will allow you to destroy and create rivers, cliffs, and pathways anywhere you want. The only thing you cannot change is the plaza, and the mouths of your rivers. You can also build inclines and bridges, and move the museum, shops, campsite, and houses, at any time so long as you have the bells. You can only build one bridge or incline a day though, and the same goes for moving buildings.
Eating fruit will give you strength. With that strength, you can destroy rocks by hitting them with your shovel or ax (they will respawn in a different location the next day) and pick up entire trees with your shovel.
a stone axe will allow you to hit a tree indefinitely, but just an iron Axe will cut down the tree in 3 hits, so don’t farm for wood with the iron Axe! also you can remove stumps with your shovel
when filling a hole, press Y to use your foot to cover the hole instead of using your shovel. This will increase the longevity of your shovel.
BE CAREFUL WHEN SHAKING TREES!!! There is a chance of a wasp nest falling! If that happens, wasps will chase you and try to sting you. You can catch the wasps with a bug net, or you can run into a building to get them to stop chasing you. If they sting you, use some medicine to heal yourself. If you get stung a second time before using medicine, you will pass out and wake up in front of your house.
IF YOU ARE GOING TREE SHAKING have the net equipped and shake the tree from the front. If a wasp nest falls, it will fall to either side of you (or right on top of you but it doesn’t matter.) Your character will turn to face the wasps. Immediately after your shocked animation, swing your net to catch the wasps.
2 items will spawn in 2 random, non-fruit-baring trees on your island everyday. Shake trees (with a net equipped in case of wasps!) and there’s a chance an item leaf will drift down.
On mystery islands there will be 1 item in a non-fruit-baring tree. Same tactics suggested as seen above
Don’t be afraid of spiders and scorpions. They will only try to bite/sting you if you are holding a bug net, otherwise they will ignore you. You should try to catch them if you are comfortable doing so though, as you can donate them to the museum and you can sell them (they are expensive! more so if you sell them to Flick!) Just creep up to them slowly and you’ll catch them just fine.
Depending on the season, there will be some special materials floating around your island that you can catch with your bug net. This include snowflakes in the winter and cherry tree petals in the spring. I assume there might be some falling leaves in autumn, but I haven’t experienced autumn in the game yet so I can’t say for sure.
To raise your island’s star level, there are two major things to do. One, put flowers freaking everywhere. Two, put furniture FREAKING EVERYWHERE. your beaches, your plains, your mountains, DECORATE EVERYWHERE!!!!
Every sunday before noon, there will be a little piglet girl walking around your island. She is selling turnips. This is the way to MAKE BANK in Animal Crossing. the turnips are meant to be sold in The Stalk Market (get it?). Everyday (save for sunday) you will be able to sell your turnips to the Nooklings. The price of the turnips changes twice a day every day, the change occurs at noon. the idea is to buy turnips low and sell turnips high. the buying price of turnips will range from around 90 to 110 bells every week. The selling price will range from like 30 bells to like 700 something. Obviously, the higher the better. IMPORTANT! Turnips go bad after one week, upon which they are worthless. Make sure to sell your turnips before the next sunday!! However I would allow one stack of turnips to go bad once as this is how you catch ants. Drop the rotten turnips outside and ants will spawn on it. The same goes for catching flies, just drop some trash outside. BUT DON’T LEAVE THE TRASH FOREVER it will lower the star rating of your island.
Never sell things to the Nooklings via the drop box unless you have to. Selling via drop box comes with a like 15% reduction on the sell price, so you won’t get as many bells as you would if you sell to the Nooks by talking to them.
Day resets at 5 AM, not midnight, so don’t panic if you need to complete something by the end of the day and it’s almost 12.
Your villagers will teach you reactions. Aside from the 4 defaults you start with, The reactions you can learn are divided up amongst the villager types. For example, from a Normal type villager, you can learn Pleased, Fearful, Sadness, and Glee. Additionally, a villager will teach you one extra reaction if you max out your friendship level with them. If you’re best friends with a Normal type villager, they will teach you Daydreaming. So if you wanna unlock all 44 reactions, it’s important to get villagers of all different types and befriend them!
Dropping items of any kind will lower the star rating of your island if there are too many things on the ground. This includes turnips unfortunately -_-
Giving villagers gifts increase your relationship with them. But, if you wrap the gift before giving it to them, your relationship will increase by an additional point. Color of the paper doesn’t matter as far as I can tell.
Villagers have preferred styles and colors of clothing. You can give them whatever you want, but they will particularly enjoy items that match their preferred style and colors. Villagers also really appreciate gifts on their birthday! You will be notified via the notification board in the plaza about a week in advance of a villagers birthday
See a yellow bird (daytime) or an owl (nighttime) sitting on top of your notification board in the plaza? That means there’s a new post on the board! Go read it!
Holidays occur in animal crossing too! Holidays like Halloween, Christmas, Easter, New Years, and many others have Animal Crossing equivalents. Special events and items can be experienced and obtained on these days, so make sure to check in! You should also check in on YOUR birthday ;)
All in all, Animal Crossing is what you want it to be. This is just one way of playing. You can focus on whatever you wanna focus on, and do whatever you want to do. I just went crazy covering all the bases. I’m here if you have more questions. I hope you have loads of fun!
If you’re interested in keeping track of all the stuff you have, there is a free app called ACNH Guide. It can help you keep track of what bugs and fish and fossils you have and also what bugs and fish are currently available and where to find them. You can also log items and DIYs and music and what villagers you have and mark off the rocks you’ve hit, the money tree you have planted, and the bottled message. It can also help you keep track of what days the visiting characters come. It also has a built in turnip predictor which can help you make the most money that you can! And they are adding to the app all the time. I really recommend it if you want to keep track of all the craziness.
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