12 Tips to Improve Your Animal Crossing: New Horizons Experience

Animal Crossing: New Horizons is here and it’s very fun. But the game holds a few secrets that might make your journey a little less like work and a little more relaxing.

Hold B to Run

There’s no immediate need to run in New Horizons. Things move at a leisurely pace. Picking up the pace just a little isn’t a bad thing. This tip becomes essential when you encounter your first wasp hive! Run away, as fast as you can!

Shake trees when your net is out

Wasps are nasty creatures at the best of times, but in New Horizons they are relentless in their pursuit of those who knock them out of their home. One sting and you’ll regret it. The best way to avoid this while shaking down trees is to shake it while your net is out. Then, you stand a chance at capturing them, adding a wasp donation to your list for Blathers.

Hold A while your net is out to creep

While we’re on the topic of using your net to catch creepy crawlies, nabbing anything but the most common butterflies requires a degree of stealth, so listen up! Holding down A while your net is out and gently moving the control stick allows you to slowly move forward, ready to pounce. This won’t cause most bugs to run off — but be warned! — when you release A you’ll snap your net down. You might only have the one chance!

Fill in holes by kicking dirt on them

You’ve been using your trusty shovel to dig up fossils and more. Now, though, your island is riddled with holes and you’ve broken your shovel. Never fear! You don’t need a shovel to fill holes. Simply use Y next to the hole and your villager will fill the hole by kicking dirt on it.

Eat fruit to get swole

Just like in real life, eating a daily helping of fruit will give you a boost, so fill up if you have heavy lifting to do! Eating 10 fruit will give you extra strength when swinging an ax or shovel. Be careful when using this, though, as there can be consequences! Using this strength on a rock will shatter it–not a bad thing if you’re on a special island–while using it on a tree allows you to pocket and move the tree with a shovel, while you’ll be able to chop clean through with an ax. Just make sure you didn’t want that rock or tree for anything else for a while…

You can mine with an ax or shovel

When mining for ore and clay–especially important in the early game–it’s tempting to think only one of these tools will do the job. A standard or flimsy tool will do the job and both do it equally. Don’t sweat if you only have an ax to hit those big rocks!

Click multiple items you want to sell

When selling (or performing certain other functions like assessing fossils) you can click multiple items at once before hitting confirm. This speeds up an otherwise clunky process! However, certain in game tasks, like donating to the museum, stubbornly insist you go at it one by one…

Organize your pocket

The pocket is the place where you store the items on your person. You’ll want to save 5000 Nook Miles right off the hop to purchase the Pocket Organization Guide. This will add another row to your storage. Even without that upgrade, though, you can better organize your pocket to manage your inventory. Click and hold A over the item you want to move to drag it to the ideal spot. Group your tools together, then use the excess space to track your goals (collecting wood? filling the museum?) while leaving extra space for jaunts to other islands.

Your home storage is versatile

By the start of the second day you should have a house built. Congratulations! The house comes with built in storage. Don’t feel as if you need to carry every mackerel, butterfly, or squid around with you everywhere. While you wait for certain milestones–like Blathers to complete the museum–you’ll be locked out from donating these items. Keep collecting! As long as you have room in your home storage you can keep fishing to fill out your Critterpedia without needing to release any creatures to make space for an island adventure. Sweet.

Sell simple things

If you find yourself short on bells there are plenty of things to gather and sell. Weeds net 10 bells per pull and you can pick a lot quickly. If you have duplicate fish or bugs don’t hesitate to sell them…you don’t need them! Even rocks are worth a bit in a pinch. For a little more profit, consider crafting items you don’t need, then selling them off for a nice bonus. However, iron ore, clay, and the various wood features are worth hanging on to in the early game. Hang on to them if you can.

Watch for 2x Nook Miles opportunities

When you first get your Nook Miles app upgraded each of the first achievements will be for 2x points. Replacement activities will generally be a standard bonus but refresh throughout the day–and as you check more off the list–and you’ll get various opportunities for double miles. Take note: Many of these require very specific things, like angling yourself a tadpole, and not just any generic goal like gathering five fish!

Disconnect and have fun

It’s okay to step away from the game! Animal Crossing is designed for short play and long play, so even if you play for 15 minutes a day, there’s still tons of chances to make progress. It’s a marathon, not a sprint. That’s not the pits!

–With files from Aaron Hudspeth.