Animal Crossing: New Horizons has been out a few months at the time of the writing of this article, and many guides exist out there to help with your every need, whether it’s looking for Shooting Stars or breeding flowers. However, there are a few tips and tricks that every new player to ACNH should know.
The first of which, is to shake your trees. Trees drop tree branches, which are useful for crafting many items such as fishing poles, bug nets, and many sorts of DIYs. Trees can also drop furniture, which is useful for decorating your island and house.
Another tip is to never, ever, especially at the beginning of the game, sell any of your resources such as branches, iron, and stones. These resources are going to be very important in the crafting of many items that are important to your progression, and some of them, such as iron, only appear in limited amounts per day.
You should also always be exploring every inch of the island that you can, as you can find many different items and resources throughout your day. Fossils and insects can be found throughout the island, and are useful to enhancing your collection with Blathers.
You’ll also want to talk to every villager on your island every day, if you can swing it. Villagers will often give you gifts, and offer the chance to increase your friendship with them by doing tasks for them or helping them with things. Two villagers each day will also give you a DIY recipe, so it’s worth socializing.
Another useful tip is to try and upgrade your services and buildings as soon as possible. You’ll also be lacking many features, such as town tunes and flags until you upgrade certain buildings.
Hoard your Nook Miles Tickets! You’ll want to use them throughout your time on the island to get more resources and new villagers. Everyone has that villager that they just can’t stand, and using NMT to meet new villagers is one of few ways to be able to do that.
Something else that is heavily recommended, if you have a Nintendo Online subscription, is to travel to other peoples’ islands and grab non-native fruits and flowers. If you need to be a completionist, this is the easiest way to get non-native fruits and flowers.
Fruits that aren’t native to your island will also sell for a lot of bells, and fruits from your island that aren’t native to others’ islands sell for a lot as well. This is one of the best ways to make money before you start delving into the Stalk Market, so do this as much as you can.
Speaking of which, don’t be afraid to engage in the Stalk Market! It can be a bit complicated at first, but if you take the time to figure out the sell/buy patterns, it will be well worth your effort.
