Animal Crossing: New Horizons Guide – Walkthrough

1. Create more quickly

It can be aggravating to have to wait through the animations every time you make a new DIY recipe. When your character begins crafting, press the A button several times in quick succession to speed up the process significantly. (In case you didn’t know, repeatedly pressing B causes animals to talk faster as well.)

2. Improve Your Inventory

To make more room in your pockets, use your Nook Miles and the NookStop to unlock the maximum inventory capacity of 40 item slots. I keep certain crafting supplies on hand at all times so that I can whip up a new bug-catching net or fishing rod at a moment’s notice. Aside from tools, I keep iron nuggets, wood, softwood, hardwood, stones, and tree branches on hand at all times. Several items stack, but once you have 30 pieces of something like wood, it will start using a new inventory slot.

3. Move with caution

Pressing B while moving will cause you to run. This repels bugs and fish, and it can ruin newly planted flowers, so use caution. Pressing A while moving with a net in your hand will cause you to sneak. Letting go of A while sneaking causes the net to fall. This is the best way to sneak up on fleeing insects like moths and the only way to catch tarantulas and scorpions. Slowly approach them with your net up and stop when their legs begin to shake. When they come to a halt, continue, rinse, and repeat.

4. On Mystery Island Tours, shake every tree

Shake every tree on your way to a mysterious island. There’s always some furniture hidden in one of them. You should bring your net, though, because there will be at least one wasp nest that will fall. You can catch those wasps before they attack, of course. Simply tap A as soon as they appear (facing them).

5. When You Wish Upon a Star

Isabelle will occasionally announce during the morning announcements that a Meteor Shower is expected that night. The timing appears to be completely random. Despite having more than 170 hours in the game, I have yet to experience an official Meteor Shower, though I have met Celeste. She’s Blathers’ sister, and she’ll occasionally provide you with a zodiac-themed DIY recipe. (From what I’ve seen on various forums, this appears to be a bug; some players haven’t seen Celeste but have had Meteor Showers, while others have seen Celeste but not a shooting star, and so on.)

On clear, cloudless nights, shooting stars appear at random between 7 p.m. and 4 a.m. They sound like a shimmering bell. The noise is relatively quiet; headphones may be necessary to hear it. Make sure your hands are empty, look up with the right joystick, and press A when a star appears overhead to make a wish. Shooting stars usually appear in bursts, so keep looking up after you’ve wished in case another one or three appears. The next day, your beaches will be littered with Star Fragments that you can use to create various DIY recipes.

6. Use Fruits to Gain Superpowers

You’ve probably figured out that eating a piece of fruit and then hitting a rock with your shovel or stone axe will break it, but did you know that the same action can help you move trees? The days of chopping and replanting are long gone. As WIRED writer Louise Matsakis pointed out, once you’ve activated your fruit-eating abilities, you can use your shovel to dig up a tree. It will be kept in your pocket for easy planting.

7. Improve Your Money Trees

Every day, there will be a gleaming spot on the ground containing 1,000 Bells. Reburying the bag of Bells will result in the growth of a Bell tree that will produce cash every few days. However, if you plant even more Bells, you may be able to grow a tree that produces larger Bell bags. This trick has allowed me to grow a number of 10,000-Bell trees. Go to your pockets and click on the Bell counter in the bottom left-hand corner to plant more Bells. You can then select how many Bells to separate and then Bury in Hole to plant them.

8. Fish and Bugs Can Be Evasive

There are a few creatures that only appear for one month out of the year. They differ depending on which hemisphere you live in, and to avoid spoilers, I’ll leave you with this: Bugs and fish can be more difficult to catch than you think. Some of the fish I’ve caught only spawn for a few hours in places like the uppermost cliff river, a river’s mouth, or a pond. The same is true for bugs. Some will only spawn on rotten vegetables, trash, or villagers. Be inventive and persistent in your search! If you’re trying to spawn fish in a specific location, use fish bait to expedite the process. You might get a few Nook Miles in exchange for your trouble.