15 tips for newbies to Animal Crossing: New Horizons

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

These guidelines will help you get comfortable with the game.

The new part of Animal Crossing for Nintendo Switch quickly became one of the most talked about games. Largely because it came out at a very convenient moment: funny cartoon characters and paradise islands help to distract from the pandemic.

But the therapeutic effect is not the only advantage of New Horizons. The developers have created an amazing world with a lot of possibilities, in which you want to live. Players can travel, mine resources, equip entire islands, trade and interact with each other.

Many features of New Horizons are on the surface, but some are easy to overlook. If you are just getting started with the game, take note of Lifehacker's tips.

1. Have patience

The possibilities of Animal Crossing: New Horizons are gradually revealed to the user. A commonplace for games. But if in most virtual worlds progress depends only on the actions of the player, in this it is also tied to real time.

In other words, access to many activities and items opens up as long as you are in the game for how many days. So relax and don't try to outrun your friends who started earlier.

2. Organize your inventory

The game does not allow you to reorder your inventory with the click of a button. But if you select an item and hold A, you can move it to another location. This will help to put things in order in the collected things.

3. Use a stone ax

The iron tool completely destroys trees. And the stone one allows you to get wood for crafting without cutting them down to the end. Use the second one when you cut trees on your island. After all, they will still be useful to you.

4. Prepare fish bait

On the beaches of Animal Crossing: New Horizons, you can see trickles of water that rise directly from the sand. Here mollusks are hiding - the shells of the wench. Go and dig them up with a shovel. Then you can craft bait from these creatures and catch fish with it.

5. When shaking trees, hold a landing net in your hands

In the early days of the game, you will have to shake trees to get some crafting sticks. But in the process, a hornet's nest may fall on the head. If you do not want to be bitten, hold a net in your hands. It will allow you to catch fallen insects.

6. Catch insects correctly

If you approach the insect in the usual way, it will probably fly away. Or even bite you if it's a spider or a scorpion. Therefore, when fishing with a net, hold down A to sneak up on the target. If the insect assumes a defensive posture, wait until it calms down. Then sneak closer and catch him.

7. Watch the night sky

When walking at night, periodically glance at the sky. To do this, press the down arrow to remove objects from your hands, and tilt the camera up to look around.

This way you can see a shooting star. Noticing the characteristic trace, press A - this will allow you to make a wish. Following one heavenly body, others may also fall, so do not rush to look away.

The stars, under which you have time to make wishes, will be carried to the beach in waves the next day. The debris can be useful for crafting wands and other rare items.

8. Don't be afraid of rash decisions

Animal Crossing: New Horizons is a very flexible game. You can change many of the decisions you make in it if you want. Do you regret that you have settled in the wrong place? Pay a small amount and move somewhere else. The game will allow you to move not only the house, but also your other real estate. Tired of your character's looks or even gender? Get a mirror and re-configure the hero. This is just a small part of what you can change.

9. Carry a workbench in inventory

The game world is full of various materials for crafting. You will find many of them in remote corners and cannot be used until you return home. But only until you start taking your workbench with you. If necessary, you can get it and craft the necessary items right on the spot.

10. Grow fruit

Animal Crossing: New Horizons has a ton of tradable items, from insects to shells. But one of the most valuable resources is fruit. By developing your own farm and selling fruits, you will earn good money. Especially for the first stages of the game.

Travel and collect different types of fruits. Grow them on your island, and go to your friends to sell - they offer the best prices.

11. Chat with other islanders

Don't forget to interact with the characters - in many cases it's not only fun, but also rewarding. They give gifts, give valuable advice, or teach the player something. But often this does not happen immediately, but after several conversations.

By interacting with residents, you can influence their behavior. If you make friends with the inhabitants of other islands, the game will allow you to invite them to your place. And frequent conversations with neighbors increase the likelihood that they will not leave your island.

By regularly communicating with the characters, you also get the opportunity to give them gifts. In return, they often give other items or just money. If you present clothes, some characters will be able to wear them.

12. Complete Tom Nook's quests

At the beginning of the game, the character Tom Nook will become your guide. He will tell you what to do next. In addition, you will receive several optional instructions that you can ignore. But it is better not to do this, otherwise you will miss out on important chips that affect the gameplay. For example, the ability to create roads.

13. Eat fruit

Eating fruit temporarily gives the player various abilities and bonuses. For example, it allows you to replant trees without damaging them, or helps to crush stone faster.

14. Get iron from stone

You will need iron nuggets to create good tools. They can be obtained from stone. Take a shovel or an iron or stone ax and crush the stone wherever you find it.

Iron will not come across as often at first. If you want to speed up the mining, go to the distant islands. But for this you will need tickets that can be bought for a special currency - Nuka miles.

15. Create a spider island

Many mystical islands can be turned into spider islands. This way you can catch a bunch of spiders and make good money on them. There is no bug or hack in this - only the mechanics of the game are used.

First, make sure there are insects on the island - butterflies or beetles. If you find them, you can proceed.

In Animal Crossing: New Horizons, insects appear on flowers, stones, trees, stumps, grass - and not only from above, but also inside. Therefore, all this must be destroyed: the trees must be cut down, the stumps must be uprooted. Eat fruit and break stones. Collect all the grass and flowers (you do not need to uproot the flower seedlings themselves).

Once you get rid of everything, the insects will have three ways of appearing: water, earth, and stones by the sea. So start combing the island. There can be giant water bugs in rivers and ponds - catch them. Beetles-horses and sea cockroaches crawl on the ground and stones - scare them away at a run. Be careful though: you've just increased the chance of tarantula spiders (aka tarantulas) spawning.

Ambush with tarantulas: if you do not see the spider in advance, it will run after you and may bite. The chances of catching him in this case are very small - unless you have prepared in advance. Dig holes in the shape of an inverted U and when the tarantula tries to overtake you, run to the trap and jump over - the spider will be inside, you just have to catch it.

Important: the easiest way is to make an island with bamboo a spider: there are no bodies of water, and you don't have to uproot the felled bamboo. Also, some islands (for example, with money stones) will not spawn spiders - therefore, the very first step with the search for basic insects is important.