Quarantine is all about the Animal Crossing. The video game gods definitely knew what they were doing when they released Animal Crossing right before all of this madness really sunk in. I’m not sure how I would survive without the excitement of seeing what’s new in my game every morning. I’ve been playing for a good few months now and have a handful of tips an tricks for beginners and expert players alike.
1. Befriend Sable in your Able Sisters store. At first she’ll brush you off, but over time if you talk to her daily, she’ll warm up. You’ll learn more about the Able sisters’ history, get custom patterns to use in crafting, and make Sable’s day better. I think that last one is pretty dang sweet.
2. Turnip prices change twice a day. Before noon and afternoon, check your prices as they change. It’s best to get a group of friends checking prices so you’ll be able to get the best return on turnip investment.
3. Keep your net out when you shake trees to avoid getting stung by wasps. Plus wasps bring in a lot of bells when you sell them so it’s doubly worth it.
4. Save weeds to use in crafting projects and to build hedges. You can also save them to sell to Leif for 2x more profit. When you first start your island you’ll feel compelled to sell all your weeds to try and make money. Save a few bunches or get them from mystery islands because you’re going to need them a lot later.
5. A villager is usually always crafting on your island or a friend’s island. If you just turned on your game for the first time in a few hours, check all of your villagers’ houses to see if any are crafting. There’s usually one making something. Don’t forget to look when you’re visiting a friend’s island too.
6. Once you reach three stars, you’ll get terraforming. Talk to Isabelle for your island evaluation. Once you hit three stars, Tom Nook will call K. K. Slider to come play on the island. Then he’ll give you terraforming access.
7. There’s really no reason to pay off your final home loan. Once you pay off your last home loan, you’ll be able to customize the outside of your house for free once a day. Previously you can pay 5,000 bells to do it. Not really worth the millions of bells to pay off that last loan.
8. Don’t leave a house plot empty for too long because Tom Nook will sell it to some rando villager right out from under you. Learn from my mistakes.
9. Having friends water your flowers helps hybrids grow faster. You have better odds of getting rare hybrid flowers if you have visitors water your plants for you. Leave a few watering cans out and put up a cute sign to let them know!
10. Tree stumps entice certain bugs so make sure you chop some trees down to the stumps for them to spawn on.
11. Wishing on a friend’s island will give you star fragments on your beach the next day, but will also give your friend more fragments as well.
12. Garbage cans work in the game. You can throw away things you don’t want. You can always sell them to Timmy and Tommy, but if there are things you just want to get rid of, trashcans do the trick.
13. Balloons spawn every five minutes. They appear on 4’s and 9’s. Make sure to avoid popping them over fields of flowers or water. If they don’t have a place to land, they’ll disappear.
14. Don’t hold B while going through flowers. It could ruin the blooms and you’ll have to wait a day or so for them to grow back. Plus don’t run on other people’s islands. That’s just not good island etiquette.
15. Follow hashtags like #acnhdesigns on Instagram to find custom codes for paths, clothing, and more. My favorite way to customize my island is with amazing artwork other crossers create. The fruit signs in the above photo are custom designed!
16. Put your island in the southern hemisphere if the bulk of your friends are in the northern hemisphere. One of my friends joined the craze a couple weeks after us. She put her island in the southern hemisphere so she has opposite seasons from us. It makes visiting each other’s islands so much more fun as there are always new things to catch and discover.
17. Hit rocks with your axe, not your shovel. If you have terrible aim like me, hitting rocks with shovels will just end up in a lot of holes and frustration. It’s much easier just to hit them with the axe.
18. Every mystery island has one tree with wasps and one tree with furniture. Be sure to shake them all (with your net out) to snag these before you start chopping things down.
19. One rock on your island produces bells every day. The rock will change daily, but you can get quite a few bells by hunting down that special rock every day.
20. You can catalog items on a friend’s island and they’ll show up in your Nook Shopping to purchase. This is a great way to get unique items that your friends don’t want to part with. Your friend just has to drop the item on the ground, you pick it up, and drop back down again. Then it’ll appear in your Nook Shopping list to purchase and have delivered to your mailbox the next day. Remember you can only purchase five items from Nook Shopping a day.
Animal Crossing is truly a whole lot more fun when you have friends to share it with. If none of your real life friends happen to play, feel free to join my little Facebook group to make online ones!
