Animal Crossing: New Horizons – A Beginner’s Island Life
Choosing Your Island and First Steps:
The allure of deserted island life begins with choosing your personal paradise. While the island’s shape is randomly generated, the critical choice lies in selecting your hemisphere: Northern or Southern. This decision dictates the seasons you’ll experience and, consequently, the flora, fauna, and seasonal events. Consider your real-world climate and preferences. Do you yearn for cherry blossoms in spring or a snowy holiday season?
Once you’ve selected your hemisphere, you’re presented with a map showcasing four different island layouts. Scrutinize these carefully. Pay attention to the river mouths (where rivers meet the sea), the Resident Services location (this is permanent!), and the beach layout. The number of secret beaches can also vary. Think strategically about potential bridge and incline placement, future landscaping possibilities, and accessibility of different areas. Avoid layouts with Resident Services too close to the airport or with awkwardly placed rivers that might hinder development later.
After landing, Tom Nook will guide you through the initial steps: choosing a tent location, meeting your first two villagers, and attending the celebratory campfire party. These initial villagers are randomly selected and will always be a Jock and a Sisterly type. They are your neighbors, and building relationships with them is a core part of the game.
Your initial tasks will involve gathering resources: branches, fruit, and weeds. These are crucial for crafting your first tools. Nook will provide you with the recipes for essential tools like the flimsy net, flimsy fishing rod, flimsy axe, and flimsy shovel. These tools are, as the name suggests, fragile. They will break, so crafting replacements will become a regular activity.
NookPhone: Your Island Companion:
The NookPhone is your indispensable gadget. It contains a suite of apps that are fundamental to your island life. The most important of these early on are:
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Critterpedia: A comprehensive catalogue of all bugs, fish, and sea creatures you’ve encountered. It provides information on their habitat, season, and time of day they can be found. This is crucial for maximizing your Bells (in-game currency) through selling to Timmy and Tommy at Nook’s Cranny.
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Recipes: This app holds all the crafting recipes you’ve learned. New recipes are acquired through various means: purchasing them from Nook’s Cranny, receiving them from villagers, finding them in bottles on the beach, or even shooting down balloon presents.
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Nook Miles: This app tracks your progress on various achievements. Completing these “Nook Miles+” tasks earns you Nook Miles, a separate currency from Bells. Nook Miles are essential for purchasing vital items like the tool ring, pocket expansion upgrades, and most importantly, Nook Miles Tickets for visiting mystery islands.
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Map: Displays your island’s layout and the location of important buildings and villagers.
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Camera: Allows you to take photos and videos of your island life.
The Importance of Nook Miles and Mystery Island Tours:
Nook Miles are critical for early progress. The initial investment in Nook Miles Tickets unlocks the ability to visit mystery islands. These islands are randomly generated and offer a diverse range of resources not found on your starting island.
Mystery islands are invaluable for:
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Gathering Resources: Wood (hardwood, softwood, and regular wood), stone, iron nuggets, and clay are all essential for crafting and building. Mystery islands offer a concentrated source of these materials.
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Finding New Fruits: Your starting island only has one native fruit. Mystery islands are the primary way to acquire other fruit types, which sell for significantly more Bells. Planting these fruits on your island expands your income potential.
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Recruiting New Villagers: If you have an open plot on your island, you can invite villagers you encounter on mystery islands to move in. This is a crucial step in populating your island.
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Catching Different Bugs and Fish: Mystery islands often have different environments, leading to the appearance of unique bugs and fish not found on your island. This expands your Critterpedia and offers opportunities to catch rare and valuable creatures.
Expanding Your Home and Island Infrastructure:
Your initial tent is cozy, but upgrading to a house is a primary goal. This requires paying off your initial debt to Tom Nook using Nook Miles. Once you have a house, you can expand it multiple times, increasing your storage space and allowing for more elaborate interior decorating.
Upgrading your island’s infrastructure involves:
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Nook’s Cranny: This shop, run by Timmy and Tommy, sells tools, furniture, and other essential items. Building Nook’s Cranny is a crucial step towards economic growth.
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The Able Sisters Tailor Shop: Mabel and Sable’s shop provides a wider range of clothing and accessories than what’s initially available at Nook’s Cranny.
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The Museum: Blathers, the owl curator, will arrive on your island once you’ve donated enough bugs, fish, and fossils. Building the museum is essential for completing your Critterpedia and displaying your discoveries.
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Upgrading Resident Services: Eventually, Resident Services will upgrade from a tent to a building, unlocking Isabelle, who provides valuable information about island life and allows you to change your island’s flag and tune.
Mastering Fishing and Bug Catching:
Fishing and bug catching are consistent sources of income. Learning the nuances of each activity is essential for maximizing your profits.
Fishing:
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Location Matters: Different fish appear in different locations (river, sea, pond, pier). The Critterpedia indicates where each fish can be found.
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Shadow Size: Fish shadows vary in size, indicating the size and rarity of the fish.
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Timing is Key: When a fish nibbles on your lure, wait until it fully bites before pressing the A button. Too early or too late, and the fish will get away.
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Fish Bait: Craft fish bait using manila clams found on the beach. Bait allows you to spawn fish in specific locations, increasing your chances of catching desired species.
Bug Catching:
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Approach Slowly: Bugs are easily startled. Approach slowly, holding the A button to creep.
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Be Aware of Environment: Some bugs are found on flowers, trees, or rocks.
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Rare Bugs: Certain bugs are rare and valuable, such as the emperor butterfly or the stag beetle. Learning their spawn conditions and habitats will significantly boost your income.
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Tarantulas and Scorpions: These aggressive creatures can knock you unconscious if they sting you. They spawn at night and can be a risky but rewarding source of Bells.
Digging for Fossils and Mining Resources:
Fossils and resources are buried or hidden across your island. Finding and utilizing these effectively is crucial for progression.
Fossils:
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Star-Shaped Cracks: Fossils are found by looking for star-shaped cracks in the ground.
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Donating to Blathers: Donate fossils to Blathers to complete your museum’s fossil exhibit.
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Selling Duplicates: Duplicate fossils can be sold to Timmy and Tommy.
Mining Resources:
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Hitting Rocks with an Axe or Shovel: Rocks yield stone, iron nuggets, clay, and sometimes gold nuggets.
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Eating Fruit: Eating fruit before hitting a rock will cause you to break it. Breaking rocks is useful for clearing space, but rocks will reappear in new locations the next day.
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Money Rock: One rock per day will yield Bells instead of resources when hit repeatedly.
Cultivating Relationships with Your Villagers:
Villagers are an integral part of island life. Building relationships with them unlocks various benefits.
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Daily Interactions: Talk to your villagers daily.
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Gifting: Give villagers gifts that align with their personality and style.
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Completing Requests: Fulfill requests from villagers, such as delivering items or catching specific bugs or fish.
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Birthday Celebrations: Celebrate your villagers’ birthdays with a party and a thoughtful gift.
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Friendship Levels: Higher friendship levels unlock new dialogue, gifts, and eventually, the ability to receive their photo, a rare and highly prized item.
By mastering these fundamentals, your deserted island life in Animal Crossing: New Horizons will flourish, transforming into a vibrant and personalized paradise.