Animal Crossing: New Horizons First 10 Things To Do

Erin Skidds
8 min readMay 15, 2020
First 10 Things To Do in Animal Crossing New Horizons

This is a list of the first 10 things to do in Animal Crossing to get started faster and start building up your island! These are in no order but list out great ways to get your island built up faster and faster.

1. Find Friends who will play AC: New Horizons with you!

These can be people you find on Reddit or Discord or people you know in real life also playing the game. Having friends who play Animal Crossing will help you gain creative new ideas on how to decorate your island and if you guys trade resources like bells, wood, flowers, etc. Both of you will get farther in the game faster and gain more Nook Miles in the process. This will help you move from a tent to a house and then from there, it will help you find new villagers to live on your island.

The Reddit & Discord communities are filled with amazing people who are willing to help you out! As an example, I just switched playing from my husband’s regular Switch to my Switch Lite. I did this because he told me he wanted to start playing. We only have 1 copy of the game (though I did find a good deal on a second copy so we should have 2 shortly!) and I tried to use his profile to travel to mine and we couldn’t do it because we only had 1 copy of the game. So, I reached out on a few different Animal Crossing discord servers and found 3 people willing to help, and while they were helping they happily gifted me Nook Miles Tickets as well as Bells and Flowers so I could get farther in the game and have a prettier island. Now, not everyone will have the ability to do this in the server but there are a lot of people who have been playing since the game was released on March 20th, 2020 so they are a lot farther in the game and can do that. It is worth it to reach out via Reddit & Discord and get to know some people in the rare chance you are in a bind in the game. Now, playing with these people does require Nintendo Switch Online but with the inevitability of Cloud Saves coming “later in 2020.” It is worth it to purchase Switch Online so you can play with your friends wherever they may be.

2. Buy the Tool Ring & Pocket Expansion from the ABD Terminal

These are both very important for a few different reasons. First, I’ll go over the Tool Ring.

Animal Crossing New Horizons Tool Ring

To access the tool ring, you press up on the d-pad which are the arrow keys on the left side of your controller. That brings up this wheel you see in the picture above. To select a different item you move the left joystick in the direction of that item so if I wanted my shovel, for instance, I would point the joystick to the bottom left. This is a really easy way to switch between your tools which are necessary when doing anything on your island.

Animal Crossing New Horizons Inventory 30 Items

Next, I’ll go over the Pocket Expansion. This handy tool purchased from the ABD gives you access to up to 20 more slots to hold things. The first upgrade you can get from the ABD is the Pocket Organization Guide for 5,000 Nook Miles. This gives you access to 10 more inventory slots bringing your total up to 30. The last one you can purchase is after you upgrade the Resident Services Tent to an actual building. Once you do that you will have access to the Ultimate Pocket Stuffing Guide for 8,000 Nook Miles which gives you access to another 10 slots, bringing your total slots to 40.

As you can see both tools help you do a lot more customizing of your island. It will make moving things around on your island a lot easier.

3. Make Tools & Purchase the Pretty Good Tools Recipes

When you start the only thing you will have is a flimsy fishing rod which breaks quite easily. Eventually, you will unlock the axe, watering can, vaulting pole, and shovel. Besides the vaulting pole all these items will start as flimsy and to unlock them you need to visit the ABD and purchase the Pretty Good Tools Recipes for 3,000 Nook Miles which upgrades them, so they don’t break as often. As of writing this guide, the “pretty good” tools are the best durability you can get even if you find/unlock the gold tools. They all seem to have the same durability. This means once you unlock this set, you have the best possible set of tools you can get in the game from early on.

Pro Tip: I always try and keep a Stone or Flimsy axe on me for those times when I want to knock wood out of trees but not cut them down as the regular axe will cut down trees after 3 times of hitting it. While it does take up an extra slot in my inventory, I find it worth it to get the hardwood, softwood, and regular wood.

4. Get to know your villagers by talking to them and giving them gifts

This is a great way to keep your favorite villagers and get rid of the villagers you don’t like. While you won’t have the opportunity to get new villagers until later in the game, in the beginning, you can get to know the 2 villagers that spawned in your neighborhood with you. By doing this, you earn Nook Miles which you can spend however you wish.

This is also a great way to get cool items and recipes you have a hard time finding elsewhere. Talking to your villagers daily could reward you with some awesome stuff!

5. Put up a fence or dig holes by rocks

Animal Crossing New Horizons Digging Holes by Rocks to get more items

As you can see in the picture above, I have dug 3 holes behind me and the rock. I did this because it helps keep you in place when hitting the rock as you get more items if you hit it 9 times in a row with no misses. Alternatively, if you have the ability, you can just put up fences behind you as they work the same way.

I have been digging holes since the beginning so I will probably stick with that, but each person has their way of doing things. The holes just work the best for me that way if I decide to move a rock, I don’t have to tear down fences and wait for the rock to respawn to place them again. I just dig 3 holes by each rock each day and refill them after I have collected everything.

6. Purchase several items of clothes from Mabel to have the Abel Sisters set up shop

One of the random visitors you will get on your island is Mabel. She is looking to set up shop on your island but to do that she needs to make sure there is a demand for clothes and accessories. So, you must purchase several items from her over several days so she can see that there is demand. After a few days, she will set up shop and unlike Nook’s Cranny, you don’t have to supply any materials.

Once you do have the shop set up, you will want to talk to Mabel’s sister, Sable, every day. She is the quieter hedgehog in the back and at first, she won’t have much to say but after a while, she will open up and, possibly, give you gifts!

7. Talk to Tom Nook every day, several times a day & Don’t put off the quests

This is the best and easiest way to progress faster in AC: New Horizons. Whenever you talk to him you will want to ask, “What do I do?” and he will give you a task or several tasks to complete to advance your islands and change all your tents to buildings.

These are your “quests” in Animal Crossing. You don’t want to put these off as completing these would not only upgrade your home from a tent to a house and give you more rooms, but it will also have you craft furniture for new villagers and improve your town. These are easy to ignore, but you shouldn’t.

8. Do your Daily Nook Miles+ Quests

Animal Crossing New Horizons DIY Projects or Quests

Every day you will have different “quests” to complete to earn double Nook Miles. You can see your daily quests by going into your Nook Miles app on your NookPhone and then pressing the + button on your controller. Anything that has an x2 by it will be your daily quest for that day and will earn you double the Nook miles.

Once you complete the items with x2 by them, they will be replaced by ones without that which you can still complete but will only earn you the amount of Nook Miles listed, instead of double that amount. It is still worthwhile to complete as many of these each day as you can to rake in those awesome Nook Miles.

9. Harvest all your resources and gather up all your weeds

Weeds pop up every day, just like in real life. So, gathering all of them up and selling them to Timmy or Tommy will only help your island’s reputation. You can get some much-needed bells to start by doing this as well. You can also collect your island’s natural fruit and sell those to Timmy or Tommy as they will regenerate after a few days.

Clearing out the weeds will also give you more places to plant flowers, trees, and place items. Removing the weeds will give you the perfect canvas to plan out your wildest dreams. You can see how your island is laid out and how you want to change it.

Every day there will be 5 holes in the ground to collect fossils and 1 light in the ground for you to harvest 1,000 bells. Additionally, you can purchase a Nook Miles Ticket for 2,000 Nook Miles from the ABD to travel to randomly generated islands to collect more resources. This is a great way to get what you need to keep crafting items or complete quests.

10. Don’t worry too much about where you put things

You can always move anything you place later. There is no need to stress about where you put things like the villagers' homes or any of the shops. Everything can be moved later by talking to Tom Nook about infrastructure once you upgrade your Resident Services from a tent to a building. Just know that this will cost a lot of bells but by the time you want to do this, if you have been playing the turnip game (which is what I like to call it) you should have millions by now.

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