Animal Crossing New Horizons was one of the biggest games of 2020, which allowed fans to escape to their own private island and create a life and community with their friends and animal villagers. The game has a cute face with a simple sounding premise, but there is a shocking amount of detail to be found within the cracks.
However, if players didn't getting into Animal Crossing right when it came out, getting into the game and learning all the details can seem very overwhelming. Thankfully there are a few tips that can help you learn quickly and make the most of the early days with the game.
Know What Is Permenant
The first big thing to know going into Animal Crossing: New Horizons are the things players can't change about their island. One of the first things new players are prompted to do in the game is picking a map of their island.
Choose this wisely because it will be a long time in the game before players can make even minor adjustments to the layout of the island. Players will also have to pick a name for their island, and this can't be changed at all for the rest of the game.
Get Tools From Tom Nook
One of the first things players will want to do in the game is get their tools from Tom Nook and his two sons. They will give players a series of quests to complete that will grant them the recipes for making many essential tools. Islanders use tools like the fishing rod, axe, net, and watering can every day, so getting them as early as possible is essential.
Not only are most of the tools used for a number of different actions, but they are essentially the features around which much of the game is built.
Tend To The Flowers
If players want the most beautiful island possible, they'll want to start planting, spreading and watering flowers as much as possible. Players can get a jump-start on this by watering the flowers that already exist on their island as soon as they start playing.
While there will be opportunities to buy other colors and breeds of flowers in the future, watering your flowers every day will help them expand and crossbreed their colors to create beautiful flower patches.
Visit A Deserted Island
Once players feel like they've gotten familiar with their own island and done all the necessary tasks on a given day, don't forget that it's possible to take a trip to a deserted island. Using Nook Miles to fly to another island can result in your finding all kinds of goodies that aren't available on the home
island.
From different fruits to out of season animals and, later on, even specific villagers that can move to the player's own island, deserted islands are a great way to add variety to an island and experience all the game has to offer.
Look Out For Surprises
Even once players feel like they've gotten the daily routines down to a science, there are always surprises that they might not expect that make island life more interesting. Every day, islands get a visiting villager that will sell unique items or play some kind of mini-game.
They appear in different places at different times of day, so stay vigilant in checking for which unfamiliar guest may be wandering around your island at any given time because they can sometimes be the only way to obtain specific furniture and clothes.
Make Friends With Villagers
One of the cutest and most fun features in New Horizons are the villagers themselves. Ten of them can live on an island at any given time, and they will rotate in and out until players find the perfect selection. While a villager lives on a player's island, there are lots of things they can do with them to help become better friends.
Talk to the villagers every day and they might have some kind of task to complete, such as finding a lost item or bringing them a specific creature they like. These tasks will help build up friendships between the player and their villagers, and there are rewards to be found for pursuing some of a player's best friends, including some so exclusive that many players never even discover them.
Fish Often
This one is simple enough; fishing is probably the most fun thing to do in all of Animal Crossing. Once players get the recipe for the fishing rod and craft it head to the nearest ocean or river and look for the shadows of fish on the surface. They can cast their rod and get the timing right to catch whatever fish is swimming around the island.
Not only is the excitement of catching fun, but the rush of getting an entirely new kind of fish is one of the most satisfying feedback loops the game has to offer. Not to mention it's some of the New Horizons most meme-worthy content.
Never Stop Collecting
Animal Crossing: New Horizons introduced crafting, which makes the material in the game much more valuable than any Animal Crossing title to come before it, even if some recipes aren't worth it.
Early on in the game, players won't know exactly what materials are the rarest or what they'll need the most along their journey, so it's worth collecting absolutely everything. Before selling materials that players might need later to Tom Nook for extra bells, they should try catching fish or bugs and selling them instead.
Donate To The Museum
Any time players catch a new fish, dig up a new fossil, dive for a new sea creature, or catch a new bug the game will tell them if it's the first time they've ever seen it. That should be your warning sign to head straight to the museum and give those little creatures to the Blathers, the sleepy owl that works there.
Watching the museum grow and become populated with all the various creatures a player has added to it is one of the best parts of New Horizons and one of the biggest reasons to return to it each month throughout the year. Unless players want to get caught up in digging through lists online trying to find out which fish they somehow forgot to donate, it's important to make sure to give first of anything found directly to the museum.
Visit Friends
Animal Crossing may not seem like a great "play with friends" game, but it's a fantastic title to instigate conversation and show off creations. Whether they are just starting out and can give some tips of their own or they've been playing for years and have an island that's wildly different, the game is an inherently social experience.
Everything about the game is more fun with friends and once they've helped a player get some new fruit or tools, it's fun to travel back and forth and check on the progress that friends have made.