This will be my second Animal Crossing: New Horizons article for Her Campus, outting my nerdiness, but this game is blowing up right now. It currently has a 91% positive rating from game critics. Also since we all are living through a global pandemic, Nintendo released this upbeat, peaceful, and addictive game the time we needed it most. One positive of the “Stay at Home” order is that I can actually make massive progress to my island everyday since I now have the time. I’ve been in love with this franchise since I played my first time in 2005. I like to consider myself an Animal Crossing Veteran, flipping my hair right now. If you want to make huge strides right away in your game, here are daily tasks you should be doing in Animal Crossing: New Horizons.
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Talk to all your villagers
Put in time to chat up each of your adorable villagers every day to see what’s going on with them, another villagers, or things on your island. The more you chat, the better your relationship will be with them. After about six days of chatting, you’ll be able to give them gifts – and they can return the flavor. Also, the more you chat, the less likely they will want to move off your island. If you want a villager to leave, ignore their existence. It takes around 14 days of being completely ignored by you for them to leave. No villager will leave unless you give them permission. When you see a thought bubble above their head, you should actually stop to chat. They will tell you they are thinking about leaving your island and that is your chance to get them outta there! Tell them you hope it all works out and they will either be gone one to two days after that conversation.
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Shake every tree on your island
This is one of the more boring tasks to do, but it’s one I find the most valuable and I make sure I get done. Why shake trees? Well trees produce fruit, bells, furniture, and unfortunately wasps – but everything comes with a price. Your trees will generate two pieces of furniture a day. While you shake every tree it’s hard to remember which trees you’ve already shook and sometimes wasps fall out and can sting you. Two tips that fix these issues: Always carry a net and start on the top most of your cliffs. When you carry a net while shaking trees, you are ready for a wasps nest to fall, releasing the wasps, mad and ready to sting. With your net out and ready, you have a few seconds to snatch them up. Saving you from being stung! I always start at the top of my cliffs, since it has the smallest surface area. Then I make my way to the middle cliffs and finally my main level. This keeps it easy and efficient when shaking trees since you are only shaking each tree once.
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Hit Rocks
Every island has a few rocks scattered around on it. Equip a shovel or axe and strike each rock until no more materials pop out. You will be getting: Stone, Clay, Iron, Golden Nugget, or Bells. You can use the natural resources to craft items in the game that require them. There is only one rock per day that will produce bells, but you will earn about 10,000 bells when you find it.
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Pick up items on the beach
Taking a stroll along the beach is great for your pockets, new DIY recipes, and sometimes a beached visitor. I like to clean up my beach of the sea shells and sell them for a profit. Also once a day, a message bottle will be washed up on the shore, containing a random DIY recipe. You can also go into your villager’s houses and if they are crafting snag another random DIY recipe for future crafting. Sometimes, you’ll run into Guiller passed out on the beach, who needs help fixing his phone to call his shipmates to come rescue him. If you choose to help him, he’ll give you a rare item that comes from a far off land that he has visited. These items are based on real places in our world.
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Dig up fossils
While you’re out shaking trees, since you’ll hit every square inch of your island be on the lookout for buried fossils. You will typically find 4-5 a day, once you appraise them, you can either donate new ones to the museum or sell them for a good price. I enjoy donating new things to the museum and just selling the repeats that the museum won’t accept.
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Dig up the glowing spot, plant money trees
Another something to be looking for in the ground is bells. Once a day, there is a glowing spot on the ground. Dig that and you’ll receive 1,000 bells. Tip: From your pockets remove 10,000 bells and bury that into the now big glowing hole. In 3-4 days it will be a money tree that will produce three 10,000 bell bags and you will be able to harvest 30,000 bells.
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Sell and shop at Nook’s Cranny
This is a “in real time” game, which means if it’s 3:00 p.m. than it’s 3:00 p.m. in Animal Crossing. The shops in this game have open and closed times. The items for sale will only be for sale the time they are open till close. After close the game will randomly select items they sell when they reopen the next day. So make sure you check what Timmy and Tommy are selling at Nook’s Cranny everyday.
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Shop at Sable Sisters Shop
It is the same for the Sable Sister’s shop. Make sure to check their inventory each day for new clothing and accessories.
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Check in at Nook Stop in the Resident Services building
When you check the Nook Stop terminal each day you will earn bonus Nook Miles, which is the second type of currency that allows you to buy items provided by the loan shark Tom Nook. There are an endless amount of decorative items and the most important item which is a Nook Miles Ticket. This allows you to visit other deserted islands to collect natural resources, furniture, rare fish and bugs, and villagers that you can invite to live on your island. Everyday you check in will start a streak and earn you more, the first day will give you 50 bonus miles and once you get to seven days every bonus will be 300 Nook Miles.
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Check the Recycle Bin in the Resident Services building
In the Resident Service building you’ll find a recycle bin. In this bin are items that randomly generate and you can sell or keep these items to your liking. If it gets full, Tom Nook will “throw away” the oldest item each day until everything is gone. So use it to your advantage, sell for bells or keep awesome free items.
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Look for island visitors
Randomly your island will have a visitor, that isn’t someone who can’t live on the island with you. These visitors can generate anywhere, so look around your entire island for a new face walking around. These visitors always have a nich to them. Some will give you more bells then Nook’s Cranny for selling them your fish, bugs, weeds, etc. Or some might sell you turnips, rugs, wallpaper, etc. Either way a new face on your island is always fun to find, can earn you bells, or give you rare items.
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Shoot down balloons
Once you are able to craft a Slingshot, then you will be able to shoot down presents that are tied to balloons. When these balloons get near you the in game music will stop for a second, and you’ll hear a gust of wind. Once you are directly beneath it, shoot it down with your Slingshot. These presents can consist of one decorative item for your home or island, clothing, bells, or natural resources.
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Catch rare fish and bugs
Depending on the month, weather, and time of day you are playing, make sure to keep an eye out for rare bugs while you are out and about on your island. There are a lot of common bugs that aren’t alway worth catching unless you plan on selling it. Fishing is a bit harder since you can never tell what kind it is until you catch it. So do some fishing everyday. If you do catch a new/rare fish that you don’t have in your muesum make sure to donate it since you’ll always be able to see it and show off to your friends you have visit your island.
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Check Turnip prices
There is only one visitor that sells you turnips, Daisy Mae, she comes every Sunday morning. Buy stacks of turnips for a usual price that’s under 100 bells each. These turnips you can sell at Nook’s Cranny for a profit. The price Timmy and Tommy will buy the turnips for, will be randomly generated each day, hence why you need to check it everyday. A good turnip price is anything over 250 bells.
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Complete some Nook Miles+ Tasks
Finally, complete the Nook+ Tasks. You can find these tasks in your Nook Mile app on your Nook phone. – yes Tom Nook names all his products after him. These tasks, besides checking the Nook Stop terminal, are the only way you earn Nook Miles, which mentioned above is a second currency you can buy items with. The tasks can usually be completed just playing the game, but you can gain many more miles by purposely doing each task that is presented at that moment. The tasks list will never run out, but the first five of the day will give you twice the amount of miles then any other presented that day.
These were 15 daily tasks to make sure you are getting the most of everyday you play Animal Crossing: New Horizons. It’s weird to have “chores” in a video game, but the benefits of completing these are worth it. They make your island interactive and full of decorations, keeps your pockets full of bells, and increases the chances of receiving rare items. I hope Animal Crossing fans enjoyed this article and found it helpful. If you haven’t played any Animal Crossing game, I hope this gives you a little insight of what you can do in this game and I encourage you to actually dive into this beautiful, relaxing world that has been giving me joy my whole life.