- Polygon guides: Excellent guides for most everything you need to know, including a First and Second Week walkthrough.
⭐️ strongly recommended - Transcribed guidebook: Community crowd-sourced document sharing facts from Nintendo’s official guide.
⚠️ Beware of spoilers!
- Travel Guide: iOS app to serve as your pocket companion while playing; listing bugs and fish available to catch right now, with location, size and sale prices; inventory of villagers and all items including fossils, art, K.K. Slider songs, and flowers.
⭐️ strongly recommended - Critterpedia (1)
: Mobile-first web app listing bugs and fish available to catch right now, with location and sale price. - Critterpedia (2) (in Beta) Another Critterpedia tool with a grid format. Also shows Fossils and Art. You can select the items you have already found/donated and have them saved in the webapp to the Collection tab.
- Mystery Tour Islands guide: All of the possible Nook Miles island layouts and the probability of landing on them.
- Pattern Editor: Use the browser to design in a facsimile of the in-game pattern editor (or upload and convert an image!) and get its NookLink QR code.
- AC Custom Island Design: Read-only Discord server listing meticulously categorized catalog of user-submitted designs from across the Internet.
- r/acqr: Community designs for the Able Sisters’ kiosk.
- @acnh_patterns: Curated Instagram account of community designs for the Able Sisters’ kiosk.
- AC Tune Maker : Web app to easily make and share an island tune.
- Garden science FAQ: Guide containing the most up-to-date and accurated crowdsourced information regarding flower breeding. It also shows you which popular tutorial graphics are outdated or inacurrate by their findings.
- Flower breeding simulator: In-browser simulator of hybrid possibilities determined by genetics.
- Flower research data + link hubs: Spreadsheet containing links to information sanctioned by the above researchers and collaborators and the raw + parsed data the analyses are based on.
- Flower garden planner : Plot out your flower gardens with this in-browser visualizing tool.
- Friendship mechanics: In-depth datamined guide to gaining favor with your villagers.
- Lost item guide: How to complete the lost item quest for best results.
- Villager gift checker : Mobile-first web app to see if a villager will love a specific clothing item as gift based on their favorite color and personal style.
- Villager gift finder: Interactive tool see clothing items your villager will really appreciate based on their favorite color and personal style.
- Nook Exchange: Visual index of all game items, with the ability to create an account to share your catalog/wishlist.
- VillagerDB : Visual index of all game items, with the ability to create an account to share your catalog/wishlist, and create additional lists.
- Nook Market: Auctionhouse and marketplace to buy, sell, or bid on items for Bells or Nook Miles Tickets.
- DodoCodes: Tour other player’s islands for specific items, recipes, villagers, or just for inspiration.
- r/ACTrade: Tightly-moderated community facilitation of items, recipe, and villager trades.
- r/ACVillager: Tightly-moderated community facilitation of villager trades or giveaways.
- Turnip Prophet : Sophisticated Stalk Market predictor to track your price history with a probability percentage. Sponsor this project!
⭐️ strongly recommended - Stalks.io: Beautiful Stalk Market predictor to track your profits and price history.
- r/ACTurnips: Tightly-moderated community facilitation of turnip sales.
- Turnip Exchange: Queuing web app to host visitors for turnip sales and any other tour.
- Happy Island designer: Plot out your island layout via mini-map in the browser.
- Island Planner: Plot out your island’s building layouts and terraforming designs in a 3D editor in the browser or downloadable desktop app.
- Furniture luck + Feng Shui guide: How to decorate your house to maximize your luck in game.
- r/AnimalCrossingTours: Community inspiration hub for island and room layouts.
- In your pocket, hold A on an item to grab and reorder
- In your pocket, hold A on an item to grab it and place it on top of the same item to create a new stack. (For example, take out 3 10,000 Bell bags from your wallet, then grab and drop two of them on top of another to create one 30,000 Bell bag.)
- Hold B to run
- Press A while crafting/customizing to speed up the animation
- Press B or L while talking to characters to speed up the conversation
- Use the left ← and right → directional-pad arrows to cycle through your Favorite tools
- Press the down ↓ directional-pad arrow to put away/take out your last-used tool
- Press Y to fill in a hole without using your shovel
- Press A in front of certain furniture/housewares to interact with them
- If you need to craft something on your island but you’re far from one of your own benches, try popping into one of your villager’s houses to see if their DIY Craft bench is out, or use the one by Tom Nook inside Resident Services!
- If you are physically sharing your Nintendo Switch, the first account to play the game owns the island and dictates initial progress.
- If you want to get rid of an item in your pocket and cannot re-sell it or give it away, you can permanently throw them out in a garbage can if you have one placed in your home or outside.
- Palm trees only grow in sand (either from your beaches or a sand path via the Island Designer NookPhone app).
- You cannot give uprooted flowers or trees to another villager or player, nor store them in your house.
- You may plant uprooted flowers in your pocket on another player’s island, even if you aren’t Best Friends.
- Trees can be uprooted by eating food and using your shovel to dig up the tree.
- Trees need at least 1 empty space in all directions around them to grow. Once a tree is fully grown, it can be moved to be closer to other objects (other trees, furniture, flowers, fencing, etc.) by uprooting it and replanting it.
- Weather changes only occur on the hour.
- The exception to a new day’s changes occuring at 5:00 am (see: Timing) are critters appearing or disappearing at the start of a new month. These changes occur at midnight when the local date changes.
- If you eat food before you hit a stone, it will break. The stone will reappear a new area the following day.
- If you’ve eaten more food than you’d like, try sitting on a toilet.
- If you place more than one stereo in a room in your house, it will amplify the registered song.
- Each stereo placed outside can play a different registered song, but you‘ll only hear the closest one. Your villagers will pay attention to music they hear!
- Your villagers will be interested in instruments placed outside.
- If you create outfits with a Wand, the wearable items in the outfits are “stored” in the Wand and are unusable in other outfits.
- The following items retain their most recent customization even after the art in the custom design slot is deleted or changed: island flag, phone case, face paint.
- Download the Nintendo Switch Online app for your phone to use the NookLink feature to type messages in-game using your phone’s keyboard instead of the game controller.
- Don’t run through flowers. It takes time for the blooms to grow back. Be sure to walk wherever you see flowers.
- Don’t leave by pressing the - button. It will interrupt the progress of every other visitor’s interactions.
- Ask before you buy one of the 2-3 furniture items at the back wall of Nook’s Cranny or art from Jolly Redd. These items can only be purchased once, so it’s polite to ask if it’s okay for you to buy it. (The small items on the table at Nook’s and furniture from Jolly Redd have no purchase limit. And you can always offer to let the island owner catalog the Nook’s item!)
- Don’t shake trees, chop wood, grab shells, pick flowers, etc. without asking first. Most friends will be totally okay with you taking replenishable resources, but it’s always polite to ask.
- If you’re visiting a stranger for a trade, it’s polite not to talk to their residents. Villagers will remember you and ask about you, and it can be awkward and unwanted for a neighbor to ask about a stranger that came by for a deal!
- Unlike Sahara, Leif, Kicks, etc., you can only buy one piece of art from any Jolly Redd per day and obtain one recipe from any Celeste per night.
- Adding a player to your Best Friends list via the NookPhone means you can use your shovel and axe tools on their island.
- If you’re hosting visitors for a roaming guest like Sahara or Celeste, try sharing their last known location via coordinates in the map app.
- If you’re visiting an island for a particular recipe a villager is crafting at their DIY bench, check the map on your NookPhone to see where their house is!
- You cannot invite a camper on another island to move into your island.
- Friendship rankings do not correlate with move-out requests, which are randomized.
source - Certain actions will raise or lower your friendship ranking with your villagers.
source- Raise friendship ranking
- Talk to them (once per day)
- Send them a letter (increases when they reply)
- Give them a present (when ranking is already high)
- Give them a wrapped birthday gift
- Complete a request for them
- Sell them an item they want
- Lower friendship ranking
- Hit them with a tool
- Push them around a lot
- Give them trash items (tire, boot, weeds, rotten turnips, etc.)
- Decline a request
- Accept a request but fail to carry it out
- Raise friendship ranking
- For much more information on how to affect friendship and what friendship means in the game, see the links in the Friendship resources category.
Time is determined by your Nintendo Switch’s local time. Though midnight local time changes the date, a new “day” in ACNH officially starts at 🕔 5:00 am, when daily announcements are made on your island, dailies “refill”, visitors arrive/leave, and projects make progress.
| ⏰ Time | 🗓️ Event |
|---|---|
🕔 5:00 am |
Day begins |
🕘 8:00 am |
Nook’s Cranny opens |
🕙 9:00 am |
Able Sisters opens |
| ⏰ Time | 🗓️ Event |
|---|---|
🕘 9:00 pm |
Able Sisters closes |
🕙 10:00 pm |
Nook’s Cranny closes |
- Certain critters appear or disappear
- Certain villagers are more or less active
- Balloon presents switch sides by spawning from the opposite beach
Every day starting at 🕔 5:00 am, you can accomplish these tasks all over again: source 1 source 2
- Check in at the Nook Stop (300 Nook Miles per day after your first 6 days)
- Shop the Nook Stop for new special catalog items and fence recipes
- Shop at Nook’s Cranny and the Able Sisters’
- Complete the first 5 Nook Miles+ missions of the day for 2x bonus
- Find your island’s 4 fossils
- Find your island’s DIY Recipe message in a bottle
- Find your island’s glowing money spot for 💰1,000 Bells
- Re-plant 💰10,000 Bells in the same spot to grow a tree that will triple your investment
- Harvest resources
- Hit rocks for materials (clay, nuggets, stone, and up to ~💰16,000 Bells)
- Fruit trees
- Shake for fruits (grow every three days after they were last picked)
- Chop wood
- Hardwood/Cedar trees (must have at least 15 planted)
- Shake for 2 furniture/miscellaneous items
- Shake for ~💰1,000 Bells (dropped as 100 Bell coins)
- Catch 5 wasps/wasp nests
- Chop wood
Your island will receive regular visitors a few times a week. All visitors arrive at 5:00 am and will stay until 5:00 am the next day unless otherwise stated. source
| Visitor | Location | Arrives | Departs | Day of week |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wisp | roaming cliffs | 8:00 pm 🌙 | ||
| Sahara | roaming | midnight 🌙 | ||
| Daisy Mae | roaming | 12:00 pm ☀️ | Sunday only | |
| CJ | roaming | except Saturday | ||
| Flick | roaming | except Saturday | ||
| Gulliver | beach | except Saturday | ||
| Celeste | roaming | 7:00 pm 🌙 nights with shooting stars |
||
| Kicks | Plaza | 10:00 pm 🌙 | Monday – Friday | |
| Label | Plaza | midnight 🌙 | Monday – Friday | |
| K.K. Slider | Plaza | 6:00 am ☀️ | midnight 🌙 | Saturday only |
| Redd | secret beach | unknown | ||
| Leif | Plaza | 10:00 pm 🌙 | unknown |
After you complete Wisp’s quest you can choose between two options:
- Something you don’t have yet: Wisp will pick a random item that you don’t have in your Nook Shopping list worth ≤1,500 Bells or less. If your catalog is complete, a random item worth ≤1,500 bells. Once your house is upgraded from a tent, you have the following chances of item type:
- Furniture: 40%
- Wallpaper/Flooring: 24%
- Bed: 24%
- Clothing: 12%
- Something expensive: Wisp will pick an item with a buying price of ≤10,000 Bells.
Redd sells 4 works art and and 2 furniture items from Jolly Redd’s Treasure Trawler. Each work of art may only be purchased by one player. Each player may only purchase one work of art per day. Purchased art is sent by mail for receipt the following morning. Furniture purchases are unlimited and go into your pocket immediately.
Beware, Redd is known to sell forgeries! Any of the 4 works of art for sale may be fake. If you purchase forged artwork, Blathers will not accept it into the museum and the Nooklings will not buy it back from you.
- In order for Redd to appear, you need to have donated at least 60 items to the museum.
- On Redd’s first visit, you will find him roaming the island. On subsequent visits, Redd will stay in his docked boat.
- After purchasing your first work of art from Redd, Blathers will upgrade the Museum to include an art gallery.
Tools only wear down when your action is successful. Ladders, Vaulting Poles, and Wands will not break. Watering empty land decreases a Watering Can’s durability by 10% of its use on flower(s). source
Standard tools (includes the Outdoor and Colorful variants)
| 🧰 Tool | 💔 Break point | ❌ Loses durability | ➖ No effect |
|---|---|---|---|
| Stone Axe | 100 hits 🌲 | Hit tree/rock (even if no item) | Swing and miss |
| Axe | 100 hits 🌲 | Hit tree/rock; fell tree | Swing and miss |
| Shovel | 100 uses 🕳 | Hit rock (even if no item) Dig up/uproot anything |
Dig an empty hole Fill a hole |
| Slingshot | 30 balloons 🎈 | Shoot balloon | Miss balloon |
| Fishing Rod | 30 catches 🐠 | Catch fish or trash | Cast net unsuccessfully |
| Net | 30 bugs 🐛 | Catch bug | Swing net unsuccessfully Hit someone |
| Watering Can | ~60 uses 🌷 | Water flowers |
Gold tools
| 🧰 Tool | 💔 Break point | ℹ️ How to obtain recipe |
|---|---|---|
| Golden Axe | 200 hits 🌲 | Obtained after breaking Axes a total of 100 times |
| Golden Shovel | 200 uses 🕳 | Mailed after helping Gulliver 30 times |
| Golden Slingshot | 90 balloons 🎈 | Obtained from golden balloon, spawns after popping 300 balloons |
| Golden Fishing Rod | 90 catches 🐠 | Mailed after catching every fish |
| Golden Net | 90 bugs 🐛 | Mailed after catching every bug |
| Golden Watering Can | ~180 uses 🌷 | Obtained after achieving 5-star island rank |
Flimsy tools
| 🧰 Tool | ⚰️ Break point | ❌ Loses durability | ➖ No effect |
|---|---|---|---|
| Flimsy Axe | 40 hits 🌲 | Hit tree/rock (even if no item) | Swing and miss |
| Flimsy shovel | 40 uses 🕳 | Hit rock (even if no item) Dig up/uproot anything |
Dig an empty hole Fill a hole |
| Flimsy Fishing Rod | 10 catches 🐠 | Catch fish or trash | Cast net unsuccessfully |
| Flimsy Net | 10 bugs 🐛 | Catch bug | Swing net unsuccessfully Hit someone |
| Flimsy Watering Can | ~20 uses 🌷 | Water flowers |
💖 Feel free to submit a PR to add or amend content to this README! 