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What did you guys do in your early game ? I feel like I’m stuck and I don’t know what to do ? Any tips on what I should be collecting or doing the first days in the game? How long does it take to really get ur island up and running ?
I'm a dirty time traveler, but it takes about a week or two to get things really up and running. Pretty much once Resident Services upgrades you can start getting somewhere. My honest advice is just collect nook miles as much as possible cause once you unlock terraforming those upgrades ain't cheap.
Collect resources everyday. You'll need 30 of each type of wood and 30 iron nuggets for Nook's Cranny. You can use your axe to hit the stones.
Catch bug and fish but don't sell every first new species you catch. Give Nook several until he calls Blathers. Now save the rest for Blathers himself when he arrives to build the museum. Just place them around your island for temporary storage.
Collected materials and donated fossils, fish, bugs. Did what Tom Nook said. I also thought out where I wanted my buildings knowing I’d have a lot more added in the future.
You're basically in the tutorial mode until you unlock Isabelle by following Nook's "What should I do?" instructions which'll continue afterwards. Until that happens, talk to your villagers multiple times (they have set events for certain phases where they'll give you helpful items), buy and sell at the store, collect fish and bugs and most importantly get yourself a good amount of resources. A lot of the basic items require the basic wood ("wood"), so that what you'll often need in the beginning. But everything's useful. Also grind NookMiles and use them on useful stuff like a bigger inventory and more recipes.
Save your iron nuggets since you need a lot of them to progress in the story. Make sure you're hitting all of your rocks with a shovel with holes / furniture behind you so you can hit each rock the maximum 8 times to get as many bells and iron nuggets as possible. Don't destroy any rocks because you need them for those iron nuggets.