Suggestions for the early game on New Horizons?

[moonford]

Hello, I've recently started my island again and I want to do this one with minimal time travelling.

The issue I've had with New Horizons is that I feel like I don't know what to do in terms of island design prior to unlocking terraforming and water-scaping. In a way, I feel like I've had to time travel in the past just to feel like I'm actually accomplishing something. I understand that New Horizons is more slow burner than other entries but I feel like I should really be able to do more than daily chores and earning nook miles. I'm a veteran of the series, having played the games for around 18 years now but I feel like my motivation to unlock all of these things is strong but as soon as I do unlock them my motivation dies...oddly. I think it's because I was time travelling too much?

Does anybody have any suggestions on what I could do in terms of island design before I've unlocked terraforming/water-scaping? Maybe I need to change my play-style. Thank you.

 

[food_and_mysteries]

Well I was a new v and also at the beginning I did time travel little I didn't really know how to do it for unlocking things so I just kind of had like certain tiles that I would place down in lieu of waterscaping and then when I actually got waterscaping then I retrieved those tiles altho it did result in weirdness.

 

[Fruitcup]

What I would do is focus on the gardening aspect of the game, get all the flowers and trees in order. It provides a structure for what to put with the greenery.

 

[daynapapaya]

When I first started, I didn't TT at all for a whole year! What I did to pass the time before terraforming was fishing, bug catching, and diving to complete the museum and earn tons of bells. I would also do 1 mystery island a day. I also did a lot with turnips, since the goal was to build up my bells. I also focused on breeding hybrids, doing minor landscaping in areas I knew I'd be keeping, and stocking up on as much furniture and clothing as I could. Decorating inside my house also took up huge chunks of time.

My island is still the same one I've had since I started the game on release day. Never reset. And I'm STILL not done updating it! I'm editing all the time because my goal is a very natural island look where everything is functional (no blocked off areas, fake architecture/illusions, etc).

 

[Robi]

Getting bells and nook miles are great goals. I feel like I need so many nook miles for everything once I unlock all the major upgrades. Bells is also pretty big due to making bridges/inclines, Harv's Island, house expansion, and other stuff. I also like focusing on the villagers and making sure I have a good friendship with them, especially in the early game since they'll have more early game dialogue. Of course there's only so much in a day you can do stuff, but still. It's a bit slow starting a new island but once you get all those unlocks with K.K. Slider I feel like there's just so much to do, especially if you have HHP.