Tips for beginners

[Pcitygirl323]

I’m actually an animal crossing veteran, but I’m new to new horizons!
I am very new and I’m just starting. Since I’ve played every game prior I don’t really no where to start. Should I start with my museum collection or my item collection? Or work on upgrading my house ?
Or should I start with all the new things about NH like the creating my own island lay out.
Any advice or stories is greatly appreciated !!

 

[sunset_succulent]

put every building on the beach. houses, shops, everything. that’ll save you a million bells.

 

[Skunk]

Exactly what the person above said, everything you can fit on the beach! Work on museum since you can also make lots of money as you collect the bugs/fish for the month! (Save everything for Flick and CJ) :] GL tho! hope you enjoy NH!!

 

[loveclove]

Choose wisely you island map for things you can't change, especially RS placement, river mouths, rocks, secret beach and airport color.

Watch some island tours on YouTube and decide what you want to do with your island from the start, have it planned. That will save you tons of time, like the person above said, if you don't have to move buildings

 

[Pyoopi]

I wouldn't go ham building bridges because they're annoying to have to demolish later on.

Nook requires you to build one no matter what but just rely on your pole until you get terraforming unlocked.

 

[Uffe]

Collect tree branches, soft wood, wood, dark wood, clay, stone, and iron nuggets. All of these are always going to be important to have, but you don't have to hold onto them all the time. You can shake trees multiple times to get tree branches.

If you eat fruit, you'll be able to dig full grown trees, and you'll also be able to break boulders. Boulders come back the next day, though, they're just in a differently location every time.

Don't give villagers fish, bugs, or furniture. Giving them wallpaper/flooring won't change their walls/floors. If you don't mind giving villagers furniture or whatever, then do whatever. There was a glitch that if you gave villagers clothes, there was a possibility that they'd duplicate in the villager's house. I'm not sure if they patched this out yet.

 

[Marte]

If you don’t time travel, don’t break your rock on the first day. I did it by accident, and was SO annoyed because I kept on missing iron, haha

 

[Nefarious]

Your first 3 move in villagers will always be a lazy, peppy and normal. You can choose who to move in by going on island tours. Only those three personalities will show up on islands, so take the opportunity to find one you want most (Most go after the new villagers or fan favorites that are hard to come by ie Audie, Sherb, Stitches, Bob, Punchy etc.). They will all have the "starter" houses, but you can have someone invite them to their island when they want to move out. When you reinvite that same villager you have on hold, they'll have their unique interior then.

Also, once you build the campsite, your first visitor will be a smug and you're required to move them in. So if it's someone you don't like, you'll have to bare with them for a few weeks till they want to move, or kick them with an amiibo villager immediately afterwards.

 

[justalittlemad]

I'm going to give some advice that goes against what other people have said. Don't look at pictures or videos of other islands until you have some idea of what you want to do as it can stress some people out seeing these amazing 5 star islands and then their own.

Look at the airport color guides for color locked items.

Graph paper actually really helps with layout plans as you can quickly sketch out the grid.

At a point Tom Nook offers you the chance to buy the remaining plots of land. Buy the plots as you want to fill them rather than all at once.

Weeds are needed for DIY. Save some.

 

[loveclove]

I'm going to give some advice that goes against what other people have said. Don't look at pictures or videos of other islands until you have some idea of what you want to do as it can stress some people out seeing these amazing 5 star islands and then their own.

Yeah that's also a valid point from another perspective...
But I didn't watch/see anything from other players or even had nintendo online until after 1 month of gameplay and I regret it a lot.. Because I didn't know all sorts of cool things that could be done with the island, and because of that I had the desire to change lots later. I wish I has known before to plan better, that's why I gave that tip

 

[nightglow]

don't plant a bunch of flowers and make sure you try to contain them.

 

[Mick]

Yeah that's also a valid point from another perspective...
But I didn't watch/see anything from other players or even had nintendo online until after 1 month of gameplay and I regret it a lot.. Because I didn't know all sorts of cool things that could be done with the island, and because of that I had the desire to change lots later. I wish I has known before to plan better, that's why I gave that tip

I can see both sides of this as valid, though especially in the beginning I saw a lot of players who don't put as much time into the game sharing that they felt overwhelmed by how some other islands looked.

My opinion on that: Look at the islands for inspiration, but know that it's going to take you hundreds of hours to get to a point like that. As you probably know AC games are a big time sink and everything you want to achieve takes time, so take it slow, pick a small portion of your island at a time and focus on what you want to put in that spot.

Also, press a twice while crafting to speed it up. You'll definitely need that tip.

 

[loveclove]

I can see both sides of this as valid, though especially in the beginning I saw a lot of players who don't put as much time into the game sharing that they felt overwhelmed by how some other islands looked.

My opinion on that: Look at the islands for inspiration, but know that it's going to take you hundreds of hours to get to a point like that. As you probably know AC games are a big time sink and everything you want to achieve takes time, so take it slow, pick a small portion of your island at a time and focus on what you want to put in that spot.

Yeah, it depends on your personality and emotional background I guess. For me when I saw something cool I got excited to take the time to have a new project, rather than being overwhelmed. But one of my main regrets is really to start the game with no idea what I wanted to do with the island, no planning. I'm considering restarting to see what's like to play with a plan from the beginning. But I guess some people like it better with no references, I had fun he first time too. Inspiration on AC can be very different for some people

@Pcitygirl323 i suggest you read all this and think about how you felt in the previous AC games looking at other islands and decide where to go from that in this matter

 

[Mick]

Yeah, it depends on your personality and emotional background I guess. For me when I saw something cool I got excited to take the time to have a new project, rather than being overwhelmed. But one of my main regrets is really to start the game with no idea what I wanted to do with the island, no planning. I'm considering restarting to see what's like to play with a plan from the beginning. But I guess some people like it better with no references, I had fun he first time too. Inspiration on AC can be very different for some people

@Pcitygirl323 i suggest you read all this and think about how you felt in the previous AC games looking at other islands and decide where to go from that in this matter

True, I started without looking at what others did and while I don't regret my island layout or areas (I have plenty of ideas myself) I do still think it might have helped the creativity burn even brighter.

My biggest regret in this game is not resetting for airport colour, since that's one thing I won't be able to change unless they let us do that in the future... Yellow is definitely my least favourite of the available colours. I wouldn't restart my island for it though. Not at this point, I have put way too much effort into this island already and I never want to go through that introduction phase ever again.

 

[loveclove]

True, I started without looking at what others did and while I don't regret my island layout or areas (I have plenty of ideas myself) I do still think it might have helped the creativity burn even brighter.

My biggest regret in this game is not resetting for airport colour, since that's one thing I won't be able to change unless they let us do that in the future... Yellow is definitely my least favourite of the available colours. I wouldn't restart my island for it though. Not at this point, I have put way too much effort into this island already and I never want to go through that introduction phase ever again.

I am creative but not to fill my whole island lol and I like to see inspiration and give my own touch to some ideas, so...

Yeah, I didn't reset, not even once (newbie, didn't know it was a thing), and I got lucky with most stuff (big peninsula, blue airport) except the RS placement, 5 tiles from the airport. I wish I had seen the cool entrances before and known I couldn't change it

edit: I'll stop talking about this because I think I'm taking over the person's thread lol

 

[Lotusblossom]

For bells at the beginning to pay off the first 50 grand i crafted leaf umbrellas and sold em for i think 500 bells each out of weeds that i pulled

 

[John Wick]

Don't expect too much and you won't be disappointed.

That was my problem.
I thought we'd have the NL items plus more, and a bigger house, not a smaller one.
I also thought we'd have house styles.

 

[marshallows]

pleeeease don't put your RS building down when you first get on the deserted island so close to the airport. this is the biggest and probably only regret i have about my island lmao. my entrance is literally 4 steps. you can't do anything grand if that happens. run a bit further away towards the center of the map, then plop the plot down.

another thing is there's no point to pay off the last part of your house loan. it's not rly worth it unless you want free exterior upgrades or has at least 10m in your abd. otherwise most people don't really bother paying off that last loan.

 

[Serabee]

pleeeease don't put your RS building down when you first get on the deserted island so close to the airport. this is the biggest and probably only regret i have about my island lmao. my entrance is literally 4 steps. you can't do anything grand if that happens. run a bit further away towards the center of the map, then plop the plot down.

another thing is there's no point to pay off the last part of your house loan. it's not rly worth it unless you want free exterior upgrades or has at least 10m in your abd. otherwise most people don't really bother paying off that last loan.

I mean... I have my RS building approximately six steps from my airport and LOVE it. It's literally why I picked the island! I think better advice would be- make sure you're happy with where you RS services building is located, 'cause you can't change it.
For that matter, carefully think about where you place buildings. You CAN move them later, but it's pricey. You'll get to a point where the price will be pocket change, but early on, any moves are a big chunk of change.

Also, I recommend prioritizing paying off your loans ASAP. It gives you more storage which is SUPER helpful, especially if/when you start hoarding materials!

 

[FireNinja1]

Turnips are probably the fastest way to generate bells in this game. In New Leaf, you could beetle farm pretty reliably for bells, but turnips are far, far faster if you want to get your house debt paid off as fast as possible. A good price can net you 1.6m in profit per 4000 turnips. Once you get the first 400k, I'd strongly advise that you invest it all in turnips, and then look online for good turnip prices.

That being said, I have found that turnips get you bells a little too fast, and dealing with the community surrounding buying / selling turnips isn't always the most pleasant thing in the world, especially if you're looking at places besides TBT for prices (which you'll probably have to do, since good prices are posted once in a never compared to other sites.)