Tom Nook, Blathers and all the other denizens of your island community celebrate all your major milestones. Here’s how to get to those milestones even faster.
Screenshot by David Priest/CNET
Animal Crossing: New Horizons for the Nintendo Switch just hit its one-week anniversary, and I’m already obsessed with finding the rare fish, bugs and plants that populate the beloved franchise, especially online with friends. In fact, the slow-paced, anxiety-free island life simulator just might be the perfect antidote to the realities of social distancing and quarantine during the coronavirus spread.
I’ve already dug up a few nuggets of wisdom to make the game smoother and more rewarding as you build your life on the island, and I’ve added more each day as I’ve explored. If you’re unfamiliar with the series, a little direction can help you navigate the game so you’re not just collecting everything you see — there’s a little more structure than meets the eye.
So here are a few tips and tricks for players of all kinds, whether Animal Crossing is already at home in your Switch or still on your personal horizon. I’ll update this post as more tips come along.
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Maximize your time in Animal Crossing: New Horizons
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Travel back in time before you move forward
Screenshot by David Priest/CNET
Time travel is a major theme in Animal Crossing, but a controversial one. Since the game takes place in real time, you actually have to wait a real day for buildings to get built and plants to grow. And Animal Crossing starts slow. So if you suspect you’ll want a quicker start, consider setting your Nintendo Switch’s clock back seven to 10 days. That way, as you play, you can bump it up a day every few hours to cover some of the early, slower-developing portions of the game more quickly.
By setting the clock back before you start rather than zooming forward afterward, you also give yourself the chance to get back on real time. That way you can pretend you never cheated (and you don’t have to have a wonky clock forevermore).
Don’t put off paying your debts
Screenshot by David Priest/CNET
Tom Nook, the wealthy business-raccoon funding your adventure and constantly persuading you to spend more money than you have, puts you in what feels like deep debt on your first day. It takes a little time to build up Nook Miles — an achievement-based currency — early in the game, but work to earn them quickly and pay off that first debt ASAP. The faster you pay back your first loan, the faster Tom will build you a home and, most crucially, give you the extra storage you need for everything you’re about to start