So there have been a few posts out about this but a bit elementary in my opinion. Now that I’ve logged 500+ shameless hours I have some alternate insights that I think can help all of you newer players!

1. Get a Nookazon account, like immediately.

I’m not working for Nookazon and I’m not sponsored by Nookazon. But it is honestly the best site for conducting fair and safe trades in this game. Nookazon is similar to Amazon in its setup, hence the name, but the best part is you can see average selling prices for items, along with real-time bids from other users. I began my ACNH trading days on Reddit, and eventually Discord — but have only felt 100% safe when doing Nookazon trades since:

  1. There are clear guidelines to follow on trading etiquette and timelines
  2. You can read reviews of each seller and rest assured they won’t be shady
  3. You can report scammers and get them kicked off the site

If you were trading strictly on Reddit, you run the risk of not knowing the true value of something and not asking for enough or overpaying someone for an item. This is the worst feeling once you realize it.

Keep in mind there are many veteran players on Nookazon too, so some may be willing to pay for desired items more than you think (enough turnip runs will do that to a person). So don’t low-ball your listings by putting your own price, and let them make an offer.

Also, try to be quick about executing the trades once it is accepted or at least communicate the exact time that you can trade asap to the seller. Some people get really impatient.

2. Keep a running list of items you own and items you want

Whether it’s on Nookazon or VillagerDB, make wishlists. It makes trade negotiations so much easier and helps you conduct trades on-the-go when you’re not glued to the game (if there is even a time that you wouldn’t be glued to the game…? I wouldn’t know)

I tried to make these lists after my 500+ hours of playing but I have my home fully furnished, storage completely full at 1,600 items, and furniture all over my island. It’s a nightmare trying to catalog it all this far down the line, so I gave up. Don’t be like me.

Ideal Lists to Make:

  • Items you already own
  • Items you would like to own
  • DIY recipes you already know
  • DIY recipes you don’t know (optional, it’s really easy to see if you don’t know a recipe by looking at your Nook Phone)
  • Fossils you have collected
  • Fossils you need to collect (optional, you can just see what’s on your fossil list in prior bullet and guess what else you need)
  • Real art that you’ve collected
  • Fake art that you’ve collected
  • Remaining Art (whether real or fake) needed for museum collection and/or island decorations

3. Consider the pros and cons before you enter the Switch Online world

I didn’t have a Nintendo Switch Online subscription prior to playing this game. I thought the console itself + the game prices are expensive enough, why pay this too? I’m also unfortunately the only one out of my friends that even enjoy video games, so assumed this was only a feature for people with IRL gamer friends — boy, was i wrong!

People from all walks of life can’t get enough of this game and it’s amazing how this game has captivated so many non-gamers too. You can make it whatever you want it to be! There are players who want a more relaxing fish/bug catching experience, others who get mega-intense about making maximum amount of bells and/or Nook Miles Tickets (that’s a whole other article in itself that I need to write), and others that just want to make their perfect utopian island for others to gawk at while visiting.

Main pros of this subscription would be:

  • Advancing in the game faster by making trades on Nookazon, Reddit, etc. You can’t trade with other players without a subscription.
  • Encountering generous players who like to pay it forward and help you complete your flower/fruit/item collections
  • Bringing your turnips to another island to sell at a ridiculously higher price than what your island is offering (will also do a post on TurnipExchange at another time)
  • Visiting other islands when cool items are for sale there or seeing rare visitors that aren’t at your island (See #8 on this list)

Main cons of this subscription would be:

  • Cost (it definitely makes sense to do the year for $20 than the monthly $3.99)
  • Can be unintentionally scammed by other players
  • Can encounter inappropriate / weird players when negotiating deals (I thankfully have not encountered anything like this but have heard stories)
  • Can have random people trampling on your flowers, picking your fruits, and picking up your items off the ground (Fencing is a beautiful thing! )

My first trading experience on Switch Online started with some dude on Reddit who kicked me off his island the moment I laid down the items I was going to give to him, and he never gave the items he agreed to give to me. That sucked. My sad and naive self immediately messaging him, “Oh no, i got kicked off your island. What happened? Must’ve been bad internet. Can I come back? Hello? You there?” and never getting a response.

I didn’t use Nintendo Switch Online until one month straight of solo gameplay and I appreciated the game more for building so much of it on my own. Then once I got Switch Online, I was immediately #blessed by veteran players who donated items, flowers, and fruits to my island.

In short: The online ACNH community is so amazing and inclusive, but proceed with caution. It may feel more rewarding to begin the game offline for your first 2-3 weeks to be sure you are ready.

4. Eating Fruit + Hitting Rocks = NO

They said that fruit was great, that it makes you move differently in the game, they were wrong. Fruit turns you into an indestructible being who smashes everything in its path — including rocks. You should not eat fruit unless you plan on digging up trees with a shovel. There are no other benefits!

Rocks are important because if you hit them with a flimsy axe or stone axe, then precious resources will pop out from it — usually it’s a block of clay, an iron nugget, or a piece of stone. If you’re lucky, you may even get a piece of gold. If you eat fruit, the rock is destroyed immediately and you only get 1 resource. If you don’t have fruit in your system, you can hit the rock up to 7 times to get multiple resources (i.e. 3 clay blocks, 3 iron nuggets, 1 stone)

I did not learn this until 2-3 weeks into the game. I was destroying rocks every day. Don’t be like me. It makes building Nook’s Cranny (the island’s item shop) take so much longer!

You can of course eat fruits and destroy the rocks AFTER you’ve harvested your 6-7 resources from that rock for the day. This would only be useful if the rock is currently in a really inconvenient spot.

5. Choose your villagers wisely because they’ll never want to leave

I rushed into getting all 10 villagers because that unlocks teraforming. I thought i was going to be this amazing terraforming machine and turn my island into the most badass village possible. I was wrong.

Terraforming is HARD. Very hard. Comes naturally to some, does not come naturally to many others (including me). It’s not worth the rush in my opinion. Besides, once you’ve unlocked terraforming, then visitors will know that you COULD’VE made your island awesome, but you’re either too lazy or too inadequate to do so. Or a mix of both like me. Sigh.

But the main reason to not rush into filling your island with 10 villagers is that they take FOREVER to move out. The legacy tricks of hitting them with a net or ignoring them does not work anymore. You practically have to cut open their kidneys in their sleep to get them to leave, but honestly they’d still probably wake up in a tub of ice saying how happy they are to see you.

Another mistake I made was not knowing that the Nook Mile Islands would have never-ending amount of villagers I can invite to my island. I thought it was a rare occurrence and that I was *lucky* to have found someone wandering around. So I didn’t want to waste Nook Miles tickets looking for villagers. But now that I’ve played long enough, I’m pretty sure there is ALWAYS someone on a Nook Miles island to invite to live with you if you have an open plot. So you can just ignore someone on the island if you don’t like them and find someone else on your next Nook Mile island trip.

6. Keep an eye on your storage space, because it will run out

I never knew that in the lower left-hand corner of the storage screen you can see the number of items you have and the possible capacity. This is not a life or death thing but basically know that once you run out of storage, you may have trouble parting with some items and end up with furniture leaves littered all over your island. (This is my current situation and I’m so ashamed – which brings us to my next point)

With this in mind, unless you really want the item now, it may make more sense to do more cataloging / touch trades to save yourself some space.

Cataloguing and touch trades are just dropping the item for someone else to pick up in their inventory and then they will drop back down to return the item to you, and vice versa. Once the item is in your inventory, even for a short moment, it becomes available for purchase from the Nook Shopping terminal in the Resident Services building (or tent if you’re still earlier in the game).

7. Consider opening a second account on the island

I know it’s a lot of work and may seem annoying, but hear me out. Once you run out of storage space in your main home, you don’t want your island to be littered with items everywhere and be embarrassed to have visitors! Not to mention that many visitors may view the extra items laying around as a free-for-all / take 10, leave none…which can be an awkward situation in itself

There are other benefits outside of more storage space. I’ve seen people turn their second homes into extended wings of their existing home, placing them side by side to seem like a giant mansion, or maybe putting a courtyard in between the two to make it look even more intentional.

Another popular idea I’m seeing is turning the second home into a “restaurant” or public place. You can have the main room be a fancy restaurant, basement can be a bar, side rooms can be bathrooms, back room is a coat closet. Voila! You’ve just made a speakeasy restaurant! You’re welcome.

I’ve also seen people do some creative things with homes after the new features involving art and Redd were added. Some are making criminal/villain lairs to fit the vibe of Redd and his shady art deals, others are making their own makeshift museums with his fake art, and then in the “backyard” is the ship where he sails in every now and then to make more sales. Which brings me to my next point…

8. Be mindful of the one-per-day visitors

There are visitors who arrive with goodies but their generosity is limited. Here are some examples:

  • Redd: He’s the shady art dealer mentioned in my prior point, he has art on his ship to sell on random days. You can only buy one per day. My first mistake was thinking I could buy all of the art on his boat.
  • Celeste: She’s the super cute owl-sibling of Blathers, the museum owner. Every time you see her she will give you a new recipe to create mystical items like nova lights and wallpapers with glowing stars. But she only gives one recipe per day, so even if you see her on your island, and visit a friend’s island later that day, you still won’t get a second recipe.
  • Flick: He is obsessed with bugs and will buy bugs from you for 50% more than Nook’s Cranny. The one-per-day limitation is if you want him to make you any bug taxidermy models, you can only order one per day (and you need to give him 3 of whatever bug you want to make)
  • C.J.: He is pretty much exactly like Flick but obsessed with fish instead of bugs, and will buy fish from you for 50% more than Nook’s Cranny. The one-per-day limitation is if you want him to make you any fish taxidermy models, you can only order one per day (and you need to give him 3 of whatever fish you want to make)

9. Don’t sell fish or bugs to Nook’s Cranny (if you can help it)

I don’t want anyone losing out on major progress in the game but if you can, you should wait until Flick or C.J. is in town since they will buy your bugs or fish for 50% more than the local shop!

I personally tried this and was able to make 300,000 bells in one day (thank god for peacock butterflies, tarantulas, and oarfish)

But remember, you can only sell to Flick or C.J. when they are on your island. You cannot sell to them while visiting another person’s online island.

If you DO plan on waiting for Flick or C.J., I’d suggest obtaining any fruit that isn’t your island’s native fruit (whether from a Nook Miles island or from trades with other players) and plant multiple trees of it for higher yields. You can get a TON of bells from this and it even helps you advance in your “Pick of the Bunch” Nook Miles Challenge (this challenge rewards you with Nook Miles for selling up to 3,000 pieces of fruit to Nook’s Cranny).

You can also get great returns after planting 10,000 bells (must be 1 bag of 10,000) into any glowing golden holes (one per day on your island).

That’s all I have for now. Happy playing!

Feel free to comment any questions below (or even if you just want to say hi 😀 ) and let me know if you have any suggested topics for my next post!