New Horizons is the first mainline Animal Crossing title to release in eight years, and the first to appear on a home console in twelve. In that time, things have changed quite drastically, and, as one might expect, Nintendo’s new outing comes jam-packed with a ton of new features and concepts including terraforming, Nook Miles challenges, and, of course, crafting.

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Though it’s far from the most robust crafting system known to video gamedom, Animal Crossing: New Horizons plays coy with its new features in the beginning. After arriving on their unique island, players will be tasked with completing some mundane chores like greeting other villagers, picking out a place to set up their tent, pulling weeds, and collecting some rudimentary building material. Initially lacking the ability to so much as cross a river, the opening hours of New Horizons can almost come across as claustrophobic. Fortunately, crafting can help alleviate those issues quite a bit.

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After helping Tom Nook set up shop on the island, speak with him inside his tent or approach his workbench in the top right corner of the room, and he’ll download the DIY Recipes app to your handy-dandy Nook phone after offering you a crash course on in-game crafting. This will come with a recipe for a flimsy fishing rod, which requires players to collect five tree branches. These can typically be found lying on the ground or by shaking trees. It’s important to note, however, that this can only happen on the second day of play. As the in-game calendar follows that of the console, new players will either have to wait until the next day or advance their Switch’s calendar by one day.

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Once the materials have been collected, return to Tom Nook’s workbench and craft a flimsy fishing rod. If you have the recipe, you could also craft a net, as the two require the same resources. At this point, fish or hunt for two unique creatures, and then return to Tom Nook. Nook will ask if it’s alright to ship these creatures to a friend of his, an animal later revealed to be series-staple museum curator Blathers. Donating two creatures will net players a DIY recipe for a flimsy axe.

The axe is vital to most DIY crafting projects, as it offers the easiest method to collect necessary materials like wood, clay, and iron nuggets. To collect wood, simply use the axe to strike a tree, which will uncover a piece of regular wood, hardwood, or softwood. Additionally, striking a rock with an axe will reveal stones, iron nuggets, lumps of clay, and, on rare occasions, gold nuggets or certain types of insects.

Naturally, while gathering building materials is a necessary step, players also need to make sure that they have the DIY recipe for the item they’re hoping to build added to their Nook phone. This is done by acquiring recipe cards, which can be earned in several ways. Most commonly, they can be purchased from either the Nook Stop machine using Nook Miles, or directly from Timmy. Villagers can also give them as gifts, and later-game activities will also award DIY recipes.

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It’s important to recognize that, after crafting these tools, they can be purchased from Timmy, meaning that players won’t have to constantly worry about acquiring enough resources to replace broken tools. Additionally, purchasing the Pretty Good Tools DIY Recipe from the Nook Stop kiosk will allow players to craft sturdier gear, abating the struggle of regularly replacing flimsy tools.

While larger furniture items will naturally cost more resources and be unavailable to new players, the DIY crafting system is a nifty addition to the series which allows players to accrue some lavish new conversation pieces without breaking the bank. We can’t wait to see what Nintendo adds to the system in future updates, but for now, we’re just thrilled to be able to put our newfound carpentry skills to good use!

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