Animal Crossing: New Horizons marks the most lavish and dense version of this lovable sim series yet, with new features such as crafting and terraforming. This sets the stage for one of the most appealing, complex Animal Crossing experiences. Yet, it can also prove to be a tad overwhelming for newcomers.
Coupled with the slew of items your island yields, the limited inventory space can make it tough to sort out which items to seek and horde, and which can be safely discarded. Sure, you've got stacking and can expand your inventory as well as store items in your home. Still - often times the situation calls for making room by tossing out less useful items.
With this list, we'll seek to help make item organization and prioritizing easier. We'll cover 5 key resources, tools, and other items to hang on to, along with 5 that - at least in the short term - can be tossed aside.
10 Valuable: Coconuts
One neat feature of New Horizons is the distinct characteristics each island is given. This manifests mainly by the native fruit trees that grow on each. Your island will be home to one of the following - apples, oranges, cherries, pears, or peaches. But what you won't receive natively is coconuts.
Not only will you have a few amusing DIY recipes that use this fruit, but this relative rarity also makes them sell for more Bells at Nook's shop. You'll want to visit Mystery Islands and stock up on these, then plant several on the sands of your own island.
By comparison, native fruit only sells for 100 Bells, while coconuts will yield 250. Of course, you can also visit friends' islands and nab their native fruit to pawn for more Bells. However, coconut is the only fruit in the game that's universally rare.
9 Expendable: Native Fruit
As we've touched on, you can largely disregard native fruit. Not only will it be growing on your island in abundance, but the ability to replant and grow new trees means you'll have an almost infinite, easily-accessible source of them.
Of course, you can eat them to gain some strength for shoveling or tree-chopping, and craft a few fruit-themed furnishings. Yet, this added stamina ability to shatter rocks or shovel fully-grown trees isn't that useful anyway. And the meager Bells these fruits bring in means you're better served to focus your efforts elsewhere.
It's all about supply and demand, and the supply on your island is ample.
8 Valuable: Iron Nuggets
In this list, our goal is to point out items that are universally useful (and those that are not); and Iron Nuggets certainly fit the bill in terms of all-around beneficial.
Not only can they fetch a pretty penny, but they're also the staple for a number of key items and tools as well as appealing furniture. They're the crux for axes, shovels, fishing rods, and nets, which break far less frequently than pesky Flimsy tools.
You can thankfully stack up to 30 of them, so spend some time collecting these by taking an axe or shovel to a rock. Your island will have 4-5 rocks, and can yield up to 8 nuggets per rock each day, so get mining!
7 Expendable: Flimsy Tools
The only real purpose for Flimsy tools is being a stop-gap for resource gathering early in the game, when sturdier tools are unavailable. Of course, they're also needed for these more durable tools. But really, once you've got the means to do so, there's little sense in toying with Flimsy items on their own, on account of how often they break.
Since they're so cheap and easy to craft, they really shouldn't be used later in your game beyond emergency backups or a means to craft better tools.
6 Valuable: Fossils
You may have noticed some fractured areas in the ground upon exploring your island. You'll want to go ahead and dig those up, as they'll usually unearth valuable Fossils.
These make for a fun collectible which should be donated to Blathers in order to decorate your lavish museum. But the neat thing about these is that even if you inevitably get duplicates that Blathers turns down, you can still put them to use.
For one, most of these identified fossils will sell for at least 2 or 3 thousand bells. But beyond this, they can also make for some cool displayable flair in your home or on your island.
5 Expendable: Flowers
Many find flowers to be a nice way to pretty up their islands by literally adding some color. Villagers certainly enjoy them, and they can help increase the star rating of your island evaluation. Still, simply cleaning your island of weeds largely achieves this same outcome, and without the hassle of taking several days to plant and water them, along with awaiting their growth.
Their infinite supply and relatively low value mean that flowers shouldn't be a high priority unless you're hellbent on wowing friends with gorgeous landscaping.
4 Valuable: Tarantulas/Scorpions
Larger and rarer varieties of bugs and fish will bring in ample Bells. Yet, Tarantulas and Scorpions are insects you'll want to be on the lookout for, in particular. They'll sell for a whopping 8,000 Bells, for one. But the best part about them is that - assuming you can get past their annoying attacks - they're somewhat easy to find and secure.
They're considered "rare," to be sure, but hunting at night will make it relatively easy to locate these suckers.
You can seek out Tarantulas in winter, and Scorpions in the summer months. The lighter sounds of Scorpions make them typically be a bit tougher to spot.
3 Expendable: Tree Branches
You could say that branches, much like wood and stone, are solid building blocks for New Horizons. After all, they're used to make several key tools.
While this may be the case, these twigs are particularly cheap and easy to obtain. You may notice that every day, a number of branches are scattered around near your trees. This means you can collect several per day with zero labor involved.
And if you do wish to go the extra mile, you can simply shake each tree, which often yields additional twigs; only risking the occasional nest of angry hornets. Basically, you can nab at least a dozen of these per day with just a few minutes of minimal effort.
2 Valuable: Gold Nuggets
Whatever you do in New Horizons - be sure to hold onto these. Like stones and Iron Nuggets, they can be mined from rocks, but far more infrequently. The best part about Gold Nuggets is their super valuable nature in terms of selling and crafting.
After obtaining DIY recipes they're used for, they serve as the foundation for the insanely durable Golden tools. But if you don't quite have the patience for this or need some quick cash, they'll also sell for a whopping 10,000 Bells! Don't let these babies out of your sight.
1 Expendable: Weeds
As is pretty much the case in real life, the only real use for weeds is to discard them.
Letting them grow out of control on your island will work against your eval rating. They'll eventually even bring flies and hinder the growth of flower breeding. The fact that they can be stacked up to a massive 99 means you can basically stockpile these without worry, and they're rarely needed for useful DIY recipes.
Just be sure to sell weeds, rather than let the garbage pile up on your island in the form of weed clumps. And trust us - there's no shortage of them to be had.