Nook Miles is one of the newest features in Animal Crossing: New Horizons and is a major game-changer. Miles isn't just a small gimmick, but one of the most crucial parts of making your gameplay more enjoyable. The points are earned by doing everyday tasks and can build-up over time to help you unlock special items and recipes. They are laid out like goal sheets similar to the daily goals you find in the series mobile game spin-off Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp. To help you master this new feature, below are our tips for using Nook Miles.
Updated 16th March 2020 By Helen Ashcroft: As we play more Animal Crossing: New Horizons the value of Nook Miles becomes more noticeable. Not only can they be used to purchase items and progress in the early game but they also have a huge impact on several different features you'll unlock on your island journey, especially once K.K. Slider comes to visit.
Now we know more about the brand new currency we've added five new ways you can use your Nook Miles to enhance not only your island experience but also your island itself.
15 Pay Off Your Tent
From the very beginning of the game, you will learn just how helpful Nook Miles are to your game. Tom Nook will give you a special promotion that lets you redeem 5,000 Nook Miles to pay off your tent, phone, airfare costs. This may seem like a lot of points, but many goals will help you quickly rack up miles. By going ahead and paying off your tent, you will open up several new features.
One of these features is the ability to earn points fast with the addition of Nook Miles Plus.
14 Nook Miles Plus
Nook Miles Plus will be added to your app as soon as you finish paying off your tent. This will give you five tasks to complete at a time. Each time you complete a task, another will pop-up to take its place. You can earn anywhere from 100 to 500 points for doing Nook Miles Plus tasks. In addition, each day, you will have a fresh slate of tasks, so be sure to turn in any you have completed before going to bed.
The Plus feature is one of the fastest ways to get a large amount of Nook Miles.
13 Watch For Notifications
The Nook Miles process is incredibly streamlined to be easy for players to understand. Every time you complete a task, an icon will begin blinking in the corner of your screen. If it's a Nook Miles Plus task, there will be a tiny plus symbol added so that you can distinguish the types of goals. You can also check the progress of each task by going into the app.
This is a great way to know which milestones you are close to finishing and which ones you may just want to hold off on.
12 Get Better Tools
Another huge part of New Horizons is the use of tools to gather supplies, shoot down balloons, and collect bugs. The first few tools you get will be called flimsy and will break after just thirty uses. This can get incredibly frustrating as items like the ax will take three uses per tree, only allowing you to harvest wood from ten trees at a time before having to craft a brand new item.
To get the second tier of tools, you will need to redeem 3,000 Nook Miles.
11 Do Simple Tasks
Once you pay off your tent, all you really need to do is play your game, and Nook Miles will naturally role in. You get points from things like catching critters and decorating your house. There are even some hefty one time-point goals for doing things like writing on the message board in the town square. Even if you run out of the normal Nook Miles tasks, the Nook Miles Plus will never end.
This means that you will always be able to accumulate Nook Miles while playing.
10 Buy Plane Tickets
One of the best features of the Nook Miles program is the ability to buy tickets for 2,000 points. These tickets can be redeemed at the airport to travel to a randomly generated island. These islands will allow you to recruit new villagers, get extra supplies, and even catch some rare fish and bugs. There is even an island with respawning tarantulas that can help you get rich quick.
There is no limit on how many tickets you can buy or use in a day.
9 Get Free Bells
This exchange won't be available until your town hall has been upgraded. When the upgrade does happen, though, you will unlock a ton of new rewards, including the ability to trade 500 points for a ticket worth 3,000 bells. This voucher will automatically print out and then need to be taken to Timmy and Tommy to change for the money; this is a great way to spend excess Nook Points
Once again, there is no limit on the number of tickets you can buy or exchange in a day.
8 More Pocket Space
Another huge benefit to quickly gathering Nook Miles is the ability to expand your pocket space. The first inventory expansion will cost you 3,000 miles and be available from the start of the game. The second will be offered after the community upgrade and will cost 8,000 miles. We recommend stockpilings point around the time you're asked to build the three houses for the new villager.
More pocket space means that you will be able to carry more items back to the shop to sell for bells.
7 Swap Tools More Easily
The Tool Ring will allow you to press the arrow keys and bring up a circular menu that lets you select the tool you want quickly and easily. When you are trying to fish and need those clams this comes in very handy.
The feature is cheap and well worth the investment. It can even be customized so you can favorite the items you want to appear on the menu, making swapping items much easier.
6 Change Your Style
Soon you'll be swimming in Nook Miles, but don't worry as there are some cute customization options available. You can use your miles to get new hairstyles and colors, allowing much better customization of your villager.
Other options are still limited, including facial features, but at least you can turn those miles into a funky new hairstyle.
5 Show Your Nook Love
If you want to truly show your love for Tom Nook then the catalog also offers you Nook merchandise. You can purchase slippers, facemasks, and your very own shirts to match Tom and Isabelle.
If you want to truly show your love for the Nooks then this branded merchandise is the way to go. You can also buy other t-shirts and branded items, including a cute rucksack.
4 Upgrade Your Design Software
For a measly 800 miles, you can upgrade your custom design software to access more options when designing your own patterns for paths, signs, furniture, and clothing.
Custom designs are common in the game and are a great way to create a truly unique island. You can also download other people's designs using the kiosk in the Able Sisters store. The software upgrade is well worth the miles and makes the process easier.
3 Once a Day Points
On top of remembering to harvest fossils every day, check-in with the Nook Miles center each day. Every day you check-in, you will get a small sum of points. This sum will increase up to 500 points for seven days. Each day you check consecutively after the seven day period will also award you with 500 points. Be aware that time-skipping backward will void your day count causing you to be set back to 50 points.
This is an easy and fast way to earn points, especially if you're moving your clock forward while you play.
2 Upgrade Your Island
Once you've attracted the K.K. Slider to your island you'll unlock the ability to terraform. However, the option will just give you the ability to build basic dirt paths.
To unlock more options you'll need Nook Miles, lots of them. There are several path options to purchase as well as permits to adjust the rivers and add or remove cliffs. Expect this to cost over 20k Nook Miles in total.
1 Special Decorations
Not only will you get more helpful items after the upgrade, but you will also get a ton of fencing and decoration options. You can buy everything from pools to brick fencing with your Nook points. Some items will come as DIY recipes, while others will be delivered to your house the following day. This is the only way to get most of these items, so you're going to have to part with some points.
In addition, some available items like fencing types will change out every day, so be watchful.