Animal Crossing games have always had secrets, and Animal Crossing: New Horizons has its fair share of them. While some secrets are hard to find, you might stumble upon others during your playthrough.
Ready to explore uncharted territory? Get the most out of your Animal Crossing: New Horizons experience by uncovering the following secrets.
1. Waking Up Gulliver
You'll occasionally see Gulliver, a seafaring seagull, washed up on the shore of your island. He won't immediately wake up when you first talk to him, but don't give up! Keep bothering him, and he'll eventually explain that he's fallen off his ship and lost his crew.
In order to reunite Gulliver with his crew, you'll have to find five communicator parts to fix his phone. These parts are in the same location as manila clams—dig up the spurts of water that spray out from the sand until you find each piece.
Once you return the parts to Gulliver, he'll send you a unique gift in the mail the next day.
2. Unlocking Golden Tools
Let's just admit it: having tools that constantly break is extremely frustrating. Even after you graduate from flimsy and stone tools, the studier metal tools still break way too often.
A set of gold tools will last you much longer, and that's why it's so important to get your hands on them.
Getting DIY recipes for gold tools is quite time-consuming and could take months to accomplish. This is what you'll need to do to get the recipes for each tool:
- Golden Axe: Break 100 axes (using the flimsy axe is easiest).
- Golden Slingshot: Pop 300 balloons.
- Golden Watering Can: Get a 5-star town rating.
- Golden Shovel: Help Gulliver 30 times.
- Golden Net: Catch every bug in the Critterpedia.
- Golden Fishing Rod: Catch every fish in the Critterpedia.
3. Evading Wasps
You can shake trees to find bells, furniture, and of course, wasp nests. The next time you go on a tree-shaking spree, make sure you're carrying a net.
When a wasp nest falls out of the tree, don't panic. Simply run a short distance, turn around, and snag the wasps with your net. That way, you can finally add wasps to the museum's collection—not to mention that you'll also avoid a nasty bee sting.
4. Finding Ants
In this game, you won't find ants just wandering around. To attract them to your island, buy one bunch of turnips, keep them for over one week, and let them rot.
Place the spoiled turnips outside, and you'll see a line of ants snacking on the turnips the next day. This might seem like a waste of bells, but it's worth it if you want to fill your Critterpedia.
5. Planting a Money Tree
Somewhere on your island, you'll find a golden light peeking out from underground. This light appears every day, so you'll never run out of chances to find it.
If you've dug up this glowing spot before, you already know that you'll find a bag of 1,000 bells.
Instead of filling in the hole when you're done, remove 10,000 bells from your wallet, and bury it in the hole. After a few days, you'll have a money tree that yields a total of 30,000 bells.
6. Predicting Meteor Showers
Struggling to spot a meteor shower or shooting star? Isabelle, as well as the villagers, will drop hints whenever a meteor shower is imminent.
If a character mentions something about having "clear skies," you should definitely check on your island at night. Tilt the camera upwards to watch for shooting stars, and don't forget to press A to make a wish.
You'll find Star Fragments scattered around your beach in the morning—the amount of Fragments varies depending on how many stars you wished on.
Collecting the Star Fragments from these showers allows you to craft the DIY recipes that Celeste gives you.
7. Warming Up to Sable
After you get the Able Sisters clothing shop, you'll get to interact with the two owners, Mabel and Sable, on a daily basis. Mabel is obviously the more talkative hedgehog, as she handles the retail aspect of the store.
Meanwhile, Sable sews new designs in the corner of the shop. The shy hedgehog gives you very brief responses when you talk to her the first several times.
However, if you make the effort to talk to Sable every day, she'll slowly warm up to you, and she'll even reveal the story of her rough childhood.
Once you've solidified your friendship with Sable, she'll give you fun patterns that you can use to customize furniture. Keep chatting with her every day, and she'll continue to give you more patterns.
8. Catching Fleas
Have you ever greeted your villager, only to find that they're incredibly itchy? They're not acting weird for no reason—they have fleas.
And you can help them out by catching the fleas for them.
Take out your net, aim right for the villager (even if you don't actually see the fleas), and you'll catch one of the pests. It's a win-win situation: you'll get a flea for your museum collection, and you'll save the villager from constant scratching.
9. K.K. Slider's Secret Songs
When you finally get K.K. Slider on your island, he'll perform every Saturday night. You can request songs based on your mood, or you can choose the option that reads "That one song..."
This lets you request songs by name, which also lets you access K.K.'s secret songs you wouldn't hear otherwise.
The following songs are hidden. Typing them in exactly as you see here will let you get a copy of the track:
- Farewell
- Animal City
- Drivin'
10. Using the Toilet
You probably know that eating fruit allows you to become powerful enough to dig up trees and break rocks. The amount of time your strength lasts depends on how much fruit you eat—snack on one fruit and you can dig up one tree or break one rock.
But what happens if you eat seven fruits, and you only need to use your power twice? You don't have to go around digging up trees and re-planting them to waste energy. There's actually a much simpler way to return to your normal, weak self: using the toilet.
Yes, that's right! Sitting on a toilet relieves you of all that fruit and the strength that comes along with it.
Make Your Island More Beautiful
While you can unlock most of these secrets within days, other secrets (like the golden tools), will take you a long time to uncover. In the end, it's still worth taking the time to explore every inch of the game.
