The Bell is the main currency used in the animal crossing series. Although bells are most commonly used to buy items from stores and pay off players’ mortgages, they can be used in other ways, including trading with villagers and other services. So far, bell, with a minimum denomination of 100, has been described as a gold coin.
Selling items to stores are the easiest way to glitch Switch Bells. You can also receive bells from villagers, struck from the money rocks, dig out from shining spots (Switch, GCN and N64 versions of the game only), get them through Bell Vouchers(sold to stores), and get them from the regular and money trees.
In summer, a popular strategy is to raise expensive nocturnal beetles and fish. This strategy can be used throughout the year in New Leaf, where players can visit the island at any time of the year, where there are summer collections.
One of the simplest glitching techniques you can perform is to manipulate time on a Nintendo switch. In animal crossing, it plays in real-time every day. So once you’ve collected everything, you can collect and earn all double nook points, and there’s nothing more to do that day. You may also encounter problems that cannot be played at some time. If you can only play at night, then you will only experience the night in the game! So what would you do? OK, you can change the date and time on the switch. It will change the time and date of the game! The method is as follows:
Now you can enter the game, this is the time for you to set up on Nintendo switch! Usually when there are different bugs and fish will spawn. If you change the date, you can place yourself in spring, summer, autumn, or winter to find different varieties of these items!
There’s a couple of ways you can increase the likelihood of catching a particular rare fish. These work for fish like Sturgeon and Stringfish, but will also work for other fish you might be having trouble obtaining.
The first method is taking advantage of the spawn rate on mystery islands. You can fly to these by purchasing a Nook Miles Ticket and heading over to the Dodo Airlines. Fly to a random island and you will hopefully come across one that has some water that is easily run around. Mystery islands fish spawn a lot faster than your actual island, so you can spook away the fish that you don’t want and run around back to the location of the fish you actually do want. The Sturgeon in particular works well for this because they only spawn at the River Mouth. So, you go around scaring the other fish and head back to check if one has spawned at the mouth. One usually will have spawned, but it might not be the one you want. Scare that away and repeat the process. This gives you a lot more chances at catching a specific fish. It’s important to know where they with show up and what size the shadow will be.
Here’s a few ways you can scare away the fish you don’t want:
The second method takes advantage of the ability to hard reset. You can go get about 10 Fish bait and go to the location of where the rare fish will spawn. Wait for the game to auto-save. You will know it has saved when a circular icon with animated dots appears at the top right of your screen. Once that happens, toss the bait and cast on any fish shadows that match the size you want. Continue this until you either get the fish or run out of bait. If you run out of bait, hit the home button on your controller and exit out of Animal Crossing completely. You need to do this before the game auto-saves, you have about three minutes (if you see the auto-save indicator, DO NOT close the game or your save might be corrupted). Reload the game and you will have all of the Fish bait you started with because the game wasn’t saved after you used it all! Now you can continue to repeat this process until you finally catch the rare fish.
This method uses the time skipping glitch we outlined previously. Do this at your own risk! As far as I know, there isn’t anything negative that will happen with your game but it’s early in the discovery of these tricks.
Early on in the game you will get the ability to deposit bells at the Nook Stop. Go to the ABD selection here, and you can deposit some into your savings. Put a large amount into your account, and then save and exit your game. Go to your System Settings of your Nintendo Switch and scrolls all the way down to System. Select Date and Time and disable “Synchronize Clock via Internet” if you have it enabled. Go to the Date and Time option and move your years all the way to the max (2060). Hit okay and go back into your game. If you head back over to the Nook Stop, you will notice that your bell amount has grown significantly! You can now save and revert the years back to normal. Go back into the game and you will see the bell amount remains as the increased total. Repeat this process as much as you want to continue to get rich quick!
This was made a lot harder now that the Giant Water Bug now spawns in the Northern Hemisphere!
This is kind of a glitch/cheat, it’s very likely going against how the game intended you to play it.
It’s a bit of a pain to do, but if you desperately want bells, then you can actually guarantee Tarantula spawns on a mystery island. Take a flight using the Nook Miles Ticket (make sure it’s after 7pm and Tarantulas are in season) and if it isn’t the specific Tarantula island, you can pretty much strip the island bare to get the spiders to show up! You need to go through and remove every single tree, flower, and rock on the island. Once you’ve done that, you need to go over to the beach area and plant all the flowers. Remove all the flower tops and drop all of the stuff from your inventory on the ground. The island is now primed to spawn some bugs. Catch any bug you see! It appears there’s a limit to how many bugs can be on an island, so ditch the ones you don’t want. The Tarantulas have a chance to show up as you run around the island. Continue this process until you’ve got a bag full of spiders.
Before we get started, you need at least one user on your Nintendo Switch to have completed New Horizon’stutorial section, meaning they’ve named the island and gone to sleep after orientation. This will give you access to two necessary things for this exploit: Local Multiplayer and your free Cardboard Box or Table (you’ll have received one of the two in your mailbox after setting up your tent).
You also need an item that can be placed atop the Cardboard Box or Table. If you can’t think of a proper item, the Nintendo Switch you received at the start of the game should do.
Now that you have everything set up, here’s how you get the duplication process going.
Don’t worry if you don’t have somebody else to help you. Inverse tested the exploit with only one person controlling both the leader and non-leader using joy-cons, we were still able to find a rhythm and earn a healthy amount of money.
We do suggest that you upgrade your inventory as much and as soon as possible. Your inventory can be expanded by going to the Nook Stop’s “Redeem Nook Miles” option on the ATM where you can exchange 5,000 miles for a “Pocket Organization Guide.”
With all that information by your side, you should be able to pay off one or more of your debts to Tom Nook.
Even ACNH’s Golden Tools aren’t unbreakable but you can experience and enjoy unbreakable tools by using this couch co-op exploit. As of Nintendo Switch version 10.0.0, you can remap the Switch buttons. You can set up custom button mapping that allows you to control 2 characters at once (one on each joy-con).
The “Follower” player’s tools never break (as long and they’re not switched to being the Leader).
The “tools still take damage but won’t break but still won’t break even at max damage until you use the tool in solo mode or as the leader” as clarified by Omni Jacala (@artsyomni) on Twitter — who pointed out this exploit.
There are plenty of pains and limitations to using this exploit. For instance, Only the leader has full access to their pockets, can enter buildings, shop, and only the leader can pick up fruit and wood. Followers can catch fish and bugs but those will automatically be stored in the recycle bin in Resident Services — to be retrieved later.
However, it can still be a good way to accomplish some daily tasks without worrying about tools bursting into thin air. For how to do couch co-op and how to remove a person from your island (if you ever decide to abandon this exploit) check out our How to Play Multiplayer guide.
Timmy and Tommy’s turnip buying prices are randomized every day, and are randomized again if you turn back time to buy more turnips and return — making it impossible to make a time traveller’s killing on the stalk market. At least, in your own game.
Here’s how to cheat the stalk market and make a ton of bells on turnips:
Keep in mind your friend can’t time travel, or else their turnip prices will reset! Leave them a few sacks of 99k bells as thanks.
In what has become a staple of forbidden Animal Crossing magic, New Horizons also allows the ability for players to “time travel”. Since the game runs on the Switch’s own internal clock, you can change this clock in your console’s settings when not in the game to advance or rewind time to any date you wish.
By time traveling, players can rapidly advance by a day to restock their island with new resources, fossils, new items in shops, and fast forward the time taken to construct buildings and other features on the island. Done correctly, a player can amass bells faster than normal or progress their island by jumping ahead a day after most daily tasks are complete.
However, jumping to far can have adverse effects:
By using the Time Travel cheat above you can make a million bells fast by taking advantage of the interest rate available in the ABD bank, at the Nook Terminal.
Go way back in time, enter your game. Then exit and jump far to the future. Return to a sizable profit! Repeat until you hit a million or above.
If you’re one of the few players who purchased a special Animal Crossing Nintendo Switch, you’ll receive this message in the mail along with a present:
“ Dear __, Thanks for using the specially colored Joy-Con controllers released in association with Animal Crossing: New Horizons. To show our appreciation, we’re sending you this gift. We hope you enjoy it! — From Nintendo”
The model Animal Crossing: Nintendo Switch can be purchased, but it’ll only show up randomly priced at 35,960 bells.
A way to get around this steep price is to connect the specially colored Joy-Con to your system and play ACNH with it. It’s not the easiest workaround, but if you know a friend or family member with a system, see if you can borrow them for a moment to save 35K Bells.
There’s a way to guarantee you’ll get eight resources per rock, you just have to strategically dig holes behind you to prevent being knocked back! Position yourself inbetween the rock and the holes, the bash away with your shovel as fast as you can.
A long time secret of the Animal Crossing games, every town is dotted with rocks in random locations, and they can be hit with shovels or even axes to get resources. However, each day, one random rock will contain bells instead of minerals, and you can keep hitting it to earn more and more money. Be sure to stop yourself from getting knocked back by digging holes behind yourself (above/below and to the side) and strike the rock a maximum of eight times to get up to 16,400 bells each day!
Another returning feature are mysterious glowing spots in the ground that appear in a random part of your island each day. If you find this spot, you can dig it up for a free 1,000 bells. Be sure to get access to a Shovelby giving 5 bugs or fish to Tom Nook and get Blathers to your island.
Once you find a glowing spot, dig up the bells — but know that if you plant the bells back in the glowing hole (and only that glowing hole), it will sprout into a tree that will return 3x the amount of bells when it’s fully grown. You can do this with either 1,000 or 10,000 bells — which can let you make you a lot of money for your investment!
See exactly how it’s done in the video below or on the How to Plant a Money Tree page.
Nothing is worse than shaking a tree to find a wasp nest falling at your feet. You’ve only got seconds to run into a building or get your net, but what if you need more time?
As luck would have it, you can halt the Wasp’s attack by either opening your inventory, or pressing up on the DPAD for your tool ring if you’ve bought the upgrade from Nook’s Shop. With this, you’ll be able to take a moment to find and swap to your net — just be ready to quickly pivot and swipe to catch them before you get stung.
You can also keep yourself out of this situation by keeping a net equipped while shaking trees and by only shaking them from the front as shown in the screenshot below. Your character will automatically turn to face the wasps if a nest drops, making for a super easy catch!
Sometimes you may find yourself far away from your own workshop and you’re in dire need of a new axe. Luckily, many Villagers on your island will put DIY Workbenches in their own homes. If one of them is at home, enter, and you’ll be able to use it yourself to get what you need!
This also works for any mirrors to quickly change your appearance, as you’ll get more hairstyles than what you had to choose from at the start of the game, and you may not find a recipe to make your own mirror for a while.
Also, if another villager is already using their workbench — talk to them and they’ll give you the recipe for whatever they are working on!
Fishing can be hit or miss, if you’re trying to make a lot of money fast. It’s hard to tell if that big shadow is a valuable fish — or just a bass, but there are some ways to increase your chances for a lucky find.
Be sure to always fish in the ocean when it rains — as it will give you a shot at finding some of the rarest fish in the game, including the Coelacanth, the prehistoric fish worth a whopping 15,000 bells alone!
Once you get far enough into progressing the status of your island that you unlock the ability to terraform and create or remove rivers, you can use this ability to make cheap but effective bridges.
Normally, you can request the placement of bridges from Tom Nook at Resident Services, but the prices can get pretty high, and they take a day to build. However, with the Water Tool permit you can buy after learning the Island Designer App, you can put dirt into rivers to create bridges of land.
Since your character can hop over small gaps, you can even create small paths to jump across rivers, rather than closing off the flow entirely!
When starting the game, you’ll be asked which hemisphere you live in — which will dictate how the seasons change based on where you live. March weather is very much a spring environment in the North, while it looks a lot more like Summer in the South.
This actually extends to the types of bugs and fish you’ll find. This means that while a player in the North will find assorted butterflies in March, a player in the South will find crickets instead. The critterpedia will accurately adjust the times these fauna are found when in that hemisphere — so if you travel to a friend’s town in a different part of the world, you can catch critters you’d normally have to wait many more months to see in your own town.
It pays to have friends in faraway places!
You’ll learn early on that to make a lot of DIY items, you’ll need to amass a lot of branches, wood, stone, iron, and other materials — but some resources might not be that obvious.
Depending on the recipes you uncover, you can also find uses for random items like Wasp Nests (to make honeycomb flooring or medicine from), Seashells (to make beach carpets and shell furniture), and even trash fished from the water.
You may also find Gold Nuggets that are worth a ton of money — but they’re also needed to build some bigger DIY Projects, so you may also want to hang onto a few. Even Gulliver’s communicator parts that you can dig up to help him can be withheld (you monster), as they’ll turn into rusted parts the next day and can be used to craft select projects you may find.
Everyone has a story about their perfect town that’s invaded by a villager who just stinks. Maybe you don’t like their personality, or their dumb catchphrase, or just hate Chickens…
Regardless of your reasons, there is a way to get Villagers to leave your town, but it does take a bit of dedication, luck, and time.
Don’t be fooled — telling Isabelle you have a problem with a villager will NOT affect their decision to leave, it is only for resetting their catchphrase and/or clothing if they have picked up something from another player.
Remember that above all, Villagers need interactions to feel welcome, and the less welcome they feel, the more likely they are to consider leaving. This means not talking to them at all when possible.
One thing you can do — though it is not guaranteed to hasten their departure, is either hit them 3 times with a bug catching net, or repeatedly run into them until they get mad at you. If nothing else, it’s a good way of expressing your displeasure with them.
The other main thing to know is that villagers leaving takes time. Villagers won’t feel the need to leave an island until there are at least 6 on your island, and it may take several days for someone to consider leaving. During this time, be sure to look at your villagers — if any of them have a thought bubble above their heads, it means they are making a decision or have a task. Sometimes they’ll want something, and sometimes they’ll mention they may want to leave your town.
If a villager you like has this thought, you can persuade them to stay — but if its the villager you want out, be sure to encourage the decision, and by the next day it will be announced that the villager is packing up to leave.
A departed villager will leave behind the lot they took over for someone else to move in, so be sure to look for someone to fill the spot before another unwanted villager moves in!
You can use photo mode just about anywhere using the Camera app on your in-game NookPhone. However, you can get wider, more picturesque angles by taking photos in any of the secret photo op locations. You can tell you’re in one because the camera will focus in or provide a wider angle.
There are several in the museum, including these:
Try standing still in a few places and see what happens!
As of Patch 1.1.1 (released March 26th) this glitch no longer works. Below is an excerpt of how to perform the glitch in an unpatched version of the game.
When playing Animal Crossing with a second player, using the Call Island Resident feature, there is currently a way to duplicate many kinds of items, and quickly sell an entire inventory’s worth of valuable loot as fast as you can create more.
Note that this glitch can ONLY be enacted with two players on a single Switch console, as online or local multiplayer does not allow guests to interact with placed objects, nor can the host pick them up.
First, summon the second player using Call Resident, and then place a high-selling item on a small table or stool — this can range from small valuable items to rare bugs and fish, or even the Royal Crown sold at random times from the Able Sisters — which can sell for a huge amount of Bells!
Once the item is placed on the stool, have the second player (the one who cannot access their inventory) hold down A to grab the table and then spin the item. When this happens, the first player should grab the item with Y right as it begins to rotate.
If done correctly, the first player will pocket the item in their inventory, while the second player continues to spin a copy of the item on the table. If synced up, you can keep picking up duplicates until your inventory is full!