As I’m sure many of you know, I’m not the kind of girl to play a game without doing at least a little research. It’s the main reason I get frustrated as heck when I play a brand-new game; usually there’s no information yet for me to find!
That was absolutely the case when I started playing Animal Crossing: New Horizons a few weeks ago, and doubly so because I was brand-new to the franchise. I spent the first little while fumbling around, trying to figure out what I was supposed to do, and slowly piecing together things like the Stalk Market.
By now, though, the Internet has come to my rescue.
So today, I thought I’d share five of the helpful resources I’ve discovered for the newest instalment, all of which may or may not have played a role on my own little island!
Turnip Prophet
This appropriately titled and amusing double entendre of a website (prophet like profit, get it?) is a must for anyone looking to make bank in the Stalk Market.
I’m sure many of my fellow players are familiar with Daisy Mae and her endless supply of turnips by now, but what’s harder to figure out is the ups and downs in value you get selling them back to the Nooklings.
After my first week of guessing very badly, I started looking for resources that could help me track and predict what my trend was going to be for the week. I tried a few different ones, but my favourite has to be Turnip Prophet.
The site can take your purchase price and track your daily prices against almost every known trend in the game, so it’ll know within a day or two what your trend will be for the week. It’ll also accurately predict your maximum possible profit for the week, and the day and time you’ll get it.
I’ve used it about four times now (yes, I time traveled for more turnips) and although I may not have gotten the maximum possible profit, it’s always been exactly right about ranges, days and times.
r/acturnips
Now. If you, like me, have terrible luck and can never seem to get a large turnip price spike above 250 (for reference, large spikes can go above 600), this is another great resource.
Essentially, r/acturnips is an entire Reddit thread dedicated to people posting their New Horizons turnip prices and letting people visit to sell off their turnips for as many Bells as possible.
It’s extremely competitive, so it’s not necessarily a great every-week thing, but if you can get into someone’s island, it can be a great opportunity. Just be sure to tip after you sell, not before—several posts have suggested that people who require payment before are scams.
Nookazon
If you’ve ever wanted the Animal Crossing gods to grant you a specific DIY recipe in one of those bottles that wash up on shore, or prayed that Timmy and Tommy have a specific item for you one day, you already know why this site is helpful.
Nookazon (yes, like Amazon) is a site that players put together to help people get items they can’t otherwise seem to get their hands on, from furniture to fruit to DIY recipes. Essentially, players can post listings for things they have using their player IDs, and buyers can send messages in Discord and connect through the game for the exchange.
It’s still pretty new, so it doesn’t have average prices for anything yet and things will tend toward extremes, but if there’s something you really desperately want, this could be a good option to get it.
Happy Island Designer
Later on in the game, players get the option to start terraforming their island. My Minecraft-loving self was so excited to learn that, and happily set out randomly deleting cliffs and building waterways.
It did not take me long to figure out I wasn’t going to want to do that over and over. It was way too time-consuming.
So after a bit of research and way too much time on Pinterest, I stumbled across Happy Island Designer. The site gives players a way to plan out their island’s design with properly-scaled buildings and tools, so you can make a blueprint of what you want to do before you sink hours into terraforming.
It also lets you save and export your design, so you can keep it with you while you play.
It does take a little bit of fussing to set up; it starts you with the same default map every time, and although you can upload a screenshot of your island for it to use as a base, I couldn’t figure out an easier way to design on it than to trace it out manually.
It was worth it, though, and this is the design I ended up with:
It’s almost complete now, and it’s honestly made building so much easier. I keep the image on my phone so I always have it handy!
Polygon's flower crossbreeding guide
I discovered fairly early on in the game that there are different kinds of flowers, and that there are plenty of flower colours that you can’t just buy.
Despite that, though, I didn’t bother with it much until I started terraforming and decided I wanted all my island’s flowers to be white, purple, or pink.
The flower crossbreeding guide I discovered has a lot of information about all the colours available for each type of flower and how to get them, and even has tips about the best way to set up your flowers so they’ll crossbreed.
PRO TIP
Check in regularly with Timmy and Tommy to see what kinds of flowers they’re selling!
They’ll always sell your island’s normal type, but once you upgrade the shop, they get a rotating stock of other flowers as well. I started with pansies but have gotten tulips, windflowers, and hyacinths that way.
Now it’s your turn! Are you playing Animal Crossing: New Horizons? Have some resources to share with fellow players? Leave them in the comments below!
