Animal Crossing: New Horizons Guide – How to Get Golden Tools and Earn Bells

Golden Tools are back in Animal Crossing: New Horizons but getting them can be a bit of task. Keep in mind that given how the game works in terms of time (each day follows the real world time cycle), you’ll be working on these for a long while.

Instead of earning these items directly upon fulfilling these requirements, you’ll receive the DIY recipe for it. To craft it, you’ll need the standard version plus a Gold Nugget. And given the drop rate on Gold Nuggets, it can take some time.

Here are the requirements for earning each Golden Tool DIY Recipe:

• Golden Axe – Break 100 axes. Use Flimsy Axes to accelerate the process.
• Golden Fishing Rod – Complete the fish section of the Critterpedia aka catch every fish.
• Golden Net – Complete the bug section of the Critterpedia aka catch every bug.
• Golden Shovel – Assist Gulliver 30 times.
• Golden Slingshot – Shoot down 300 balloons.
• Golden Watering Can – Obtain a 5-star Town Rating, which requires a hefty amount of villagers, trees, flowers and so on.

How to Make Money Fast

Bells aren’t the only go-to currency in Animal Crossing: New Horizons thanks to the introduction of Nook Miles but they’re still important. A good general tip for earning Bells is to sell any unnecessary items or duplicate fossils at Nook’s Cranny. Make sure not to sell crafting materials since you’ll need them for, well, crafting important daily items. Also, avoid selling items in the box outside Nook’s Cranny since it only gives 80 percent of the total sell value.

It’s worth regularly checking Nook’s Cranny for the hot item of the day. These are items which sell for double their regular price. If you have the recipe for the hot item in question and it offers a significant return, then craft and sell it.

Otherwise, you can start off with selling non-native fruits. These must be found by either visiting a friend’s island or using a Nook Miles Ticket for traveling to a random island. You can gather fruits on this island and sell them for 500 Bells each but planting them will be more beneficial. Once the tree grows on your own island, you can gather the fruits to sell daily.

Island Tours are useful in a multitude of ways, whether it’s finding non-native fruits, bugs and fish or finding a bunch of Money Rocks. Whenever you can, take a trip to a random island and see what you can find.

Keep an eye out for bugs and fish, especially those which are worth a lot of Bells. Tarantulas especially fetch a nice price. If Flick or CJ are around on your island, you can sell them bugs or fish respectively – they’ll offer 50 percent more Bells in return. Their appearances are random though.

Throughout your various travels around the island, make sure you’re listening for any whooshing sounds. That’s an indication of a balloon overhead carrying cargo. Shoot the balloon with a slingshot and the cargo will drop. Sometimes Bells will be included to the tune of 30,000 so it’s definitely worth it. Be careful not to do this near a body of water. The cargo will fall into it and become unobtainable. You do get some Nook Miles for this though.

Speaking of strolling around the island, make sure to check every Sunday for when Daisy Mae rolls around. She sells turnips at around 60 to 100 Bells for 10. These can be sold at Nook’s Cranny during the rest of the week (not Sunday, of course) for different prices. Check in with Timmy and Tommy when the shop opens and then at noon for price changes each day and go for the best deal that provides some profit. Don’t count on hoarding turnips though – they rot after a week.

Another good method for gaining Bells is hitting rocks. No, really. There’s one random rock in particular (which changes every day) called a Money Rock that will spit out Bells when you strike it. Hitting it eight times in a row will increase the overall amount. Make sure to have a fence or hole behind you so as not to move back after each hit.

For more information on Animal Crossing: New Horizons, check out GamingBolt’s official review here.