Animal Crossing New Horizons – Day 1 Checklist

Animal Crossing: New Horizons is here and idyllic island life is only a ticket away. You can pretty much do anything in Animal Crossing, however, if you want to get your town up ad running as soon as possible to maximize your experience, then you’ll want to complete a few daily objectives. The following is a guide for what to do on day 1 in Animal Crossing: New Horizons.

Once you’ve had a chat with Timmy and Tommy of Nook Inc and made your way to the Island the first thing to do is pick your campsite locations. Find somewhere on the island you think is nice and then place down your tent. After you’ve done this you’ll want to help out your neighbours, so walk around and see how they are getting on and give them a pep talk to help them place their tents.

After all the tents have been placed, have a chat with Tom Nook, and he’ll give you a few things to do including gathering wood and fruit for the moving in party. You’ll need to collect tree branches that are on the ground and some of the fruit that grows on the trees.

Wander round the island and pick up the fruit and tree branches and then head back to Tom Nook. You’ll be able to pick the branches off the floor without any issues, but with the fruit you’ll have to shake the trees for the fruit to fall on the floor.

Finish up this step and then it’s time for the celebration party. You’ll also get the chance to suggest a name for your new island, so think of a good name and present your idea to the group. At this point, it’s been a long day so you can take a nap in your tent. Pick up the camp bed from Tom Nook first and then head back to your tent for a little shut-eye.

Once you wake up Tom Nook will be waiting outside your tent and he’ll inform you of your debt related to the moving fees and he’ll give you your new NookPhone. Luckily, you can pay off the debt with Nook Miles, a scheme he’s set up that when you complete tasks on the island, you’ll get rewarded Nook Miles. This acts as a list of objectives for you and you can check in on the list at any time through the Nook Phone.

After you’ve had a chat with Tom Nook, have a chat with your neighbours and they’ll reward you for helping them out by choosing their tent locations. Try and have a chat with the other islanders everyday as you’ll develop good relationships with your neighbours, they’re likely to give you things like furniture or recipes.

Go and speak to Tom Nook and he’ll give you recipes for ‘flimsy tools’. On day one you’ll want to craft a Fishing Rod Bug Net to help you complete the day one objectives.

There’s a few big objectives you’ll want to get done, and they include:

• Paying off your debt to Tom Nook by completing tasks
• Donate 5 fish or bugs to Tom Nook for study
• Get resources

Pay off you debt to Tom Nook

As Tom Nook mentioned earlier, you now owe him 5000 Nook Miles for ‘moving fees’. This is the number 1 objective for the first day. You can check out the objectives on your Nook Phone. These objectives include

• Collecting weeds and selling them to Timmy
• Catching 10 fish
• Posting a message on the town bulletin board
• Personalising your passport
• Adding furniture to your tent

There’s load more, so check your Nook Phone and complete as many objectives as you need to to hit 5000 Nook Miles.

Donate 5 fish or bugs to Tom Nook

Once you have crafted a fishing rod and bug net, you can catch fish and bugs. On day 1 you’ll want to collect 5 different creatures and give them to Tom Nook. The best thing to do here is to go around the island and fish in the pond/rivers and also the seas. This is also useful because you can catch things like old boots and rubber tires, and use them as resources later.

You can catch bugs too, however, be careful because they tend to get aggressive and attack you. Also, be careful of the wasps when you’re shaking trees, they’ll sting you and your face will be covered with stings (although you do get Nook Miles if this happens twice).

Once you have the 5 unique creatures, head back to Tom Nook and tell him you’ve found a creature. He’ll give you a few rewards including an Axe recipe, flower seeds, a watering can and he’ll call his friend Blathers who runs a museum. Head outside onto the island and find a good spot for the museum.

Once you pick a place for the museum then construction will begin, you’ll have to wait a little while before that’s complete – but getting Blathers to come to the island is a big objective and will help open up other features to you.

Get resources

Now you have an axe recipe, collect some sticks and stones to help you craft the axe. Once you have crafted the axe you can use it to generate more resources on the island. There’s some bigger rocks on the island, hit these and Stone, Clay and Iron Nuggets will pop out – pick these up and keep them for later.

Also, if you hit trees with your axe then Softwood, Hardwood and Wood will pop out. Again, pick these resources up and collect as many as you can. If you’re Axe breaks you can always go and make another one from by crafting it at the tent where Tom Nook is.

That’s it for day one. Once you’ve done these things it’s time to go back to your tent and settle in for the night.

Let me know down in the comments how you’re getting on with your first day. Did you find anything interesting while fishing and which bugs did you catch? Let me know which type of fruit you have on your island too.

That’s it for this guide on what to do on day 1 in Animal Crossing: New Horizons. Check out more guides on This Week In Video Games or subscribe to YouTube.