Animal Crossing: New Horizons - Building Guide

One of the main differences in Animal Crossing: New Horizons compared to the previous one is the island is empty. You will have to place each building independently, including the shops and museum. When you first arrive on the deserted Animal Crossing island, you will have nothing but your name, a tent and the location of the city, which varies depending on your initial choice. Gradually the tent will become a building and so will the entire town slowly progress.

How to move buildings

Before talking about the buildings, it is right to make a small introduction, and we will quickly tell you how to move a structure. Keep in mind that each placement is relatively final, as you won't be able to move them up to a certain point in the game, and even once you get that chance it will cost you a bell. So to make things easier for you it is better to position the buildings correctly from the first moment.

Having said that, however, a step back is more than legitimate after spending a few weeks on the island. Tom Nook can help you with this: the criteria for unlocking the ability to move buildings are actually very similar to those for unlocking the ladder that allows you to climb to the upper levels of the island. You will simply have to advance your island by following Tom Nook's instructions, increasing the buildings and attracting as many inhabitants as possible to the village.

Eventually the residential service tent will become a real building, at which point Isabelle will arrive on your island and a lot of new features will be unlocked. This includes the ability to properly control the island infrastructure (i.e. bridges and stairs), as well as the ability to move buildings. you can move any of the buildings, even the key ones.

Moving buildings costs 50.000 bells, with one exception: your home. On it you will get a slight discount or 30.000 bells.

How to unlock the Blathers Museum

Blathers is a historian and owl expert who runs the museum. Once your island is launched, Tom Nook will ask you to collect some objects or creatures to send to a friend of his. You will need to give Tom Nook five fish or insects, which are easily found. They must all be different species, but you can easily collect five of them in minutes. Nook will send them to his friend Blathers and then in turn will invite Blathers to come to the island.

You will then need to create a space for the Blathers tent - make sure you choose a good spot, as this will be where the museum building will be built. You can move it, but as we say above, moving buildings is expensive. After choosing a spot for his tent, Blathers will arrive the next day with a tent of his own. In a short time Blathers will feel at ease on the island, for this you will have to give him fifteen things that can be, fish, insects or fossils, so as to convince him to stay even longer.

After doing that, wait two days in the real world. Subsequently, the museum will then be built.

How to unlock and build Nook's Cranny Shop

Timmy and Tommy have been on the island since the beginning, but they won't have a proper shop right away. Nook's Cranny is obviously a base for Animal Crossing, and while it's not available 24 hours a day, it has several advantages. Opening Nook's Cranny unlocks key methods for earning lots of bells such as the turnip stalk market and item sales, as well as a whole new range of things you can purchase. Nook's Cranny is open for limited hours, but has a delivery box where you can sell items for a slight off-hours discount.

To unlock Nook's Cranny you first need to build the museum, a bridge and help Tom Nook build three new houses to attract three new residents to the island. Nook will direct you to all these tasks and if you feel lost, he will direct you. With that done, it's time to build a shop.

You will need to collect some resources for the shop: 30 wood, 30 soft wood and 30 iron nuggets. All of these are fairly easy resources to find, so don't worry. Complete these steps and choose a place for the shop, Nook's Cranny will open the next day.

How to unlock the tailor's shop

The other Animal Crossing shop returning to New Horizons is the Able Sisters tailor shop, which will arrive on the island as the last of the main buildings.

To be eligible for this property, you must have completed the Museum, Nook's Cranny, and upgraded the Resident Services from a tent to a suitable building. It also appears that having the Campsite can help, as does having more residents on the island.

After a while, Mabel, the second most famous blue hedgehog in the game, will appear in the square outside the residents' services. He will have a small stall and sell clothes as an experiment to see if the island is to their liking. Keep visiting Mabel, keep buying clothes every day. Eventually the duo will make enough sales to decide to open a shop. Unlike the other buildings it is not necessary to contribute to its construction, except to find a place to put the shop.