What mistakes did you make when you first started your island?

[S.J.]

I broke all my rocks and wasted all the iron/stone/clay. When the time came to build 3 houses for Nook, I had to get help from a friend.

I definitely feel this one! I remember the first week or so of ACNH being so slow, but I realise now it's because I just didn't understand how mining iron nuggets worked!

Some people also mentioned the placement of buildings. I definitely feel that too. Even as I start my second island, I wasn't able to place the buildings where I was hoping (because I had no pole vault yet), so they will still have to be moved at some point!

 

[Dim]

Right when I started, there was a spot by my river I could hop over to get to the other side. I accidentally hopped over without paying attention at all. So I spent a good 20 minutes wonder how on earth I got stuck on the other side of the river until I found the spot I could hop over XD.

 

[Moritz]

I didnt chose an island with the airport and fruit I liked which eventually caused me to reset.
But I don't count it as a mistake as I loved the island and it gave me over 1000 hours of play time.
I loved it so much, my current island is identical apart from it has the airport and fruit I like.

The only other early mistake I made was on day 1 I didn't know you could use the axe to hit to rocks. So I wasn't able to get more materials until I got the shovel.

But that didn't cause any issues as I still got everything built on the day I was given the task.
Just had to grind a nook miles ticket to do so.

 

[S.J.]

I made a mistake on my new island yesterday!

On day 3, I invited Stu from a mystery island. On day 4, I put down the three new houses plots, then made and submitted all of the furniture for them, then went mystery island-hopping only to find no-one there. I checked the plots and they'd been sold to Audie and Jambette! I didn't realise I should island-hop first, and thought the other two plots would have been assigned overnight.

 

[snailay]

I remember when I started on my island I didn't really understand villager hunting, so all of my first villagers were just random ones. I'm not sure if that would be counted as a mistake or not, but it took so long to get each one to leave so I could get villagers I wanted. Or another one is on my first sunday, I blew all my bells on turnips, and then I just sold them the first chance I got, but I didnt actually make any profit, because the turnip prices were low.

 

[kayleee]

I didn’t really make any mistakes other than choosing an island layout that has the resident services building way too close to the airport. I’ve come to terms with it now but that aspect of my island really annoyed me for a long time!

 

[definitelymaybe]

I dug up those 1000 bells every day... and then covered the hole.

 

[snailay]

I dug up those 1000 bells every day... and then covered the hole.

This hurt my soul- because I did that same thing

 

[Croconaw]

I also didn’t know you had to build plots 7-10 so I time traveled a year pissed off that nobody wanted to move to my island. I thought my island was so bad nobody wanted to live there.

 

[Moonlight.]

• a lot of my mistakes had to do with things you can't change tbh (airport color, resident services location, river exits, etc.)
• not realizing you have to move in the first campsite villager, was so disappointed when it was the next day and hans was still there lmao
• time traveling can mean turnips expire, i had bought an absurd amount too
• placing villager houses / the shops in poor locations when the relocation fee was 50k bells, sooo glad they changed that because wow that's awful

 

[S.J.]

I also didn’t know you had to build plots 7-10 so I time traveled a year pissed off that nobody wanted to move to my island. I thought my island was so bad nobody wanted to live there.

Aaaaa, that's precious! Hahaha. I can't believe you time-travelled a year.

I dug up those 1000 bells every day... and then covered the hole.

I just remembered this, and was coming to post this one! I have so much more money now (in my second play through) than I had during my first!

 

[Croconaw]

Aaaaa, that's precious! Hahaha. I can't believe you time-travelled a year.

At first it was a few days at a time, and I kept getting frustrated so I eventually fast forwarded a whole year. I don’t know if I overlooked instructions from Nook or what. I’m pretty sure he says something, but I was too eager to get started playing. I had to wait for my copy to arrive in the mail because the stores were sold out, and I purchased online.

 

[Zisym]

Just got a brand new Switch alongside ACNH as being my first AC game.

I sure did make some mistakes
- Just found out a couple of days ago that you can plant the Bells back into the hole that is glowing to grow bell trees
- Took me so long to realize I can use the vaulting pole to cross the other side of the island. Thought I have to wait until I build a bridge
- I've been eating fruit each day and thought it was needed to do tasks easier. A couple of days ago I found out how to get iron nuggets using the two holes technique. I kept destroying the boulders before I realize eating the fruits gave you superhuman strength or something
- I faint a couple of times by the wasps, don't know if I lose anything though

I think that is all I've made mistakes on at this point and probably not going to be the last lol.

 

[S.J.]

Just got a brand new Switch alongside ACNH as being my first AC game.

I sure did make some mistakes
- Just found out a couple of days ago that you can plant the Bells back into the hole that is glowing to grow bell trees
- Took me so long to realize I can use the vaulting pole to cross the other side of the island. Thought I have to wait until I build a bridge
- I've been eating fruit each day and thought it was needed to do tasks easier. A couple of days ago I found out how to get iron nuggets using the two holes technique. I kept destroying the boulders before I realize eating the fruits gave you superhuman strength or something
- I faint a couple of times by the wasps, don't know if I lose anything though

I think that is all I've made mistakes on at this point and probably not going to be the last lol.

Did you figure out the wasps?

Maybe you have, but if you haven't, you can make medicine from the wasp nest that gets dropped. If you don't have the recipe, talk to a villager after being stung and they will give it to you! You can then use the medicine to treat your sting. The shop also sells medicine!

You won't lose anything by fainting though!

If you are shaking trees (rather than chopping), you can also hold your net when shaking, and when the wasps come, you can catch one.

Glad to see you got ACNH! Hope you are enjoying it!

 

[Bilaz]

Tbh the funniest thing I did was bury a shovel in the golden spot, hoping for a golden tree and golden shovel like in the gamecube game. xD

I also didn’t know that you could get all branches from one tree, so I went around shaking every tree once and then thought when I had shaken them all that I had to wait until tomorrow to get a new fishing rod. xD

I didn’t know anything about peninsulas, beach rocks, secret beach locations, airport colours, etc. either. But I got insanely lucky and got exactly the things I wanted:
- large round peninsula
- rocks with tidepools
- centered secret beach
- blue airport
idk how lucky you can get but I am NEVER restarting this island

I also didn’t know about villager hunting, but I had a dreamie move in anyway! Erik was my lazy move in I still have him in his lazy personality house because it’s a cosy cabin and I think it suits him.

 

[Imara]

Okay, I made a really mouse-brained mistake. When a villager asked to move, I didn't realize my sisters loved her. I said yes, and she moved. Later, my sisters were sad.

 

[allainah]

I didn't know you had to place plots down for villagers to move into at first, I thought it would be like previous games where they just appear and I went to adopt cutie Hornsby and sadly couldn't get him :C
I would also say not terraforming my whole island before decorating, It made a lot of weird/awkward spaces on my island

 

[Xara]

i don’t think i made many mistakes in terms of gameplay tbh. i played wild world and new leaf religiously enough to pretty much know animal crossing’s mechanics and how things generally worked by heart, plus i had seen a few videos of new horizons’ tutorial period and knew what the first couple of days would look like at least, so i was saved from making any mistakes that would slow down or affect my gameplay too much.

i definitely made a few ‘personal’ mistakes that i’m still lowkey kicking myself over, though.

• because i collected every villager and npc photo in new leaf and knew how much space they took up, i decided i didn’t really want to do that again in new horizons and would only try to earn the photos of villagers i actually liked. i let 6+ villagers move out before i wound up changing my mind, and i had to buy the pics of those villagers as a result. not the worst mistake, but i definitely wish i had earned those photos myself haha.

• i thought that scanning a villager’s amiibo card on harv’s island was the only way to unlock their poster. i didn’t realize that you could also unlock it by having the villager on your island and then inviting them to harv’s island that way. i now have to re-invite midge, octavian and colton to my island one day just to unlock their posters. though, nintendo could’ve saved me the trouble of this if they had just... not changed their minds about letting people catalog posters from others. :/

• i wasn’t too picky when i chose my island. all i wanted was for it to be in the northern hemisphere, for my native fruit to be peaches, and for rs to not be too close to the airport. checked #1 and #2 off no problem, but i underestimated just how close my rs and airport really are to each other, and now i’m struggling to design an island entrance that i actually like lmao. it’s definitely not impossible and i’m sure i’ll think of something eventually, but it’ll likely never be anything super extravagant with like... multiple mini waterfalls, inclines, etc, because i just don’t have the room lol.

 

[Snowesque]

I had put resident services too close to the entrance, making it difficult to decorate. I figured it was be nice at the star for having the ABD close, but it was way too close.

 

[Millysaurusrexjr]

I think I broke all the rocks instead of farming them for stone and ore!