The Top 10 Best Ways to Make Bells on Animal Crossing New Horizons

Just over four years after the release of Animal Crossing's latest game, the hype may have soothed itself, but the iconic Nintendo Switch game is still well-loved by the community. If you've been playing the game since its release, you may know a few hefty tips and tricks to get your loan paid off, or to buy some of the surprisingly pricey products that can appear in Nook's Cranny. No matter how long you've been playing the game, you can only make so much money by doing the typical in-game tasks you'll certainly be familiar with: selling fossils, fruit or shells you find on your island. You may even have a few tricks up your sleeve, such as catching rare bugs and fish during the summer season (or winter, if you live in the Southern hemisphere), or crafting the materials you get to earn a little extra. Is there something, though, you could be missing? Is there a secret way to make a hundred thousand bells in no time at all? Could you have paid off your loan in a third of the time? Keep reading to find out!

1) Selling shells, twigs, and other island materials by crafting

Lets start with the most basic resources our islands offer. When you first start on your island, you're expected to make a small amount of bells to get started, and all the resources you have will be the shells, twigs and fruit you can find. On their own these resources don't amount to much, however if you can gather a few recipes for crafting, you can already make quick and easy profits. For example, selling 5 twigs will only make you 25 bells, however crafting those 5 twigs into a flimsy fishing rod will make you 100 bells per rod. Not only this, but twigs are actually an infinite resource, so even if a tree has produced twigs already that day, if you keep shaking it, the twigs will keep appearing. It is always true that crafting will increase the value of your raw resources. If you can manage to craft some hot items to sell at Nook's Cranny, you'll make even more bells from crafting, so be sure to check the sign outside every day. If you can get a hold of a stove, which you should have access to from your first day on your island, you can also cook some recipes from fish, fruit or veg you find, and go on to sell these items for more than the individual ingredients are worth.

2) Grow a money tree

A particularly interesting financial hack on Animal Crossing: New Horizons is to grow your own money tree that will produce 3x the amount of bells you plant in just a few days. How do you go about doing this? Every day, when you dig up your money bag on your island, you'll be left with a glowing hole in the dirt. Rather than filling it in, head into your pockets and pull 10,000 bells from your inventory (having 10k bells in there in the first place would be necessary, of course). You can do this by selecting your money using the left-hand joystick, then clicking the '10,000 bells' option. This will place 10k bells into your inventory in a single bag, which you can then bury into the hole. A few days later, your money tree will be fully grown, sprouting three 10,000 bell bags. Be careful, though, if you plant more than 10k bells, the tree may not grow the bags, and you may lose the money.

3) Convert your Nookphone miles into bells and ATM interest

If you're really wanting to make some extra money, you can make a little bit on the side from earning miles and making bank interest. This method may not make much, but it can earn you a little extra without trying very hard. Once you've accrued some miles using the Nook miles function on your Nookphone, you'll notice that you have the option to convert miles into bells via the ATM machine in the town hall. I wouldn't advise doing this, though, as you can likely make more money by spending the miles on tickets to take flights with Dodo Airlines, and therefore catch bugs and fish to sell for thousands, or to take boat trips with Kapp'n after your island reaches 3 stars. Alternatively, you can make a few extra bells when you fill your savings account on the ATM (click the ATM menu and deposit bells into the account). The more bells you have, the more interest you'll make, and at the end of each month, the interest will be added to your account automatically. The rate is only 0.5% of anthing up to 999,999 bells, so if you have 1 million bells in your account, you'll earn an extra 5000 bells per month. It isn't much, but you don't actually have to do anything to get it, so if you like saving your bells, make sure you're doing it in your bank account.

4) Catching rare bugs and fish

Every season on animal crossing, depending on the hemisphere you live in, the available bugs and fish will change. In my hemisphere, which is the Northern one, summer bugs and fish from June, such as sharks, beetles and butterflies, are not only great to fill your island's museum and your Nookipedia on you Nook phone, but can also make lots and lots of money. Sharks particularly will earn you the most, so make sure to look for any fish in the sea with fins that emerge from the water. These are likely to be sharks (unless it's a sucker fish, which, well, it's in the name). Even if you've been playing the game for a while, it might be a good idea for me to mention that catching fish is much easier when you've heard the fish bite a few times and you hear a 'plop' sound-this is when your fish has taken your bait, and it's time to raise your rod. This gives you the best chances at catching the fish. Too early or too late means you risk losing the fish. The best idea is to turn your volume all the way up as you begin fishing, and once the fish begins to nibble, listen very closely instead of watching until the hook goes beneath the surface. Once you hear the 'plop' sound, then press the A button as quickly as you can. It's a fool-proof way of stopping yourself from pulling you fishing rod prematurely. You can also get some amazing river fish in the summer, so look for bigger fish shapes in the water to have a chance to catch Arapaima, Dorado or an Arowana. This becomes even easier when you take flights with Dodo Airlines, which quite often will take you to islands with lots of rivers. If you want a higher chance of catching bugs, make sure to chop down a few trees and leave stumps around. Make sure you have plenty of trees around during summer too, as it's a great time to catch beetles, especially beginning from July, when you'll find them stuck to trees, particularly coconut trees. Just be careful when you try to catch them and try not to get too close, or else they'll fly away. No matter what rare bugs or fish you manage to catch during the summer months, or all year-round in fact, make sure you're saving the best ones for C.J. and Flick.

5) Tarantula or scorpion 'islands'

When it comes to catching rare bugs all-year-round, one of your best but most challenging options is to catch either tarantulas or scorpions. The reason these bugs are tricky is because not only are they very very rare, but they can also be quite hard to catch, as making one wrong move could mean either insect will attack you, and you will immediately pass out, reawakening at either your front door or in front of Wilbur, if you've taken a flight via Dodo Airlines. This doesn't really have too many repercussions, but can be annoying when you've lost a potential 8,000 bells (or a whopping 12,000 when sold to Flick). So, how do you successfully catch one? The key is to hold your net up by pressing A whilst holding it, like you would with any bug, and slowly creep towards it. If the scorpion or tarantula rears its front legs, stop moving forward. Hold steady until the bug relaxes again. Once you're close enough, drop the net, and you should be able to catch the nasty little things. Which one you find will depend on the season, as in the Nothern Hemisphere, scorpions are found in the summer, and tarantulas in the winter, but once you've caught one, the details of when you'll find one or the other can be found in your Nookipedia on the Nookphone. The bugs can only be caught after 7pm and until 4am, so make sure you aren't hunting at a time when they can't appear. If you want to make lots of money from tarantulas or scorpions in no time at all, creating your own tarantula farm could be the ticket. Their are guides that detail how to do this online, but the basis of it is to take a trip to bamboo island via Dodo (which can take a few tries), completely remove all plants and rocks, and catch all bugs, until the tarantulas and scorpions come out. Just make sure your pockets have plenty of space, and save a few of them (or all of them) to sell to Flick.

6) Wait for C.J. or Flick to visit

As mentioned previously, any rare bugs and fish you catch are best saved for C.J. and Flick. If you've never met these characters, you'll want to take note. C.J. is a social media influencer that happens to be a beaver, and he will visit your island every few weeks and assign you a 'seasports challenge', which will be to catch three fish of equal size (large fish, for example). He will tell you the minimum size of the fish you're expected to catch, but if you think a fish you're catching looks big, you're probably right. Make sure you ONLY catch three big fish in a row, as if you break the streak and catch a fish of the wrong size, or if your fish gets away before you manage to finish the challenge, you'll have to start from scratch. Once you've successfully completed the challenge and told C.J., he will buy any and all fish from you for a much increased price (150% more, in fact). This means that any fish you've saved up from the weeks he was away can be sold for much more than in Nooks Cranny. The same can be said about Flick, a chameleon that will also visit your island every few weeks. Flick loves bugs, and so will buy all the bugs from you that you may have saved up at an amazing rate. If space is your concern, you can leave the bugs and fish in your house, your inventory, or even just on your island until they can be sold. I find what works best for me is to save the rarest creatures that I know sell well already, so that when either character arrives, I don't have hundreds of critters to sell, and I end up making a small fortune on every single sale.

7) Present balloons and your slingshot

Do you sometimes pop present balloons and feel like the 5 clay you earned was a waste of time? Are you about to catch a butterfly when you spot a balloon and think you may just let it pass? On the contrary, your present balloon may actually be holding a better prize than you thought. Not only do the floating gifts occassionally hold furniture and other items, but they also can hold lots of cash. The most I've ever earned from shooting down a balloon was 10k bells!

8) Fossils, buried treasure, the money rock and shaking trees

Every single day, without fail, your island will automatically generate a new location for you to use your spade to dig up fossils and money bags, or to bash rocks. Make sure you thoroughly search your island for cross-shaped marks on the ground to dig for the fossils, as you will always find 4-6 fossils per day, and they sell for a few thousand bells a pop. Once you've filled your museum with fossils, everything you dig up will belong to you, and so it can be a nice way of making at least 10k bells per day. When you also factor in the buried money bag (which you can find when you dig a golden, shining spot on the ground each day, hidden somewhere on your island) which will grant you 1000 bells, and the money rock (which will be a different rock each day), that grants you thousands of bells at a time, you could be making an extra 20,000 bells per day. Make sure, however, that you're careful when hitting the rock with your shovel; if you slip and accidentally dig a hole next to the rock whilst you're hitting it, or if you hit the rock too slowly, you will find that the rock no longer produces money, and you may be sold a little short. Additionally, many trees on your island will produce a 100-bell coin when shaken, so it can be worthwhile to check each tree every day. Just make sure you're holding a net, as sometimes a wasp nest will drop down, and you'll only have one chance to catch the wasp inside before it stings you (unless you have time to run into a building and escape, that is). Two stings and you'll pass out, so make sure you always have some medicine handy, which you can either craft using weeds or find in Nook's Cranny.

9) Foreign produce and Turnip sales

We all have our own islands' fruit on Animal Crossing that sells for a disappointing amount of bells (only 100 each). You may know that selling foreign fruit on your own island is a sure way to make some extra bells, since one foreign fruit will amass a generous 500 bells per fruit. Coconuts are less profitable but very accessible via Dodo Airlines flights as they will be at every and any island you visit, but only make 250 bells per item. You can occasionally take flights or travel on a sea journey with Kapp'n (if you have a 3 star island) and end up finding some foreign fruits or veggies on your trip. The best idea is to plant the fruits or veggies on your own island, so that you have a sustainable source of foreign produce that can make you money every few days when everything grows back. Alternatively, you can buy a veggie 'start' kit from Leif, who will occasionally visit your island to sell you plants. You can even eat some fruit and dig up some foreign fruit trees to plant on your island, rather than waiting for the trees to grow! Even better, if you happen to have some friends that play Animal Crossing and have different domestic fruit on their island than you do, you can take a trip to their island and sell your fruit for a premium price! Another way of profiting from produce, however, is through the turnip trade (or Stalk Market). Every Sunday morning Daisy Mae will appear selling her turnips for a set price. It's your job to buy as many turnips as possible for as low a price as possible, and to attempt to make the most profit when selling them to Timmy and Tommy in Nook's Cranny. Be sure to check the turnip prices twice per day, in the AM and the PM, to see how the prices fluctuate. You can find online calculators where you can input the price mid-way through the week that can predict the likely trend of your particular pricing pattern, allowing you to sell when profits are highest. It can be a gamble, but this is a way to make lots of money if you can buy the turnips cheap enough.

10) Hot items: donation box

You've probably used the 'hot items' feature at Nook's Cranny a fair few times. For anyone not aware, every day you can find two 'hot items' listed on the sign outside the strore that are sold for more bells than usual. These items are things you can craft, and will go for twice the usual asking price. More often than not, it may seem unnecessary to engage in this kind of selling, since you can't earn much selling wreaths, for example, or other smaller craftable items. Every once in a while, however, you'll notice that the 'donation box' will be a 'hot item' you can sell, and this is the way to make the biggest profit: fill the donation box with the max amount of bells (99,000), and when you sell the box, the bells inside will double too. That means selling one full box will earn you 99,000 bells, and thus is by far the most profitable way of earning with this feature. Be warned, though, filling the box can only be done 1000 bells at a time, so even just filling one box can be a bit of a task in itself. To avoid donation box fatigue, I would recommend setting up a box or two in your town and filling it with around 10k bells every day, so that you have at least some bells in the box by the time it circles back to being a hot item again. Using this method, I tend to sell around 3 boxes during the span of the day that they're a hot item.

So, hopefully, by following these steps, you'll make your first million on Animal Crossing: New Horizons, and win your soul back from Tom Nook. If there are any money making techniques I've missed, put them in the comments below!