How to earn Bells and Nook Miles in Animal Crossing: New Horizons

Wealth sits at the centre of Animal Crossing: New Horizons. While it’s charming, relaxing and adorable, you’ll still need to earn a bunch of precious Bells and Nook Miles to craft a life worth living.

Luckily, they’re quite easy to come by, and Trusted Reviews has compiled a bunch of handy tips and tricks to make hoarding them much, much easier. 

1. Sell bugs, fish and shells

One of the things you’ll be doing every day in Animal Crossing: New Horizons is scanning the island for bugs, fish and shells. All of these can be scooped up into your inventory with the touch of a button, and are a relatively stable source of regular income. 

They hardly break the bank – except for rare species such as Tarantulas and Monarch Butterflies which require a bit of extra effort to catch – but it’s easy to lap around the island a few times and earn several thousand bells for your troubles. 

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2. Visit Nook’s Cranny

While it won’t surface until a week or so has passed, Nook’s Cranny is your island’s primary storefront. It features a variety of items which change at random each time, providing players with ample incentive to keep an eye on things. You can also sell all manner of items to Timmy and Tommy. 

They’ll buy pretty much anything with only a few exceptions, so, if you don’t need it, throw it their way for a healthy dose of bells. There’s also Hot Items, unique objects for which the shopkeepers will pay double the price. Sometimes you’ll get lucky, and it’ll be something that’s easily found, earning you so many Bells it’s almost ridiculous. 

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3. Complete quests on your Nook Phone

The Nook Phone houses a fully-fledged quest system consisting of long-term goals you’ll complete over a series of months and quickfire tasks which reward you for completing random objectives daily. These are infinite, so if you’re down for a grind, thousands of Nook Miles can be amassed over a few short hours. 

Keep a concentrated eye on these, and try to complete as many as you can if you’re after Nook Miles to redeem at Residential Services. Redeeming them can reward you with all sorts of furniture, DIY recipes, clothes and countless other things. We’d lose the day listing them all here. 

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4. Visit islands through the airport

The vacation island in New Leaf grew repetitive very quickly. It became a necessity more than something you really enjoyed. You’d go there, catch bugs and return home for excessive profit. It served ample rewards but wasn’t exactly that fun after a handful of hours. That all changes in New Horizons. 

By visiting your island’s airport and cashing in a Nook Miles Ticket, you can travel to a randomly generated island filled with trees, fossils and other treasures just begging to be uncovered. After 20 minutes of scouring the landscape, you’ll have thousands of bells ready to turn it. These islands are also a consequence-free way of completing challenges. 

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5. Upgrade your island

While this won’t lead to the direct gain of bells, upgrading your island and all its amenities will net you more wealth in the long run. Ensuring that shops, residential services and your own house are the best they can be guarantees you’ll have plenty more options when it comes to storing, selling and buying different items. Sometimes you can craft a bunch of something and hope it becomes a hot item in the weeks to come, earning you heaps of savings for a rainy day.

Plus, upgrading everything is incredibly satisfying and fun in its own right. Later repayment loans for your house can be excessive though, so take all of our Bell-making strategies into account if you’re hoping to stay afloat. If you’ve got any Animal Crossing tips, be sure to let us know on Facebook and Twitter @TrustedReviews.