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Animal crossing

Remember that progress is gated by real-life days
If you're new to Animal Crossing, or it's been a spell since you last hung out with Tom Nook and co, it's easy to forget that this is not a game that you can rush. Progress, especially at first, is doled out slowly, restricting access to certain activities/items/buildings according to how many real-world days you've spent in the game. Take it, easy folks, there's no rushing island life.

You have to learn a game before you can craft it
If you're given, or otherwise find a game card, you'll have to learn it before it appears in your crafting options. Just head to the item in your inventory by pressing X, and then hit learn. Then it's yours to craft forever!

Pay off your moving costs to unlock new options
On your first full day on your new island, Tom Nook gives you a rather large bill to cover all of your moving costs. Thankfully, you can pay it in Nook Miles - and a fairly reasonable 5,000 Nook Miles at that - and we'd advise making it the first thing you do on the island. Once you've paid off Mr. Nook, you'll unlock a whole load of new options. Firstly, you'll be able to take out a new loan, which will automatically let you upgrade from a tent to a house. It's a loan of 98,000 bells, but your new home will be built by the next morning, and then you can start repayment. This unlocks the ability to hoard items in your home's in-built storage, which is very handy indeed. But, that's not all. You'll also unlock the Nook Miles Rewards at the Nook Stop terminal in Residents' Services, which opens up a whole load of items, games, and more. Plus, once you've taken out your new home loan, you'll unlock Nook Miles+, which is a selection of five straightforward tasks that constantly replenish as a way of earning Nook Miles more quickly and easily. For example, these range from catching five fish or selling 10 shells, to chatting to three neighbors or planting one tree. So many perks, so little time!

You won't get all the tools you'll need straight away
You won't be able to get access to all the usual tools straight away in Animal Crossing: New Horizons. On your first full morning, Tom Nook will give you games for the flimsy fishing rod and flimsy net, but it's not until you meet Blathers at his little pop-up museum tent that he'll give you games for the shovel and vault pole. You can buy a watering can game and the slingshot from the Nook nephews though, but you might have to wait a day or two for them to appear in rotation.

Flimsy tools are your friends in the early days
Because iron nuggets are a bit of a rarity at first, try and use the flimsy tools as much as you can initially. They are all made from materials that are easily found on your own island. Tree branches can be shaken free from trees all day, repeatedly. Stone can be found by hitting rocks. Softwood, hardwood, and wood can be found by hitting trees with a flimsy ax or stone ax. It's a lot easier to replenish your stock of these items than iron nuggets at first, so stick to the flimsy tools at first. Then, when you're ready, you can buy yourself the Pretty Good Tools games from the Nook Miles section of the Nook Stop, which are mostly powered by iron nuggets.