Animal Crossing: New Horizons - Island Rescue Day 1

Animal Crossing New Horizons is a game that I haven’t played that much of. I played a ton of the Animal Crossing titles on the Nintendo Wii and DS, but I didn’t feel like getting into a new title since I knew what a time sink it could be and, I already have a ton of other games to play that are taking up my time. My sons aged eight and 10 have been working on their island named kitty2021 since April of 2021. They still haven’t reached an island ranking of three stars, which is the minimum you need to unlock cool stuff like; having K.K. Slider visit your island, the ability to terraform the island—and with the new update—being able to get Brewster’s cafe or go on boat rides with Kapp’n. My husband and I were thinking about getting them the new DLC for Christmas, but since they haven’t been able to see the new free stuff, there’s no rush. I wanted to see why they haven’t been able to get their island up to those three stars.

Signing on to my account on the island, it was very apparent why they were stuck at two stars. The island was completely deforested, it was a graveyard of tree stumps. There was no fruit in sight, and minimal flowers. I’m assuming that in order to make some quick money they just cut the trees down and sold the wood. That is definitely not good resource management… So I have now decided to step in and try to help out the island of kitty2021 and keep a journal of my progress because at this rate it will be stuck at the two-star rating forever.

First things first, I ran to talk to Isabelle and see what she recommends to make the island better to get to that three-star goal. She suggested improving the wilderness and planting more trees, which makes a lot of sense, tree stumps everywhere isn’t an appealing look. So I needed bells to buy saplings, and I couldn’t rely on picking and selling fruit to make money. I ran to town hall and checked out the recycling bin for stuff I could take and sell to Timmy and Tommy. Next on the list was bug hunting and fishing, since I actually had a net and rod. Of course, these tools break and don’t last very long. So I thought I would be smart to buy the DIY recipes to make my own tools. This is great when you have resources like wood, but when there are no trees on the island you can’t make anything.  

With broken tools, I couldn’t rely on hunting and fishing alone, so I had to find another source of income. Shell collecting and mushroom picking helped me make a bit of money to at least replace my tools. After some grinding I could get my shovel to dig up fossils to donate to the museum, and sell the duplicates that I found. This is going to take a long time to get all the bells I need to buy saplings to plant around the island!

After a couple of hours of playing, I have planted 17 saplings on the island. So it’s a start, but clearly, this is going to take a lot of work! Tomorrow is Sunday, so maybe I’ll have to get some turnips and try my luck with the turnip market. I found out that the boys used my bells to buy plots of land for new residents and to donate to Lloid the gyroid, who is building a fancy bridge. 

How many days will it take me to turn this island around? Guess we will see!