Tom Nook: The true Uncle Sam of Animal Crossing. Friendly? Yes. High prices? Absolutely. Transforming your island is a great experience, but it does come with a high price tag. Building bridges, inclines, planting flowers and buying things for your home adds up. So how do you make that money back? Or even better: how do you get a seven-figure bank account?
Today we’re going to look at How To become a Millionaire in Animal Crossing (or somewhat close to it) and go over the best ways to earn some Bells. Let’s get to it!
Plant Money Trees
Image Credit: IGN
Money Trees are a great asset! If you take a stroll around your island each day, you’ll find a glowing, circular spot in the grass. Dig it up (without filling the hole back in) and you’ll receive 1,000 Bells. That’s not what is gonna make us money, though.
With the hole still glowing, toss a bag of money in there and cover it up. Within 5 days, a tree will sprout with Bell bags on it. If you toss in the initial 1,000 Bells, you’ll get 3,000 Bells off the tree. Toss in 10,000 Bells and you’ll get 30,000 Bells from the tree. If you planted one every 5 days, this would bring us a cool 180,000 Bells in a month for practically nothing. Not bad, right?
Keep in mind that Money Trees are not 100% guaranteed.
Buy & Sell Turnips
Image Credit: TheSixthAxis
The Stalk Market! Yes, good ole’ Daisy Mae’s adorable self has taken up the family business of selling Turnips and you should take full advantage of it.
How The Stalk Market Works
The entire idea behind Turnips is to purchase them from Daisy Mae and resell them for a profit. Think of it as child-friendly gambling, if you will. Turnips can only be purchased from Daisy Mae, who will be wandering around your island. You can find her there on Sunday mornings before 12 PM. Purchase as many as you want, she has no limit on how many you can buy.
When buying Turnips from her, they can be purchased for 90-110 Bells a piece, depending on what her price is that day. If she’s selling them for 90 Bells, jump on it!
Reselling Turnips
Turnips can be re-sold to Timmy or Tommy at the Nook’s Cranny store. Turnips rot after one week, so be sure to sell them before 10 PM on Saturday, since that’s when Nook’s Cranny closes. Their Turnip prices change twice daily. They’ll be one price before 12 PM and another price after 12 PM. Keep in mind Turnips cannot be sold on Sundays. It is said that Turnip prices are particularly higher on Tuesdays and shoot down on Saturdays, but that may not be true in your case. Just be sure to check both times each day to get the highest price on your Turnips.
If you have friends in New Horizons, you can also resell Turnips on their island.
Okay, But How Will This Make Me Rich?
Let’s do some quick math to demonstrate that! Let’s say you pay 95 Bells per Turnip and you purchase 2,000 Turnips, totaling 190,000 spent. Two days later, one of the Nook brothers offers you 124 Bells per Turnip. That’s 248,000 Bells in total, or a profit of 58,000 Bells! Yes, 58,000 isn’t a Bell-ionaire. But, let’s change the situation.
Sometimes Turnip prices skyrocket, even up to 4X what you paid for them. Again, let’s say you paid 95 Bells for each Turnip, but you purchased 4,000 Turnips instead, totaling 380,000 Bells spent. Then, two days later, one of the raccoon brothers offer you 285 Bells per Turnip. That’s a total of 1,140,000 Bells or 760,000 Bells of sheer profit! Playing the Stalk Market can be very lucrative.
Bell Rocks
Image Credit: u/Scirax
2-Hole Digging Method
There’s two instances of Bell Rocks: The Mystery Island loaded with Bell rocks and the Bell rock that exists on your island. For both, you’ll want to dig 2 holes directly behind you before hitting the rock with your Flimsy Axe (the regular Axe will destroy the rock) or Shovel. This will keep you from being pushed back and missing potential Bells. There’s a timer on every rock and you want to get your maximum payout before it expires.
Mystery Island Bell Rocks
The Mystery Island with Bell rocks will have a distinct feature: a mini island (pictured above) in the middle of the water with 5 rocks on it. To get to it, there will be one piece of land that sits closer to the mini island with a rock in the way. You’ll have to destroy the rock and then use your vaulting pole to get to it.
Use the 2-hole digging method and hit 2 or 3 rocks. Stop and pick up all the Bells before hitting the other two or three. The existing Bells take up space and will keep a maximum payout from occurring if the ground is filled with Bells. The Mystery Island has a maximum payout of 90,000 Bells (including the smashed rock to get to the mini island). Not bad!
Your Island Bell Rock
This rock exists on everyone’s island, unless you accidentally smashed it and have to wait for it to re-spawn. It’s hard to tell which rock is the Bell rock, so dig 2 holes behind you every time you hit a rock on your island. This is tedious, but you’ll get more resources from the non Bell rocks and it’ll give you your maximum payout of 16,000 Bells per day. This is a solid 112,000 a week!
Shake Your Trees
No, really. Shake every one of those suckers every day. Yes, you will usually have some furniture or Bells fall out, but that’s not what we’re hunting here. Wasps! Typically, when I shake my trees on my island, I find about 4-5 Wasp nests a day. They will sting you, but you have to catch them before they do!
Have your net in your hand before shaking the trees. Once a nest falls out and they start swarming, swing at them with your net. At a selling price of 8,000 Bells, catching 4 a day will bring you a nice lump sum of 32,000 Bells a day, or 224,000 Bells a week! Luckily for us, Wasps are found year round. You can also pick up the nests and sell them. They don’t go for much, but every Bell counts when you’re trying to become a Bell-ionaire!
Catching Tarantulas
Image Credit: GameWith
Catching Tarantulas is a scary business. But, at 8,000 Bells a piece, it’s hard to ignore their value. To catch a Tarantula, approach it with caution. It will lunge and it will attack you. If you dig holes around yourself (like above) it will keep the Tarantula from being able to approach you, but you’ll still be able to catch it!
These can be found on your island after 7 PM every night. If you get lucky, you’ll have a chance to visit Tarantula Island. Tarantula Island is a Mystery Island filled with Tarantulas. Of course, to get this island you must embark on your trip after 7 PM (game time).
Catch Rare Fish & Bugs
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Obviously, right? But some rare fish and bugs are easier found than you may think. If you ever have trouble finding a specific fish, craft some Fish Bait and throw it into the water you want to fish out of. It may not bring a rare fish right away, but it’ll give you a better chance than not using it.
Here’s the most valuable fish and how to find them!
Sea Fish
- Coelacanth – Sells For: 15,000 Bells. Can be caught all year, any time of day.
- Shadow Size: Huge.
- Barreleye – Sells For: 15,000 Bells. Can be caught all year between 9 PM & 4 AM.
- Shadow Size: Small.
- Great White Shark – Sells For: 15,000 Bells. Can be caught from June-Sept (Northern) and Dec-March (Southern) from 4 PM to 9 AM.
- Shadow: Finned
- Whale Shark – Sells For: 13,000 Bells. Can be caught from June-Sept (Northern) and Dec-March (Southern) any time of day.
- Shadow: Finned.
- Saw Shark – Sells For: 12,000 Bells. Can be caught from June-Sept (Northern) and Dec-March (Southern) between 4 PM and 9 AM.
- Shadow: Finned.
- Napoleonfish – Sells For: 10,000 Bells. Can be caught from July-Aug (Northern) and Jan-Feb (Southern) between 4 AM and 9 PM.
- Shadow Size: Huge.
Pond Fish
- Gar – Sells For: 6,000 Bells. Can be caught from June-Sept (Northern) and Dec-March (Southern) from 4 PM – 9 AM.
- Shadow Size: Huge.
- Giant Snakehead – Sells For: 5,500 Bells. Can be caught between June-Aug (Northern) and December-Feb (Southern) between 9 AM – 4 PM.
- Shadow Size: Large.
To read about all fish, visit GameWith’s Fishing Guide.
Sell Fossils
Image Credit: TwinFinite
Every day on your island, 4-5 fossils can be dug up and found. Fossils are worth a minimum of 1,100 Bells up to 6,000 Bells a piece. Donating them is always a good idea, but if you have duplicates or you’re running low on cash that day, sell them!
Take them to our fellow raccoon brothers, but have Blather’s evaluate them first. If you don’t have them evaluated, Timmy or Tommy won’t know what kind of fossil it is and they will low-ball you. Even if you only sell 2 fossils a day and make 4,000 Bells, it’s still better than aimlessly catching Horse Mackerels for 150 Bells.
Sell Unwanted Items & Dig Through The Recycling Bin
Yes, sometimes our animal friends give us a not-so-cute sweater or the same flooring you’ve sold 2 times before. But luckily, you can sell anything you don’t want! Don’t worry, they won’t find out you did not enjoy their present.
Sell any unwanted (or unused) furniture, clothing items, fence, etc. It may not always be worth a lot, but sometimes it is! Plus, it’s just taking up space anyways.
Recycling Bin
This bin can be found inside Resident Services on the left hand side. Click on it and often times, there’s unwanted flooring, wallpaper, clothes and more. Take everything from the bin and sell it! I’ve gotten a couple 5,000 Bell items out of there.
Using these methods, you’ll become a Bell-ionaire (or close) in the near future! Just work hard and it will pay off.
Thanks for reading How To Become a Millionaire in Animal Crossing! Be sure to check out all our Game Guides and more!
