#acnh guide

im saying short bc its probably not gonna be as detailed as watching a video, so i’ll link to two of those as well right here - by boiscrossing and ninatries on youtube.

you need 2 switches to do this and they both need to have acnh on them! also if you dont already have a full played-on island on one of the switches, this whole thing is gonna take an even longer time tbh bc thats kinda needed..

On the first switch that already has an island:

1. create a second character on your main switch island🍃 it has to be a second character btw it cant be the resident rep

(Unlocks Pillars & Island Counters) 

Donate these items to Niko’s material box upstairs at the Paradise Planning office once a day for six days. The day after each donation, he’ll send you the recipes for a new type of pillar/island counter.

In total you will need: 

Tree branches x 30

Wood x 10

Hardwood x 10

Softwood x 10

Stone x 55

Iron nugget x 55

Clay x 25

Gold nugget x 1

Day 00 / Wooden 

Materials:

Niko teaches this one to you at the school the day after completing your 15th vacation home. There is nothing to donate on this day.

Crafting:

Pillar

Wood x 2

Hardwood x 2

Softwood x 2

Tall Island Counter

Wood x 3

Hardwood x 3

Softwood x 3

Low Island Counter

Wood x 2

Hardwood x 2

Softwood x 2

Day 01 / Simple 

Materials:

Tree branch x 30

Wood x 10

Crafting:

Pillar

Clay x 2

Stone x 2

Tall Island Counter

Clay x 4

Stone x 4

Low Island Counter

Clay x 2

Stone x 2

Day 02 / Concrete 

Materials:

Stone x 15

Clay x 10

Softwood x 10

Crafting:

Pillar

Stone x 3

Iron nugget x 1

Tall Island Counter

Stone x 6

Iron nugget x 2

Low Island Counter

Stone x 3

Iron nugget x 1

Day 03 / Brick 

Materials:

Stone x 10

Clay x 15

Crafting:

Pillar

Clay x 4

Tall Island Counter

Clay x 8

Low Island Counter

Clay x 4

Day 04 / Steel 

Materials:

Iron nugget x 15

Hardwood x 10

Crafting:

Pillar

Iron nugget x 4

Tall Island Counter

Iron nugget x 8

Low Island Counter

Iron nugget x 4

Day 05 / Marble 

Materials:

Stone x 30

Iron nugget x 10

Crafting:

Pillar

Stone x 8

Tall Island Counter

Stone x 16

Low Island Counter

Stone x 8

Day 06 / Golden 

Materials:

Gold nugget x 1

Iron nugget x 30

Crafting:

Pillar

Gold nugget x 4

Tall Island Counter

Gold nugget x 8

Low Island Counter

Hii! Aww that's so sweet of you 🥺 I don't know if I'm particularly good at hunting bugs – I think I'm just very stubborn lol!

But yeah NMTs are the way to go! The best way of getting the rare bugs to spawn is to get a smaller area like the mystery islands and then making it harder for everything that isn't on a palm tree to spawn.

You can do this on any island you use NMTs to get to but bamboo islands are the best because they're flat, lack ponds/rivers and bamboo trees don't spawn any bugs so you don't need to chop anything. (You can use Kapp'n islands too but those usually require a lot of ladders and poles to navigate, which slows down the whole process) On bamboo islands you just need to dig up or destroy all flowers until there's nowhere left to spawn for stinkbugs etc. The only trees standing should be palm trees. So ideally you should devastate an islands flora until it looks something like this:

(scorpion follower optional)

So what now? Now you need to run around!

A bug like the horned hercules is very rare so even after limiting spawns to palm trees you'll probably not find one immediately. So whenever you see a bug you don't want you either catch it or scare it by running up to it. After doing it you should head to the other beach and check the trees there. Next time you go to the first area you checked new bugs should've appeared (they basically spawn as soon as the camera leaves an area unseen). Keep doing this until you find the bug(s) of your dreams. It might take a while though but it is more consistent than doing it the regular way.

Keep in mind though that not all bugs can be prevented from spawning: during summer mosquitoes and (if you're on an island with rivers) water bugs appear regardless of which plants are around. You need to remove these too, which is annoying because mosquitoes won't get scared by you running around which means you'll have to catch them or let them bite you. Oh, mind the scorpions too.

Another useful trick is to use the mystery islands weird passage of time to your favor. Unlike on your own island bugs and fish won't change as hours pass but instead they'll spawn according to the time you arrive on the island. So if you don't feel like staying up all night you can just travel with the plane to an island late at night (10pm or later) and just leave the game on without quitting in sleep mode overnight until morning or afternoon. Have fun catching bugs in daylight hours!