While Animal Crossing New Horizons gives gamers a taste of island life paradise, things such as loans and payments are still ever-present, and, unfortunately, you can’t vacation away from such responsibilities.
But calm your crying wallets—because there are ways to quickly earn money in the game and appease Tom Nook once and for all. If you need help with your house loans, bridge construction fees, and shopping budget, here are 10 tips on how to make Bells fast in ACNH.
Get ready for your wallets to be overflowing!
Plant and Sell Non-Native Fruits
Native fruits are the fruits that are local to your island and they can be sold to your Nook’s Cranny for 100 Bells per fruit.
However, if you manage to find non-native fruits, either through Mystery Islands, Kapp’n Boat Tours, or trading with other players, you can plant a bunch of them and sell each non-native fruit for 500 Bells!
In the same way, you can bring your native fruits to another player’s island with a different native fruit from yours and sell it to their Nook’s Cranny for 500 Bells each. For beginners, this remains to be one of the best ways to get Bells in Animal Crossing.
Now that’s quite fruitful, innit?
Plant Money Trees
As seen in our Money Tree guide, Money Trees might take time and patience to plant and grow but their returns are quite good for your wallet.
Since a glowing spot appears once per day, you can keep planting Money Trees every day with the recommended 10,000 Bells as your seed. Eventually, you’ll harvest multiple trees bearing 30,000 Bells each!
And once you’re done harvesting, you can chop down the trees and sell the logs or use them for crafting. Speaking of crafting…
Craft Items and Sell
Instead of selling raw materials, quickly craft them into items and sell them for double the price!
For example, selling six native fruits will only net you 600 Bells, but if you craft it into a rug you’ll get 1,200 Bells instead. Similarly, selling four Wood will get you 240 Bells at 60 Bells each, but crafting it into a Wooden Stool and selling it will net you double its price at 480 Bells.
Many of these recipes are available early on from your villagers or through message bottles. Nook’s Cranny also has a Hot Item list outside the store where Timmy and Tommy will buy certain crafted items at a higher price.
IMPORTANT NOTE: Only use the drop-off box outside Nook’s Cranny for emergencies. You will only get 80% of the price if you sell items through the box.
Cook Recipes and Sell Food
Just like selling crafted items, selling cooked dishes will give you lots of Bells, as opposed to simply selling your raw harvest.
As an example, you can make pies using fruits, flour, and sugar and sell them for 1,880 Bells, while some sandwiches cooked using vegetables and flour can sell for more than 2,000 Bells.
New Horizons introduced crops and cooking during its 2021 2.0 update. It added wheat, sugarcane, tomato, potato, and carrots, as well as DIY Cooking Recipes to its gameplay. You can buy crop starts from Leif and get the recipes from your villagers or through the restaurant from the DLC.
Sell Rare Bugs and Fish
Don’t underestimate the critters on your island and in the sea. Butterflies and beetles might look common and sea bass continue to be a menace, but some bugs and fish fetch a hefty price in the market.
Some bugs, like the Scarab Beetle and the Giant Stag, actually go for 10,000 Bells, while some fish, such as the Coelacanth and the Great White Shark, sell as high as 15,000 Bells! And if you sell bugs to Flick and fish to CJ, they pay you 50% more than the normal Nook’s Cranny price.
If fish and bug farming’s your game, try a few Mystery Island Tours and hope that you end up on some of its special islands.
The scorpion and tarantula islands are filled with, you guessed it, scorpions and tarantulas, which sell for 8,000 Bells a piece. Meanwhile, shark island will give you all the sharks, which range from 8,000 to 15,000 Bells each.
Reminder: Donate new critters to the museum first!
Hit Money Rocks
So you now know how to get Bells in Animal Crossing through trees, but how about through rocks? Yep, you can “mine” money in this game!
Each player island gets six rocks and one of them will always randomly end up as a money rock that drops Bells instead of materials. Remember to hit your rocks once per day.
You can also find money rocks through Mystery Tours. Some special islands contain five rocks that all drop Bells! Better bring some extra shovels.
Sell Duplicate Fossils
These dusty old bones are not just for the museum, they’re also one of the best ways to get bells in Animal Crossing.
If you have dupes of appraised fossils, don’t toss them in the bin or leave them in your storage. Some of these fossils fetch a high price that ranges from 1,000 to 6,000 Bells.
At least four fossils show up every day on your island, with more popping up the next day if you don’t dig the previous day’s fossils. Dig up the cracks in the ground with a shovel to get them.
Reminder: Appraise the fossils through Blathers and always donate new fossils to the museum first.
Sell Deep-Sea Creatures
Another way to be “swimming” with money is to swim and dive for sea creatures. Some of these deep-sea critters sell for as high as 15,000 Bells!
Grab a wetsuit from Nook’s Cranny, Nook Shopping, or Nook Stop, and dive in to start your underwater treasure hunt. Empty your pocket to maximize your space for sea creatures and go wild in the waters!
Reminder: Donate new sea creatures to Blathers first. Pearls are also rare and needed for crafting, so it might be best to keep those instead.
Trade With Other Players
Figuring out how to get Bells in Animal Crossing can be quite difficult when you’re doing it solo. Fortunately, this game encourages playing with others, especially when it comes to trading.
In some online Animal Crossing communities, you can engage in trading and selling, and a lot of players are more than happy to part some of their Bells just to get a certain item, flower, recipe, or fossil to complete their collection.
Some are even willing to get their dream villagers and pay millions of Bells and a mountain of Nook Miles Tickets! You can sell almost anything in Animal Crossing.
Reminder: Just make sure to do trading and selling safely! There are trusted sites and communities you can use, such as Nookazon.
Sell Turnips
Selling fruits and critters are all well and good, but the undisputed way how to make Bells fast in ACNH is still turnips!
Turnips are unplantable produce sold by a character named Daisy-Mae who only shows up every Sunday morning. Her turnip selling price varies from 90 to 110 Bells. You can then sell your bought turnips to Nook’s Cranny at a (hopefully) higher price.
But time is ticking for this valuable vegetable because turnips rot after a week! By next Sunday, all your bought turnips from the previous week will go bad and you’ll have to bin it.
So your goal is to sell your turnips to a Nook’s Cranny before they go bad. You can sell it to your Nook’s Cranny or at another player’s island. Check Timmy and Tommy’s buying price twice a day from Monday to Saturday. They’ll have a different buying price in the morning and another one past noon.
Essentially, the gist of the Stalk Market is to buy low and sell high. Players have even gathered in many online communities (such as Turnip Exchange) to share their Nook’s Cranny’s buying price and open their gates for others to sell. If you’re successful, your turnip stonks can reach millions of Bells with just one transaction!
