Technology

How to get a shovel in Animal Crossing: New Horizons

January 14, 2023

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Animal Crossing: New Horizons has numerous tools and utilities to craft and use throughout the game’s campaign. One such tool is the shovel, undeniably one of the most important items you will come across in the game.

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This basic item has incredible functionality, allowing the player to uproot trees, mine, plant flowers, destroy and even dig up money and fossils.

This guide will detail everything you need to know about unlocking the various shovels in the game.

Note: Minor spoilers for Animal Crossing: New Horizons will follow. Viewer discretion is advised.

How to craft a basic, Flimsy shovel in Animal Crossing: New Horizons

Curious players can attempt the following events in sequence to easily obtain a shovel:

You must make the museum curator Blathers join your island.
Go through the tutorial and enter Tom Nook’s DIY workshop.
Tom Nook will then prompt you to give him any bugs or fish you may find.
Hand over five unique species of the same to proceed.
Blathers will call you and arrive at 5 am the next day after you set down his tent.
Finally, speak with Blathers to obtain a recipe to craft the Flimsy shovel.
The Flimsy shovel can be crafted using five hardwood pieces or bought outright from Nook’s Cranny for 800 bells a piece.

Upgrading your shovel in Animal Crossing: New Horizons

The base Flimsy shovel in Animal Crossing: New Horizons is rather fragile and will wear out after about 40 uses. Thankfully, the Flimsy shovel can be upgraded to a regular one, which is twice as durable.

You can obtain the crafting recipe for the shovel from the Nook Stop kiosk at the Resident Services.
Purchase the Pretty-Good Tools pack for approximately 3000 Nook Miles to unlock DIY recipes for major tools in the game.
Finally, to craft a shovel, you will require one iron nugget and one Flimsy shovel.
Buying a shovel, however, requires a bit more effort and investment into Nook’s Cranny.
After these requirements have been met, Isabelle will shortly announce the renovation process for Nook’’s Cranny, which takes around one day.
You will now be able to purchase three new shovels that share the exact same stats except for their design for 2500 bells each, the – Outdoorsy, Colourful, and Printed-design shovels.
Nook’s Cranny keeps an infinite supply of these shovels, so players need not worry about them running out of stock any time soon.

Obtaining a Golden shovel

Golden Tools and, consequently, Golden shovels are a bit more difficult to unlock but can be crafted unlimited times. The steps to unlock this recipe are as follows:

You must first encounter Gulliver the seagull, who is seen washed up on your shore at certain points of the game.
Help him a total of 30 times to unlock this recipe.
To help him, dig out and return the five parts of his broken communication device found near him.
On the 30th time, Gulliver will send you a special mail with a recipe for the Golden shovel in it.
To craft the Golden shovel, you need a shovel and a gold nugget.
The item has 200 maximum uses, making it twice as durable as a shovel.