As you’re exploring and enjoying another day of beautiful island living, you may notice x’s scattered around on the ground.
Underneath these mysterious x’s lies buried items that you can dig up. You can’t dig without a shovel, so how do you get one?
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How To Get a Shovel in Animal Crossing
Donate Fish or Insects
To obtain the recipe for a shovel, you must first get Blathers to visit your island. Grab the owl’s attention by donating five fish/insects to Tom Nook.
Upon donation of the five fish/insects, Blathers will call Tom Nook and express his wishes to open a museum on your island!
Reserve a Space for Blathers’ Tent
After speaking with Blathers, Tom Nook will hand over a tent kit for you to place prior to Blathers’ arrival.
You will then go and pick out the perfect place for your upcoming museum! Once you’ve found your spot, place the tent kit. It will be ready the next calendar day.
Visit Blathers
When you wake up on your island the following morning, Blathers will be in his new tent waiting for you, so give him a visit!
Blathers will tell you that he wants to open a museum on your island, but he needs your help.
He needs you to dig up fossils for him to display in the museum. He will then give you the DIY Recipe for the shovel.
Craft Your Shovel
Now that you have the flimsy shovel recipe, all you need are the proper materials to craft your tool. Crafting a flimsy shovel requires five pieces of hardwood.
You can gather hardwood by using your axe and pressing (a) while standing in front of trees.
Once you’ve gathered your materials, head to Tom Nook’s tent to craft your shovel!
Things You Can Dig With Your Shovel in Animal Crossing
Move Flowers
Digging up fossils isn’t the only use for your new handy tool! You can also use the shovel to dig up and replant flowers.
To do this, equip your shovel and stand in front of the flowers you would like to move. Press (a) to dig up the flowers, and they will now be in your storage to plant elsewhere.
Plant Money Trees
Look for those shiny sparkles on the ground to discover money holes!
Digging these up rewards you with 1,000 bells, and even better, you can plant a money tree back in that same hole.
Grab some bells and bury them to plant your money tree! Money trees can reward you with up to 30,000 bells if you plant 10,000.
Move Trees
Remember how you can replant flowers with your shovel? You can replant trees too! To dig up a tree, you need strength. Gain strength by eating fruit growing from your trees.
Shake your fruit trees, and then eat up! Each piece of fruit gives you one level of strength, so eating one piece of fruit will allow you to dig up one tree.
Hit Rocks
Another thing you’ll want to use your shovel for is hitting rocks. Equip your shovel and hit rocks to get crafting materials!
Rocks produce four different types of crafting materials: clay, stone, iron nuggets, and gold.
Repeatedly hit (a) while standing in front of a rock to get the most materials. You can get up to eight crafting materials per rock.
Money Rocks
Just like the ground, rocks are hiding bells too. There are six rocks on every island, and one out of six rocks will produce bells.
Like crafting materials, repeatedly hit (a) while standing in front of a rock to get the most bells. Money rocks can produce up to 16,100 bells.
Upgrading Your Shovel
Your flimsy shovel gets the job done well enough, but it breaks after 40 uses, and you’re looking for something with more durability.
Lucky for you, you can purchase the standard shovel DIY recipe from the Nook Stop located in Resident Services.
To do this, you must pay your initial loan of 5,000 nook miles to Tom Nook. The standard shovel recipe will be in the “Pretty Good Tools Recipe” bundle that costs 3,000 nook miles.
Crafting Your Shovel
To craft a shovel, you will need one flimsy shovel and one iron nugget. Gather your materials and head to Resident Services to craft your shovel! The standard shovel has 100 uses.
Now that you have your shovel and know how to use it, you can dig up fossils and bells, move flowers and trees and get crafting materials from rocks!