Trees in Animal Crossing actually give three types of wood, and hardwood is one of them. If you’re wondering where to get it, let me help you chop away this problem with this quick guide.
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Steps in Getting Hardwood
Don’t worry, it’s definitely not hard to get hardwood in Animal Crossing. Tree-chopping hands ready? Then let’s go!
Step 1: Ready Your Axe
Beginners, listen up: We can’t chop a tree without an axe. Fortunately, it’s one of the tools that you get early on in the game.
After giving Tom Nook some critters, he will then give you a recipe for a Flimsy Axe. To make this, you will only need one stone and a few tree branches.
For branches, just go to a tree and press ‘a’ to shake. You need to collect five to make a Flimsy Axe.
IMPORTANT NOTE: Watch out for wasps! If you get stung, just make or buy medicine to soothe away those wasp stings.
TIP: Hold your net, shake a tree while being in front of it, and then press ‘a’ when wasps show up.
To get stone, go to one of your rocks and press ‘y’ to pick up the rock-like material beside it.
That’s your stone right there. Newbies, don’t sell it yet! You need it for crafting!
But if you accidentally did, you can search for other rocks on your island with a stone, go to a Mystery Island to pick up a few there or wait for a day or so until you see stones near your rocks.
You can also try your luck with balloons or fishing since you can get stones through that as well. Basically, stone is important early in the game!
Now you can make an axe! It’s a starter axe, so it’s not as sturdy, but it’s good enough for now.
You can use the crafting table at Resident Services to make it. Later, you can craft a Stone Axe, Axe that can cut trees, and a special axe made of gold.
If you don’t want to cut a tree down and leave just a stump, use the Flimsy axe or Stone Axe.
Step 2: Go to a Tree
Now that you’ve made an axe, all you have to do is go find the nearest tree.
There are different kinds of trees on your island: Regular Trees, Cedar Trees, Fruit Trees (that look like Regular Trees but with fruits), Money Trees (also like Regular Trees but with bell bags as fruits), Coconut Trees, and Bamboo Trees.
During special occasions or certain seasons, the trees will look a bit different.
Regular Trees, Cedar Trees, Fruit Trees, Money Trees, and Coconut Trees can give hardwood.
The kind of wood you get can be random, so choose any of these trees to hit your axe with and keep chopping until you get hardwood.
Step 3: Hold Your Axe and Chop!
To get your axe, press ‘x’ to open up your inventory, select your axe and press ‘a’, then select ‘hold’. Your character should now be holding an axe.
To get hardwood, you simply face a tree, press ‘a’, and chop away!
You get a maximum of three chops or three materials per tree, and after that, you have to wait for a day to get materials from the tree again.
The wood materials you get are random, so you can end up with regular wood, softwood, or hardwood.
Since hardwood is our target right now, keep chopping trees until you get it.
Tips on Getting Hardwood
Now that you’ve got the basics down let’s see what else we can do to get more hardwood.
Make a Lot of Axes
If you’re planning on collecting a lot of hardwood, it’s best to make a lot of axes beforehand.
A Flimsy Axe poofs after 35 to 40 chops, while the Stone Axe breaks after almost a hundred chops.
Go to Mystery Islands
If the hardwood stacks you’ve collected from your island aren’t enough, you can go to a Mystery Island to get more.
Going to a Mystery Island requires you to redeem a Nook Miles Ticket from the Nook Stop at Resident Services, and each ticket costs 2,000 miles.
Later on, you can go to special Mystery Islands through a boat ride with Kapp’n, but that will cost you 1,000 miles per trip.
Safe Trading
There are a lot of wonderful fan-made communities online for Animal Crossing, and in these spaces, you can talk with other players and ask for help.
If you’re desperate for more hardwood, you can trade with other players.
IMPORTANT NOTE: Be nice, be pleasant, and be safe. Don’t give away any important information about you or your account.
TIP: If another player is scamming you, immediately put your Nintendo Switch to sleep. You will get disconnected and end up outside your airport, but it will revert any activities you did back to the last big save point of the game (usually when someone joins an island).
Getting hardwood isn’t so hard now, is it? As long as you prepare your axes, have enough trees, or know how to go to Mystery Islands for more trees, collecting hardwood is definitely easywood!