Locations

Animal Crossing: New Horizons opens with a tent, an airport and nothing else, and every building that follows is something you pay for. The currency changes as the island matures. The first shop wants raw wood and iron, the museum wants specimens, Resident Services wants Nook Miles and a week of errands, the tailor wants you to spend Bells with a travelling saleswoman, and the last unlock in the game wants 100,000 Bells for each of seven stalls. Ordering our seven location pages by that bill gives you both a build order and a budget.

Two of the seven are not on your island at all. Tarantula Island is a mystery island bought one trip at a time, and Harv's Island is a permanent second destination whose plaza is the most expensive thing on this page. Both are reached from the airport, which is the one building nobody pays for.

The bill for each door

Paid in materials: Nook's Cranny

The cheapest door is also the first. Once your house is up, Timmy asks for help replacing the stall inside the tent, and the Nook's Cranny page lists the price as thirty pieces apiece of wood, hardwood, softwood and iron nuggets. Wood comes off trees with an axe and iron off rocks with an axe or shovel; if the island runs dry, a mystery island trip or a day's wait refills both. The shop's value is everything downstream: furniture, recipes and tools to buy, the drop-off box for selling after hours, and a place to turn the catches on our bugs and fish guides into Bells. Every other building on this list requires it.

Paid in specimens: the museum

Blathers charges in donations. Five fish or bugs handed to Tom Nook bring the owl to the island, and the museum page suggests pitching his tent near the shore so drop-offs are short walks. Fifteen more fish, bugs or fossils turn the tent into the building, and Blathers' arrival also hands over the shovel and vaulting pole recipes covered on our tools guide. The fourth wing costs more: 60 donations across every category, then one painting bought from Redd at his 4,980-Bell cousin discount, followed by two days of construction. Relocating the museum runs through Tom Nook's infrastructure menu. The 73 fossils that fill the ground floor are catalogued on our fossils page, and the page also records the 2021 Stamp Rally stations for anyone curious about the exhibit layout.

Paid per trip: Tarantula Island

Tarantula Island has no fixed price because it has no fixed address. Every Nook Miles Ticket is a roll of the dice, the spiders only appear between 7 PM and 4 AM, and only in the cold half of the year (November to April in the north, May to October in the south), swapping for scorpions in the warm months. The page's method for forcing a normal bug island into a tarantula farm is destructive: empty your pockets, bring an iron shovel, axe and net plus a ladder and vaulting pole, then fell every tree, dig up the stumps and break the rocks so nothing common can spawn. Approach each spider in short steps, stopping when it rears, and net it. The first goes to Blathers; the rest sell for 8,000 Bells apiece, which is why the same trip anchors the Bells farming page.

Paid in Bells: Able Sisters

The tailor is unlocked by shopping. With the museum and Nook's Cranny built, Mable appears outside Resident Services on random days and weekends, and the Able Sisters page reports spending about 5,000 Bells over two visits before she proposed a permanent shop; the exact figure varies. You then place a 5 x 4 plot and the shop opens two days later, trading from 9 AM to 9 PM unless an ordinance shifts it. Stock changes daily, the two mannequin outfits weekly, and the changing room holds every variant. The back wall has the custom design portal for sharing patterns, and talking to Sable day after day earns fabric patterns for customising furniture. The shop cannot be upgraded, but its exterior can be reskinned, and its opening is what brings Label and Kicks to the island.

Paid in Nook Miles and errands: Resident Services

The Resident Services page is the first week's to-do list. Pay the 5,000-mile Deserted Island Getaway Package, upgrade the tent to a house, build Nook's Cranny, use Nook Miles Tickets to invite three residents, craft the bridge from Tom Nook's kit, and furnish three plots with fences. When the residents move in, Tom Nook announces the renovation, the tent closes for a day, and it reopens as the Town Hall with Isabelle at the desk. The page's tip for the iron grind is to dig holes behind you at each rock so the recoil does not push you away. This upgrade gates island evaluations, the campsite, ordinances and the rating milestones on our mechanics guide.

Paid after the mortgage: the ABD machine

The outdoor ABD is an Update 2.0 convenience with a steep prerequisite. The ABD page says the offer letter from Nook Inc. only arrives once your house is fully expanded and every loan is cleared. The machine then costs 9,900 Nook Miles at the Nook Stop, turns up in the mail the next day, and can be placed indoors or out; outdoors lets visitors bank too, though only your own deposits earn interest and it does not pay the daily check-in miles the terminal does. Reese recolours it in one of five shades for 8,000 Bells once her shop on Harv's Island is funded.

Paid seven times over: Harv's Island plaza

Harv's Island is two unlocks. The island itself is cheap: with three villagers living on your island and Nook's Cranny built, Harv wanders in and invites you, and the Harv's Island page warns that ignoring him locks the plaza forever. Photopia, the log cabin for staged photos with villagers and amiibo, is free from then on. The plaza behind it needs a three-star rating, K.K. Slider's first concert and a Photopia visit, after which Harv writes to you and a ring of Lloids appears asking for 100,000 Bells each.

Harriet's salon is the only free stall, offering one new hairstyle a day until her seven run out. The seven paid ones, in the page's recommended order: Reese and Cyrus first, because Cyrus recolours furniture and gyroids; then Kicks for shoes and bags with a Monday refresh, Katrina for a 1,000-Bell daily fortune and a 10,000-Bell friendship boost, Tortimer for free access to your home storage while shopping, Leif for unlimited plants and a 100,000-Bell island weeding service, Redd for one artwork a day plus a 500-Bell raffle with 30 prizes, and Saharah last because her rugs and wallpaper cost more here than on her island visits. Everything opens at 5 AM and restocks on Mondays, Redd the morning after a purchase. Fully built, the plaza is 700,000 Bells, the single biggest bill in the game and the reason the Animal Crossing: New Horizons hub files it under the late game.

Frequently asked questions

What is the cheapest building to unlock?

Nook's Cranny. It costs only materials, thirty apiece of the three wood types and of iron nuggets, and it is a prerequisite for the museum upgrade, Able Sisters, Resident Services and Harv's Island.

How much does Harv's shopping plaza cost in total?

700,000 Bells for the seven funded stalls at 100,000 each. Harriet's salon is free.

Do I need Nook Miles or Bells for Resident Services?

Nook Miles. The only cash-like cost is the 5,000-mile getaway package; the rest is built from materials and completed errands.