Tools

Tools in Animal Crossing: New Horizons wear out, and the number that matters for each one is how many swings, casts or shots it survives before it snaps. Our four tool pages give that number for every golden tool, put the ladder in a class of its own because it never breaks, and explain the first shovel, which has to be earned before any of the durable versions can even be considered. Sorting by durability also happens to sort by how hard each tool is to unlock: the longer it lasts, the more the game asks first.

Durability at a glance

Never: the ladder

The ladder page is the one tool page with no durability number, because the ladder is the one tool that never wears out. The recipe comes late in the first week: pay off the 98,000-Bell house loan, help expand Nook's Cranny with its thirty-of-everything materials bill, wait a day, take the bridge recipe from Tom Nook, build the bridge, and he follows up with the ladder. Its cost is a handful of each wood type. The catch is that you and every visitor must carry one to climb a cliff, which Update 2.0 fixed with the Ladder Set-Up Kit. Its recipe is 2,000 Bells at Nook's Cranny, each kit is a ladder plus five wood, and the result is placed with Set Next to Cliff and picked back up with Y. The page prefers these to inclines on cost and build time; inclines only win on looks. For getting across water rather than up it, the vaulting pole on our cross rivers page is the equally unbreakable companion.

60 to 90: slingshot, rod and net

The golden tools page makes the point that unlike earlier games these do break, just far later than the regular versions. The golden slingshot is the least durable at 60 shots, and its unlock is a counter: after 300 balloons popped, a golden balloon drifts over the island carrying the recipe, so the page suggests grinding it during seasons like maple leaf when balloons already carry recipes you want. The balloon farming page is the fastest way to get there.

The golden fishing rod and golden net both last 90 uses and both ask for a complete Critterpedia section. The golden fishing rod page counts 80 fish, caught once each regardless of whether you sell or donate them, after which the recipe arrives in the mail; the net wants every bug the same way. Each is a gold nugget plus the ordinary tool. The catch lists themselves are on our fish guide and bugs guide, and the page notes that even the golden rod is cheap enough to simply recraft when it goes.

150 to 200: watering can, axe and shovel

The golden watering can waters 150 tiles and is, in the page's judgement, usually the last golden tool anyone earns, because Isabelle only hands over the recipe at a five-star rating; the point thresholds are on our five-star page. The golden axe is the one to chase early: 200 uses against the fragile regular axe, unlocked automatically the moment your hundredth axe of any type breaks, flimsy and stone included. The golden shovel matches it at 200 and comes from Gulliver's side quest, digging up his communicator parts on the beach and returning them 30 times while he is still on the island, since parts left over after he sails rust and no longer count. Both the golden axe and golden shovel are disabled on other players' islands unless you are marked as Best Friends.

The starting tier: earning the first shovel

None of the above is available until the game gives you a shovel at all. The shovel page walks the sequence: Tom Nook's DIY workshop on day two teaches the net and fishing rod, he asks for five bugs or fish, Blathers phones in, and you place his tent kit where the museum will stand. On day three Blathers arrives, asks for fossils, and gives you the shovel and vaulting pole recipes; the shovel is five hardwood, crafted at Resident Services. The hardwood recipes page lists the same flimsy shovel alongside the slingshot from Timmy, also five hardwood.

Frequently asked questions

Do golden tools break?

Yes. They last between 60 uses for the slingshot and 200 for the axe and shovel. Only the ladder and vaulting pole are unbreakable.

Which golden tool is quickest to get?

The golden axe, since breaking 100 cheap axes is a matter of materials rather than luck or a full collection. The golden slingshot's 300 balloons is next if you farm them.

Where do the materials come from?

Gold nuggets come from rocks, wood from trees, as covered on our items guide. The rest of the island's systems are mapped on the Animal Crossing: New Horizons hub.