Animal Crossing: New Horizons is a simple concept surrounded in depth and lots to do. A major time sink in the new Switch game is just exploring the world and interacting with your neighbors, but there’s so much more to do. The scale of the newest console iteration of the franchise has a ton of hidden depth as well. And that has left many Switch owners with a variety of questions that we’re going to help answer First up is a simple question, how do you get the shovel in Animal Crossing: New Horizons?
The Shovel in Animal Crossing: New Horizons is unlocked once you get the DIY recipe from Blather. That requires getting the Museum set up first, which entails a bit of work on its own. Just give 5 different species of Fish or Bugs combined to Tom Nook to unlock the Museum and spawn Blathers. He is in Resident Services, and after a day of hanging around, he will give out the first two recipes.
The DIY recipe you’re looking for is the Flimsy Shovel. This recipe is given out by Blathers alongside the Vaulting Pole. You will want to grab both of these as they enable the player to explore a bunch of new areas and mechanics. This first version is, as the name implies, pretty flimsy and will break after just a few uses.
The better Shovel in Animal Crossing: New Horizons is unlocked from Resident Services as well, this time from Tom Nook. Both can be built via the DIY Bench.
If you’re a more visual learner, here’s a video guide:
