What gives you the most bells in animal crossing

If you’re new to Animal Crossing: New Horizons on the Nintendo Switch, you may be wondering what in the world Nook Miles and Bells are- and how to earn them.

In the game, the first “currency” you’re introduced to is Nook Miles- basically points you earn for completing tasks on your island, which you can use to pay off your first home loan. They also let you buy a whole host of other special upgrades later in the game, like more bag space, more reactions, and other fun additions.

While Nook Miles are kind of like redeemable points, Bells are the actual money of the game. They’re how you pay for all those home loans {after the first one} and they’re what you use to buy clothing and decor. If you have a Nintendo Switch Online account and plan to trade with others, you’ll also want Bells for the sake of trading for rare items.

So how do you earn Bells fast? Here are some of the ways I was able to amass a 27 million Bell fortune! {I actually earned 22 million bells in just a couple of months, and now I don’t even do these tasks- I just can’t spend my money fast enough and keep accumulating more! Too bad making real money isn’t that easy.}

Play the Stalk Market

Play the “stalk market” by buying and selling turnips at the right price! Every Sunday morning, Daisy Mae will come to your island to sell you turnips. {Heads up- she leaves at noon!}

Every week, those turnips will go for a different price, usually between 90-110 Bells a piece, and you’ll have until the following Saturday night to sell them at Nook’s Cranny for a profit.

The catch? You’ll have to stay vigilant to find a good price! Just like the real stock market, prices go up and down and it’s up to you to find the best time to sell.

Prices may be lower than you bought them for- I’ve seen as low as 30-something Bells per Turnip- but they can go really high, too. I once sold two inventories full of Turnips for over 600 bells per Turnip! You’ll have two prices per day- the first one in the morning {8am-noon} and the second one in the afternoon {noon-10pm}. Be sure to check back often!

You aren’t restricted to just selling on your own island. There are Facebook groups and subreddits where people often post when Nook’s Cranny is buying turnips for a high price and you can travel to those islands {with a Nintendo Switch Online account} to sell!

If the poster doesn’t list an entry fee, it’s good manners to give them some bells or Nook Miles Tickets as a thank you. And if your Nook’s Cranny is the one buying turnips at a high price? Then you can post it and let people come to your island, and then you’ll get the entry fee or tips!

Wherever you sell, just be sure to do it before Saturday night- come Sunday morning, Daisy Mae will be back with a new batch and your old ones will be rotten!

Plant Your Money Tree Every Day

Every single day, you’ll find a glowing spot on your island. Somewhere in the grass there will be a shiny light and if you use a shovel, you’ll dig up 1,000 Bells.

What you may not know? You can use this same spot to plant a Money Tree!

To plant a money tree, first dig up your 1,000 Bells- but do NOT fill that hole back in. While it’s glowing, plant some Bells and in three days, it’ll bloom into a Money Tree with 3 Bell Bags on it!

Now here’s the cool part- you can REALLY increase your profits when you play this right. Burying 1,000 Bells nets you 3 bags of 1,000 Bells each, so a profit of 2,000 Bells. But burying 10,000 Bells nets you 3 bags of 10,000 Bells each, for a profit of 20,000 Bells PER DAY. As long as you plant your money tree every single day, you can consistently shake 30,000 Bells {20,000 being totally profit} from your trees as they bloom each day.

Unlike fruit trees, Money Trees only grow Bells once. If you don’t want a tree there, you can totally chop it down once the Bells have harvested.

Another thing to watch out for- if the randomly generated Money Tree spot is surrounded by something like flowers or decor, then when the time comes to shake the trees out the Bell Bags will despawn as they can’t drop on items. If that money spot is going to be a problem, just plant the Bells in the shining hole and then use your shovel to dig it up and move it somewhere safer!

Note: You CAN bury more than 10,000 Bells {up to 99,000} and have a CHANCE of getting your investment back x 3, but there’s only a small chance. Burying up to 10,000 Bells is a guaranteed profit of 3x what you buried, but burying anything more than that is more likely to just give you 30,000 total.

Because of this, I don’t recommend burying more than 30,000 since at least then you’ll come away even. But if you’re trying to build up your Bells I think the best way to do that is to consistently bury 10,000 Bells each day as doing so will ALWAYS net you 20,000 Bells profit. But of course, it’s your game and you can take whatever risks you’d like!

Make the most of special visitors

Once you have special visitors coming to your island, take advantage! There are two visitors in particular who can really help you rake in the Bells- Flick and C.J.

You have likely already been catching fish and bugs and selling them at Nook’s Cranny {after the first one gets donated to Blathers, of course}- but did you know that Flick and C.J. will buy your bugs and fish, respectively, for 1.5X the price?

Flick and C.J. will each come to your island once every two weeks, so if you want to hold on to your catches until then you’ll earn a lot once they get there!

Now I know storage space is limited so if you don’t want to hold onto everything, just hold onto the ones that net the most Bells. Which ones those are changes every month as different creatures come and go from islands, but you can always check it out online. {Stock up on sharks in the summer months for lots of Bells!}

Do Some Traveling- Head to Nook Miles Islands and Play with Others!

If you have some Nook Miles saved up, be sure to do some traveling! Redeem your miles for Nook Miles tickets, which will let you fly to a mystery island.

Every island you land on has opportunities to earn Bells- you can chop down all the trees for fruit and wood, pluck all the flowers, and often find fossils- all of which you can sell for Bells if you don’t need them for DIYs or the museum. You can also catch bugs and fish to bring back, too- just remember you can only bring back as much as you can carry in your bag! Once you leave a mystery island, it ceases to exist- so you can’t make more trips to get everything.

Sometimes, you might get SUPER lucky and end up on Scorpion Island or Shark Island. These special islands, which you have a very low chance of landing on, have lots of spawns of scorpions/tarantulas or sharks.

The conditions have to be just right- you can only land on Shark Island during the months where sharks are already spawning on your island, but if you do get there you’ll know right away because everything that spawns in the ocean on that island will be a shark.

For scorpion or tarantula island {depending on which season it is}, it must be after 7pm, which is when those bugs start spawning. You’ll know you’ve landed there when you land on a small island with a little moat around it, and it’s totally covered in spiders {or scorpions} and they keep spawning.

If you land on either of these islands, your best bet is to leave all other resources behind and collect as many bugs or fish as your bags can hold. Then take them home and either sell to Nook’s Cranny or store them until Flick or C.J. come to visit!

Another way to earn Bells by traveling is to visit with other players using your Nintendo Switch Online account. There are lots of Facebook groups, Subreddits and more where you can find other players looking for special items. If you happen to have something they need, they may be willing to pay for it with Bells!

Even if you don’t have anything, you can earn by visiting others when they have shooting stars. Go to their island to make wishes, and then the next day collect all the star fragments that land on your beach. Then sell any you don’t need to Nook’s Cranny! Learn more about wishing on stars here.

Sell Items at Nook’s Cranny

Nook’s Cranny sells a variety of fun items to decorate your island with, but they’ll also buy just about anything. They won’t buy fake art from Redd or rotten turnips, but just about everything else is fair game. If you have items you don’t need- extra resources, random balloon drops, duplicate DIYs- then selling them to Timmy & Tommy can add up fast!

In addition, every day at Nook’s Cranny there’s a Hot Item of the Day- a DIY item that they’ll pay extra for on that day only. You can check what this item is each day by asking them or checking the sign out front. If you can make that DIY and it sells for a decent price, that can be a great way to make some extra Bells!

Farm your resources every day

Every single day, your very own island is brimming with resources that you can use to make some Bells. Of course, while you’re establishing your island paradise you’ll need some of those resources for crafting- but most of those things grow back so whatever you’re not going to need, you can sell.

Here’s what you should be collecting to sell to Nook’s Cranny every day:

Seashells: comb your beach all the way around a few times a day to collect as many shells as you can to sell

Fruit trees: Shake all your trees to gather your fruits and sell them. The fruit that is natural to your island {the one that was on the trees when you started your game} will sell for 100 Bells a piece.

Even better? The fruits that are NOT native to your island will sell for 500 Bells each! You can get the other fruits by trading with other players OR by planting the fruits from Mystery Islands- you will come across coconuts on Mystery Islands as well as one additional type of Fruit Tree, depending on what kind grows on your island.

Pumpkins: Just like fruit trees, you can plant pumpkins {buy Pumpkin Starts from Leif when he visits your Plaza} and every few days you’ll be able to harvest them and sell them. Each pumpkin start can grow into 1-3 pumpkins- water them everyday to maximize your harvest and thus, your profits!

Wood: You can chop each tree for wood- you can chop with an Axe twice before the tree is chopped down or three times with a stone axe.

Fossils: Each day, you’ll find four fossils around your island buried under a star shape {see the picture above}. Dig these up with a shovel, have them assessed by Blathers in the museum, donate any that you don’t already have on display, and then sell the duplicates.

Rocks: Every island has six big rocks scattered around that provide resources. You can hit them with an axe or shovel up to 8 times each- they are timed so once you start hitting a rock keep whacking at it quickly until it stops giving you more items. Five of these rocks will give you resources like iron nuggets, gold nuggets, and stone. The sixth will give you Bells!

Dive for Sea Creatures

We’ve discussed fish and bugs, but there’s another type of critter that’ll fetch you lots of Bells in Animal Crossing- sea creatures!

Grab a wetsuit from Nook Shopping or Nook’s Cranny {check the cabinet}, put it on and head into the ocean to go swimming. Look around for streams of bubbles and dive down to get them- you’ll find sea creatures waiting for you!

Just like bugs and fish, the different creatures available change month to month- and some are only available at certain times of day. Also like bugs and fish, the first one you collect of each creature should go to the museum- but after all, they’re all profit!

Sea creatures are really easy to collect quickly, and cost-efficient since they don’t require a special tool to catch them like the nets and fishing rods for bugs and fish. They do require the one-time purchase of a wet suit, but after that you can dive to your heart’s content.

Sea creatures do NOT sell for extra money to Flick or C.J., so your best bet is to sell them at Nook’s Cranny. Diving for sea creatures for a little bit of time each day can net you thousands of Bells!

Bonus: While diving for critters, you may pick up a Scallop. If you do, once a day you’ll be greeted by Pascal, the wise otter who will trade you a Pearl or a Mermaid DIY for that scallop and leave you some wisdom before he goes!

What are some of the ways that you’ve made Bells playing Animal Crossing: New Horizons? Did any of these tips surprise you?

Want to learn more about Animal Crossing: New Horizons? Check out these posts:

13 Animal Crossing: New Horizons Tips You Don’t Know
Celebrate Valentine’s Day with Animal Crossing: New Horizons
How to Celebrate Halloween with Animal Crossing: New Horizons