How to Farm Iron Nuggets in Animal Crossing: New Horizons

Animal Crossing iron nuggets are important for crafting in New Horizons. Here's how to get them.
Animal Crossing iron nuggets are important for crafting in New Horizons. Here's how to get them.

Knowing how to farm iron nuggets Animal Crossing: New Horizons becomes really important as you begin to gather and make DIY recipes. It’s likely you’ve found a nugget in a rock or two already, but how do you get more faster? Here’s what you need to know.

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Animal Crossing Iron Nuggets: How to Get Them in New Horizons

The easiest way to get iron nuggets in New Horizons is also the most random. Grab your Shovel and start whacking rocks with it. However, there’s a bit more strategy involved in this mindless endeavor.

Typically, you can hit rocks and get resources like iron nuggets, clay, and stone. However, the resources stop coming out after about four hits because of the small time intervals between hits. The trick to farming iron nuggets quickly is to:

  • Dig two holes on one side of the rock.
  • Stand between the rock and the two holes.
  • Face the rock and hit it with the shovel as quickly as you can.

Doing this, you’ll get roughly double the items from the same rock, doubling your chances of more iron nuggets. It’s not foolproof and doesn’t guarantee iron nuggets, but you’re likely to find this as effective as we have for farming nuggets.

But be careful! If you eat fruit and hit rocks, you’ll break the rocks apart, losing out on the items you’re after.

Related: How to Make Bells Fast

Nook Tickets and Farming Iron Nuggets

After you pay off your tent with 5,000 Nook Miles, you’ll get access to a new item at the Nook Stop machine in Resident Services: Nook Miles Tickets.

For 2,000 Nook Miles, these let you travel to a random island full of materials to collect. Among other things, you’ll have more and better chances of gathering iron nuggets because there will be more rocks!

What Are Iron Nuggets Used For?

There’s a pretty good reason you should care about farming iron nuggets in New Horizons. You’ll use them to upgrade tools like the Shovel. Upgraded tools last longer and don’t break after a handful of uses, which is incredibly useful.

Possibly more important, though, is that you’ll use iron nuggets in construction projects. Which ones need them varies, but you’ll use them for some essentials like building Nook’s Cranny. During these projects, you can sometimes ask villagers to donate iron nuggets, which is a handy way to meet your quota without giving up any of the iron nuggets you’ve already found.

That’s all you need to know about farming iron nuggets in Animal Crossing New Horizons, but be sure to check out our growing collection of Animal Crossing: New Horizons guides to maximize your time on the island.

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Author
Josh Broadwell
Josh Broadwell started gaming in the early '90s. But it wasn't until 2017 he started writing about them, after finishing two history degrees and deciding a career in academia just wasn't the best way forward. You'll usually find him playing RPGs, strategy games, or platformers, but he's up for almost anything that seems interesting.