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

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

by Josh Broadwell

Iron nuggets are required for DIY recipes in Animale Crossing: New Horizons. You've probably found one in a rock or two, but how do you get more faster?

If you play the game normally, these very important Animal Crossing crafting items can be hard to come by. Unfortunately, there's not really a quick and easy way to get them. Here are some tips and tricks on how to make the most of your time and get the most iron nuggets you can.

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 Flimsy Axe and start whacking some rocks with it. You get four item drops per rock this way.

Unfortunately, it's completely random whether you'll get any iron nuggets at all. It doesn't seem too random, though. I've gotten at least one iron nugget each time I try, assuming it isn't a Bell rock.

Either way, it's basically the only way to get iron nuggets in your first few days on the island because you can't buy iron nuggets. Just make sure you don't eat any fruit before you start hitting the rocks. Eating fruit in New Horizons powers you up, which means you'll break the rock instead.

Breaking rocks does result in items appearing, but it's more random. Worse still, the rock is gone for good, which means you can't farm iron nuggets from it again the next day.

What Are Animal Crossing Iron Nuggets for in New Horizons?

There's a pretty good reason you should care about gathering Iron Nuggets in New Horizons. You'll use them to upgrade tools, like that most elusive of beasts: 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.

Nook Tickets

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.

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

Josh Broadwell

Contributor

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.

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