Animal Crossing New Horizons guide: second week walkthrough

Welcome back to another week of Animal Crossing: New Horizons on Switch. If you’re here, you survived your first week (maybe by following our first week walkthrough?) and it’s time to start shaping the island into sandy metropolis.

Unlike the first week in New Horizons, your second week will be a lot less guided. There will be fewer must-do objectives on each day, freeing you up to fill your time however you’d like. And with that, let’s get into it.

What to do on Day 8

Image: Nintendo EPD/Nintendo via Polygon

If you followed our first week walkthrough to the letter, the Resident Services building should now be upgraded. This is a major addition to your island’s arsenal and will unlock a bunch of new features.

Big Goal 1 — Upgrade your inventory

Maybe the best part of upgrading your Resident Services building is that you’ll unlock another inventory upgrade. Head to the ABD machine in the building and purchase the Ultimate Pocket Stuffing recipe for 8,000 Nook Miles. Yeah it’s pricey, but it’ll add 10 more slots in your inventory, which is a godsend.

Big Goal 2 — Build a Campsite

Upgrading your Resident Services building introduces you to the major goal in New Horizons: Get K.K. Slider to play a concert in your town. Having him visit will unlock terraforming, which lets you change your rivers and mountains, but it will take a lot of work.

The first step is to build a Campsite. Speak to Tom Nook in the Resident Services building. He’ll give you the recipe for the Campsite, which requires 15 Softwood, 15 Hardwood, and 15 Wood, as well as 15 Iron Nuggets. Good thing you’ve been harvesting every day, right?

Place the Campsite wherever you like, but try not to pick a spot that’s too remote. You’ll want to check in every day to see who is stopping by, so make it convenient.

Big Goal 3 — Talk to Mabel in the town square

There’s some inconsistency here, but there’s a good likelihood that Mabel the hedgehog is standing in your town square selling clothes. If she’s not there, don’t stress, just keep checking back in the town square every day, and feel free to buy any clothes that strike your fancy.

After she’s visited a few times, she’ll mention she’s interested in opening up a Clothing Store in town with her sister. Don’t worry: You won’t need any resources to build it when the time comes (which is likely toward the end of your second week).

Big Goal 4 — Start building bridges and inclines

With the Resident Services building upgraded, you can start to build bridges (for crossing rivers) and inclines (for climbing cliffs without the need for a ladder). These are pricey, but you’ll greatly appreciate the convenience of not having to pull out a Vaulting Pole every two seconds.

You’ll eventually need at least a few of these built (for town rating purposes) so you may as well get started now, since you can only build one per day.

What to do on Day 9

Image: Nintendo EPD/Nintendo via Polygon

Your Campsite should be built today, and you may even have a camper chilling in a tent. It’s time to see if they’ll move in!

Big Goal 1 — Talk to the camper at the Campsite

Check the Campsite to see if it’s occupied. There may be some inconsistency here because campers don’t always show up as often as you’d like them to. If it is occupied, talk to the camper and tell them you’d like them to stay in your town. We’d recommend doing this even if you’re not super fond of the camper who has showed up, as you’ll need many villagers to make progress.

Once they agree to live in your town, go over and talk to Tom Nook, who will give you a new housing plot. This should be your sixth. You won’t need a ton of space, unlike your last three housing plots.

Once placed, the camper should move to this plot the next day.

Big Goal 2 — Place more housing plots

After placing the sixth housing plot and having the camper move in, go back and talk to Tom Nook. He’ll mention that he’ll sell you new housing plots for 10,000 Bells each.

You can have a maximum of 10 housing plots on your island, and we’d recommend placing all 10 as soon as you can. Just be thoughtful about where you put them. While you can move their locations later, it will cost you 50,000 Bells for the move, so it’s best to get it right the first time.

What to do on Days 10 – 14

Image: Nintendo EPD/Nintendo via Polygon

The next handful of days should be focused on gathering as many villagers as possible as quickly as you can. Remember, you’re trying to get K.K. Slider to perform in your town, and that requires a big audience!

If your campsite isn’t filled and you have empty housing plots, take a trip to one of the Mystery Island Tours with a Nook Ticket for 2,000 Nook Miles. You’re liable to find potential villagers on these islands as long as you have an open slot. Just keep talking to these island villagers until they suggest moving in. They’ll then show up in your town a few days later.

Big Goal 1 — Increase Isabelle’s town rating

Whenever a new villager moves into your town, head to Isabelle in the Resident Services building and select “Let’s talk about island evals.” Isabelle will give your town a rating. If you’re still at a 1-star rating, don’t fret: It just means that you need more villagers living in your town.

Once you hit a 2-star rating, you’re welcome to invite more villagers to reach the cap of 10, but they’re no longer required for K.K. to arrive. Instead, focus on Isabelle’s recommendations to improve your island. Your goal is to reach a 3-star rating. If you’re struggling, here’s a guide that will help you get to a 3-star rating in New Horizons.

The process of getting to a 3-star rating is likely to take most of the second week, perhaps digging into your third week. Keep at it!

Big Goal 2 — Build the Clothing Store

As mentioned above, this will happen once Mabel the hedgehog has visited your town a few times. Make sure you always talk to her, and eventually she’ll agree to move in.

Big Goal 3 — Talk to Sable the sewing hedgehog in the Clothing Store every day

Once you actually build the Clothing Store, you’ll get access to all sorts of fancy duds. You may also notice that Sable, Mable’s sister, is chilling in the back of the store. Go over and talk to her. She will be … relatively uncommunicative.

Make a point to speak to Sable once per day. Slowly but surely she’ll start to open up to you. Eventually (after a couple weeks), you two will become close friends, and she’ll start giving you patterns every day, which you can use to customize certain furniture.

You can access Sable’s patterns when you go to customize any furniture that has cloth (like a pillow or blanket). Select the “Patterns” option, and you’ll see every pattern set that Sable has created for you.

What to do after K.K. Slider arrives

Image: Nintendo EPD/Nintendo via Polygon

Congrats, you’ve reached a 3 star island and K.K. Slider has performed. What’s next? This is really where Animal Crossing: New Horizons stops giving you direct objectives and starts letting you craft your own experience. Terraforming will now be unlocked, so feel free to craft your island however you like it, adding paths, digging rivers, you name it.

From there, maybe you want to grow a massive orchard with every piece of fruit in the game? Or maybe you want to donate every fossil to the Museum? Or maybe you want to make a mint selling Turnips to afford some of Tom Nook’s outrageous house upgrades? The choice is really up to you. It’s time to make this island a home.