Money Making Guide - How to Get Bells Fast in Animal Crossing: New Horizons

In case you haven’t heard, Animal Crossing: New Horizons has become an instant hit during the quarantine! With no doubt, many of you have landed and taken up residence on your new island already. 

If you want to turn this beautiful location into the perfect tropical getaway, you're going to need plenty of Bells, which is the main currency in Animal Crossing. Because after you upgrade your tent into a house, all of the subsequent house upgrades will cost lots of ACNH Bells. And you might want to do these things in the game: pay off your various mortgages, decorate your home, buy new clothes or items, and upgrade your island, and these don't come cheap.

There's a wide range of methods of earning Bells in Animal Crossing, some being a lot faster than others. In this guide, we'll show you the best and fastest ways to make Animal Crossing Bells while playing. 

Let's get started.

1. Hit the 'Money Rock'. 


You'll find plenty of rocks around your island. If you use a shovel or ax to wack at them, Bells might pop out, because one of the rocks will produce Bells when struck. There is only one “Money Rock” each day, but hitting it 8 times in a row will net you around 20,000 ACNH Bells. You need to get a rhythm going to maximize Bell production, so be careful not to miss a hit or you’ll break the money chain.

If you haven't find the Money Rock yet, don't be depressed, you still can whack a rock and get stones, clay, iron, or gold. These items can all be used in crafting or be sold for Bells. 

Note: If you keep getting thrown backwards when hitting rocks, try digging two holes to keep you in place.

2. Sell weeds.


Weeds on your island signal neglect and, for many players, their first act in the game will be de-weeding their island. Once you’ve collected a load of weeds you’ll be left with clumps of weeds in your inventory made up of 99 individual plants.

Take these to the shop and you’ll be able to bring in 990 bells for each clump of 99. While this isn’t a huge profit, you’ll be able to kill two birds with one stone by cleaning up your island and earning some Bells while you do it.

And you can craft weeds into Hay beds which will not only sell for more (x20 weeds makes a Hay bed that sells for 400 Bells as opposed to 200 Bells for the weeds in their uncrafted state), but also nets you Nook Miles for the crafting. Or you can also collect a bunch of weeds, craft them into the Leaf umbrella, and make 300 per umbrella! It's double what you'd make off the clump of 15 weeds required to craft the umbrella and it doesn't use any tools (which cost resources to make).

Note: Find Leif's Garden Shop at the main plaza, and sell weeds to him, he'll pay twice what Timmy and Tommy give you for weeds.

3. Shake trees. 


There are ACNH items and coins hidden in the trees around your island, so you should be shaking every tree you have access to. Simply go up to the trunk and press the A button on your Switch, and then your character will shake a tree lodging anything in the treetops loose. You’ll often get a tree branch, 100 Bells, and even random furniture. 

The cool part is that trees are an infinite resource for branches. You can keep shaking, and they’ll keep falling. Branches will fall opposite of the side you’re shaking and you’ll also want to make sure there isn’t anything on the ground that could get in the way of the branches landing spot. It’s a good idea to pluck weeds and keep flowers away from trees if you’re planning to shake them often.

Note: Make sure you have a bug net in hand because you’ll sometimes shake out a wasp nest and they’ll attack you if you’re not prepared! And the wasp sells for a lot, so try to catch them!

4. Plant a money tree.


Have you seen the glowing spot on the ground when you wander through your island home? If you have, use your shovel to dig in that spot immediately and you will find 1,000 ACNH Bells! Even better, if you choose to rebury the Bells, in a few days’ time your island will become home to a highly desirable money tree.

Select and plant the bag of Bells you found to grow a money tree. Or, if you have more Bells saved, try burying 10,000 Animal Crossing Bells or even 99,000 instead of simply reburying the 1,000 you dig up. 

Give it a few days and you’ll have yourself a beautiful tree with three bags of bells hanging from its branches. Each bag will match the original amount of bells you first planted. So if you bury 10K bells, you’ll end up getting 30K bells from the tree. 

Note: Each money tree can also only produce bells once, then after it will become just a standard old tree, but you will see a new money tree glimmer spot appears on your island every day. 

5. Catch and sell high-valued fish and bugs.

Go and capture a few critters and you’ll be able to sell the local wildlife at Nook’s Cranny.



We'll start with fish. You'll find plenty of fish swimming around your island, so try to catch them! But you will know what kind of fish it is until you pull it up. If you happen to catch one of the rarer fish, you can really turn a profit from it when you go to sell. That said, filling your pockets with 20 fish is very likely to net you several thousand Bells so it’s never a waste of time. So spend some time fishing every day and see if you get lucky.  

To help, we've made a list of the fish that Sell for the Most Bells in ACNH: Koi (rare, but obtainable!), Golden Trout (rare), Pike, Cherry Salmon, Bitterling, Sea Butterfly, Red Snapper, Olive Flounder, Football Fish, Oarfish (rare), Coelacanth (rare).

Note: Fishing in the rain is a good choice because you're more likely to come upon a rare fish then. 


Then we'll talk about bugs. There are some bugs that can get you a lot of Bells, like Paper Kite Butterflies (white and black wings), Emperor Butterflies (light blue wings), and Peacock Butterflies (green and black wings). Each of these will sell for between 1,000 and 4,000 Bells. And here a list of the bugs that Sell for the Most Bells in ACNH: Tarantula, Orchid Mantis, Wasp, Hermit Crab.

If you don't suffer from arachnophobia, you should pay a visit to Tarantula Island. This is a Mystery Island filled with Tarantulas - one of the rarest insects in the game. This method involves some bravery but it's absolutely worth it. If you manage to catch one Tarantula, you'll earn plenty of Bells, we're talking thousands here. 

Note: There's a risk that you may get bitten and faint, so approach with care.

6.  Buy low, sell high.


If you're looking for a high risk, high reward investment, then the stalk market in New Horizons is for you. Every Sunday Daisy Mae will show up on your island and offer to sell you turnips. Her prices will vary from week to week (between about 90 and 110 Bells), so try to buy when they're on the low side. Stock up on as many as you can afford. Keep in mind, you can't keep them in your house storage, so you'll need a place to dump them. Otherwise, you'll be carrying them around in your pockets.

Timmy and Tommy won't buy turnips on Sunday, but after that, they'll offer varying prices throughout the week. Check back in regularly and wait for the price to be more than what you bought them for and then unload your turnips and make a big profit. 

Note: Just don't hold onto them too long because if it gets back to Sunday, they'll all rot and become worthless.

7. Buy Cheap Animal Crossing Bells. 


At its core, Animal Crossing: New Horizons is all about earning money to pay off your loan and build your perfect life. There are plenty of things you can do to earn Bells, but what if you don't want to waste your time? You can visit our ACNH Marketplace to buy Animal Crossing Bells now and become a billionaire at once!

So go and have your own adventure in Animal Crossing: New Horizons now!