Nook’s Cranny is a shop run by Timmy and Tommy in Animal Crossing: New Horizons. It sells a rotating selection of furniture and housing decorations and a constant selection of DIY recipes, tools, flower seeds, and more.
Today, I will teach you how to upgrade Nook’s Cranny in Animal Crossing: New Horizons in order to get the most out of it.
If you want the bare bones, here’s what you need to do to upgrade it:
- Play for 30 Days after Nook’s Cranny is built.
- Buy & sell at least 200,000 Bells of Goods.
- Have Mabel visit your island.
After meeting all the requirements, an announcement will be made by Isabelle in the morning letting you know that the shop will be closed the next day. Afterwards, you will get the upgraded Nook’s Cranny in your game!
While you wait for that to happen, make sure to check out my previous guide on how to catch scorpions in the game.
Nook’s Cranny – Why Is It So Important?
While not as demanding as upgrading it, building the Nook’s Cranny shop isn’t easy either. For the first version, you will need to first pay off your initial tent loan by using 5,000 Nook Miles. After you pay off your loan, speak with Timmy & Tommy in the Resident Services tent.
After that, you will need to collect 30 Wood, 30 Softwood, 30 Hardwood, and 30 Iron Nuggets to have enough materials to build the store. When you have collected all of the resources, head back to Resident Services and hand the crafting materials to begin construction.
Why is it so important for players to upgrade the Nook’s Cranny Shop?
The upgraded and expanded version of the shop offers several benefits. The variety of furniture increases with the expansions. Also, new tool designs can be purchased, although they are merely cosmetic changes.
A Timer tool item can be found only in the upgraded version. By purchasing and using the Timer, you can create fishing and bug-catching competitions in multiplayer with friends online.
Upgrading the Nook’s Cranny Shop in Animal Crossing: New Horizons
As mentioned in the intro, there are three main requirements you need to meet to upgrade and expand the Nook’s Cranny store in Animal Crossing: New Horizons.
Unlocking these expansions takes a lot of time and patience. It definitely won’t come easy, and veterans of the series will find out that, unlike past Animal Crossing games where the first store upgrade could be unlocked in under two weeks, this will be much harder.
First of all, you’ll need to have played for at least 30 days since the initial Nook’s Cranny Shop was built on your island.
Secondly, you will need to both earn and spend an impressive amount of Bells with Timmy & Tommy in the shop. Think around the amount of 200.000 Bells, and oof that a lot of money.
Selling fish or bugs can be a good way to make your start slowly working toward the goal.
Lastly, you will need to have Mabel visit your island outside Resident Services at least once. This is a close to meaningless requirement, seeing how Mabel will have already visited your island multiple times by the 30-day mark.
Definitely speak to her at least once to have your basics covered – you don’t want this to be the only thing preventing you from upgrading the shop.
One pesky thing that comes with upgrading Nook’s Cranny is the downtime needed for it to be completed. Isabelle will give you a heads-up, but still, it will be completely unavailable to sell or buy items that day until it opens fully expanded the next day.
Final Thoughts
In Animal Crossing: New Horizons, there come a lot of benefits to upgrading the Nook’s Cranny Shop, and it will offer a lot of options to upgrade your island aesthetics-wise.
With so many different options, unique styles that reflect players, and a ton of screenshots and videos, you will be able to turn the island into a paradise. And while you do that, make sure to double check my Animal Crossing Villagers Tier List too.
Or if you want to check out a similar game, learn How to Move & Remove Furniture in Disney Dreamlight Valley.
And if you have additional questions or comments about Nook’s Cranny, let us all know down below.
With thousands of hours played on Nintendo systems since the original Gameboy, Nikiforos is happy to share his endless passion for Nintendo franchises and everything he can get his hands on.
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