One of the slightly more tedious parts of Animal Crossing: New Horizons is the need to constant replace your broken tools. They’re one of the most vital components in the game as you’ll use them constantly to farm, catch fish and bugs, hop across rivers, shoot presents out of the sky, and dig up all sorts of treasures. The good news is that for those players that are truly dedicated to the game, a super durable version of each tool exists — golden tools.
Be warned, while golden tools are the highest possible grade of tool that you can craft, they can still break and it will take you weeks if not months to obtain their DIY recipes. So for those of you committed enough to slog away at the challenge of obtaining golden tools, I’ve created a handy guide to help you along the way.
Golden Axe
To obtain the Golden Axe, you will need to break 100 axes. I recommend the Flimsy Axe as it’s far more easy to create and break. To create a Flimsy Axe you’ll need 5 tree branches and 1 stone. The best way to collect branches is to continually shaking a tree (it can be the same tree). Rocks are limited to the boulders available on your island, so you may need to redeem some Nook Miles to collect what you need. After breaking 100 axes the Golden Axe DIY recipe will arrive in the mail.
Golden Fishing Rod
To obtain the Golden Fishing Rod, you will need to catch every fish in the Critterpedia. Unless you use the time travel feature this is going to take a long time as to accomplish this challenge you need to fish in all four seasons and at different times of the day. Once you’ve caught them all Ash Ketchum style, the DIY recipe for the Golden Fishing Rod will arrive in the mail.
Golden Net
To obtain the Golden Net, you will need to catch every bug in your Critterpedia. As with fishing, this is going to be take a long time to complete because certain bugs only appear during specific times of the day and specific seasons. So, either cheat with time travel or settle in for the long haul. Once you’ve gone Pokemon on the bugs, the DIY recipe for the Golden Net will arrive in the mail.
Golden Shovel
To obtain the Golden Shovel, you will need to assist the worst traveler in all of Animal Crossing, Gulliver the Seagull. You may have already run into him washed up on your island and assisted him with finding his communicator parts. Well get ready to go through the process 30 times. Yeah this ones brutal. Communicator parts can be found on the beach in the same spots that clams can be dug up. Never dug up a clam? Look for a small hole that spits up water. After this trial of Hercules the DIY recipe for the Golden Shovel will arrive in the mail.
Golden Slingshot
There’s no confirmed method available yet as to how to obtain this tool. A number of different players and groups are reporting that this will require you to shoot down over 100 balloons with a slingshot. The final Nook Miles challenge for balloons requires you to shoot down 300, so it’s likely that you’ll need at least that much, if not more. Once we have an official confirmation we’ll be sure to update our guide.
Golden Watering Can
To obtain the Golden Watering Can, your island needs to receive a 5-star rating. Once you’ve upgraded the Resident Services area you can talk with Isabelle and request an evaluation of your island. To hit 5 stars you’ll need to have enough flowers, trees, outdoor furniture, villagers, and build every building that can be built. If you’re missing things you can ask Isabelle what your islanders are requesting be added. On reaching 5 stars Isabelle will give you the DIY recipe for the Golden Watering Can.
To craft your golden tools you’ll need any lower tier version of the tool and a Gold Nugget. As with Iron Nuggets, you can find the gold version by hitting boulders, the only difference being gold are much more rare, so be sure not to sell them!
Let me know what you think of the challenges down below in the comments, or hit me up on Twitter @heyitsjjtravers.
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