Your island in Animal Crossing: New Horizons is full of trees. Some of them in your way? Here’s how to chop them down.
There’s a couple of ways to remove trees in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, and you can do so very early on in the game. You’ll need either an axe (not a stone axe) or a shovel and some fruit to do so.
If you have crafted a standard axe, you can simply chop at a tree three times and it’ll fall. Doing this leaves a stump behind, however, and the tree will be gone for good. If you want to remove the stump afterwards, you can use a shovel to dig it up, and it’ll disappear.
If you’d rather not leave a stump behind or destroy a tree altogether, you can simply dig a tree up. You’ll need to have consumed some fruit to make yourself strong enough (just one piece of fruit is enough). Eat your fruit then use the shovel at the base of the tree. You’ll then dig up the entire tree, placing it in your inventory. Removing trees this way means you can place them elsewhere later on.
If you’re visiting a random island with a Nook Miles ticket, digging up trees is a good way to bring them back to your island to plant yourself. It allows you to grow new fruits that weren’t originally native to your island. Digging up trees in Animal Crossing: New Horizons also gives you more control over what your island looks like in the very early stages of the game.
Looking for more Animal Crossing: New Horizons how-tos? Visit our full guides round-up here.
