You’ll soon realise that Iron Nuggets are quite an important (and rare) resource in Animal Crossing: New Horizons. But how do you get them?
You’ll find iron nuggets in rocks in Animal Crossing: New Horizons. But getting them is rather pot-luck and requires some careful measures.
You’ll likely have a few rocks on your own island. In order to get Iron Nuggets (and other resources, usually clay and stone) from rocks, you need to hit them with a shovel. At maximum, you can get eight different items from a rock by hitting it in quick succession eight times. It’s not guaranteed that any of them will be iron nuggets, however, but usually one or two will be.
However: you can only hit rocks in Animal Crossing: New Horizons once a day. And here’s the tricky part: if you’ve eaten any fruit, you’ll be strong enough to break a rock when you hit it. They do seem to reappear, but slowly. I broke two rocks on my island, but only one reappeared the next day. Ensure when you’re hitting rocks, you haven’t eaten any fruit.
Now, to get maximum output from a rock, ensure that the eight spaces around the rock are clear. If there’s already an item on the ground next to a rock, it means that a new item can’t appear there.
Since your island in Animal Crossing: New Horizons only has a small number of rocks that can possibly give you iron nuggets, you’ll also have to look further afield. You can exchange your Nook Miles for a Nook Miles Ticket. Each ticket costs 2,000 Nook Miles and will permit you a single trip to a random island. These random islands typically have three or four rocks on, and each seems to have a higher chance of giving iron nuggets than your own rocks.
You’ll need to gather 30 iron nuggets early on in Animal Crossing: New Horizons as a task to build the shop. You’ll also need them to craft certain items, and they’re worth a decent amount of bells to sell, too. They’re a good resource to have plenty of – so be sure to mine rocks daily, and save up your Nook Miles to buy Nook Miles Tickets regularly.
Looking for more Animal Crossing: New Horizons how-tos? Visit our full guides round-up here.
