The top 10 wrong ways to play Animal Crossing: New Horizons

There are many ways to play Animal Crossing: New Horizons - you can focus on customizing your island, spend your days fishing, or try to collect as many Bells as possible. While New Horizons encourages you to achieve certain milestones, you won't be penalized for choosing a different approach to the game.

If you've already played hundreds of hours and are looking for a fresh way to enjoy island life, you can try out some unconventional playstyles to inject new energy into the game. Perhaps you might forgo visiting mysterious islands or revamp your island in a unique manner - the possibilities are virtually endless.

10 Give Villagers Ugly Clothing

Fortunately, you can give new clothing to a village resident whose default outfit you don't like, allowing them to wear it. Alternatively, you could even give them even more outrageous clothing to bring a smile to your face every time you see them on the island.

For instance, you could give your village residents the "Instant Muscle Suit" to create the illusion that they have six-pack abs. Or give them the "Bath Towel Wrap" to make them look like every day is a spa day. This works particularly well when the clothing item contrasts with the villager's aesthetic appearance - who would have ever imagined seeing a hamster with defined muscles?

9 Don’t Donate To Blathers

Once Eufemia has set up her tent on your island, you are not obligated to visit this inquisitive owl. In fact, you can capture any critter and store it in your pocket, either to build your personal museum or to sell it to Nook's Cranny, Flick, or C.J. and make some money.

While you will never obtain the fully expanded museum, the advantage is that Eufemia's tent remains, which has its own charm and resembles an archaeological site. If you're not a fan of fishing, bug catching, or art collecting, it's easy to completely forgo making donations to Eufemia.

8 Only Invite One Animal Species

With over 300 villagers that you can invite to your island, diversity of animal species is encouraged. However, if you have a preference for a specific species, there is no penalty for having all your villagers be the same type of animal.

Each animal species has different personalities and appearances, ensuring that your island doesn't become too monotonous and that you still have some variety. Except for octopuses, of course, since there are only four of them in the game. It's a fun way to showcase your love for a particular animal - you could even use the theme to decorate your island. For example, a cat island filled with cat towers.

7 Make Your Island A Lake

While Nintendo probably intended island customization as a means to enhance it, it can also be utilized in other ways. If a few rivers and ponds aren't enough for you, you can expand the water territory and practically cover the entire island with it.

Imagine Pacifidlog City from the Hoenn region in Pokémon, with each building on its own separate platform and pathways connecting them. This would make the island feel like a coastal town, which fits well with the island vacation theme of New Horizons. The only thing missing would be a restaurant serving fresh seafood.

6 Live Off The Land

Although you move to a deserted island in New Horizons, there are certain amenities that you can enjoy, including a shop and a clothing store. If you are particularly keen on living a natural life, you can forgo shopping and instead collect materials to craft everything you use on your own.

This approach would connect you more strongly with island life, as you would have to craft everything yourself, including the furniture you use to decorate the island and your home. There is no need for Bells when you have everything you need on the island itself.

5 Don’t Go Villager Hunting

A large part of the Animal Crossing community loved searching for villagers and spending hundreds of Nook Miles tickets to find their desired residents. While it can be exciting to search for specific villagers to add to your collection, it is also entertaining to let the plots fill automatically.

This makes the game run more like previous versions, where you had little control over who moved into your town. It adds an element of mystery to filling your island and makes it more likely that you'll become friends with other villagers who aren't as familiar to you. Who knows, you might even find your new favorite resident.

4 Make The Worst Happy Home Paradise Roommate Combinations

In the Happy Home Paradise DLC of New Horizons, you can bring villagers together to live as roommates and decorate their homes for them. While it's easy to select villagers with similar aesthetics who would likely get along well, you could also mix things up by choosing unusual combinations.

A snooty villager like Whitney living together with a lazy villager like Zucker would certainly make for an interesting combination, especially when it comes to designing their shared area to please both of them. Whitney better prepare herself to appreciate bugs.

3 Make Your Island A Maze

When planning the layout of your island, you usually want to ensure it's as accessible as possible, allowing you and your villagers to move around and explore freely. However, it can be fun to be completely unconventional and design an island-sized maze to confuse your villagers and friends who visit your island.

You could create and use hedges, similar to Rover's May Day maze, or use the spooky fence to give it a Halloween touch. If you're dedicated enough, you could even reshape the terrain to create your desired labyrinth. If a labyrinth suits your style, you could invite a bull villager to live in the center and serve as a minotaur.

2 Decorate With Unconventional Items

When choosing what to decorate your island with, most people would lean towards aesthetically pleasing items like the garden wagon or lantern posts. But if you're up for a challenge, you could use unconventional items - even the DIY recipes you create from trash can be used in a meaningful way.

The stack of tires could be used to create a garage or a race track with the cars added in the 2.0 update. Or if you want to be realistic, you could use the trash bags to mimic an urban aesthetic. There are many underutilized items that could work well in unexpected ways.

1 Never Pay Off Your Final Loan

Although Tom Nook has gained a reputation as a money-hungry tanuki in the Animal Crossing community, he is quite lenient when it comes to actually repaying the debt you owe him. Surprisingly, he gives you unlimited time to pay off your loan. If only it were that easy in real life.

The loan for your last house upgrade will cost you 2,498,000 Bells - if you even decide to pay it at all. Tom Nook will give you the upgrade without requiring you to pay a single Bell, allowing you to cheat him out of the final payment. Unfortunately, you won't be able to expand your storage any further, but you'll certainly be able to keep your Bells in your pocket.