Getting to Higher Ground in Animal Crossing: New Horizons
As an avid Animal Crossing player for over 10 years, navigating the terrain has always been an integral part of the gameplay experience. However, New Horizons takes this to a whole new level by introducing literal high grounds and cliffs as part of your island layout. Getting up on these cliffs can be tricky at first, but has major payoffs for designing and decorating your island paradise.
Why Get on Higher Ground
Here are some of the key reasons you’ll want access to those cliffs and highest points:
- Placement of ramps and stairs – To be able to travel conveniently between levels, you’ll need to unlock and construct ramps and stairs to connect the high grounds to lower levels.
- Decoration opportunities – The cliffs open up new horizons (pun intended) for decorative items like furniture, gardens, playgrounds, neighborhoods, and more.
- Hybrid flowers – Special hybrid flower species often spawn on the cliffsides high above, bringing unique colors to your floral displays.
- Fruit trees – High cliffs provide extra real estate to plant orchards of native and foreign fruit trees.
- Clifftop builds – You can create cool structures like cafes, reading nooks, vista points, and lighthouses along the cliff edges.
- Aerial views – Being on the high ground lets you scope out beautiful bird’s eye views of the rest of your island creation.
Trust me when I say the effort to scale those heights is well worth it! Now let’s get into the various methods for ascending up high.
Using Tools to Traverse Terrain
New Horizons equips you with several tools that come in handy when hiking the island’s mountains and cliffs:
Ladder
This handy item is straight out of Tom Nook’s orientation kit provided at the start. The ladder allows you to climb up and down 4-level cliff sides. Pro tip: make sure it’s equipped before approaching a cliff and use A to place it against the edge.
Vaulting Pole
Also courtesy of the one and only Nook, the vaulting pole is indispensable for leaping over 4-block wide river channels so you can access areas beyond. And like the ladder, keep it ready in a quick slot when exploring to surmount any channel with A.
Terraforming
Once you unlock Island Designer features (after getting 3 stars), terraforming opens up total freedom to carve out slopes wherever you please! My favorite tool is the cliff constructor which literally lifts the ground up into towering highlands and plateaus. Just watch out for max height limits…wouldn’t want your masterfully-crafted Rivendell replica violating in-game physics!
Building Bridges and Inclines
If manually scaling up cliffs sounds like too much manual labor, I don’t blame you! Let the infrastructure do the heavy lifting by constructing permanent pathways to those sweet high-altitude spots.
Both build options become available after attaining 3-star island status. Speak with Tom Nook about public development initiatives which are funded by generous community donations (or your own Bells if you so choose).
Pro design tip: try aligning multiple bridges along north-to-south rivers and position ramps strategically around the island perimeter to unveil hidden vantage spots!
Using Flight to Reach Higher Ground
If you upgraded your house storage, you should have received a colorful vaulting pole that defies gravity itself – the pole vault! While intended for crossing rivers hands-free, you can exploit its bouncy physics to reach places no villager has gone before.
- Sprint towards any cliff ledge and jump with A right at the edge
- Immediately hit A again to deploy the pole mid-air, launching you upward
- Congrats, you can now access out-of-reach cliffs and peaks!
This tech takes a few tries getting used to the timing, but once mastered opens up thrilling sequence breaks and sequence skips across your island’s terrain.
And there you have it – go traverse those mountainous maps to your heart’s content! Let me know if this guide brought you to breathtaking new heights of adventure. Wishing you sunny skies and soaring vistas ahead, my friends!
Method | Materials Needed | Difficulty |
---|---|---|
Incline | Wood, stone, iron nuggets | Easy |
Staircase | Wood, softwood, hardwood, iron nuggets | Easy |
Ladder | Wood, softwood | Easy |
Vaulting pole | Wood, softwood | Moderate |
FAQ
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How do I build inclines and bridges to reach higher levels in Animal Crossing: New Horizons?
To reach higher levels in your island, you’ll need to construct inclines or bridges. Visit Resident Services and speak to Tom Nook to commission either an incline or bridge build project. These do require materials and bells to complete, but allow you to easily travel between different elevations.
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What’s the max number of inclines and bridges I can have on my Animal Crossing island?
You can have up to 8 ramps and bridges each on your island at one time. So a total of 16 elevated points of access between levels is the limit.
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Can I demolish old inclines/bridges and build new ones somewhere else?
Yes, you can demolish existing ramps or bridges if you want to relocate them. Talk to Tom Nook and select the demolition option. This will remove it so you can build a new elevated route somewhere else if needed.
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Are there different types of inclines and bridge styles to choose from?
There are 4 incline designs and 4 bridge designs you can pick from when commissioning new elevated access points. This allows you to match styles to different parts of your island.
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How many human days does it take for a new ramp or bridge to be built?
It takes one real life day for construction to be completed on new inclined paths or bridge connections. So you need to wait until the next calendar day before the route becomes usable.
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Can I speed up construction of an incline/bridge build project?
Unfortunately there is no way to accelerate the building time for new inclined paths or bridge links. You’ll have to be patient for the full one day duration before traveling to new levels.
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What happens if I time travel while an incline/bridge is under construction?
Time traveling while ramps or bridges are being built may cause glitches, including permanent “under construction” status. It’s best not to manipulate the Nintendo Switch clock during ongoing infrastructure projects.
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Do inclines and bridges count towards the island development permit count?
Yes, each ramp and bridge does contribute to your overall structure permit count. So placing many could prevent you from building more houses, shops, etc if you hit the limit. Check with Nook to see your current count.