The Actual Best Way to Earn Money in Animal Crossing

Hui Ying
4 min readOct 13, 2020

Since my last Animal Crossing article, I’ve since racked up over 300 hours playing as a little island representative (and no, I’m not done with my island yet).

My growing obsession means that I’ve been so involved in the Animal Crossing community that all I see on my Twitter timeline now is just ACNH content. Whether it is pictures of other people’s islands, or memes about Raymond, I have seen it all.

But the one thing I see on my timeline very often is how people are suffering from burn out and how they’ve grown tired of Animal Crossing.

Don’t get me wrong, I understand. Playing Animal Crossing day in and out, especially if you’re still early on the game, can get tiring and oftentimes frustrating. There’s a limit to how many fish and insects you can feasibly catch in a day so trying to earn as many bells and Nook Miles Tickets as possible can end up feeling as a chore.

So if you’re here to find out how to get rich quick, this is not the article for you. But for the sake of being nice: playing the stalk market is the fastest way to earn bells and if you’re smart, you can earn a couple of easy millions per week. As for NMTs, you can buy a good amount from Nookazon for anywhere from a couple of thousand bells to a million.

But here is my secret to earning money in-game. And while it is not actually the best way in terms of racking up the dollar signs, it is the one of the more fun ways you can earn money and still preserve your love for the game.

That’s right, I’m talking about services.

If you’re still new to the game, when AC players talk about offering services, they mean that they’re willing to do chores on your island in exchange for a small fee. So whether that is picking up all your weeds or clearing your beach of sea shells or even just watering your flowers, if you need something small done, there is always someone willing to do it for you.

The truth is that many people in the ACNH have long since run out of things to do. They’re racked up the bells and the NMTs, they’ve completed their museums, they’ve upgraded their house all the way. And now they have all the time and money in the world to spare.

So these kinds of players are prone to wanting their island revamped at some point and that is where you come in.

The reason why offering your services is such a good way to earn money is because players with too much money to burn will pay you to do just about anything. In fact, I’ve once been paid 3 million bells just to draw a picture of Hello Kitty and ramen on someone’s bulletin board. I’ve also been paid around 700 thousand bells just to water some flowers.

So how do you get started on becoming a jack-of-all-trades?

While one of the easiest ways is to advertise your services on Nookazon, the site is so overpopulated with people that it is incredibly hard to get your listing noticed. If you were to look at the services tab on Nookazon, just refreshing the page alone is enough to bring in a new wave of players all offering the same services you are.

The trick here then is to stand out. Instead of using Nookazon, start looking at advertising your services on Discord servers.

The perfect Discord server is one with a healthy number of active members, but not one that moves so fast that your listing will get ignored. Nookazon has their own Discord server that suits our purposes perfectly.

But even here, you still have to stand out. The competition may be lower in a server but there will still be a lot of other people who are looking to earn some extra bells by doing chores. So while it may seem like a lot of work, you should prepare a poster of some kind. It doesn’t have to look professional, even a ugly basic one will do. As long as it gives details about the kind of services you offer and your Discord handle, you’re good to go.

The poster I use to attract offers. Occasionally I switch up the design so it doesn’t seem like I’m spamming the Discord chat.

Now sit back and let the offers roll in!

Keep in mind, you don’t always have to only accept bells and Nook Miles Tickets as payment. I’ve taken DIYs and even valuable furniture as payment.

Just remember to periodically send your poster in the chat, so to make sure players who are looking for people to help them revamp their island see you first.

This method may not be the fastest way of earning money, but it is certainly the most fun. Not only do you get to visit various islands and get inspiration for your own, you can even make a couple of good friends along the way. And at the end of the day, isn’t the AC community all about making friends?

So have fun and go earn those bells!

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Hui Ying

Hui Ying is an undergraduate working on her debut poetry collection and novel. Find them on Twitter at @distanceofio.