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Animal Crossing Iron Nuggets and Gold Nuggets: How to find and farm Nuggets in New Horizons explained

How to find these useful materials in New Horizons.

Iron Nuggets and Gold Nuggets are crafting materials used in Animal Crossing: New Horizons.

Iron Nuggets are particular useful materials, so you're going to find yourself hunting them down pretty often. For this reason, it's important that you know how to find Iron Nuggets.

Knowing how both Iron Nuggets and Gold Nuggets are used will also help you decide what to do with these materials.

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How to find Iron Nuggets and Gold Nuggets in Animal Crossing: New Horizons explained

If you're in need of either Iron Nuggets or Gold Nuggets, then grab either an Axe or Shovel and find the nearest rock.

These rocks will be scattered across your island and any mystery island you visit.

Once you find a rock, hit it with either your Shovel or Axe. For every hit you land, a material will come flying out of the stone.

These materials include:

  • Stone
  • Clay
  • Iron Nuggets
  • Gold Nuggets (Very rare)
Dig holes around you to help you stay in place during your rock hitting.

There is no guarantee on which materials you'll receive and, as long you don't miss a hit, you'll receive eight materials per rock.

If you're having trouble hitting a stone, then dig a hole diagonally either side of you. This should keep you in place as you ricochet after hitting the rock.

Philippa Warr also came up with a permanent solution to this problem, which you can discover below:

How to farm Iron Nuggets in Animal Crossing: New Horizons explained

You're going to be using an awful lot of Iron Nuggets in New Horizons, especially in the early days when you need 30 to help build a bridge.

If you're in desperate need of Iron Nuggets the first thing to do is ensure that you mined every rock on your island. If you're not sure, then go around and check each one.

Next earn 2000 Nook Miles and, miles in hand, head to the NookStop in Residential Services and purchase a Nook Miles Ticket, which will allow you to visit a mystery island.

Now head to the airport and get a flight to your mysterious destination. The moment you land, begin hitting those rocks; there should be between three to four rocks on your mystery island, which will easily allow you to double your Iron Nugget supplies.

Repeat this process until you have as many Iron Nuggets as you need to either complete your latest project or restock your storage.

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The Animal Crossing 2.0 update and Happy Home Paradise is here! We can help you with the new additions - including where to find Brewster, Gyroids, new villagers, ordinances, new fences, storage shed, new hairstyles, Froggy Chair, group stretching and Kapp'n boat tours. Cooking is now unlockable, so you need to know how to make both flour and sugar, as well as how to grow carrots, potatoes and tomatoes. Meanwhile, if you're new to Animal Crossing, our New Horizons tips can help with the basics. From the off, there's fish and bugs to catch, flowers and fruit to grow with. One long term goal is building your Happy Home Academy score. Finally, you need tools such as the new ladder and vaulting pole to fully explore.


Uses of Iron Nuggets and Gold Nuggets in Animal Crossing: New Horizons explained

Iron Nuggets are used in a variety of furniture DIY recipes, from a Mini DIY workbench to Frying Pan.

More importantly, however, Iron Nuggets are a crucial material in multiple tool DIY recipes. For this reason, it's a good idea to keep a number of Iron Nuggets stored in your house storage for when your tools break.

Since there is only a finite number of stones on your island, you don't want to run out and leave yourself toolless for a day.

Gold Nuggets are used to create Golden Tools once you've discovered or earned a Golden Tool recipe. There are also a number of furniture DIY recipes, such as the Aries Rocking Chair, that require Gold Nuggets.

Finally, Gold Nuggets are worth 8,000 bells, which is great if you're in need of some quick bells. We recommend, however, that, due to their rarity, you save any Gold Nugget you find.

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