Animal Crossing: New Horizons - Day 2

Today was my second day on Nublar. I knew that Blather's should be arriving at some point, but other than that, I didn't really have much of an idea on what else would be happening. Thankfully, Tom Nook has me covered, holding an Island-Wide Broadcast, and going over the latest happenings. Blather's wasn't the only one joining in on the fun today, the Nublar Airport was also officially open for business!

Between Blathers and the Airport, those two things were sure to keep me busy. But before I got started on that, I thought it would be a good idea to check my mail first. I had a bunch of letters from Nook, since I'd ordered some nice items from the Nook Terminal, but I also had a sweet letter from Mom, which had some Pears attached. Since Nublar's native fruit is Apples, some fresh Pears were a welcomed treat!

As you can see, I had a lot of critters next to my house since I had nowhere to put them, in fact, my final count totalled 64 critters! I'm glad Blathers finally came to give them a nice home. I made my way over to Blathers' newly built Tent, and introduced myself. He was very happy to meet me, and was eager for me to further explore Nublar to see what other treasures were around. He gave me the DIY recipes for the Vaulting Pole, as well as the Flimsy Shovel - these were sure to come in handy!

He also told me if I could give him 15 unique species, he'd be able to officially open up The Museum... Luckily for him, I had a bunch over at my house that were ready for their forever home! I ran back to my house to pick up my catchings, to bring them over to Blathers. Sadly, he only took 15 of them, so a good chunk of them are still stuck in their tiny cages... but now that I have a house, I'm sure I've got some sort of storage to put them in?

I went back over to my House with my excess critters, and was told I could access my storage unit, among other things, such as the light switch and decorating! I took this opportunity to put my critters into storage, as well as give my House a little redecorating, and change into my new gear I ordered from the Nook Terminal.

I'd previously visited Resident Services, where Timmy and Nook were holding a rather interesting conversation... Tom Nook had granted Timmy the responsibility of running his very own shop, but not without a catch-22... a number of materials were needed. We would need to gather 30 Wood, 30 Softwood, 30 Hardwood, and 30 Iron Nuggets to efficiently build the Shop. The Wood wouldn't be too hard to come by due to Nublar's abundance of Trees, but the Iron Nuggets would certainly be a challenge.

I put the Shop on the back-burner for now and decided to speak with Nook, thanking him for expanding my House. He told me about some new features my House would have, including the aforementioned storage, as well as a company called the Happy Home Academy, who would rate my House. He also gave me a Nook Miles Ticket, which could be used at Nublar's newly functioning Airport. My new loan came to 98,000 Bells - this is starting to get pretty steep!

I'd essentially exhausted Nublar of it's natural resources yesterday, that I had more than enough Bells to pay off this next loan. I headed over to the Terminal to access the ABD and paid it off in full. With that done, Nook asked if I'd be interested in, yet again, expanding my house. I've not had any issues earning money on Nublar, so I decided to go ahead with it. Tomorrow I'll have a larger house, but have to pay off a hefty 198,000 Bell loan!

Something I'd noticed intiailly on my way to The Museum was this peculiar Glowing Spot... I'd heard about these previously, and now that I could craft a Shovel, I tried my luck at digging there, and to my surprise was 1,000 Bells! I'd also heard a rumor that good things might happen if you replant the Bells here... So I did exactly that, and a little sapling sprouted. Now, we wait and see what happens.

Since I'd just crafted the Flimsy Shovel, I decided it'd be a good time to craft the other Tool Blathers taught me, the Vaulting Pole. With this handy pole, I'd now be able to access previously inaccessible parts of Nublar that were across the River. There were two little pockets to discover (one connected by a long path along the beach), which were covered in Weeds. There was also a dock down near the beach.

Something I neglected to mention was a castaway named Gulliver who had washed ashore. It took a while to wake him up, but once I did he told me that he got washed overboard, and was now stuck on my Island. He tried to call for help on his Communicator, but it was missing a couple of parts and couldn't function. He asked if I could give him a hand in finding them, and I decided to help him out.

He told me that they'd most likely be in the sand somewhere, so I tried my luck at digging a few holes. I soon noticed some rumblings in the sand that I'd noticed yesterday, and now that I had a Shovel, I decided that'd be a good place to dig. I now had one Communicator Part, just four more to find.

I quickly found another spot, but this time it was a Manila Clam. Digging this up gave me an idea for a DIY Recipe to create Fishing Bait, which I'm sure would come in handy (especially for Blathers' benefit!). With my new skill at bay, I continued to dig around the beach and found all five machine parts Gulliver was after.

As any struggling Islander would, Gulliver was very thankful that I helped him out, and said he'd send me something later as a thank you. He was able to successfully connect to his crew via his communicator, and they'd be picking him up later today. If the past has taught me anything, it's that I'm sure I'll be seeing you around sooner or later...

Since Gulliver was right near the Airport, I decided now would be a great time to stop by. Orville was running the desk again, but this time welcomed me with open arms. He gave me a run down of how the Airport worked, and introduced me to their Mailing Service. I decided to test it out for a small price of 200 Bells, and sent a letter to Plucky.

It then dawned on me I had a Nook Miles Ticket I could use, and Orville was more than happy to help me out with it. Apparently Nook Miles Ticket's allow me to go on Mystery Tours to remote Islands. These Islands are "supposedly" top secret, and the flight plans are destroyed once we've left. Sounds like there's ought to be something worthwhile on these Tours!

The first Tour took me to a small Island alongside my pilot, Wilbur. After taking some time to explore the Island, I found yet another message bottle, that had a DIY recipe attached, this time from Walt. I also stumbled across a Bird named Midge, and after a little convincing, she decided she wanted to move to Nublar. Guess I'll be seeing you tomorrow!

You may have noticed my face was a little messed up whilst talking to Midge. That's because I'd already started gathering materials to build the Shop, and in doing so I came across another Wasps Nest which stung my face. To add insult to injury, right after I got stung, my Flimsy Axe decided to break on the very next swing...

It then dawned on me... These tours sure would be a great way to gather materials for the Shop. Sure, Nublar has a lot of Wood, but we don't have that many Rocks, and these Islands sure have a lot. We spent all our Nook Miles on some Tickets, and jet set off to a number of Islands, finally gathering up enough Materials for the Shop. We also found two more Villagers on or travels, Flora and Tucker, both of which we convinced to more to Nublar as well. Tomorrow might be hectic if all these new faces decide to show up...

Now that we had more than enough materials, it was time to go see Timmy and inform him of the good news. As he should be, he was very thankful we were able to gather enough Materials for him, so much so that he even allowed us to decide where to place the Shop! I'd already scouted out a nice area across the area when I was exploring earlier, so that's exactly where I headed!

Now that the Shop is officially under construction, that's another thing to look forward tomorrow. These early days of Island Life sure are getting crazy day-by-day. From the Tours I did I also found some more Materials, such as Pine Cones, and other various Fruits. I decided to plant the Pears Mom had sent me, as well as some Oranges and Cherries I found. There was a nice little hideaway that seemed perfect to plant these non-native trees - now I just need to find some Peaches and I should have a full set!

Today was another crazy day on Nublar, and by the looks of it, tomorrow looks to be just about the same. I also need to connect to Pocket Camp so I can access some more items to further develop Nublar. Guess that's another job for tomorrow!

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Disclaimer: I received a copy of Animal Crossing: New Horizons from Nintendo AU