So, you’ve just been dumped on an island and somehow wrangled into what could potentially either be the best time of your life or the worst administrative position ever. Welcome to Animal Crossing: New Horizons, mate! You’re going to have to make do with the real basics when you first make Tom Nook’s acquaintance, so here are the starting items in Animal Crossing New Horizons that you can expect. 

Starting Items in Animal Crossing New Horizons

Now, you might remember starting with not much more than a tent and the clothes on your back in Animal Crossing: New Leaf. Well, things aren’t all that different this time around, though villagers will surprisingly also start with tents and have to work their way up to home ownership the hard way just like you. Now that’s true solidarity if we’ve ever seen it!

From the looks of things at the Nintendo Direct, the two key starting items you’re going to get in New Horizons are:

1. Your trusty tent
2. Your NookPhone

The NookPhone is probably the thing that’s going to save your life here since it condenses quite a lot of features into one. As you may already know, you’ll be able to use your NookPhone to call for a Rescue Service that lets you fast-travel to your home from anywhere on the island. It’s going to have a map feature, a camera, Nook Miles, DIY Recipes (essential for anyone who wants to crack into crafting), and the ability to call another Islander. You’ll unlock other apps over the course of the game, but your phone will have what you need to communicate with your starting villagers, to craft something more habitable for your living conditions, and to generally survive. Thanks, Tom Nook!

Sure, all of this seems like the bare minimum but we do like that the game has apparently decided to level the playing field between villagers and you when it comes to setting up digs on the island. We reckon it’s also pretty cool that you’ll get to pick the location of your villagers’ homes if nothing else, so you can start planning your dream flower patch without having to entertain the danger of someone putting their ugly little Cool-style house right on top of it.

Now that you know about the starting items in Animal Crossing New Horizons that you’ll be given when you’re plopped onto your new home for the foreseeable future, maybe it’ll be a little easier to plan ahead! Need a hand with anything else related to governing an island full of rowdy animal strangers? Check out these tips and tricks that we’ve put together for your benefit:

• Customizing Your Home in Animal Crossing: New Horizons 
• Animal Crossing: New Horizons Island Facilities Guide 
• Animal Crossing: New Horizons Permits – How They Work