In Animal Crossing: New Horizons, when you finally unlock the ability to make and place bridges, the world opens up immensely… and then shuts right back down again. You’ve never needed Log Stakes up until now, but they’re a crucial material in bridge-building, and you may have no idea how to get your hands on them. Here’s how to get Log Stakes in Animal Crossing: New Horizons.

How to Get Log Stakes in Animal Crossing: New Horizons

Making Log Stakes in New Horizons is one of those deceptively simple tasks that can pop up from time to time in any video game. You get its DIY Recipe early in the game, as part of a big batch of other Recipes that all unlock at the same time, so you’re never specifically told that you have it, and you never need to use Log Stakes at all until you’ve gotten a fair distance into the early game. It’s hidden in plain sight.

The good news is that the Log Stakes DIY Recipe can’t be missed. It’s one of the recipes you have access to as soon as you can make use of DIY Workbenches, and can be found under the Housewares tab in the DIY Recipes book on your Nook Phone. A single Log Stake requires 3 Wood (not hardwood or softwood, just plain old Wood) to make, which you can harvest from trees with your trusty Axe. From there, take the materials back to the closest DIY Workbench and whip up as many as you need. (If you’re looking to speed up the process, check out this weird trick we found.)

You can use Log Stakes in the early game as a way to keep your island organized, as a sort of tiny improvised fence, but they don’t really have a standard use until you need to make your first Log Bridge. Once you’ve fully upgraded Nook’s Cranny on your island, Tom Nook will reveal that he wants to expand the island’s population, and task you with creating a Log Bridge. You’ll need a total of 12 Wood, 4 pieces of Clay, and 4 Stones to whip it up. The latter two materials can be found by beating on rocks with your Shovel or Axe; you’ve probably found plenty of both before now as part of your eternal search for iron and gold nuggets.

Related: Animal Crossing: New Horizons – How to Get the Villagers You Want

Now that you know how to make log stakes in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, it’s time to get out there and start making your island beautiful.

We went all in on Tom Nook’s desert island package, and we’ve been writing about it ever since. Check out our New Horizons game hub for more news, tips, and tricks, including:

• Your friends can help you grow flowers faster; here’s how
• Check out our master list of K.K. Slider’s entire discography
• How to get your island to a full 5-star rating

Animal Crossing: New Horizons fans, seriously, don’t feel bad about having to look this up. The Log Stakes recipe is just one of those things you run into in video games from time to time that ends up hidden by accident. There are a million of them in a thousand different video games, and if you follow us on Twitter, @PrimaGames, we’ll tell you all about a few more of them.