How To Get Hardwood in Animal Crossing

Hardwood is one of the most important resources you’ll collect in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, as you’ll use it to craft everything from new tools to furniture for your home. However, before you can start collecting hardwood or other types of wood in this Nintendo Switch game, you’ll need to craft a trusty axe.

How To Craft an Axe in Animal Crossing

Very early in New Horizons, Tom Nook will give you a DIY recipe for a flimsy axe. You’ll need one stone and five tree branches to craft it, but these items are easy to find. Stones can be found quickly by hitting one of the large rocks scattered around your island with a shovel, while branches will fall out of trees when you shake them. 

Once you’ve collected the materials and assembled your flimsy axe at a crafting table, you’re ready to start chopping some wood.

How To Chop Hardwood in Animal Crossing

Hardwood is the darkest colored wood and is best obtained by chopping trees. While hardwood trees like cedar and oak have a slightly higher chance of dropping hardwood, it can be obtained from regular trees, fruit-bearing trees, and even palm trees. The only type that won’t drop hardwood is bamboo plants. 

To get hardwood, follow these steps:

1. Equip your axe.

2. Walk up to a tree and press the A button to swing your axe.

   Hitting a tree three times with a regular axe will chop it down, meaning you won't be able to go back to that tree for more wood. Instead, use a flimsy or stone axe to preserve trees and keep the wood flowing.

3. Pick up the chopped hardwood by pressing the Y button.

   Each tree on your island will drop a maximum of three pieces of wood each day, so the more trees you plant, the more wood you can collect.

How To Get Wood and Softwood

Use the same method as above to get wood and softwood. You can tell them apart by color, as wood has brown bark, and softwood is much lighter than wood or hardwood.

How To Chop Wood on Other Islands

If you run out of wood to chop on your own island, you can travel to a randomly generated island to harvest more.

Here’s what you need to do:

1. Obtain a Nook Miles Ticket. You can purchase one from the Nook Stop at Resident Services for 2,000 Nook Miles.

2. Take the ticket to the airport (Dodo Airlines), located on the south-side of your island.

   Dodo Airlines is also where you access Animal Crossing: New Horizons' multiplayer features. You can invite other players locally and over the internet to visit your island or travel to a friend's island. If a friend makes you a best friend, you can even cut down trees on their island ... but make sure you ask nicely, first!

3. Talk to Orville at the front desk.

4. Select I wanna fly from the options.

5. Select Use Nook Miles Ticket.

Unfortunately, the type of island you’ll be taken to is randomized, so there’s a chance it won’t have any trees. If this happens, you’ll need to return to your island and repeat the process above until you land on an island with the trees you’re looking for.

How To Get Bamboo

Every tree except bamboo plants will produce wood, hardwood, and softwood. Instead, bamboo plants will produce two resources: bamboo pieces and young spring bamboo. However, bamboo isn’t native to your island, so you’ll need to travel to a random island to find it. 

Once you’ve discovered bamboo plants, be sure to transplant them to your own island by digging up the plant or harvesting their fruit (bamboo shoots). You can take these back to your island and plant them to have a recurring stream of bamboo resources.

What To Do With Wood in Animal Crossing

Wood is primarily used for building a variety of furniture and is also a key component in many tools:

• Flimsy Shovel (5 hardwood)
• Flimsy Watering Can (5 softwood)
• Stone Axe (1 Flimsy Axe, 3 wood)
• Axe (1 Flimsy Axe, 3 wood, 1 iron nugget)
• Slingshot (5 hardwood)
• Vaulting Pole (5 softwood)
• Ladder (4 wood, 4 hardwood, 4 softwood)

You can also sell all 3 types of wood to Timmy and Tommy at Nook’s Cranny for 60 bells each. Bamboo resources fetch a much higher price: 80 bells for a bamboo piece, 200 bells for young spring bamboo, and 250 bells for bamboo shoots.