How To Get Golden Tools In Animal Crossing: New Horizons

Animal Crossing: New Horizons lets you customize just about everything with a new selection of accessories, but the items most sought after by everyone — fashion savvy or not — are Golden Tools. These tools are both shiny and ultra-durable. While they will break eventually, they're a huge cut above the standard stuff. 

Golden Tools serve as a kind of trophy. Players are rewarded with the DIY recipe needed to craft different Golden Tools after completing a monumental task. There's no shame in taking your time and waiting to be surprised with your reward, but for those more achievement-minded villagers, here's how to get the Golden Tools in Animal Crossing: New Horizons.

The Golden Axe is actually one of the easier tools to obtain. You're actually rewarded for being a little careless, in this case. To unlock the DIY recipe for the Golden Axe, you must break 100 regular axes. These axes can be standard or Flimsy, which break after approximately 40 hits. After your 100th victim, you'll receive a rather simple recipe: one Gold Nugget and one Axe combined together will make a Golden Axe.

The Golden Fishing Rod is a might bit more difficult to obtain. This DIY recipe is only unlocked after catching every single fish in the game once. That's 80 unique species you'll need to reel in. While you don't have to give over all your catches to Blathers at the museum in order to unlock the Golden Fishing Rod, it's likely you'll have a full museum aquarium before getting the simple DIY recipe, which requires one Fishing Rod and one Gold Nugget.

Similar to the Golden Fishing Rod, the Golden Net DIY recipe only unlocks after you catch every bug available in the game once. From butterflies and beetles to spiders and hermit crabs, you gotta catch 'em all. Some bugs are only out at certain times of day (or night, beware those tarantulas) or will only show their faces during certain seasons. This is why, like the Golden Fishing Rod, few players have unlocked this recipe, which calls for a single Net and Gold Nugget.

Have you ever noticed that Gulliver, a sleepy sailor, will occasionally wash up on your shores? While he might seem comatose, you can wake him by talking to him multiple times. He'll then send you on a mission to find the five pieces of his broken communicator buried in the sand. If you do this 30 times (yeah, he's pretty unlucky) then you'll receive the DIY recipe for the Golden Shovel in the mail. 

It's worth noting that each time you help Gulliver, he sends you a gift. So, not only will you have 30 cool items, you'll also have a Shining Golden Shovel with a rumored durability of 200. Just add a Gold Nugget to a Shovel after unlocking the recipe and you'll have one of your very own.

While the Golden Slingshot does exist within the game, the method for unlocking it remains something of a mystery. Some sources suggest that after shooting down a high number of balloons, you'll find the DIY recipe for the Golden Slingshot (one Slingshot plus one Gold Nugget) in your mailbox, but this remains unverified.

To get the Golden Watering Can, your island needs to be in tip-top shape with upgraded buildings, recreational areas, and, of course, tons of flowers. Why, you ask? Because the DIY recipe for the Golden Watering Can only unlocks when you maintain a five star island rating for fifteen consecutive days. Then your hard work at landscaping will be rewarded with the Golden Watering Can recipe (one Watering Can and one Gold Nugget, as you may have guessed).