How to upgrade your Animal Crossing: New Horizons tools to “Outdoorsy”

The Animal Crossing: New Horizons April update has introduced a Nook’s Cranny upgrade, the Nature Day event, and a promising calendar of events that run through June. The update also gave us Outdoorsy tools, a new classification that fits perfectly into the tool hierarchy. Your life will become significantly easier by obtaining the newfangled tools, but how exactly does that happen?

How to get Outdoorsy tools in Animal Crossing: New Horizons

The first and biggest step towards obtaining these tools is to upgrade your Nook’s Cranny shop, which was made possible after the April update.

To upgrade the shop, all you need to do is check off three prerequisites: First, Nook’s Cranny needs to have been open for at least 30 days. If you just purchased the game, you can also time travel to 30 Days after the initial opening. Second, you need to have spent and sold a combined total of 200,000 Bells at Nook’s Cranny. If you regularly partake in the Stalk Market, this should be a rather doable goal. Lastly, Mabel needs to have visited your town once. This doesn’t mean Mabel’s Able Sisters shop has to be open; she needs to have come once after your initial introduction at Nook’s Cranny.

After completing the triad of tasks, Timmy and Tommy will shut down for a day to complete renovations. When they reopen, their stock will be refreshed with bigger and better goods like the Outdoorsy tools. You can find them in the cabinet located in the back left of the store. Each Outdoorsy tool will cost you 2,500 Bells.

What Outdoorsy tools are for sale?

At this time, you can purchase five Outdoorsy tools:

• Outdoorsy Fishing Rod (Durability: 30 fish caught, cost: 2,500 Bells)
• Outdoorsy Net (Durability: 30 Bugs Caught, cost: 2,500 Bells)
• Outdoorsy Shovel (Durability: 100 uses, cost: 2,500 Bells)
• Outdoorsy Slingshot (Durability: 30 Balloons shot down, cost: 2,500 Bells)
• Outdoorsy Watering Can (Durability: 60 waterings, cost: 2,500 Bells)

There isn’t currently an Outdoorsy Axe variant, but that might be added in the future.

What’s so special about Outdoorsy tools?

Surprisingly, not much is special about these new tools actually. Outdoorsy tools are just purchasable versions of “normal” (non-flimsy) tools, matching them in both durability and effectiveness. The primary difference seems to be that Outdoorsy tools can’t act as a substitute for normal tool requirements in D.I.Y. recipes. If you want to build a Golden Watering Can, you’re still going to need a crafted Watering Can first.

Outdoorsy tools exist to provide easy access to a new tool after one breaks. Running around grabbing the necessary materials or heading back to your storage space can be time-consuming. Outdoorsy tools cut out the travel time collecting supplies and the time needed to make a flimsy tool and then upgrade it, therefore making your life easier. Like regular tools, you can also alter their look using a Customization Kit.

Alternatively, the upgraded Nook’s Cranny also sells tool variants like the Printed Design Shovel and the Colorful Watering Can. These variants will also cost 2,500 Bells and have the same durability as the standard (non-flimsy) tools.

This core facet of this Nook’s Cranny upgrade gives you more freedom to spend your time in the way you want — so don’t take that for granted!