Use this infinite money glitch in New Horizons before you update to 1.1.1

Animal Crossing: New Horizons may not be getting its next major update until Bunny Day in April, but the first major patch since the game's March 20 launch was released Thursday morning and neutralizes a game-breaking exploit that players were using to get rich quick.

Thursday's Animal Crossing: New Horizons update 1.1.1 may seem simple at first glance, as the patch notes only say, "Fixed a serious bug affecting game balance." But dedicated players quickly discovered that this meant that the "serious bug affecting game balance" referenced the item duplication glitch that allowed players to rack up Bells early on in Animal Crossing: New Horizons. All this patch does is make the exploit impossible.

What was the item duplication glitch in Animal Crossing: New Horizons?

The item duplication glitch took advantage of the game's local multiplayer and was achievable on day one just after players beat the tutorial. If the island leader set down a high-value item on a simple table or box and then picked the item back up as the second player on the island spun the table or box, a duplicate of the item would be created. This could be done an infinite number of times to duplicate just about anything — even a tarantula.

Once players discovered this exploit, they quickly began to do it using items with a high price tag, specifically using the Nintendo Switch to get at least 30,000 Bells. Once players gained access to more valuable items as the days progressed, this glitch could be used to get a theoretically unlimited supply of Bells as long as players were willing to spend the time.

A lot of Animal Crossing: New Horizons' progression and important items, recipes, and milestones are locked behind a high price tag in either Nook Miles or Bells, so being able to get rich quick really threw off the balance of the game and allowed many players to progress through the game at an unnatural pace. As such, it makes sense that Nintendo was swift about fixing it and did so in update 1.1.1.

How can players money fast in Animal Crossing: New Horizons now?

While this glitch is no longer in the game, there are still viable ways within the game's systems to get acquire Bells quickly. For example, you could catch high-value fish like the Stringfish before they leave at the end of the month. Alternatively, farming tarantulas has also proven to be a relatively easy money-making strategy and are exploitable once you gain access to resource islands. You could also swap native fruits with a friend and start growing the fruits to sell at the shop en masse. None of these options will be as effective as the exploit, but that's okay.

You may not be able to receive a whopping 30,000 Bells or more on your first day anymore, but once you get going in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, there are clearly still some easy ways to accrue bells.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons is available now only on Nintendo Switch.