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New Horizons: How to unlock Terraforming/Island Designer

For the last few days I’ve been time travelling to expand my island and find out as much as possible about the game to help other players. My guides will be updated as I progress in the game. 

SPOILER WARNING: This guide contains spoilers for Animal Crossing: New Horizons.

Terraforming is one of the most anticipated features of ACNH. The ability to change and shape the landscape of your island really makes the game your own. Before I explain how to unlock the island editor, there are a few of important things to mention:

It takes roughly three ingame weeks to unlock the island designer app. 

While dirt paths are free, upgrades to the island designer app cost nookmiles: 6000 for the water upgrade, and 6000 for the cliff upgrade. More paths cost 2000 nookmiles each, and a custom design path permit costs 2,300. If you’d like to change your cliffs and water asap, I suggest saving up a whopping 12,000 nookmiles as you go through the steps of this guide for immediate use. 

If you’re using this guide while time travelling, please note that the terraforming tools unlock during the game credits. These credits are far from the end of the game, however they act as a ‘story progression ending’. If you want to savour this ‘plot’ section of ACNH, I recommend NOT time travelling to access these tools. 

Step 1: FOLLOW TOM NOOK’S QUESTLINE

The only real ‘questline’ I’ve found in the game so far has been the ‘What should I do?’ quests from Tom Nook. Asking him what to do next allows you to work on the natural progression of your island, and as far as I’m aware is the only way to unlock new islanders, buildings, and the island designer app. There are multiple stages to this, however they are relatively simple to follow and just take a bit of grinding. 

After your first two islanders, you will be asked by Tom to build three new houses. You can place these wherever you like, and each house requires you to craft three interior furniture pieces, and three exterior furniture pieces. Remember when placing them they appear bigger than the actual house will be, as they also reserve space for the exterior furnishings. 

After the villagers move in you will also be required to place a campsite, and recruit whichever islander decides to stay there first. You do not have to furnish their house, or any future houses.

Step 2: PROJECT K

After the campsite villager has moved in, Tom will tell you about project K. I won’t spoil what this is, but the goal is to bring your island’s star rating up to 3. Tom will request that you keep placing homes and moving in islanders to create a buzz and build up the population. These homes cost 10,000 bells each to place, and when speaking with Tom Nook this option is in the ‘Let’s talk infrastructure’ section under ‘Sell land’. I recommend also building any inclines and bridges you need to get enough space to place the houses. I paid for two inclines and one bridge during this time, also in the ‘Let’s talk infrastructure’ section of Tom Nook’s dialogue. 

Once enough islanders have been recruited Tom will pass you over to Isabelle for the final stage: bringing up the island rating. It is quite easy to do this in a few days, and by selecting ‘Island evals’ Isabelle will give you feedback and suggestions to improve. My process was as follows:

Recruit islanders and build houses. Your rating should be resting at 1 star at this point. 

Add decorations to the exterior of the island. Even decorations I didn’t love I placed in areas I wasn’t using as much, just to bring up the rating to a 2 star. 

Add flowers, everywhere. Buy flowers from Nooks Cranny, or steal them from nookmile mini islands. Either way try to fill your town with blooms. This should bring your rating up to 3 stars. 

And there you have it! Tom Nook will get an important call, and the next day you’ll be able to unlock the island designer app. Cliff and water editing upgrades will be available through the nook stop. Feel free to send any questions about the guide to my ask box and I’ll get back to you asap.