Animal Crossing New Horizons: All Materials and How to Collect Them - Wood, Stone, Iron and More


A player standing next to a workbench for crafting in Animal Crossing: New Horizons.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons is all about turning your barren island into your own ideal paradise. A massive part of this involves decorating your island with trees, flowers, and furniture. Some furniture, however, can only be crafted using DIY Recipes and will require you to gather multiple materials.

In this guide, we have explained all the basic materials in New Horizons and how to go about gathering them for your next project!

Read More: Animal Crossing New Horizons: How To Get Acorns and Pine Cones

How to Get Tree Branches

A player stood by trees with Tree Branches below them in Animal Crossing: New Horizons.
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Tree Branches are one of the easiest materials to find. Almost every single day, as you run around your island, you'll see Tree Branches sitting underneath your trees. You can pick these up and then craft them into something new or use them to make tools.

If you're low on Tree Branches and can't find any however, these can also be gathered by shaking trees around your island too. If you're extra lucky, you may even have some bells or furniture fall from the tree. However, be careful, as wasps sometimes like to appear when shaking trees and will leave you with an unappealing sting! You can treat these stings using Medicine, which we talk about here.

How to Get Wood, Softwood and Hardwood

A player stood by trees collecting Wood, Softwood, and Hardwood in Animal Crossing: New Horizons.
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Wood, Softwood and Hardwood can be gathered from the trees around your island. To specifically acquire these materials, you'll need a Flimsy Axe. Using the tool, you can hit each tree three times for the various types of wood to fall from it. If you're using a standard Axe, be careful to only hit the tree twice; a third hit will chop the tree down.

Again, be cautious of any wasps and make sure to have Medicine to hand. Additionally, if you're specifically on a quest for Hardwood, Pine Trees tend to drop more of this material than any other tree! Once having hit each tree three times, you will not be able to gather any more materials from those trees until the following day.

How to Get Stone, Clay, Iron Nuggets and Gold Nuggets

A player standing by a large rock collecting Clay, Stone, Iron Nuggets and Gold Nuggets in Animal Crossing: New Horizons.
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Stone, Clay, Iron Nuggets, and Gold Nuggets can all be collected very easily from the large rocks that you'll find around your island. Typically, there will be six rocks around your island for you to gather these resources from, but one of the rocks will spawn bells rather than materials.

To gather these materials, you'll need to hit the rocks using a Shovel multiple times. Random materials will fly from the rocks, so you never know whether you'll end up with an abundance of Stone or Iron Nuggets. Gold Nuggets are particularly rare to get, so consider yourself lucky if you find some of these! We have a handy guide specifically on gathering Gold Nuggets here.

After hitting all the rocks on your island, you will not be able to gather any materials from them until the next day. If you're on the hunt for more materials, you'll need to travel to a Mystery Island for more.

How to Get Other Materials

A player stood by bamboo, collecting Bamboo Pieces and Young Spring Bamboo in Animal Crossing: New Horizons.
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As you play Animal Crossing: New Horizons, there will be other common materials that you'll want to collect for various DIY Recipes. We've listed them and how to gather them below:

Weeds

Weeds are perhaps the easiest material to gather, unless your island is spotless! Weeds will appear naturally around your island for you to pick and then store away for various projects. If your island is clean, and you desperately need some, hop over to a Mystery Island to collect a bunch!

Shells

Shells will appear naturally on the coastline of your island too. You'll need specific types of shells for various DIY recipes, but the shells that spawn on your beach are entirely random. You can roam around all of your beaches to collect plenty of shells each day. Shells will slowly respawn and wash up on your beaches again throughout the day, too!

Bamboo

Bamboo comes in three forms: Bamboo Piece, Young Spring Bamboo, and Bamboo Shoot. A Bamboo Shoot functions in the same way as a Tree Sapling and will grow more bamboo for you. On the other hand, Bamboo Pieces and Young Spring Bamboo are what you want to collect for your crafts!

First, you need to grow bamboo on your island, as this doesn't happen naturally. If you don't have a friend to hand to share some with you, you'll need to venture to various Mystery Islands until you encounter a Bamboo Island. Then, you can take some plants home with you!

When you encounter or have grown bamboo, you simply need to hit it with up to three times with a Flimsy Axe for materials to drop from it; the materials will either be Bamboo Pieces or Young Spring Bamboo. Much like trees, you can only hit these three times a day. Be careful is using a normal Axe, however, as a third hit will chop your bamboo down.

That's all you need to know about gathering various common materials required for your DIY Recipes! Before you know it, your storage will be overflowing with resources and furniture! If you're truly looking to transform your island into a paradise, we recommend checking out our guides on flower breeding and getting the perfect, five-star island!

For more articles like this, take a look at our Animal Crossing New Horizons and Guides page.