Animal Crossing New Horizons: How to get to Tarantula Island


Tarantula island

Tarantula Island in Animal Crossing: New Horizon is a great way to earn money. Despite some players prioritizing other objectives, making money is usually going to be your number one task throughout your adventure. Just like in real life, you need money to do just about everything in ACNH. As such, players are always looking for lucrative ways to bring in cash.

One of the most ominous ways to make money in New Horizons is to catch and sell tarantula spiders, which can be sold for a huge amount of Bells. But finding tarantulas isn't easy unless you can find the special Tarantula Island, a random location where lots of the big bugs can rapidly spawn. We'll show you how to get to Tarantula Island, and how you can farm tarantulas there.

Read More: How to get mushrooms in Animal Crossing: New Horizons

Getting to Tarantula Island

To get to Tarantula Island in Animal Crossing New Horizons, the only reliable way is to spend 2000 Nook Miles on a Nook Miles Ticket. You can then use that to travel to a random island. There is a small chance each time that it will take you to Tarantula Island, with giant spiders crawling across it. From there, make the most out of catching them - once you leave, you'll have to roll the odds to return.

Tarantula Island's other big advantage is that if you're bitten, you just respawn back at the plane and can continue farming them. Because each spider is worth 8000 bells, this is a great way to earn a lot of money very fast. Simply bring them home and sell them to Tom Nook and Flick.

How to farm tarantulas

Once you've arrived on a deserted island - tarantula-filled or not - follow these steps to bring the tarantulas to you.

  • First off, it needs to be after 7 pm for the tarantulas to appear.
  • Next, eat a bunch of fruit. Just the stuff you find on the island should be plenty, two or three pieces.
  • Now, get your tools out and clear everything from the island. Everything. Smash rocks with a spade or axe (the fruit allows you to do this). Chop down trees with an axe and then dig their stumps up with your spade. Make sure to use your ladder and get everything from the higher areas. Pick all the flowers and weeds. The lot.
  • Now, catch all the bugs. Everything. Centipedes, Ladybirds, Man-Faced Stink Bugs, the lot.
  • Then, drop all your resources on the beach. This includes all your wood and anything collected on the island. That's when they come. The tarantulas.

How to catch tarantulas

Now you've transformed a deserted island into a Tarantula Island, you just have to catch the creepy crawlies and avoid getting bitten. The easiest way to catch tarantulas is to sneak up on them. This is quite simple once you get the hang of it if you follow our steps:

  • Equip your net and hold A, readying it.
  • Walk towards the tarantula.
  • When it raises its front legs, stop in your tracks.
  • Only move again - slowly - when it lowers its legs.
  • Take a couple of steps and stop again when it raises its legs.
  • Repeat until it is in range of your net, and let go of the A button to swipe - only when its legs are down.
  • Congratulations - you've (hopefully) caught your first eight-eyed critter!

So there you have it, that's how to get to Tarantula Island! If you're looking for more Animal Crossing advice, be sure to check out how to catch a Golden Trout, or find out how to get any villager you want!

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