How to Get Gold & Iron Nuggets, Clay & Stone in Animal Crossing New Horizons
Iron nuggets, clay and stone are crafting materials in Animal Crossing New Horizons. They’re using in creating a bunch of stuff based on the DIY recipes, as well as upgrading flimsy tools to better quality. You’ll need a reasonable stockpile of these if you want your life on the island to be as carefree as possible. If you’re having trouble obtaining them, this guide will show you how to get iron & gold nuggets, clay and stone in Animal Crossing New Horizons. It’ll also explain whether rocks respawn and when.
Where to find iron & gold nuggets, clay and stone?
Somewhat surprisingly, all four of these crafting materials come from the same source. In order to get them, you’ll have to mine stones. As you may have already guessed, you’ll need tools to do so, but those tools are not what you’d expect. Instead of a pickaxe, you’ll need either an axe or a shovel – neither very well suited to mining stone in reality, but hey, it’s video game land. You’ll get a DIY recipe for a flimsy axe from Tom Nook after you bring him some creatures. We got it after bringing him a tiger butterfly, so it’s either that one or a certain number of total creatures.
Once you have the tool, approach any rock and start swinging. If you’re using an axe, you’ll need to eat a fruit in order to regain some strength before the game allows you to. Using an axe will drop one material and break the rock, while the shovel drops more and preserves the rock, which lowers the respawn time. It’ll drop either a stone, a piece of clay or an iron or gold nugget. Each has its own unique icon, and the name will pop-up when you approach it, so you’ll know for certain what it is. Only a few pieces will drop from each rock, so you’ll have to wring the whole island dry. They restock after a while, so once you’ve exhausted all the rocky outcrops on the island, you’ll have to give it a rest until tomorrow. Either that, or move the time in your console’s settings a day forward.
Do rocks respawn and when?
If you use the axe, the rock will break and disappear, but don’t worry. Rocks respawn after a full day – an actual day, since in-game time is equal to real time. They won’t respawn in the same location, so don’t try looking for them in the same places tomorrow.
