What makes the world go round? Money! That's even true in our sweet little town on ACNL. So, let's dive into the Top 10 Ways to Make Bells in Animal Crossing New Leaf!
*NOTE* Turning on the Bell Boom Ordinance will increase all your profits mentioned below. I recommend using it while you are farming bells and turning it off when you are finished.
10. Earning Interest
It’s exactly what it sounds like! You will accumulate interest depending on how many bells you put into savings. This method although the easiest will be by far the slowest on this list to make bells.
How it Works
- You will first need to locate your towns Post Office located on the left-hand side of Main Street
- Interact with the ABD (automatic bell dispenser) and deposit however many bells you would like. Keep in mind the more bells you deposit, the higher the interest rate will be.
- At the first of every month you can check back and see how much interest you have made. Easy peasy money!
How Many Bells Can You Get Using This Method?
This all depends on how much money you put into it, but you will receive 0.5% back. The max amount of money you can make per month however is 99,999 bells. You would have to have almost 20 million deposited to make the max number of bells per month. It is slow but steady easy income.
9. Selling Appraised Fossils
A super informational video on how to sell your daily fossils.
Appraised Fossils is a quick and simple way to make a couple thousand bells a day. It takes very little time and 4 fossils will spawn per day in town. Might as well make money off them!
How it Works
- Everyday upon starting up your game, go ahead and do a quick little run around your town to find where the fossils have randomly spawned.
- Once you find them, dig the fossils up. (They will look round and blue. DO NOT SELL THEM LIKE THIS)
- Before selling your freshly dug up fossils, you must go get them appraised by Blathers inside of your museum on Main Street. This is how they get their value.
- If you are a collector like me, donate what you want to the museum. But, if you are out to make max bells, go ahead and take them straight to Re-tail and sell them.
How Many Bells Can You Get Using This Method?
This method isn’t going to make you rich but every bell counts. Each fossil sells between 1k – 6k bells. So, I would estimate that if you sell ALL 4 fossils, you have the change to make between 4k bells and 24k bells. It all depends on your luck for the day!
8. Selling fruit (foreign and local)
A sunny island tour.
What if I told you, you could make thousands of bells by shaking your trees? This is a pretty common way to make bells and helps if you have a lot of trees! In addition to your native fruit that grows, I suggest grabbing foreign fruit from the island or even friend’s towns. Fruit from the island or from other towns sells for a higher price than fruit you can get locally.
How it works
- I recommend going first to either a friend’s town to grab a few pieces of fruit that you don’t already have in your town.
- If you do not have friends that play, head over to the island via the dock.
- Once on the island, take a tour that will have plenty of trees and harvest away at the fruit instead of performing the tour’s task.
- Go back to your town and plant all your new foreign trees.
- Interact with them and shake the fruit out every 3 days.
How Many Bells Can You Get Using This Method?
This all depends on the number of trees you originally plant.
Native fruit will sell for 100 bells (perfect for 600 bells) per fruit at Re-tail
Foreign fruit will sell for 500 bells (perfect for 3000)
Island fruits will sell for 250 bells
7. River Fishing
A complete guide to all New Leaf fish!
I would really only suggest this method to players who are newer and have not unlocked the island yet or someone who is just not fond of the island itself. Now this method is fairly straight forward. You will simply fish in your town at your river and sell your catch! This will take some time and patience, but you can get some expensive fish from this and the bells in your pocket will be well worth it!
How It Works
This is usually where bullet points would come in but there is only one step! Walk along your river and fish all the shadows out. If you are looking for a specific shadow (a large shadowed fish) run along your river to scare off small shadows. After you have farmed as much fish as you can handle, go ahead and sell to Re-tail.
How Many Bells Can You Get Using This Method?
*Categorized by Month*
- January –The most you can make on a fish this month is 15k per Stringfish. They will have the longest shadow that you will have seen all day.
- February- The most you can make on a fish this month is 15k per Stringfish. They will have the longest shadow that you will have seen all day.
- March- The most you can make on a fish this month is 4k per Koi fish. They will appear long.
- April- The most you can make on a fish this month is 4k per Koi fish. They will appear long. A close runner up being the Char which sells for 3800 bells and will have a medium shadow. Char can be found 4am-9am and 4pm-9pm.
- May- The most you can make on a fish this month is 4k per Koi fish. They will appear long. A close runner up being the Char which sells for 3800 bells and will have a medium shadow. Char can be found 4am-9am and 4pm-9pm.
- June- Now June has a lot of big number catches. Dorado will be the priciest at 15k with a VERY long shadow. The Arowana will sell for 10k and has a long shadow. The Gar sells for a 6k and will have the longest shadow of them all. June is a busy month
- July- Another busy month is July. Here are your top 3 fish to look out for! The Dorado is still a whopping 15k and has a VERY long shadow. The Arowana will sell for 10k and has a long shadow. And lastly, the Arapaima is priced at 10k and has the longest length shadow.
- August-. Here are your top 3 fish to look out for! The Dorado is still looking at 15k per fish and has a VERY long shadow. The Arowana will sell for 10k and has a long shadow. And lastly, the Arapaima is priced at 10k and has the longest length shadow.
- September- Another repeat from the previous months’ you guys! The Dorado is still a whopping 15k and has a VERY long shadow. The Arowana will sell for 10k and has a long shadow. And lastly, the Arapaima is priced at 10k and has the longest length shadow.
- October- And we are back to our Koi (4k) with the long shadow and our Char with the medium shadow (3800k) per fish.
- November- Another month of Koi fish for (4k) and long shadows and Chars with medium shadows for (3800k).
- December- For December we are looking for the longest shadowed fish, the Stringfish for 15k and the Koi for 4k with a long shadow.
6. The Stalk Market
This video simplifies the ever complicated stalk market.
This method of making bells is risky much like an actual stock market. However, you have the chance to make a LOT of bells. All of this is dependent on many factors. It will all depend on how many turnips you plan to purchase (keep in mind if you buy a bunch of turnips you have the chance of losing much more money if you get a decreased pattern), the price you purchase the turnips for, the type of selling pattern you randomly receive, and when you decide to sell.
How It Works
- First, you will locate Joan the boar wandering around your town to purchase turnips from her. The selling price will be between 90 and 110 bells per turnip.
- After purchasing your turnips, go to Re-tail twice a day to check their turnip buying prices. I recommend going once in the morning and once again after 12pm, seeing that they change the price twice a day. *Missing the price change will make it hard to know what pattern you have received*
- Once you recognize which pattern you have, make sure to sell at the right moment before the next Sunday. Your turnips WILL rot!
How Many Bells Can You Get Using This Method?
This is really hard to estimate because so many things factor into this so, you will have to do the calculations based on the price you purchase them for and the prices you receive from Re-tail.
It would really have to be a trial and error experience and hope that luck is on your side. This does have the potential to make you a handful of bells.
5. Deep Sea Diving
A complete list of deep sea creatures!
Deep sea diving is a neat way to make a decent number of bells. It can be a bit tedious, but you will leave with tens of thousands of bells in your pocket!
How It Works
- Take the boat from the dock in your town to the island.
- Borrow the wetsuit from the gyroid and take a dip in the water.
- Swim around the island keeping an eye out for shadows in the water and bubbles.
- Position yourself over the shadow before diving with the Y button. Be prepared to mash your A button to chase after the shadow. (I usually only go after shadows that move quickly. They usually are worth more)
- Fill up your pockets and the box to go home and repeat the process until you are happy with the amount you have received!
- How Many Bells Will You Get Using This Method?
- I tested this method for an hour and my results were as follows: I mostly captured octopus shadows with a few other sea creatures and made 36,600 bells. Not a bad haul in an hour!
4. Bug Harvest on Tour
Another great tour on the island to grab as many creepy crawlies as you can!
This is similar to our fruit harvest during an island tour method but instead we will be catching bugs! This is super easy and can get you a pocket full of bells. Any tour can be used but I recommend the flower gathering tour or the hide and seek tours. But, almost any tour will work.
How it works
- Take the boat from the dock in your town to the island.
- Take a tour of your choice that will have trees and flowers for bugs to land on.
- Walk around (running may scare beetles away) and catch as many as you can in 5 mins. Repeat the tour as needed until your box to take home is full.
How Many Bells Will You Get Using This Method?
I took the flower gathering tour for an hour and after selling all my bugs to retail ended up with 48,900 more bells than I had before. Not the best haul but definitely a nice chunk of bells for PWP.
3. Ocean Fishing (from town)
The complete guide to all New Leaf fish.
I recommend this method especially if you do not have the island unlocked yet. It is straight forward and can make you a solid amount of bells. Its quicker to sell your fish as well seeing that you are closer to Re-tail than from the island. Making farming these fish for hours effortless.
How It Works
- First, buy a fishing pole from Nookling Junction if you do not already own one.
- Next walk up and down your beach catching every fish you see. I tried the method where I scare off little fish in order to spawn bigger fish and it does not seem as effective as on the island. So, I catch and sell EVERYTHING.
- Go to Re-tail and sell all your catches to Reese.
- Repeat as needed.
How Many Bells Can You Get Using This Method?
In an hour of offshore fishing in my town I made a total of 98,000 bells. I was pleasantly surprised at my haul! I absolutely will be using this more in the future.
2. Catching Island Bugs
A great video on bell making and how to become rich!
Catching bugs from the island made me a TON of bells. If you have patience I would 100% recommend this method.
How It Works
- Take the boat from the dock in town to the island.
- Slowly walk around the island as not to scare off the beetles.
- Scare fish away so that more bugs may spawn. (I also scare off fruit beetles)
- I try and catch butterflies and beetles only but grasshoppers aren’t so bad to catch too.
- Repeat until your box to take home is full and then repeat as needed.
How Many Bells Can You Make Using This Method?
After Catching bugs on the island for an hour I went home and sold them to Reese for an entire 109,080 bells. I went back and repeated this for several more hours. Easily can pay off public works projects in a day!
1. Catching Island Fish/Sharks
This tricky trick to make farming sharks a bit easier.
This was by far the best way I made bells for my town. It does take a little patience but in the end, I was so happy I stuck it out! There is a little trick to this method and that is scaring off all MEDIUM shadows. If the shadow is very small, I went ahead and caught it because I knew it was either a clown fish or sea horse which isn’t a horrible pay out. BUT, stick to trying to only catch sharks! If there is a big shadow, you feel could be a Blue Marlin go ahead an try to catch it as well. If it is a Sea Bass…let that sucker go.
How It Works
- Take a boat from the dock in town to the island.
- Borrow a fishing pole from the gyroid and slowly circle the island looking for fins.
- If the shadow is medium or large (with no fins) run them off.
- If it is very small or has a fin catch it!
- Repeat until the box to take home is full and repeat as needed.
How Many Bells Can You Get Using This Method?
So, after one whole hour of using this method and selling to Reese at Re-tail I left with a whopping 138,050 bells to put into my pocket! I will solely be using this method from now on!
I hope you find one of these methods will work for you and how you like to enjoy the game! And, until next time happy hunting!
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