How to get a Ladder in Animal Crossing: New Horizons

Sourav Banik
Here are all the steps you need to know before getting the ladder in Animal Crossing: New Horizons

There are so many handy tools to grab in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, but few are as useful as a ladder. Here’s how to get hold of a ladder in your Animal Crossings game.

Getting to those higher-up places in Animal Crossing: New Horizons is impossible without a ladder, making this tool both incredibly useful and extremely important to create. However, building one can be a little tricky and long-winded.

So, here’s how to get your hands on a ladder in Animal Crossing: New Horizons so you can further expand your luxurious island.

Contents


How to craft the ladder in Animal Crossing: New Horizons

Like most other items in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, you’ll need to craft the ladder on your workbench. Before you can do this, you’ll have to complete some requirements first. So, without further ado, let’s get into each of these steps in detail.

An animal NPC in Animal Crossing: New Horizons
Animal Crossing: New Horizons has many animal NPCs to interact with.

1) Invite Villagers

The process of unlocking the ladder’s recipe will first require you to collect a total of 2,000 Nook Miles. After collecting this amount, head straight to Tom Nook’s green Resident Services tent and approach the green kiosk located on the right.

Access the Nook Miles Rewards menu and buy a Nook Miles Ticket for the aforementioned amount. Then head to the airport to visit the Mystery Island on the map.

It must be remembered that if you’re a new player, you won’t have access to the airport from the start. In-game progression is needed before you can proceed to interact with the airport and its staff.

After you reach the destination, you’ll need to roam a bit until you come across a wandering animal NPC. Interact with them until you get the option to invite them to your island. Remember, you have to visit two more islands and repeat the process to invite two more NPCs.

Nook's Cranny in Animal Crossing: New Horizons
You need to complete multiple steps before getting the ladder.

2) Open Nook’s Cranny

The next step that you need to complete is to help Timmy Nook to set up his shop by collecting some materials. You’ll need to find the following items for Timmy:

  • 30 Wood
  • 30 Softwood
  • 30 Hardwood
  • 30 Iron Nuggets

Collecting wood in Animal Crossing: New Horizons’ world is one of the easiest tasks in the game. To collect wood in New Horizons, all you need to do is hit trees with your axe. The list above mentions three different types of wood and these can all be found on the different types of trees on your island.

Iron is slightly harder to find compared to wood as there are a limited number of rocks on your island that can randomly yield iron, stone, or clay when destroyed so it may take you a few attempts to get all the Iron Nuggets you need.

A wooden bridge in New Horizons.
Wood is relatively easy to collect in the game.

3) Build a bridge

After you’ve completed Nook’s wish to set up his own shop, you’ll need to make arrangements for the three NPCs you asked to visit your island. Since a river falls midway, you’ll have to build a bridge for them to cross.

Nook will ask you to choose a proper location to build the bridge, giving you a recipe for the same. The recipe will require you to collect the following:

  • Four log stakes
  • Four clay
  • Four stones

You must also remember that the recipe will disappear from your inventory once you’ve built the bridge. So, make sure you place it somewhere useful for ease of access.

An empty plot of land in Animal Crossing: New Horizons
You get your own island in Animal Crossing: New Horizons.

4) Pick a plot of land for your neighbors

Once the bridge has been constructed, you’ll need to head back to Nook’s Cranny where you’ll be asked to pick a location for each of the three invited NCPs to live on your island.

After you’ve claimed some land for their future homesites, Nook will finally send you a recipe to craft the ladder!

Ladder available to craft in the crafting bench in Animal Crossing: New Horizons
You can collect various types of wood in Animal Crossing: New Horizons.

5) Craft the ladder

Now that you’ve got the recipe, you can head straight to your crafting bench and craft the ladder.

You’ll need a total of four wood, four hardwood, and four softwood to craft the tool that will enable you to visit various places on your island that were inaccessible otherwise.


So, there you have it – that’s everything you need to know about how to get a ladder in Animal Crossing: New Horizons. For more tips and tricks on how to improve your island experience, check out our guides below:

How to get Gayle in Animal Crossing | ACNH art guide | How to get Ruby in Animal Crossing New Horizons | How to get a villager to move out | Funny catchphrases in New Horizons | How to time travel | How to restart your New Horizons island | Stop villagers moving out | Villager gift guide | How to get Gold Roses in New Horizons | Animal Crossing flower guide | How to unlock shops at Harv’s Island Plaza in Animal Crossing: New Horizons

About The Author

Sourav is a Games Writer at Dexerto, specializing in writing tips and guides for a number of games, including Baldur's Gate 3, Diablo 4, Hogwarts Legacy, Palworld, The Finals, XDefiant, and occasionally Tech. He is also passionate about esports, following games such as Valorant, Rainbow Six Siege, and Apex Legends. He previously wrote for Sportskeeda. Contact Sourav at sourav.banik@dexerto.com