Crossing the River in Animal Crossing: New Horizons is something you’ll have to do once Blathers is in town. There are fossils over there that will need collecting, and it will just provide more building space, items to harvest and creatures to collect.
This guide was created during the first week of Animal Crossing: New Horizons release on the Nintendo Switch. Depending on when you’re reading this guide, some thing may be different due to future updates. However we’ll always try to come back and update these guides! For more of our Animal Crossing: New Horizons Guides & Best-of lists, make sure to check out our dedicated area here!
Crossing the River
You won’t be able to cross the river until you have spoken to Blathers, who runs the Museum. He won’t come to your island until you have handed in 5 Creatures to Tom Nook, these creatures can be either fish or bugs. Once you’ve given 5 Creatures, he’ll show up the next day in real life time usually.
After first speaking to Blathers, he will give you the recipe for a ‘Vaulting Pole’, which will allow you to jump over the rivers. You can craft this at a DIY Workbench for 5 Softwood. You can collect Softwood by chopping trees with an Axe.
Once you have crafted the Vault Pole, you will need to equip it from your inventory (which you can open by pressing X on the Nintendo Switch). Head to the river, standing near the edge with the Vaulting Pole in your hand, and press A on your Switch. Your character will vault over the water, taking you to the other side.
