How to Terraform Better and Faster 

What are your favorite terraforming tricks? Teach us your ways

i do a lot more regular playing compared to building or designing my island so i just set up a bunch of little “check-in stations” across my island that have a storage shed, bin, and workbench so i can save on pocket space! i try make them cute and unique to their location so it just blends in, and it’s such a game-changer being able to just pop over to the nearest work area to grab a replacement tool or furniture if i have an idea! i have them spaced out in a way that there’s always gonna be one just a few paces away and it’s not nearly as intrusive as i thought it’d look! saves my adhd brain lots of time and chances to get distracted in my pockets 😅 just thought i’d share!!

A fourth item that you may want to consider having in your inventory at all times is the Mario Pipe. Place the other near your nooks so when you're designing and picking up flowers, bugs, unwanted balloon items, etc. you can easily get to Nook's to sell them and clear up your inventory. (If you don't want to just trash them).

I used to have a graph-paper map of my entire island. It was 12 pages. I individually measured every single square of my island (including coasts which was awful). That map was so useful for planning. I made paper cut-outs in the size of buildings, flower design layouts, cliff overlay pieces, and even little bridges. I am still so sad it got ruined by water (no one's fault, just an unfortunate accident). If I ever make it again, I'm making photocopies and laminating each page. I've been doing path outlines since I unlocked them. Its how I could perfectly place my buildings without needing to suffer for more days because I was one square off. Saved so much frustration.

if some people don’t want to spend that much money for the storage shed they could just buy the Mario tube and then put one in their house and then one in their inventory and then go through it that’s what I used to do :)

I have finally decided to reset my island because I realized that the me of two years ago had no idea of what to do and it will be easier to start with a clean slate. I will definitely utilize some of these tips when I get around to restarting. Thanks!

watched this on my TV but had to race to my phone so i could comment. your island is so gorgeous 😭 you’re giving me a lot of inspo! these are great tips too 😁

Y'all keep me in your thoughts because I'm playing ACNH again after a 2.5 hiatus and I feel overwhelmed because my island is sooo rigid but these tips are SO helpful!!!

5:03......I absolutely LOVE your beachside waterfalls decor!!!!

I just carry my storage shed and have my trash can and DIY bench in the shed, so I'm carrying them all just by carrying one!

Your tip about tracing out the houses and buildings helped me soooo much with my neighborhood build. It took 2 days even with using this particular tip!

Something I’ve figured out is using the pipes!! I put one near my flowers, and keep one of the pipes with me. Whenever I’m decorating and need a flower, I place down the pipe and teleport to my flower beach

Using pathways to accurately measure where I want to place things has been a BLESSING when building neighborhoods or figuring out how to line other things up.

I haven't played ACNH in quite a while but I still watch your videos because they soothe my soul 😌

Great tips, Lex! Your videos are always so relaxing, you’re my go-to whenever I need someone calm to listen to while playing AC, and your builds are always so beautiful ❤️

when terraforming i would drop an item for a marker to mark down where i should start and finish pathing or making cliffs it really helps. :)

1:57 i used to do this, but i recently discovered that you can hit the corner one once, and then always hit the one next to it

You have helped me SO much while beginning to shape my island 🥰

I prefer to have little crafting stations around my island so I can just stop by if I need to use it. I discovered that I didn't like cluttering my inventory with the storage shed, crafting table, and whatever else. So I just placed several different stations around. It works better for me because most of my island is built with DIYs, and I keep pretty much all of my crafting materials to use later rather than throwing them out. Plus, it saves space in my inventory to pick up things like materials, flowers, and the odd Manila Clam.

Oh man staggering your cliffs/waterfalls, what an amazing idea. That looks so great.

Loved this as clod building is something I struggle with. Great tips as always xx

Great video Lex! I recently restarted ACNH and these tips are super helpful & incredibly timely for me because I just unlocked terraforming!

👋🏻 Lexi! Thank you SO much for these tips! I didn't know a few of these, especially the part about outlining the area with the in-game tiles for where to place buildings, etc. I also wish I knew to use my beach as storage. I hope that I can remember these as I play my game

I have a X custom design for building planning (really helped with moving houses) but I also use it for ramp planning so I don’t have to tear down ramps when I realize I need them somewhere else.

Thank you! I just flattened my island for the first time ever today! I'll definitely be using your tips ❤

I learned a lot of this along the way, but that inventory tip (#8) is a solid tip I didn't think of. 👌

Very good suggestions! Especially the double row cliff building!

im finally terraforming my island after 2 years of playing for the fun of it and this is really helpful, thank you so much! i was doing so many things wrong tbh haha

Ok I was not aware of the portable shed, so THANK YOU! Also, using swinging benches as fences blew my mind!

I also just realized some of the tricks an hour ago while I'm terraforming and relocating villagers at the same time. These tricks really a life savers.

im saving this!!! my island rn its just a flat mess and watching this tips and even your island inspired me!!

These tips are so helpful! Thank you so much Lex!!! ❤

Ooh I didn't know that you could waterform directly over weeds!! That's so cool I got fed up with having to eat up so much space to prevent cliff-obstruction (and having to change building elevation) so I actually totally flattened my island to have no cliffs. But other than that I've done all of these tips :D

Terraforming and redoing my entire island so this video is insanely helpful!

Gorgeous island, great tips! Thanks for sharing!

thank you for your tips & inspo. i just started playing new horizons & i dont really know how to do these things. your video is very helpful, may you have a pleasant life⭐⭐

Thx for all the ideas & tips 💡 💯👍🏽

Great tips for terraforming. Thank you ♥

Love these tips! I’m playing my first time through and just got a 3 star island, so this is going to save me so much time 😍

Great tips! Love your ideas and your island! 😊👍

I love your videos and am so thankful for your tips and tricks!

omg, other than drawing to plan the island, i already do every single tip that you mentioned i'm not even exaggerating. i feel like i'm a big brain now

i would always avoid terraforming or waterscaping it's always scared me and talks so much time. Thank you so much for these tips Lex!

I save your videos in my RU-vid library for future reference!! Thank you!!!

i recently restarted my island and i always keep a pipe in my pockets and my diy workbench inside my house. works wonders 🙌

Super helpful, Lex! Thank you

I love your farm! I recently just got back to playing animal crossing and I'm thinking about making a farm/cottage core island. Thank you for making tips.

THANK YOU this vid is so helpful!!

Thanks for this. I just recently flattened a bunch of my island (of 2200+ hours since I started playing early last year) and started dividing up the top cliff (which I had to bury up the entire mouth of the river first) - which I have set for the new locations of some villagers' houses to be side-by-side. I just moved the houses of Wolfgang and Tybalt to be on the new west top cliff, but am getting ready to wait for Tybalt to ask to move out and invite Vivian to take his place and be next door to Wolfgang. The existing east cliff where I plotted the housing plot and invited Skye (whom still lives on my island today) still has her house there but that I'll need to move it twice so it can be evenly in line, and that I'm going to move Kyle's house and be directly west of Skye's: which for both cliffs I will have the driveways for parked cars between the pair of houses. However, in this case of terraforming, I needed to make the northern shore where Jolly Redd's Treasure Trawler comes in more easily accessible and put in an incline of stairs leading down in case of visiting players whom don't bother to bring a ladder, and the starting layout of my island I went with was a big sign it needed to be massively terraformed, including cliff division. And as always, first things first before this massive renovation, I had to go uproot and sell a bunch of flowers (while keeping a few hybrids and rare ones like blue roses) and chop down every single tree (except for my designated orchard area) and remove all those fences (which we can only sell directly to the Nooklings during their business hours). Next time I move any building, I need to build those perimeter paths just like in your video.

For taking down cliff I usually go in the middle and take out the one in front of me then the sides so I'm not walking so much

Terraforming is the absolute bane of my existence so THANK YOU for the helpful tips!

Lots of good tips and tricks. Thanks

Not sure if it's mentioned by others, but the "build 2 rows of cliff at once" trick is applicable to placing paths and waterscaping as well. In fact, you can place up to 4 paths without moving, and 3 rows for cliff-building and waterscaping. - For paths, walk to the middle of four tiles, then rotate the left stick clockwise to place in top-right -> bottom-right -> bottom-left -> top-left - For creating rivers (from left to right), rotate clockwise to hit bottom -> left -> up, then move right a tile and repeat again - For filling up rivers (from left to right), rotate clockwise to hit right -> bottom -> up, then move right a tile and repeat again - Destroying cliffs is the same as filling up rivers - Building cliffs is the same as creating riviers It's also faster to place tiles via menu instead of with hands. Like with dropping items on floor, the order would be: Same as character -> Their front -> Front-left -> Front-right -> Left -> Right -> Behind-left -> Behind-right -> Behind Useful if you are using custom patterns as paths instead of the 8 provided ones.

Thank you so much I've been playing for over a year and have recently decided to actually be serious about designing my island

Very informative and helpful,thankyou very much. P.S. I love your island! :)

Your handwriting is so pretty!

Doing the waterscape behind the raised area was awesome! Thank you for this idea! I’m definitely going to use this! 💖💖

Love how Kiki be chillin while you did this video!

Thanks Lex for the informative video! Even though I have been playing since May 2020, there is always something to learn! I was wondering if you could do a video on weeds - yes weeds! It would be fun to see in a linear fashion of their seasonality of course, what you can an cannot do with them and the one thing that I cannot figure out when I go to DA's is these island that have weeds stunted in various stages for the DA. I mean do they go around in one play session and just replace and TT so to get various weeds at that certain stage and then set the DA? I mean seriously there is something I am not understand about weeds here ( or maybe I'm over thinking it...)? Anyway great content as always!

your island is so cute omg 😍

Thanks for the helpful tips 😍

Great content, specially for a newbie like me! Keep it up, subbed :)

I want to play so badly now! Amazing video!

So I’m like 15 dollars away from getting my switch and the first thing I will get is animal crossing and I LOVEEEEEEE your island theme! I will use it as inspiration

omg I had no idea about that shed/inventory thing LOL, it sounds like it could have saved me sooooooo much time

ive been wanting to change my island for ages because it looks so unorganised but my island is an absolute mess atm and i have zero inspiration on what i want my island theme to be 😫 also thank you for the tips on the terraforming i might try them out i just dont know when 😅

Awesome. I just started again too. I gave in and bought bells from eBay, I can’t remember the seller but she was super nice :3

Idk how to describe it but you voice suits ur ac character so well, it’s scary😊

Instead of a storage shed and a crafting table in my pockets, I just use a pipe that leads to my "crafting area" where i can make food, craft stuff, and look in the shed quickly before teleporting back to where i am. I usually place it a few paces out of the build and when i need stuff I'll just hop in. My crafting area is also near the airport, so if I need to do an order I can just empty my pockets at the crafting area and pop on down to visit Orville!

I used straight paths to help dileanate areas I can use for decoration but as soon as I am finished my custom pathing I will be putting in some curvy paths. I have onlt been playing for about a month and a half.

Terraforming still scares me 😂 this is so helpful tho tyyyy

Pls I just drew smtg 5min ago I wanted to do in acnh and then ur tips is to draw, thats a sign to be a pro builder

The wooden storage shed is a DIY, just the regular one is from the nook stop!!

If you create a cross pattern and keep going side, up, side, down you can actually build 3 rows. I prefer it to the two row method

Can I just say, im really really unwell at the moment, I have a bad chest infection that turned septic. Ive just discovered you and your sweet and friendly nature has made me feel a little bit better and I just wanna say thank you c:

I just restarted my island and I have no idea what theme to do or how to decorate 😩

Early and this was SO helpful!

I wonder if animal crossing could be used as an educational tool like Minecraft was. I only bring that up as i think it would be a fun way to teach kids about dimensions and measuring and such.

00:03 hi Lex :)

Ooo so many ideas... I want to redesign now 🤦‍♀️

"How to terraform faster and better" Joy con drift: allow me to introduce myself. 😈

I keep a wooden storage shed(disguised as portapotties lmao) and a trash can in every area, because in my island. So very close to almost every house, beach, shop, and build is a nearby spot I can mess with my storage and toss things I do this cause when I have a build I’ll either set one somewhere or have it nearby cause I hate carrying them Gotta use my whole inventory for stuff to use on builds lol

You teach us to build 2 cliffs at once, but I would actually recommend to build 3 cliffs in exactly the same way

What’s good ways to manage one’s custom designs etc? I feel I barely have any and I can’t change them without ruining my island

the first two seemed like common knowledge

IT's not much of a tip, but lately on my new all rabbit island I've been sectioning off the acres and taking one acre at a time to try and prevent burn out. I also have made a map of just the acres and a little random roll table so I can get kind of a sense of what I want that acre to be. On the map I put down where the beaches, beach rocks, resident services, and the airport so I have an idea of what else I'm going to have to deal with in addition to those acres. I thought it might be a bit challenging to make things feel natural with this plan, but so far I think it's going pretty decent. It's my first island trying this method.

I love this video

I need to lean how to do waterfalls.. I want them everywhere lol

omg you’re island is named Lorien?? like from lotr?? LOVE THAT! My gf’s island is Hobbiton! :D

If you have a lot of weeds and Leif is around just sell them and you will get more bell then usual

I always have a storage shed, work bench and garbage bin. Flattened my whole island and working it into something else 😂

I don’t throw my flowers away. I sell them. I also keep weeds to sell or decorate

What do I do if I can’t place anything down because I have too many items and idk where to put everything

Kiki is such a doll 🥹

it sucks that all my controlers have stick drift so im constantly fighting with my character

I literally just carry the storage shed, because it has the garbage bin and workbench inside it and I like the extra pocket space

Early!! Btw your my favourite youtuber :)

I am having such a hard time with terraforming. I have been playing this game for over a year almost two now and I'm just now beginning to terraform my island 😵 I can't figure out how to make it look good

I've lost motivation to work on my island for the past month. Me after I watched this: Time to skedadle and get some work done

6:04 I wanted to ask, how do you get your bridges like this?