How To Make A Spider Island In Animal Crossing: New Horizons

One of the only hazards of Animal Crossing: New Horizons (other than the game's addictive nature) is the tarantula. This creature stalks islands at night, attempting to bite anyone who dares to threaten it with a raised net. Catching a tarantula takes patience and steel nerves, but the payoff is worth the work. Tarantulas are rare, and therefore fairly lucrative. At a price of 8,000 Bells each, a night of tarantula hunting could help put a dent in your debt to Tom Nook.

Easier said than done. Tarantulas don't spawn very often and only appear at night. Therefore, players have engineered a technique to make these spiders spawn more frequently. Zach Soares pioneered this "Spider Island" hack, letting the world in on his secret to success via Twitter.

First, players will need to use a Nook Miles Ticket to fly off to a deserted island. These areas sometimes house different resources, like foreign fruit and flowers, giving players a chance to diversify their own island. Sometimes the place is crawling with spiders. Any island, according to Soares, can be turned into a Spider Island. 

Once on the prospective Spider Island, players will need to chop down every tree and uproot the stumps. Then pick, rather than uproot, all the flowers. Bring some fruit along for a power up, because you'll also have to destroy all the rocks. Basically, you want to deprive this island of all its resources and unceremoniously dump them on the beach so you have room in your pockets for spiders.

After sweeping for any stray insects (these will need to be caught and released), the spiders should start to spawn. Hunt them one by one, because getting greedy could lead to a nasty bite. If you follow the aforementioned steps, you should be able to leave the new Spider Island with an inventory positively full of spiders. Soares showed off a score of 208,000 Bells from one of his tarantula hunting trips. Just imagine how quickly you can pay off a fully-upgraded house!

Animal Crossing: New Horizons is out now exclusively on the Nintendo Switch. Happy hunting!