Animal Crossing: New Leaf/Tools

Tools are essential for helping to maintain your town. As you progress you will be able to acquire upgrades for some of the basic tools. These upgraded tools will not break and have other advantages related to the activity they are used for.

Shovel
A Shovel is a wonderful tool with multiple purposes. Its main function is to dig holes, whether to unravel buried objects, bury items or plant saplings. Shovels are also used to strike rocks, which can force out certain bugs, activate the money rock or break the daily fake rock. The basic shovel can be bought from the Nooklings' Store for 500 Bells if they have it in stock.

Silver Shovel
The Silver Shovel can be bought for 500 Bells from the museum gift shop once you've constructed the museum renovation Public Works Project and donated a total of 15 Fossils to the museum. The Silver Shovel acts like a normal shovel, except that striking the money rock can occasionally produce mineral ores instead of Bells, netting you a higher profit if you sell them all off.

Gold Shovel
Leif will give you the Gold Shovel once you've bought a total of 50 bags of Fertilizer from the Garden Center. The Gold Shovel has the ability to grow money trees. To do so, you can plant a bag of money in the ground with the Gold Shovel, which will hopefully grow into a tree that produces the same amount of bells for each of its three fruit, tripling the money you lost after planting it.

Fishing Rod
The Fishing Rod is the tool you use to catch fish, whether it's in the river or at sea. They can be bought from Nooklings' Store for 500 Bells. Isabelle will also offer to sell you one for the standard price early in the game if you tell her you lack a fishing rod after she makes you catch some fish. Chip will also give you a Fishing Rod for free during fishing tourneys if you don't have one.

Silver Fishing Rod
The Silver Fishing Rod can be bought from the museum gift shop for 500 Bells once you've donated at least 30 Fish to the museum. It makes fish more likely to bite down at your lure and bite down longer once they do, making it easier to catch fish.

Gold Fishing Rod
The Gold Fishing Rod can be obtained from Chip by talking to him during a fishing tourney once you've caught every fish in the game. It has similar effects to the Silver Fishing Rod but is obviously better, making it even easier to catch fish.

Net
The Net is used for catching bugs. You can get it from Nooklings' Store for 500 Bells. Isabelle will also offer to sell you one at the standard price if you tell her you lack a net after she challenges you to catch some bugs. Nat will also give you a Net for free if you talk to him during a Bug-Off without a Net.

Silver Net
The Silver Net can be bought at the museum gift shop for 500 Bells after you've donated 30 bugs to the museum. The Silver Net has a wider area, so it is easier to catch bugs with it.

Gold Net
The Gold Net can be obtained from Nat by talking to him during a Bug-Off once you've caught every bug in the game. It has an even wider area than the Silver Net, making bug-catching a piece of cake.