Animal Crossing: New Horizons may be mostly fun and games, but that’s built on a whole lot of work. And to do work you need to use tools like the axe, shovel, bug net, or fishing rod. We explained elsewhere how to get these important items, but what do you do once you have them in your possession? There’s more ways to manage this than ever before, so let’s break down how to equip tools and other items in Animal Crossing: New Horizons.
How to Equip Tools and Other Items
There’s two main ways to equip tools and any other items you need in New Horizons. In older games you usually had to carry the tools with you, and select them from your inventory. To accomplish this just make sure you have the tool with you, whether it’s a fishing rod, axe, or shovel, bring up your inventory and highlight it. Press A then choose to equip it. This still works, but it’s much more cumbersome. But you do still always need to have the tool in your limited inventory space if you want to use it.
The faster way is to simply use the d-pad. Pushing in either direction will cycle through any tools or equippable items you have with you, letting you change them on the fly without bringing up the inventory screen and navigating through it. This is a big improvement and should be your go-to method of equipping tools, so be sure to use it often so that you get used to how it works. I believe you can even place tools and items in a specific order to force it to cycle how you want, but will need more time with the game to test it all out.
Hopefully that helps explain how to equip tools and other items in Animal Crossing: New Horizons.
