Animal Crossing: New Horizons – How to Catch Golden Stag, Giraffe Stag, and Horned Hercules

A bunch of new beetles just swarmed northern hemisphere islands in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, including the rare and valuable Golden Stag and a few others. This highly sought after creature will be the jewel in any player’s museum and can help build up the bank account that Tom Nook has likely drained over the last few months. But while they’re available in the game, it can be tricky to actually track one down. So here’s some help with how to catch Golden Stag, Giraffe Stag, and Horned Hercules in Animal Crossing: New Horizons.

How to Catch Golden Stag, Giraffe Stag, and Horned Hercules

I lumped all three of these together because the tips are all the same. The Golden Stag, Girafffe Stag, and Horned Hercules all started appearing today in the northern hemisphere as they spawn during the months of July and August. For those in the southern hemisphere they will appear from January to February instead.

One of the reasons these guys are so hard to find is that they only appear on palm trees, so make sure you’ve planted some coconuts along your beach so there are places for them to appear. Alternatively you can head to mysterious islands which should almost all have palm trees on them. To enhance the number of Golden Stags, Giraffe Stags, and Horned Hercules on these islands you might want to chop down and clear all trees and flowers on the rest of the island, then chase off any other bugs that appear.

But make sure you do this only late in the day as these bugs spawn only from 5pm to 8am. Before that you won’t see a single one, so check the clock before using your Nook Miles Tickets or running back and forth across your beaches. Once all that is lined up it unfortunately comes down to luck, so just put in the time and you’ll find one soon enough. When you do just prep your bug net and hold A so you can sneak up on it, then let the net loose when it’s aimed to hit right on the bug, rather than above or below on the tree. And now you know how to catch Golden Stag, Giraffe Stag, and Horned Hercules in Animal Crossing: New Horizons.