Animal Crossing: New Horizons – How to Chop Down Trees

Upon arriving at your lush island paradise the whole thing will be covered in foliage of all sorts. Trees stand tall among the weeds, but maybe that’s not how you want them to be. Maybe you want to clear a section of the map, or get some crafting materials like wood. But early in the game it’s tough to figure out how to handle these seemingly simple tasks. To help, here’s how to chop down trees in Animal Crossing: New Horizons.

How to Chop Down Trees

The answer to most questions like this in Animal Crossing: New Horizons is that you need a specific kind of tool to handle the job. In this case, you have a bunch of trees you want to chop down, so you will need an axe. Thankfully we’ve explained where to get one right here, but that’s just to get the first one: the flimsy axe. It won’t actually chop down the trees, just get the wood to fall. To chop them down completely you need the upgraded version that you’ll unlock later on in the game. Just check out that guide to unlock the recipe and craft it as normal. Once you have the axe just equip it and you’re ready to go.

Now just walk up to whatever tree you want to chop down and press A to swing the axe, hitting the tree. Depending on which type of axe you have it will take a few hits, so keep mashing A until you strike all the way through and the tree comes tumbling down. You’ll get a bunch of material out of this, but also leave a tree stump in its place. To get rid of that you just need a shovel to dig it up.

And that’s how to chop down trees in Animal Crossing: New Horizons. Just be careful with this, since you probably don’t want a totally barren island to live on. You can always plant more trees, but they take time to grow. Only chop down trees you’re sure you won’t miss for a few days, cause it could take that or longer to grow them back if you change your mind.