ACNH - Animal Crossing: New Horizons (Switch)

How to Cross Rivers and Waters

ACNH - How to Cross Rivers article header.png

To cross rivers and waters in Animal Crossing: New Horizons (ACNH), you can use your Vaulting Pole to freely travel about your island. See what you'll need to get and craft the Vaulting Pole DIY recipe here!

How to Cross the River

Three Methods Exist

ACNH - A clip of a villager vaulting over a river using a Vaulting Pole

1 Use a Vaulting Pole.
2 Build a bridge.
3 Fill in the river (after unlocking the Island Designer app).

All of these methods are revealed during the course of the game. The most basic way in the early part of the game, though, is to use the Vaulting Pole.

1. Use a Vaulting Pole

ACNH - A villager vaults over a river
Equip the Vaulting Pole and press A next to a river to vault over it. This is essential for Mystery Island Tours where there are areas that require a pole for access.

Mystery Island Tours and Nook Miles Ticket Guide

2. Build a Bridge

ACNH - A villager celebrates after constructing a stone bridge
The story will require you to construct a bridge to allow you and your villagers to easily cross rivers.

Additionally, you will be able to build up to 8 bridges in the Resident Services.

How to Build and Destroy Bridges

3. Fill in the River with Land

ACNH - A village celebrates after building a land bridge.PNG
Once unlocking the Island Designer, you will be able to terraform land and water. With this feature, you can easily fill in the river with land for easy access.

It also has no cost compared to bridges, and you can get it in an instant instead of waiting for a day.

How to Use the Island Designer App

How to Get the Vaulting Pole

Steps to Get the Vaulting Pole

ACNH - Blather talks to the villager about vaulting rivers.png

1 Find five fish or bugs and give them to Tom Nook.
2 Receive Blathers' tent from Tom Nook.
3 Place the tent somewhere on the island.
4 Wait until the next day, and Blathers' tent will be set up.
5 Talk to Blathers inside and receive the DIY Recipe for the Vaulting Pole.

Tom Nook won't accept the same Bug or Fish more than once

When giving critters to Tom Nook, be sure to give him bugs and fish of different kinds. It won't count if you give a critter of the same species that you've already submitted!

Have Softwood Ready

ACNH - DIY Recipe - Vaulting Pole.jpg
5 pieces of Softwood are needed to craft the Vaulting Pole. If you don't have Softwood ready, you can either craft or buy an Axe to get more.
How to Craft the Vaulting Pole

Succeeding Players Can Unlock the Recipe Through the DIY Workshop

ACNH - Tom Nook talks to the villager about the DIY Workshop
The second player (or succeeding players) can unlock the Vaulting Pole recipe by completing the DIY Workshop held by Tom Nook.

However, they will not be able to get this until the first player has the recipe.

The Vaulting Pole Does Not Break

Unlike most tools, no matter how much you use the Vaulting Pole, it will not break.

List of Tools

Related Guides

Beginner

All Tips & Tricks

Beginner Guides

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