Resident Services

What is Resident Services in Animal Crossing: New Horizons? This is a location in the game where you’ll be able to find Tom Nook and his company. Here, there are different features offered to you regarding your home, some purchases, as well as your Island.

How do I unlock Resident Services?

This place is unlocked at the beginning of the game once you have completed your arrival day. The current Resident Services is located in a tent in front by the plaza. Your first visit here will involve you learning from a DIY Workshop with Tom Nook.

Resident Services Features

At the beginning of the game, you’ll have access to some initial services. You’ll get more unlocked once you have upgraded Resident Services from a tent to a regular building. Here are the following features at Resident Services:

Initial Services:

Work Bench: You’ll be able to use the Work Bench to create items from your DIY Recipes after you have completed Tom Nook’s workshop. You can also create your own DIY Workbench if you want to create somewhere else.

House Loans and Upgrades: One of your main Goals is to pay off your loan through Tom Nook. Your initial loan will involve payment of 5000 Nook Miles and you’ll eventually have to pay through Bells. Every upgrade subsequent upgrade for your home will then involve paying loans through Bells.

Shop: Initially, you’ll have access to a small shop that’s handled by Timmy and Tommy. They’ll eventually move to their own shop once you have unlocked Nook’s Cranny.

Nook Stop: This is a machine that you can use in order to redeem your Nook Miles for Rewards, use Nook Shopping, as well as depositing and withdrawing your bells. Later on, you’ll gain access to Amiibo usage here.

Recycle Box: This storage box will contain items picked up by other residents on your Island. This includes residents who you play with through Local Co-op. Some of the items here can be used for creating Recipes, while other items are used for display.

Upgraded Services:

Construction Consultation Counter: Once you have upgraded resident services, you’ll gain access to more features with Tom Nook. You can ask him for the following options:

* Advice on what to do: If you're not sure what your main task to do is, you can ask Tom Nook what you need to do. Complete certain tasks he asks for and you'll be given a reward.

* Holding a ceremony: Whenever a new facility is upgraded or if you created a new infrastructure, you can celebrate it with the residents of the town.

* Home improvement: You can ask about your home and check if you can still upgrade it. Having a fully upgraded house unlocks a feature that lets you customize its look.

* Infrastructure changes: You can ask Tom Nook about infrastructure changes such as moving your house and other facilities. You can also ask about building bridges and inclines.

Island Affairs: A part of the upgrade for Resident Services is having Isabelle as part of the team. She will help you with island affairs including your current island's reputation,updating the Island’s flag, and tune, as well as handling some residents. You can provide any resident related concern with Isabelle if you have any complaints.

How do you upgrade Resident Services?

Since you’ll be starting off as a tent, you’ll have to complete different tasks first before Tom Nook will decide to upgrade Resident Services. Here are the tasks that you’ll have to do in order to trigger this:

1. Pay off your first loan with 5000 Nook Miles, then upgrade your Tent to a real house.

2. Help Timmy and Tommy set up a Shop and create Nook’s Cranny.

3. Complete Tom Nook’s request of setting up land for 3 New Villagers.

Once you have completed all of the tasks, you should get an announcement from Tom Nook the next day about his plan for upgrading. Once construction has begun, you’ll get access to the upgraded Resident Services the following day.

Unlocking Isabelle

Once you have upgraded Resident Services, you’ll unlock Isabelle to be part of your island. She’ll be handling morning announcements now and you can discuss island affairs with her. You can change your island’s flag, and tune with her. Also, you can even ask her to reprimand other villagers if you want.