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How to climb cliffs in Animal Crossing: New Horizons

You’ll need a Ladder

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An Animal Crossing character carrying a ladder stands in front of a flower-filled cliff Image: Nintendo EPD/Nintendo via Polygon
Julia Lee (she/her) is a guides producer, writing guides for games like The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom and Genshin Impact. She helped launch the Rift Herald in 2016.

Climbing cliffs is one of the early obstacles you’ll come across in Animal Crossing: New Horizons on Switch.

Your island will start off with a multitude of cliffs, but you won’t be able to get any of the flowers, trees, or other loot that may appear at the top of them. To reach them, you’ll need a Ladder.

The recipe to build a Ladder will unlock several days into the game, after you start laying down more housing plots for future residents. The second plot will need a furnishing item that requires flowers from atop the cliffs. To help you out, Tom Nook sends you the recipe for Ladders.

Once you have the ladder, equip it and press A while facing a cliff to climb it.

Ladders do not break from being used, so you don’t have to worry about getting stranded anywhere. If you do somehow find yourself in a sticky situation, you can call the Rescue Service on your Nook Phone to teleport yourself back home.

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