The ladder is a tool that greatly enhances players’ experiences in Animal Crossing: New Horizons. There are numerous tools in Animal Crossing and they all vary in function. Some tools are pivotal in reshaping your island’s layout while others aid in exploration. Ladders are handy tools used for navigation, especially in the early game period of New Horizons. Follow this guide to learn all about this useful tool and how to acquire one.
The Ladder in Animal Crossing
Ladders are a new type of tool introduced in New Horizons. Their main use is to scale ledges and reach your island’s otherwise inaccessible areas. To use a ladder, you must first equip it from your pockets, as with any other tool. Once you are holding it, face a ledge and press the ‘A’ button. This will play an animation where your character extends the ladder against the ledge. You will then ascend the ledge to an upper section or descend to a lower section. You can also use it to either climb up or down in a diagonal direction. The tool cannot be used if the destination area is blocked, for example, by a tree or rock.
Like the vaulting pole, the ladder has infinite durability. This means you won’t need to worry about it breaking when traversing your island. Crafting the climbing tool is simple as it only requires 4 wood, 4 softwood, and 4 hardwood to create. These resources can be farmed by striking trees on your island with a wooden or stone axe. When climbing, it is important to note that there are 3 elevation levels: the ground, middle tier, and upper tier. A fourth elevation tier can be created using the Island Designer app and placing ground tiles on the upper tier. However, if you attempt to climb to this tier, a message states, “It’s too dangerous to climb any higher.”
How to Get the Ladder
If you have just started or restarted an island, getting the ladder requires progression in Tom Nook’s development questline. You will need to ensure your home is built (meaning, upgraded from the tent) as a prerequisite. Another condition that needs to be met is that Nook’s Cranny must be built. A minimum of 3 days in-game also have to pass before you can obtain the recipe for the climbing tool. With these preconditions met, Tom Nook will request that you place 3 plots for villager homes. After you have placed the second plot, the raccoon tycoon will call you on your NookPhone. He will ask you to gather flowers from the upper cliffs of the island to craft a wreath.
Knowing these higher elevation levels are inaccessible to you, Nook will send the recipe to craft a ladder to your phone. With the convenient tool unlocked, you can inspect all your land’s nooks and crannies more thoroughly. Note that the previous instructions only apply to the Resident Representative, the first player character to take residence on the island. If your character is not the Representative, you can instead purchase the DIY recipe for the tool from Nook’s Cranny when it becomes available, eliding the development storyline. It is also possible for another player to gift you the tool by dropping it on the ground if you have no interest in obtaining the recipe.
Other Types of Ladders
While the ladder is a convenient method for reaching the upper echelons of your island, ladder set-up kits are also helpful. These variations of the ladder were introduced in the November 4, 2021, New Horizons 2.0 Update. Unlike the normal tool, these are placed against a ledge and remain there permanently until you remove them. The basic wooden set-up kit can be purchased at Nook’s Cranny for 2,000 Bells. Iron, vine, and golden set-up kits can also be found. The iron and golden kits can be found from villagers crafting in their homes or from message bottles. The vine kit can be found in message bottles from Kapp’n’s boat tours or the archipelago’s beach in the Happy Home Paradise DLC.
Keep Climbing
Some players might argue that, unlike other tools, ladders fade in relevance beyond New Horizon‘s early stages. There is some merit to this in terms of utility, as options for reshaping your island broadly open the more progress you make. For instance, once the Resident Service building has been unlocked, the player can build inclines. Inclines and ramps provide a convenient way to traverse the upper sections of the island’s geography without needing a ladder. A similar relationship exists between the vaulting pole and bridges, as bridges largely render that tool redundant.
Despite this, some players may be inclined to keep their ladders. Not everyone wants their community lifestyle fully industrialized with all of modernity’s amenities. Some prefer the wild, lush nature of the island’s natural setting. Others might figure that the developers took the time to create the tool, so why not use what they provided us? The purpose of Animal Crossing is whatever you make of it; there is no right or wrong way to play the game. Whether you wish to use ladders or not, just keep climbing to whatever new horizon beckons you.
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