Players have been arriving to their brand new island getaways in Animal Crossing: New Horizons ever since it came out at midnight on March 20th. What many players didn't realize at first is that not all of their island would be available from the start due to the lack of bridges or any other method of crossing.
The solution to this problem comes in the form of the new item to the series, the Vaulting Pole. This item lets players jump quickly over rivers and onto the other side. However, this item, like the shovel, isn't available immediately and must be crafted after receiving its recipe.
In order to receive the recipe for the Vaulting Pole, Blathers must be unlocked first. In order to unlock Blathers, players should talk to Tom Nook after completing the first batch of tutorials and completing the DIY lessons. After that's completed, Tom Nook will call up Blathers and task players with finding five unique forms of wildlife. These can be collected through catching bugs with the Flimsy Net and catching fish with the Flimsy Fishing Rod. After all five are given to Tom Nook, players will be given Blathers' Tent.
Players can place Blathers' Tent where ever they so wish the museum to be on their island. After placement, players will have to wait until the next day for Blathers to arrive.
After the chatty owl's arrival, players will be able to receive the recipes for both a Flimsy Shovel and the long-awaited Vaulting Pole. In order to craft the Vaulting Pole, players will need 5 pieces of softwood. This can be collected through chopping various trees on the island with an axe. To create a Flimsy Axe, 5 tree branches, which can be collected by shaking trees, and 1 stone, collected from rocks, are needed. Of course, sometimes fellow villagers will gift players random materials as well.
With the Vaulting Pole, players will be able to finally cross the long rivers flowing through their islands, opening themselves up to more fruit, trees, resources, and space for new amenities. With the addition of the shovel, players will also be able to dig for fossils, obtain ores and nuggets from rocks, and plant various flowers and trees. Not to mention, the addition of Blathers gives players the traditional Animal Crossing goal of filling up the museum.
The more that players do, the more will become available to them with each oncoming day. With the real world becoming frightening for many players, Animal Crossing: New Horizons serves as a nice break.
Animal Crossing: New Horizons is available now, exclusively for Nintendo Switch.