Is Clay Valuable In Animal Crossing?

Animal Crossing is a popular life simulation video game series published by Nintendo. In the games, players control a customizable character as they build a new life in a village inhabited by anthropomorphic animals. The gameplay is open-ended, allowing players to pursue activities like fishing, bug catching, fossil hunting, gardening, home decorating, and interacting with villagers.

One of the key resources players collect in Animal Crossing is clay. Clay is a natural material that can be found buried around the player’s island or town. When hit with a shovel or axe, clay deposits break into clay pieces that can be picked up and used for various purposes, much like other resources like wood, stone, and iron nuggets.

Clay is considered a valuable material in Animal Crossing because of its versatile uses for crafting furniture, fences, and other gameplay elements. This article will explore where players can find clay, what clay can be used for, and why it is an important resource to collect in the Animal Crossing games.

Obtaining Clay

Clay is an essential resource in Animal Crossing that players will need to actively collect. It can be obtained by hitting rocks on your island with a shovel or axe. Rocks spawn throughout your island each day, with a total of 6 rocks available. These rocks can be hit multiple times, up to 8 times, before breaking. Each hit has a chance to drop clay, along with materials like iron nuggets, stone and bells.

The best strategy for farming clay is to dig holes behind you before hitting rocks. This prevents you from bouncing back after each hit, allowing you to strike the rock the maximum 8 times. Make sure to use a shovel without durability, like a flimsy or golden shovel, since they won’t break. Clay has a good drop rate from rocks, so players should be able to collect a decent amount each day using this method.

Additionally, some island residents like Clay the hamster or Cranston may occasionally gift clay when speaking to them. Villagers crafting at home may also gift clay if you talk to them while they are in this state. While not as reliable, this can supplement the clay you gather from rocks.

Uses for Clay

One of the main uses for clay in Animal Crossing is crafting and customizing items. Clay is an important crafting material that can be used to create furniture, fence, floors, walls, and other decorative items for your island. With the right DIY recipes, clay opens up many possibilities for customization and creativity.

Some of the most popular types of DIY furniture items that use clay include brick ovens, hearths, traditional tea sets, flower pots, wells, silos, brick fountains, and more. The reddish-brown clay color can add a rustic, countryside vibe to kitchens, living rooms, gardens, and other spaces. Clay furniture fits nicely with the overall cozy, natural aesthetic of the Animal Crossing world.

Beyond furniture, clay is also essential for crafting types of fence like corral, country, and straw fences. Fencing helps delimit spaces, create boundaries, and define areas on your island layout. With clay, you can craft fencing that matches your island theme and decor style.

Clay can also be used to customize certain furniture items at crafting benches. By customizing furniture with clay, you can change its color from the default option to a reddish clay color and texture. This provides another creative way to incorporate clay’s rustic look into your room designs.

Overall, clay’s versatility in crafting and customizing makes it a very useful material for putting your own personal touch on items across your Animal Crossing island.

Clay Furniture

In Animal Crossing: New Horizons, clay is one of the key crafting materials used to make furniture items for your island. With clay, you can create a wide variety of rustic, earthy furniture to decorate both indoor and outdoor spaces.

Some of the most popular furniture items crafted from clay include:

• Brick oven – A reddish oven with a brick pattern, chimney, and warm glow perfect for kitchens.
• Brick well – A charming wishing well crafted from brick.
• Birdbath – A classic outdoor birdbath made of brick and clay.
• Garden rock – Large rock sculptures that can be placed around your island.
• Tall garden rock – Larger vertical garden rocks that stand out.
• Stone stool – A simple DIY clay stool for indoor or outdoor use.
• Stone table – An affordable clay table in a stone finish.
• Brick oven – Rustic clay pizza oven with brick textures.

These types of DIY clay furniture let you create a more natural, earthy look perfect for cottagecore, farmland, or garden themes. They complement both urban and rural island designs.

Clay Fencing

Clay is a very useful material for crafting fences in Animal Crossing: New Horizons. There are several types of fencing that require clay along with some wood or softwood to construct:

• Lattice Fencing – This fencing has a classic crisscross lattice pattern and requires 3 clay per section.
• Simple Wooden Fence – A basic brown wooden fence that needs 2 clay and 4 softwood per section.
• Corral Fence – This sturdy wooden fencing with X-shaped supports uses 3 clay and 5 wood per section.
• Spiky Fence – A rugged spiked fence that requires 2 clay and 4 wood per section.

Having a decent clay supply is very useful for crafting these fences to decorate your island and create boundaries. Fencing helps give your island personality and aesthetics. The variety of fencing requiring clay provides options for rustic, natural, or sophisticated island themes.

DIY Clay Recipes

Some of the most valuable items that can be crafted using clay in Animal Crossing are various DIY furniture and decor recipes. Here are some of the best DIY clay recipes to use your clay supplies on:

• Brick oven – The brick oven is a unique oven furnishing item that can be used to cook various recipes and infuse food with bonus effects.
• Brick well – Craft a scenic brick well for your yard or garden areas to add some old-fashioned charm.
• Silo – Silos are large cylindrical towers used for bulk storage of grains, materials, or liquids. Place one on your farm for an authentic look.
• Traditional tea set – This gorgeous antique-inspired tea set with floral details can brew customizable drinks.
• Brick fence – Brick fencing adds a refined, upscale look perfect for gardens, yards, and boundaries.
• Outdoor bath – An open-air bath tub surrounded by privacy screens, perfect for a spa or zen garden area.
• Brick oven – The brick oven is a unique oven furnishing item that can be used to cook various recipes and infuse food with bonus effects.

Focusing your clay supplies on crafting these high-value DIY recipes can help maximize the usefulness and aesthetics clay brings to your island.

Selling Clay

Clay can be a good source of bells in Animal Crossing: New Horizons. Each piece of clay sells for 300 bells at Nook’s Cranny. This means clay can add up to a decent sum of money if you sell frequently.

Here are some tips for getting the most bells when selling clay:

• Check Nook’s Cranny daily for the hot item of the day. If the hot item requires clay, you can sell each one for double the normal price at 600 bells.
• Craft clay into more valuable items before selling. For example, crafting a Brick Oven from 8 clay will sell for much more than 8 individual pieces of clay.
• Increase your clay collecting by using your shovel on rocks around your island. You can hit each rock up to 8 times per day.
• Plant fruit trees around clay rock spawn locations. The fruit can be sold for extra bells while you gather clay from rocks.
• Sell on a friend’s island if their Nook’s Cranny is offering a premium price for clay that day.

With some effort put into collecting and crafting, clay can be a significant source of income in Animal Crossing: New Horizons.

Clay vs. Iron Nuggets

Both clay and iron nuggets are valuable crafting materials in Animal Crossing: New Horizons. However, they serve quite different purposes.

Iron nuggets are significantly harder to obtain than clay. You can only get iron nuggets from hitting rocks with a shovel or flimsy shovel. Each rock will drop a maximum of 8 items per day, and only has a chance of dropping iron nuggets. This makes iron nuggets a limited resource.

In contrast, you can dig up clay simply by using a shovel on the glowing cracks in dirt all around your island. Clay regenerates every day and is essentially an unlimited resource.

Because of their rarity, iron nuggets are used to craft higher value items like tools, furniture, and island infrastructure like shops and the museum. Clay is used for more basic items like brick fencing, pots, and brick ovens.

So while clay is easier to obtain, iron nuggets tend to be more prized for their roles in valuable DIY recipes. But clay still has its uses, especially for crafting quantities of items like fencing without having to expend rare iron nuggets.

Clay’s Role in Gameplay

Clay becomes most useful and valuable in the early to mid stages of Animal Crossing: New Horizons gameplay. In the beginning, clay is one of the first crafting materials players will come across as they hit rocks on their island with a shovel or axe. Obtaining clay this way allows players to start crafting basic items like the brick oven and beekeeper’s hive fairly early on.

Clay really shines when players unlock the ability to construct fencing and outdoor furniture. Being able to craft clay fencing and items like the birdbath, garden rock, and stone stool adds visual flair to the island while also boosting the player’s creativity and design options. This added customization can make the gameplay experience more engaging during the early weeks of development.

As the game progresses and players upgrade their houses and unlock better tools, clay becomes less essential. Materials like iron nuggets allow players to craft more advanced items to continue decorating. However, clay remains a useful material for completing the museum collection or filling in spaces that require a natural, earthy look. The accessibility and abundance of clay makes it extremely valuable for elevating an island’s design before obtaining rarer resources.

Conclusion

In summary, clay is a highly valuable material in Animal Crossing. Even though it may seem mundane compared to materials like gold or iron, clay has many important uses and can be difficult to obtain in large quantities.

Some of the key uses for clay include crafting essential clay furniture like the brick oven and clay furnace, constructing different types of clay fencing for decoration and landscaping, and crafting special DIY recipes like the garden wagon and brick well that require clay. Clay can also be sold for a decent number of Bells.

While clay may not be as coveted as rare materials like gold nuggets, it is still considered very valuable because of its versatility and utility, especially in the early game. Clay allows players to craft and customize important items to develop their island. Its renewable nature makes clay a reliable resource.

So in summary, clay punches above its weight class in terms of value in Animal Crossing. It may seem humble, but clay is an MVP material for many players.