• Guide

How to build bridges & inclines - Animal Crossing: New Horizons

Learn how to connect the different parts of your island by building bridges and inclines in Animal Crossing: New Horizons.

Josh Hawkins

March 22, 2020 11:00 AM

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When you first start out in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, you’re going to find that much of your island is off-limits to you and inaccessible until you acquire the correct tools. Even once you have these tools, the other villagers on your island won’t be able to travel around the land freely, at least not until you build bridges and inclines. In this guide, we’ll show you how to unlock the bridge and incline feature, as well as describe how it works in New Horizons.

How to build bridges & inclines - Animal Crossing: New Horizons

If you were hoping to be able to build up connects around your island quickly, then you’re going to need to sit back and be a little bit more patient. Bridges and inclines are by far one of the most popular added features in New Horizons, however you won’t be able to make use of these handy items until much later in the game. Also, like most of the construction projects in Animal Crossing, you can only have one bridge or incline being built at once, so make sure you prioritize the most important upgrades first.

After you’ve upgrades the Residential Services building and acquired Isabelle, you can head inside and talk to Tom Nook, who will offer the ability to construct bridges and inclines. Now, these two systems work fairly similarly, so we’ll explain the process for bridges and then touch on a couple of things you need to know about inclines.

How to build bridges

When you’re ready to build a bridge, head to the Residential Services building and talk to Tom Nook. Choose the Let’s talk infrastructure option, and then select bridges and inclines in the conversation menu. From here you can choose to build a number of bridges or inclines, all of which will cost a fairly hefty sum.

Bridges are fairly easy to build in New Horizons. All you need to do is find a portion of the river with even land on both sides. Once that is done, plop down the plot kit and Lloid will appear, asking for donations for the bridge. Go ahead and donate the money (or save it up if you don’t have it just yet), and then you’ll need to wait a day to complete the bridge. Once it’s done, be sure to talk to Tom Nook about holding a ceremony to celebrate. These make for great photo ops.

There are multiple types of bridges that can be built, here's a list and the prices:

• Log Bridge - 98,000 Bells
• Suspension Bridge - 129,800 Bells
• Wooden Bridge - 168,000 Bells
• Stone Bridge - 168,000 Bells
• Brick Bridge - 198,000 Bells
• Iron Bridge - 228,000 Bells
• Zen Bridge - 228,000 Bells
• Red Zen Bridge - 228,000 Bells

How to build inclines

Anyway, building inclines works very similarly to building bridges. Basically, talk to Tom, pick up the kit, then head to the cliffs where you want to put the incline. Unfortunately, inclines are a bit trickier, as they require you to find an even bit of cliff for the incline to press again. This can be tough at the start, so it might be best to wait until you unlock terraforming before putting up any inclines.

There are eight types of inclines you can use in New Horizons. Here's a handy list and all of the prices, too:

• Natural Ramp - 98,000 Bells
• White-Plank Ramp - 128,000 Bells
• Blue-Plank Ramp - 128,000 Bells
• Stone Staircase - 168,000 Bells
• Log Staircase - 168,000 Bells
• Brick Staircase - 198,000 Bells
• Blue Steel Staircase - 228,000 Bells
• Red Steel Staircase - 228,000 Bells

If you don’t like what you’ve done with a specific bridge or incline, you can also demolish it. This will cost you 10,000 Bells to do, but it’s a worthy expensive if you’ve misplaced something and it messed up the flow of your island. To demolish things, head back to the Residential Services building and speak with Tom Nook. Select the infrastructure option and then look for the conversation topic of that talks about demolishing. You’ll then need to notate which item you want destroyed and pay up the fees.

Now that you know how to place down bridges and inclines, make sure you also check out our guide on how to make Bells fast. You’ll need loads of them if you plan on doing any major work on the island. You can also head over to our Animal Crossing: New Horizons guides hub for even more detailed content.

Josh Hawkins

Guides Editor

Joshua holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Creative Writing and has been exploring the world of video games for as long as he can remember. He enjoys everything from large-scale RPGs to small, bite-size indie gems and everything in between.