Animal Crossing: New Horizons – How to get the Ladder and Vaulting Pole

Stefan L 21/03/20 Comments Closed

Animal Crossing: New Horizons gives you some new ways to get around the world in the game, with a new vaulting pole to let you cross streams, and a ladder so you can climb up the cliff faces and reach higher parts of the multi-level landmasses.

But you won’t have them right away. In fact, it’ll be several days before you can explore every corner of your island, and you might be scratching your head as to how you can get up a cliff. Here’s how and when you can get the vaulting pole and ladder.

We’ve got plenty of other walkthroughs and tips for Animal Crossing: New Horizons, and more on the way. Visit our game hub to check those out.

How to get the Vaulting Pole

You will get the vaulting pole DIY recipe quite soon after moving to your new island, as Blathers gives it to you the first time you speak in order to help you catch bugs, fish and dig up fossils for his fledgeling museum.

To bring Blathers to your island, you need to talk to Tom Nook after sleeping for the first time and reaching your first full day. Take him up on his offer to learn about DIY and he’ll give you recipes for a net and fishing rod, asking you to bring him any new species that you catch.

After handing him new bugs or fish five times, he’ll get a call from Blathers saying he’s coming to the island. Help Tom find a plot for Blathers’ new tent and museum, and the museum curating owl will be waiting for you to come visit him the very next day! Just let him blather on at you about his mission, and you’ll get a DIY recipe for both a vaulting pole and shovel.

The Vaulting Pole DIY recipe costs 5 Softwood and you can craft it at any workbench in the game.

How to get the Ladder

It’s a little bit later in your island life that you can gain a ladder – at the earliest on the third day. You’ll have moved into a new home, helped the Nooklings to build Nook’s Cranny, and it’s at this point Tom Nook will ask for your help in bringing new villagers to the island, by building and furnishing three new homes.

You’ll be given three kits to place wherever you see fit on the island and mark out a building site. The first time, Tom Nook will phone and explain how you can help decorate the interior and exterior by crafting the required items and dropping them off. He’ll also call once you’ve placed the second building site and explain that this prospective islander would like a wreath of flowers. The only problem is that all the flowers are growing up on the cliffs around the island.

At this point, Tom Nook will have beamed a DIY recipe to your phone for you to craft at any work table.

Just collect the required materials – 4 Wood, 4 Hardwood and 4 Softwood– and you can create your Ladder.

Skip ahead by visiting a friend!

Another way to get the DIY recipe for ladder is to go and visit a friend who’s further on in the game!

If you know someone who’s already unlocked the ladder, you can visit their island via Dodo Airlines from your second full day on the island. Get your pleasantries out of the way – “Oh, I really… uh… like what you’ve done with the place?” – head to Nook’s Cranny and open up the cabinet in the rear left corner of the shop. Scroll down and you’ll find a bunch of DIY recipes, one of which should be for a ladder that costs 500 Bells.