New Leaf Bells & Tortimer Island: Money Making, Turnips & Tours

The best ways to earn Bells in New Leaf, from the daily money rock and perfect fruit to the island’s year-round summer beetles, plus how Tortimer Island and its tours work.

Native fruit: 100 Bells
Foreign fruit: 500 Bells
Perfect fruit: up to 3,000
Money rock: up to 16,100
Boat fare: 1,000 Bells

Ways to make Bells

Method	How it works
Money rock	One rock a day pays out when you hit it with a shovel or axe: 100, 200, 300, 500, 1,000, 2,000, 4,000 and 8,000 Bells, 16,100 in all. Dig two holes behind you so you don’t bounce back.
Island beetles	Tortimer Island is always summer. At night its palm trees have golden stags (12,000), horned hercules (12,000), horned atlases and elephants (8,000) and cyclommatus stags (8,000). Use the drop-off box so you don’t lose them.
Sharks and big fish	Sharks (15,000), coelacanths (15,000, rain or snow), stringfish (15,000) and whale sharks on the island (13,000).
Diving	Spider crabs (12,000, spring) and giant isopods (9,000, island) are the most valuable deep-sea creatures.
Perfect fruit	Grow perfect trees of your native fruit and take the fruit to a friend’s town, where each one sells for 3,000 Bells.
Foreign fruit	Plant the four non-native fruits: each sells for 500 Bells, a full tree for 1,500 every three days.
Turnips	Buy from Joan on Sunday morning and sell to Reese when her price jumps. Prices change at noon, Monday to Saturday; turnips rot the next Sunday.
Money tree	Bury a bag of Bells with the golden shovel and it may grow into a tree with three bags (90,000 Bells at most). It is a gamble: on average you get back a little less than you bury.
Premium items	Check the chalkboard outside Re-Tail: the day’s premium item sells for double.
Fossils and ore	Have Blathers assess fossils, donate the first and sell spares (up to 6,000 Bells). Gold nuggets sell for 10,000.

Fruit

Every town has one native fruit: apples, cherries, oranges, peaches or pears. It sells for 100 Bells; the other four sell for 500.
Perfect fruit sometimes grows on your native trees. It sells for 600 Bells at home and 3,000 Bells in a town where it isn’t native.
Bury a perfect native fruit to grow a perfect tree: it bears three perfect fruit up to seven times, then dies (with the Welcome amiibo update, fertiliser revives it). Planted outside its home town it only grows ordinary fruit.
Tropical fruit (bananas, coconuts, durians, lemons, lychees and mangoes) sells for 250 Bells. Plant bananas and coconuts on the beach.
Fruit stacks in tens in your pockets and regrows three days after you shake a tree.
The Welcome amiibo update lets fertiliser bring a dying perfect-fruit tree back.

Turnips (the stalk market)

Hitting the money rock — The money rock pays out once a day.

Joan visits on Sunday mornings, 6 AM to noon, selling white turnips in bundles of ten.
Reese buys turnips at Re-Tail Monday to Saturday; her price changes at noon.
Turnips rot at 6 AM the next Sunday, whether in your pockets or on the floor.
The Bell Boom ordinance does not raise turnip prices.

Tortimer Island

Pay off your first house loan (39,800 Bells). The next day Tortimer asks you to meet him at the dock, and Kapp’n’s boat starts running the day after.
A round trip costs 1,000 Bells. Kapp’n sings a shanty on the way; tap to skip it.
The island is always summer, so summer fish, bugs and deep-sea creatures are there all year (still at their usual times of day).
Lloid rents out a net, rod, shovel, axe and wet suit outside the lodge. They can’t go home with you.
Put anything you want to keep in the box by the front desk (up to 40 items). Anything left in your pockets when you leave or join a tour is sold for 5% of its value.
You can’t save on the island.

Kapp’n’s family

Who	What they do
Leilani	Signs you up for tours at the front desk.
Leila	Buys items for 5% of their value.
Grams	Sells souvenirs (furniture, clothes and tropical fruit) for medals.
Tortimer	Retired here; chat to him for advice.

Island tours and medals

Leilani offers four tours a day at each difficulty. One-star tours are open at first; two-star tours unlock at 50 medals in total and three-star tours at 120.
There are 64 tours in all: hide-and-seek, gardening, fishing, bug-catching, balloon popping, item matching, toy hammer, mazes, ore, fossils, diving and scavenger hunts.
Each tour has a goal and a time limit; the faster or better you do, the more medals you win (up to 20 for the hardest tours).
Club Tortimer (a 50-medal membership form) sent you to islands with players from around the world while Nintendo’s online service ran.

Island-only catches

7 creatures never appear in town:

Spotted garden eel 600

Chambered nautilus 900

Giant isopod 9,000

Best island earners (summer, any month)

Catch	Sells for	Where	Time
Shark	15,000	Sea	4 PM–9 AM
Whale shark	13,000	Tortimer Island	All day
Golden stag	12,000	On palm trees	5 PM–8 AM
Horned hercules	12,000	On palm trees	5 PM–8 AM
Saw shark	12,000	Sea	4 PM–9 AM
Giant stag	10,000	On trees	11 PM–8 AM
Rainbow stag	10,000	On trees	5 PM–8 AM
Napoleonfish	10,000	Sea	4 AM–9 PM
Blue marlin	10,000	Sea	All day
Giant isopod	9,000	Diving	All day
Cyclommatus stag	8,000	On palm trees	5 PM–8 AM
Horned atlas	8,000	On palm trees	5 PM–8 AM

FAQ

What is the fastest way to make Bells in New Leaf?

Catch beetles on Tortimer Island at night (up to 12,000 Bells each), hit the money rock every day, sell perfect fruit in friends’ towns and play the stalk market.

How do you unlock Tortimer Island?

Pay off your first house loan of 39,800 Bells. Tortimer meets you at the dock the next day, and Kapp’n’s boat runs from the day after.

How much does the money rock give in New Leaf?

Up to 16,100 Bells: 100, 200, 300, 500, 1,000, 2,000, 4,000 and 8,000 from eight quick hits.

How much is perfect fruit worth?

600 Bells in its home town and 3,000 Bells anywhere it isn’t native.

Sources & picture credits

Guide text is original retrogameindex writing, checked against Nookipedia and the Animal Crossing Wiki. Icons, renders and screenshots © Nintendo; local copies archived from Animal Crossing Wiki file pages (listed in the picture gallery).