Animal Crossing: New Horizons Museum Building Unlock Guide — How To Get The Museum

Animal Crossing: New Horizons wouldn’t be complete without Blathers the owl and his museum. Like in previous games, collecting every type of fossil, bug, and fish is a huge part of the gameplay in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, so having a place to show off your collection is important. The museum fills in that role, showcasing every specimen you have donated in a spectacular way and allowing your villagers and other players to admire your contributions as well.

Below we detail the step-by-step process of building the museum on your island. If you’re curious about how to unlock other buildings, be sure to check out our Animal Crossing: New Horizons guide hub. Otherwise, be sure to read our review in progress.

How To Unlock The Museum

From day one you can start the process of unlocking the museum. On your first day on the island, after the tutorial section, Tom Nook will accept five different fish or bugs. He is gathering these in the hopes that the native flora and fauna on the island will be enough to entice Blathers to move to the island. It works, of course–after handing in the fifth specimen, Blathers will ring Tom Nook and agree to arrive on the island the next day.

Tom Nook will then give you a camping tent to lay down for Blathers and the future site of the museum. This will be the spot where the museum will eventually be built, so make sure to pick somewhere you like, as it will be a while until you unlock the ability to move buildings around.

Once Blathers arrives on the second day, he’ll take donations of bugs, fish, and fossils (though he needs to assess the fossils first). He also gives you DIY recipes for the shovel and vaulting pole, which will help you dig up fossils and access more of your island.

To get him out of a tent and into a real building, you’ll need to donate an additional 15 bugs and/or fish. Don’t worry about the specimens you have handed over, as all 20 of them will be in the museum once it opens and will count towards your collections.

On the third day, if you managed to hand in all the specimens on both days, the museum will be under construction. We recommend holding on to any bugs, fish, and fossils you find on this day so you can donate them when the museum opens the following day. Once the museum is complete (on the fourth day, if you’ve been fast-tracking this process), Blathers will accept multiple donations at once.