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While selling the fruit is a great way to make a lot of Bells, fruit has another purpose in Animal Crossing: New Horizons on Switch: Eating fruit actually gives you a buff that helps you perform feats of strength that you wouldn’t be able to do otherwise.
While there’s only two main things you can do with your fruit-based power, they are essential tasks for those looking to rearrange their islands before they can start terraforming.
What happens when you eat fruit
When you have a piece of fruit in your inventory, select the option that lets you “Eat 1.” After your adorable eating animation, you’ll notice a little counter appear on the upper left of your screen.
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Each piece of fruit will increase this counter by one, topping out at 10. But what do these numbers mean? Each of these numbers is a strength buff that will let you do one of two things with each use:
- With the shovel, you can dig up an entire tree, regardless of its maturity. That means you can move any tree at will.
- With the Shovel or Axe, you can destroy rocks completely. Be careful when doing this on your island — especially if you need them for farming Iron Nuggets — because it takes time for rocks to reappear.
Performing either of those actions will remove one number. When you’ve run out, you’ll need to eat more fruit to gain the strength again.
But you may be wondering how do you get rid of all the numbers at once? Well, there’s an easy way to do that: use a toilet.
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Switch Lite
- $200
Prices taken at time of publishing.
Nintendo Switch consoles are often sold out, but you can still pick up the handheld-only Switch Lite, which is perfect for portable gaming.
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Animal Crossing: New Horizons 2.0
21
- How to prepare for Animal Crossing: New Horizons 2.0
- New things to do in November
- Gyroids and gyroid fragments
- Happy Home Paradise unlock guide
- 8 quality-of-life additions added in Animal Crossing: New Horizons’ 2.0 update
- Food, cooking, and DIY Recipes+
- Animal Crossing farming guide
- How to get wheat
- Kapp’n’s Boat Tours
- Ordinances
- Harv’s Island Plaza
- Permanent ladders
- Storage shed
- How to unlock Brewster
- Donation box
- How to get Shino and 15 more new 2.0 villagers
- How to invite villagers to Happy Home Paradise islands
- Glowing moss and vine DIY recipe list
- Pro Camera App
- How to get Froggy Chair
- Animal Crossing 2.01 update
- Getting started 6
- Learn the basics 10
-
Buildings and structures
9
- Upgrading your house
- How to unlock the Shop, the Museum, and more
- How to unlock the Able Sisters tailor shop
- Guide to the Museum
- How to move items and manage your pocket and house inventory
- How to move and rotate furniture
- How to move buildings
- How to build bridges and inclines
- How to upgrade Nook’s Cranny
- Catching critters 9
- Farming for items 9
- Upgrades 7
- Making money (Bells) 6
- Nook Miles 3
-
Character and island customization
11
- Full hairstyles list
- Face guide and gallery
- How to customize furniture
- How to move trees
- How to unlock reactions (or emotes or gestures)
- How to create and share custom patterns
- Guide to Terraforming
- How to delete a character
- How to make custom eyebrows, freckles, and birthmarks
- How to customize your phone
- Dream Addresses and Dream Suite
- Villager visitors and NPCs 9
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Seasonal event guides
21
- How to catch maple leaves
- Cherry-blossom Petals recipe list guide
- Young Spring Bamboo DIY recipe list
- Summer Shell DIY recipe list
- Maple Leaf DIY recipes
- Acorn and Pinecone DIY recipes
- Mushroom DIY recipe list
- Snowflake DIY recipes
- Festive Ornament DIY recipes
- Perfect Snowboy and DIY list
- How to make custom fireworks
- Raffle guide and rewards list
- Festivale event guide
- Bunny Day event guide
- May Day event guide
- Nature Day event guide
- Wedding season event guide
- Halloween event guide
- Turkey Day guide
- Toy Day event guide
- New Year’s Eve countdown event
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The game’s community
10
- The year we spent in Animal Crossing: New Horizons
- Animal Crossing kept up with all the twists and turns of 2020
- Joe Biden sets up his own Animal Crossing island for the presidential campaign
- Animal Crossing: New Horizons is a much-needed escape from everything
- Animal Crossing outsells Breath of the Wild in mere months
- Animal Crossing’s escapist fantasy is getting a reality check
- Animal Crossing reportedly removed from Chinese retailers following Hong Kong demonstrations
- Animal Crossing hacker group starts free villager service
- Animal Crossing’s fashion is unrivaled
- Animal Crossing players are starting over after dozens (or hundreds) of hours

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