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Animal Crossing New Horizons: How to farm scorpions

Leijah Petelka
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It’s February, and there are lots of new bugs to catch in Animal Crossing: New Horizons. This month, in the Northern Hemisphere, sees the tiger beetle making a comeback, but it’s never a bad time to practice your catching skills for when the lucrative yet dangerous scorpion returns to the rotation.

Much like the tarantula, there are tried-and-true techniques to harvest scorpions. You can catch the scorpions faster and increase the bells in your bank account by buying and selling them, especially to Flick. There are a few tricks to increase the scorpions’ spawn rates, which will help you buy furniture for your home, decorations for your island, and outfits for you and your villagers.

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Scorpion facts

Animal Crossing New Horizons Scorpions
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The only time you’ll be able to catch scorpions is in the evening. Because scorpions are nocturnal, you will only be able to find these angry bugs between 7 p.m. and 4 a.m. For the Northern Hemisphere, players will be able to find scorpions between May and October. Southern Hemisphere players can find scorpions from November through April. It is also worth noting that scorpions will not spawn if you have visitors on your island.

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Approaching a scorpion can be a little nerve-wracking. Because one sting from a scorpion can send you back to your home, it can be a little tricky to approach these aggressive bugs. If you find a scorpion, be sure to equip your bug net and hold A when approaching. This will ensure that you’re coming up to the bug slowly. When the scorpion raises its front legs, stop and do not move, as this is the scorpion’s defensive stance. Move farther and the scorpion will rush you. Once the scorpion puts its front legs down, it’ll be safe to start walking toward it again. This will happen a few times before you’re close enough to catch the scorpion. This method requires a lot of patience.

If straight approaching a scorpion is too stressful for you, there is another safe way to catch these angry bugs. You are able to dig “traps” to catch scorpions because, unlike your character, scorpions cannot jump. The trick is to dig a couple of holes around you. Hop over toward the scorpion and lure it into chasing you. Once you have engaged the scorpion, run back to the holes and jump over the middle one. This will leave you within the scorpion’s range, so it’ll keep trying to chase you, but out of reach of the wretched bug’s sting. You will be able to simply drop a net on the scorpion on the other side of the hole and catch it.

Farming scorpions

Animal Crossing new horizons scorpion
Image used with permission by copyright holder

To farm scorpions, you may need to travel to a few different Nook mystery islands. You’ll have to start traveling to Nook mystery islands during the scorpion spawn times — between 7 p.m. and 4 a.m. Before setting out to the islands, be sure to bring bug nets, shovels, axes, a ladder, and a vaulting pole. You’ll also need a little luck on your side (or a whole lot of Nook Miles) because you’ll have to keep traveling to mystery islands until you find the perfect one.

Bamboo islands are the best islands for creating scorpion farms. This kind of island is completely flat — there are no rivers, no freshwater bugs are able to spawn, and chopping down and digging up the bamboo is fairly simple — so it’s easy to clear the island out for scorpions. But getting the bamboo island takes a lot of luck, and there’s never a guarantee that you’ll end up on one.

In order to increase the spawn rates of scorpions, you’ll have to eliminate the conditions that allow other bugs to spawn. Chop down trees, dig up stumps, shatter rocks, and pick every flower. You can leave all the resources on the beaches of the islands to clear out your inventory. Also remember to check the rocks on the beaches. The wharf roaches will sometimes spawn, and you’ll have to chase them away in order to spawn more scorpions.

Scorpions go for an exceptionally high price. Although you can fill out your Critterpedia, or donate the first one to Blathers to fill your museum, it’s often more entertaining to sell these bad boys and gather more of those sweet bells. Scorpions are one of the more valuable bugs, with Nook’s Cranny paying 8,000 bells and Flick paying 12,000.

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Leijah Petelka
Leijah Petelka
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Leijah Petelka is a freelance gaming guides writer for Digital Trends. She covers a variety of game types, but she does love…
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