There are various ways to get your hands on new DIY recipes, but the easiest of them all is a message in a bottle.
These bottles may seem elusive and unattainable, but fear not – here’s what you need to know to consistently find a message in a bottle on your shores (and further afield)!
What is a ‘Message in a Bottle’?
This in-game feature is a written letter stuffed into a glass bottle that typically gets washed up on each player’s island twice a day.
Villagers from faraway islands send these letters and attach a handy DIY which is yours for the taking. All you have to do is pick up the bottle, open it in your inventory, and get the recipe!
Apart from seasonal recipes, all DIYs are up for grabs including rare recipes like Gold Armor. For this reason, consistently picking up a message bottle is a great way to expand your ever-growing DIY list.
As your list of learned DIYs grows, you may find you get duplicate DIY recipes from these bottles.
Not sure what to do with these? Check out our guide on what to do with duplicate DIYs in ACNH.
For the most part, though, a message bottle is a valuable feature that can help you get closer to building your ideal island aesthetic and gain some coveted Nook Miles achievements in the process!
My DIY bottle isn’t appearing
So you’ve checked your beaches and you’ve visited a mystery island, but still no sign of your message bottle containing a precious DIY. The below options might be the answer:
Restart the game & console
Although a boring answer, it might be the one you need.
- Save, quit and completely restart the game (be sure to hit ‘X’ in your Switch’s main home screen to completely close the game)
- Turn your switch off, leave it for a few seconds, and then power it back on.
Re-sync console time if you time traveled
For some players, time traveling can create issues with certain events happening on certain days, as well as the routine within the day i.e. 2x message in a bottle appearing over the course of the day.
- Re-sync and play through real-time to potentially help restore the typical daily game routine.
Look around, move, or pick up beach furniture
If a furniture item is placed too close to the shore, it could cause problems for your message bottle spawn rate.
As a main element of life in Animal Crossing: New Horizons is crafting your island to look the way you want it to, you may not want to move a certain item from your shores, however, it could be the best course of action to regularly receive your message in a bottle.
- Check around the item to make sure the message bottle hasn’t spawned in a spot that isn’t instantly visible
- Change your camera angle to gain visibility over spots you would have previously missed e.g if your normal angle is at player height, change it to the angle looking down onto your player for a new perspective.
If you’ve checked around the beach furniture and still can’t see the bottle:
- Move the items further away from the shore and carry on with your in-game day
- Check back later to see if the bottle has spawned.
When all else fails, remove the item off your shores and pick up all shells so the bottle has plenty of spots to spawn into.
You may find the bottle was hiding under an item, or you may find that after some time of gameplay the message in a bottle spawns in a previously covered spot.
Check with other players on your island
Share your island with your parent, partner, or friend? The bottle might have spawned during their gameplay but they didn’t pick it up, which means when you next booted up the game the bottle would have been theirs and could have impacted your spawn rate.
- Make sure each player checks their shores when they play to reduce spawn rate confusion between player games.
A message in a bottle isn’t guaranteed to automatically appear
It’s worth noting that a message bottle doesn’t automatically appear as soon as you boot up the game; they get washed up at random.
You could start your game at 11am, check your shores, and find nothing, but 25 minutes later check again and a message in a bottle is patiently waiting to be picked up.
With this in mind, if you don’t spot the bottle the first time around, go about your business and check again later on.
How do I get two DIY bottles in Animal Crossing?
As the sole player on your island i.e no other players share your island, you’ll get two bottles a day: one in the morning and one at night. If you share your island with another player, it’s one bottle each.
You can increase this by using a Nook Miles Ticket and heading to the airport for a Mystery Tour, or speaking to Kapp’n at your island’s pier and spending 1,000 Nook Miles to go on a boat tour.
The Mystery Island you’ll arrive at from either of these tours may offer extra bottles, but they’re not guaranteed on each visit so always check the beaches of your faraway tour!
Can I send a message in a bottle?
Unfortunately not; only Animal Crossing villagers can send a message bottle.
But if you’re looking to send notes to friends or villagers, you can always stop by the airport and buy a letter to send!
Spawning the maximum number of message bottles
As one of the easiest ways to get your hands on new and rare DIY recipes, picking up the two message in a bottle spawns each day should be part of your daily Animal Crossing routine. If you’re struggling to find the bottles, or they’re seemingly not spawning, you can:
- Restart the game & console
- Resync console time if time traveling occurred
- Look around, move, or pick up beach furniture
- Check with other players on your island
Remember that the bottles don’t automatically spawn when you load up the game, so be sure to check your shores a few times a day!