Fall has officially begun in Animal Crossing New Horizons, and the new season brings us new seasonal events, do-it-yourself (DIY) opportunities, and crafting materials to collect! During the month of November, we’re all welcomed into the fall with the new Mushroom DIY collection. These items can only be made during certain times of the year, making them the most sought-out items and DIYs right now.

But with every new DIY series, there are new crafting materials to collect in order to build them. Finding the right mushrooms and knowing where to look is half the battle of making some of the most entertaining DIYs right now. We’re here to help you build the mushroom DIY forest of your dreams!

Further reading

Mushroom season only happens once a year. For the Northern Hemisphere, mushrooms will appear in November, and for the Southern Hemisphere, they appear in May. Every morning at 5 a.m., during either November or May, a whole new day will start, and a whole new group of mushrooms will appear around your island. Once all the mushrooms have been collected, you’ll have to wait until the next day to gather more.

Although mushroom season only happens once a year, you do have the opportunity to get mushrooms outside of this time frame. If your island is in the Northern Hemisphere, find someone with an island in the Southern Hemisphere. You can head over to your friend’s island in May to collect whatever mushrooms or DIYs you missed during November.

Currently, there are five mushroom types for players to keep an eye out for. They have different spawn rates, with three of them being very common and easy to find:

Round, Skinny, Flat, and Elegant mushrooms can be found simply by exploring your island. Rare mushrooms, on the other hand, are found by digging near trees. Much like finding fossils, Rare mushrooms can be found under stars, but they’re exclusively by trees.

For those who want to farm mushrooms, there is a trick to easily collecting and quickly spawning mushrooms. Five mushrooms will grow around your cedar trees, pine trees, or stumps at a given time. Mushrooms do not grow around bamboo or fruit trees. Planting trees close together will make finding and collecting your mushrooms easier. Up to 30 mushrooms can appear on your island at a time, so putting trees close together will make finding and collecting them much easier. Additionally, if your trees are scattered around your island, consider cutting some down and grouping them together.

It’s also worth noting that how often the mushrooms appear is directly affected by how many stars your island has. The Elegant and Rare mushrooms are more likely to appear on your island if you have five stars than if you have three stars.

Unfortunately, fall is the only time of year you can get your hands on the mushroom DIYs. You’ll get your first DIY on November 1. Isabelle will make the announcement that it’s fall and will send a mushroom DIY to you. If you have a villager moving out or a different announcement, you may have to wait an additional day before Isabelle gives you the DIY. After that, there’s really only one way to find them: By popping balloons.

This has been a bit of a complaint for a lot of players. Balloon spawns are more the luck of the draw, and although there is a way to sort of spawn them, there still aren’t enough balloons present for players to have a chance to get those awesome DIYs. Also, there’s a good chance of you getting DIY duplicates. Be sure to hold onto these because another great way to get all the mushroom DIYs is by trading with friends.

There are quite a few cute DIYs to create with the mushrooms.

In addition to crafting with mushrooms, there are a few other uses for them that you should remember. The first is that you can eat mushrooms to get extra strength. Mushrooms work similarly to how island fruits work. If you find yourself in a bind and need to break a rock or dig up a tree, eating a mushroom is a great way to go. You can also gift mushrooms to villagers. Although we are unsure at this time how much a friendship level is influenced by giving mushrooms, every villager does seem to be pretty excited to get mushrooms as a gift. Similar to giving villagers fruit, when you get a villager a mushroom, they’ll talk about how you either knew they were hungry or are excited to eat the item later.

The last and maybe most important use for the mushrooms is the Turkey Day event. On Turkey Day, you’ll be asked to help create a dinner for all of your islanders. At this time, both the pumpkins and the mushrooms will be called into duty to help you create the best possible Turkey Day Dinner for your island. If you think you have too many mushrooms, just hold onto them in storage until Turkey Day.

Mushrooms will no longer be available at 5 a.m. on December 1, so be sure to collect as many mushrooms as you can while there’s still time!