Explore a hedge maze and meet Rover!
Update (04/29/2021): If you’re looking for information about the 2021 May Day event (which has a different hedge maze), check out our guide.
Original Story:
May Day is officially here in Animal Crossing: New Horizons! This limited time event runs from May 1 through May 7, and it allows you to travel to a special island where you can make your way through a hedge maze in order to meet Rover and earn some fun rewards.
To get started, head into the Resident Services building and talk to Tom Nook. He’ll tell you that he’s left a May Day Ticket for you at the airport.
Now go to the airport and tell Orville that you want to fly. Then select “Use May Day Ticket.”
Orville will tell you that you can’t take anything with you to the island — you’ll start out with a completely empty inventory — and that your belongings will be kept safely on your home island so that you can gather them when you return.
Once you get to the May Day tour island, you’ll be greeted with a hedge maze that has a tree blocking the entrance. A shovel is sitting on the ground in front of you, so pick it up. Now you can get started on clearing the maze!
To start, you’ll need to use the shovel to remove the bush to the left of the tree, which is blocking the way to a piece of fruit. Pick up the fruit, eat it, and then use your shovel to remove the tree that’s blocking your way forward.
From there, there’s only a single “correct” path through the maze. The goal here is to explore every single “area” within the maze so that you can collect the wood, tree branches, stone, and iron nugget you need to create a flimsy axe and then a regular axe. Once you have the axe, you can use it to clear three trees that are blocking your way out of the maze! (If you ever feel like you’ve made a mistake, or you’re “stuck,” use the Rescue Service app on your Nook Phone.)
Plus, here’s something to keep in mind as you clear the maze: Make sure to use your axe to clear trees as much as possible (rather than using fruit), so that you save at least three pieces of fruit in your inventory. You’ll need them to reach five Bell Vouchers that you can only collect after you’ve made your way through the maze.
While this is a brief overview of clearing the maze, our friends at All Gamers can guide you through the maze with step-by-step pictures, or check out this video walkthrough shared by Prima Games.
Once you’ve made your way out of the maze, you’ll be able to talk to Rover, who will give you the “Rover’s briefcase” item as a prize.
While that might seem like the end of your May Day tour, don’t leave the island just yet! You can now collect nine Bell Vouchers that are still hidden in the maze.
Four Bell Vouchers can be found by removing a bush near the area where Rover is hanging out. You can see which bush to remove by looking at the screenshot below.
You can get to the other five Bell Vouchers by removing at least two of the bushes that are to the left of the tree next to the campfire (we’ve pointed them out in the screenshot below).
After you remove those bushes, you can walk around the back of the maze. Keep following this path, walking along the beach until you reach the front of the maze.
You’ll see three rocks that are blocking your way to five Bell Vouchers.
If you still have three pieces of fruit in your inventory, you can eat them and then remove the rocks, clearing your way to the Bell Vouchers!
Once you’ve collected all nine Bell Vouchers, talk to Wilbur to head home. You can’t take the extra bushes and flowers found around the May Day island home with you, so don’t bother collecting them.
When you arrive at your home island, all of the items you originally had in your inventory will be returned to you, and you can check your mail to collect Rover’s briefcase and any Bell Vouchers you found on the May Day tour.
The Bell Vouchers can be sold at Nook’s Cranny for 3,000 Bells each (27,000 Bells, if you collected all nine).
Finally, here’s what Rover’s briefcase looks like if you place it in your home.
Happy May Day!
To learn more about Animal Crossing: New Horizons, or to view more of our guides for the game, check out our previous coverage.
Disclosure: Nintendo gave SuperParent a code for Animal Crossing: New Horizons for coverage purposes.
Brandy Berthelson has been writing about video games and technology since 2006, with her work appearing on sites including AOL Games, Digital Spy, and Adweek. When she’s not gaming, Brandy enjoys crafting, baking, and traveling with her husband.
