It’s the moment Animal Crossing: New Horizons fans have been long awaiting–the first major update since the game’s release. During the Direct livestream, we got a lot of information regarding free and paid updates that are both expected to be available on November 5th, 2021.
Here are some of the highlights:
1. Brewster’s Cafe
Brewster is finally coming to New Horizons! For those who haven’t played previous Animal Crossing games, Brewster is a pigeon who owns “The Roost”, a little cafe where you and your villagers can order coffee for 200 bells per cup. Unlike previous games, The Roost in New Horizons will not be an independent building, but instead an addition to the museum.
2. Kapp’n’s Boat tour
Kapp’n (along with his beautiful singing voice) is also making a return in the update. His job will be to help transport players to new mysterious islands, which will introduce new plants like vines and mushrooms. These new islands will also have different seasons and times of day compared to the player’s home island.
3. Harv’s Shops
Harv’s Island is getting an upgrade too! Besides just being a place where you can take photographs, Harv’s Island will now be host to a variety of shops. These shops will be unlocked via bell donations. Some of the vendors include Saharah, Kicks, Reese and Cyrus, Leif, Redd, Harriet, Tortimer, and Katrina. Hopefully having these shops will give players a renewed purpose to visit Harv’s Island.
4. Group Stretching
Players will be able to participate in group stretching on the island plaza. To stretch players can use either button controls or the joy-cons for motion controls. Players can stretch together with villagers and other players.
5. Ordinances
Ordinances will be a new way to guide how villagers live their lives. In the livestream, it looked like there will be at least four ordinances to choose from: “Beautiful Island Ordinance,” “Early Bird Ordinance,” “Night Owl Ordinance,” and “Bell Boom Ordinance.”
“Early Bird Ordinance” was shown off in the livestream as an example and makes all of the island residents wake up earlier in the morning.
6. Player Houses
Players will finally be able to completely change the exterior of their houses through Tom Nook. Additionally, house storage space upgrades will be available to purchase with bells.
7. Farming and Cooking
New vegetables are being added to the game, including tomatoes, wheat, sugarcane, potatoes, carrots, and more. Cooking is being added to DIY recipes, and it seems like there will be a wide variety of cooking recipes to choose from.
8. Interior decorating
With the new Pro-Decorating License, players will now have access to ceiling decorations. Additionally, different wallpaper can now be added to the same room to create accent walls.
9. Outdoor decorating
The maximum number of bridges and inclines is being increased to 10 each and new fence designs are being added.
10. Handheld Camera mode
This new camera mode allows players to take photos and walk around in first person, although it looks like you can only face in one direction. However, this new mode should allow players to take even better photos of themselves and their island adventures!
11. Custom Design Patterns+
Design patterns originally only used for items can now be worn or used as flooring/wallpaper.
12. New Hairstyles and Reactions
11 new hairstyles and 11 new reactions are being added to the game.
13. New redeemable items
New items can be redeemed with Nook Miles such as a ferris wheel, park fountain, balloon wagon, and much more.
14. storage shed and abd
Players can access their home storage and it can be placed anywhere on their island with the new storage shed. Additionally, the new ABD allows players to deposit and withdraw bells from their savings account. Super convenient!
15. new k.k. slider songs
K.K. Slider will have 12 new songs that the player can add to their collection.
16. Gyroids
Gyroids are back, although they’re a little different in New Horizons–players must plant and water them to grow more. Not only that, but gyroids are also customizable now.
17. froggy chair
The famous froggy chair is also making a comeback in the new update, much to the joy of the loyal fans.
18. permanent standing ladders
By crafting the new “ladder set-up kit,” players can now place permanent ladders at the base of island cliffs.
19. tight spaces
Players will now be able to shimmy between tight spaces, which means that house furniture can now be placed closer together and still be accessible.
20. visting villagers
Island residents will be able to make surprise visits to the player’s house and even invite the player over to their places too!
happy home paradise
That wraps it up for the free content update. Moving onto the first paid DLC (downloadable content) for New Horizons, named Happy Home Paradise, which will be available at the same time as the free update and costs $24.99:
1. new characters
In this DLC players are introduced to Niko and Wardell as the player is tasked with creating island vacation houses for various Animal Crossing villagers based on their personalities.
2. new furniture
A lot of new furniture is being added to the game, way too much to be described here. As players continue to decorate houses for residents, new furniture will be unlocked.
3. poki
The new currency in Animal Crossing, Poki will be given to players as a reward for their hard work creating vacation houses. Players can then use Poki to purchase rarer furniture that they may not be able to get on their home island.
4. interior design additions
Probably the most valuable part of the Happy Home Paradise DLC is the new interior design options. Partition walls, adjustable counter heights, mood lighting, soundscapes, and polishing furniture are all huge additions that make purchasing the DLC 100% worth it in my opinion. All of these new options can be taken back to the player’s island as well and used in their own house.
5. buildings
New buildings like schools and restaurants will be able to be decorated on the Happy Home Paradise island, and it is inferred from the livestream that villagers will actually make use of them!
6. happy home network app
After designing a vacation home, players can upload it to the new “Happy Home Network App” so that other players around the world can view them. This new feature reminds me a lot of “The Gallery” in The Sims 4.
After a year of silence regarding possible updates for Animal Crossing: New Horizons, the news of update 2.0 and Happy Home Paradise DLC comes as a welcomed surprise. There is a ton of new content being added, even more than I was able to highlight in this article. While it is disappointing that this 2.0 will be the last large, free update for the game, I am not too upset about it as they are already adding so much for free. Honestly, I have no idea what else they could add to the game after this if they do decide to release another paid DLC. However, this is more than enough new gameplay to keep players interested for a while.