If you're like me, then you have an adorable set of Animal Crossing amiibo figures as well as Animal Crossing amiibo cards sitting around your house somewhere. Each figure or card can bring a specific villager to the game either for a photoshoot or so that you can invite them to become a permanent resident. What's more, using amiibo cards, you can invite one of the 390+ villagers to your island to recruit them. Even more functions are available to those who purchase the paid DLC.

If you've been playing for a while and still haven't found out how to use amiibo in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, you can only use them once amiibo functionality has been unlocked. There are a few different places you can use amiibo including the Campsite, Harvey's Island, and The Roost cafe. On this page, we'll explain how to unlock amiibo functionality, what amiibo do in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, and also explain how to use them.

What you'll need

To use amiibo with Animal Crossing: New Horizons on Nintendo Switch you're obviously going to need the console and the game. Maybe your old Switch is running low on battery life, if so a Nintendo Switch OLED might be calling your name. Here's everything you need for this how to:

The amiibo figures vs. the amiibo cards

There are a few different ways to use amiibo in New Horizons. We'll step you through how to unlock each amiibo-related activity and how to use amiibo to bring characters to your island.

There are over 400 Animal Crossing amiibo that you can use if you count the 18 NFC figures and the hundreds of Animal Crossing amiibo cards. Both the figures and the cards feature NFC chips and get scanned the same way using your Nintendo Switch. However, in New Horizons, the amiibo cards are more useful since they allow you to invite new villagers to your island. The amiibo figures are fun to collect, but they can only be used to invite the unique characters they depict to photoshoot sessions while you're on Harvey's Island.

If you have your heart set on inviting a specific villager to your island, you might want to scour eBay for a particular Animal Crossing amiibo card as many sellers will let you buy them individually. But be warned. Some of the more popular villagers' amiibo cards are incredibly pricey.

A full list of Animal Crossing amiibo cards can be found on Animal Crossing's official website.

Sanrio amiibo cards

Now that the 1.9 update has gone live, Animal Crossing players can get six unique Sanrio villagers and their items by scanning Sanrio amiibo cards. Unfortunately, these cards are currently in limited supply and are hard to find.

New Series 5 Animal Crossing amiibo cards

The newest wave of Animal Crossing amiibo cards released November 5, 2021. There are 48 new cards total and six come in each pack. This set includes the newest characters added into the Animal Crossing franchise via New Horizons. For instance, the fan-favorite Raymond, Shino, and others.

How to unlock amiibo in Animal Crossing: New Horizons

There are three different ways that amiibo can be used in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, which means there are three different areas to unlock for amiibo usage. There's also a use for amiibo cards in the Happy Home Paradise DLC for those that purchase the expansion.  

Keep reading to learn more details about what each area offers along with more step-by-step instructions on how to unlock them. 

What can you do at Harvey's Island? Villager Photopia

If you've played Animal Crossing: New Leaf, you might recall a hippy dog named Harvey as one of the particular villagers. After a few days of playing in New Horizons, this dog will randomly appear on your island. Make sure you talk to him, and he'll invite you to visit his island home. The awesome thing is that the airport allows you to fly to him for free. No Nook Miles Tickets required.

Instead of foraging for materials, bugs, and fish, Harvey's island only lets you walk into Harvey's house. Once inside, you'll be able to set up a scene in one of his rooms and take pictures with your favorite villagers. That is, as long as you have that villager on your island or have a corresponding amiibo to invite them with. You can place different furniture, change the lighting in the room, and position your favorite Animal Crossing villagers in various locations before taking pictures with them. You can have up to 10 animal villagers in one room at a time.

However, it should be noted that not every amiibo works with New Horizons. So far, the game has warned me that Digby and Resetti can't be invited to Photopia. This had also been the case for Reese, Cyrus, and Rover up until another update arrived. I'm guessing that any amiibo figures that currently don't work with New Horizons will be usable once future updates are released.

If you scan a character's amiibo figure or card into the game while at Harvey's Island, a poster depicting that character will becoming available to purchase at the NookStop in Resident Services. This works even for characters that I wasn't able to invite into Photopia. All you have to do is go up to the kiosk, select Nook Shopping, and then press R to view all available posters. Use these awesome images to spice up rooms in your home.

How to use amiibo at Harvey's Island

1. Talk to Orville at the airport and tell him I wanna fly.

2. Next, tell him that you want to Visit Harv's Island.

3. Confirm that it's Time for takeoff.

4. After a brief cutscene, you'll find yourself on Harvey's Island. Enter Harv's house.

5. Now that you're inside, you'll find six different rooms that you can take photos in. To use your amiibo, press the down button on the left side of your Switch.

6. Hover your amiibo figure or your amiibo card over the NFC reader. If you're playing in handheld mode, the NFC reader is near the right joystick. If you're playing with the Pro Controller, the NFC reader is over the Nintendo Switch logo. The characters you scan will appear in the room. You can have up to 10 animal villagers in a room at a time.

7. While still in this viewing mode, hover over the character and more options will appear on the screen.

8. You can make them emote by pressing ZR and then selecting one of your available Reactions.

9. If you hold down A while highlighting a villager, you can pick them up and then place them somewhere else in the room.

10. If you want to select multiple characters, hold down the R button and then highlight the characters you want to move.

11. Quickly tapping A while hovering over a villager makes that character rotate 45 degrees.

12. If you decide you want to remove a villager, hover over them and then press Y.

Brewster and the Roost

Once unlocked, a cute little coffee shop makes its way into the museum. You'll be served by a returning favorite character, Brewster. He's a pigeon with a formal look. You can build his cafe, The Roost, in your museum and even allows you to invite any character that has an amiibo card, even characters like Resetti and Digby who aren't in New Horizons. Sometimes, they'll bring a friend along with them.

How to find Brewster

There are a number of things you need to do to unlock Brewster. Make sure your island meets these requirements and then go on the miniquest to unlock the Roost when you can.

1. You must have built the museum and have the artwing.
2. Donate at least one fish, bug, fossil, and art piece to the museum.
3. Have a three-star rating on your island. You can check with Isabelle to see where your island currently sits.
4. When those requirements are met, talk to Blathers and he'll mention his friend Brewster.
5. Run to your island's pier and go on an Island Tour with Kapp'n.
6. You'll see Brewster on the island. Talk to Brewster and relay Blathers' message.
7. Head back to the museum and tell Blathers what happened.

Your museum will immediately close for construction, but when you get on the next day the new cafe will be in place along with Brewster.

How to use amiibo at Brewster's The Roost cafe

You don't have to do anything extra to unlock amiibo scanning at the cafe. I've tested amiibo figures and amiibo cards, including ones for characters that don't appear in New Horizons, and so far they have all worked.

1. Interact with the yellow amiibo telephone in the left side of the room.

2. Select Yes!

3. Select Yes, I am.

4. Scan your amiibo figure or amiibo card by hovering it over the joystick on your Joy-Con. If you're using the Pro Controller hover it over the Nintendo logo in the middle. Note that you can only have one amiibo guest at a time.

5. The character you requested will appear after a short cutscene. You can talk to them and sit with them. If you use a Reaction while sitting with your guest, they'll respond. Sometimes the things they do might surprise you.

6. If you're done talking to this character and want to invite another one, simply go to the telephone and scan another amiibo card. Note that this will make your first guest leave.

That's all there is to The Roost cafe! Enjoy sipping joe with your favorite characters. You might just learn something new about them as you talk.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons — Happy Home Paradise paid DLC

Animal Crossing: New Horizons — Happy Home Paradise is the first and only paid DLC for New Horizons. With this new content, players can create vacation homes for various villagers. If you scan an Animal Crossing amiibo card, you can invite that specific villager as a client and create the perfect getaway just for them.

How to unlock the campsite

The campsite allows random villagers to appear on your island, which gives you the option of inviting them to live their as pemanent residents. If you have amiibo cards, you can use them to ask specific villagers to your campsite. To be more precise, the character depicted on the card gets invited to your island.

Note: You can only use Animal Crossing amiibo cards here. None of the characters that have been turned into amiibo figurines can be invited to the campsite.

Steps for building the campsite

You'll need to complete several steps to build a campsite. Here's what you need to do to unlock the campsite and invite villagers to your island using amiibo:

1. Upgrade Resident Services to a building
2. Build a campsite
3. Invite a visiting villager to live on your island
4. Build additional homes on your island
5. Wait for the villager to move in
6. Use the NookStop kiosk at Resident Services

We'll go over all of these steps in more detail below. 

1. Upgrade Resident Services to a building

You must first take all the steps necessary to upgrade Resident Services from a tent to a building to unlock the campsite's amiibo functionality. If you haven't gotten that far yet, click the link above to go to a guide.

2. Build a campsite

Once you've upgraded Residential Services, Tom Nook will tell you that he's interested in opening a campsite. He'll then ask you to stake out a plot of land specifically for this purpose. After selecting a location for the campsite, you'll have to wait for the next morning. The campsite will appear on your island the next day, but you won't get any visitors until the following day after that.

3. Invite a visiting villager to live on your island

The first animal NPC that comes to the campsite will be chosen at random. When someone does appear in the tent, you can invite them to live on your island simply by talking to them. You'll need to play some games or crafting items for them in order to convince them.

4. Build additional homes on your island

Now it's time to talk to Tom Nook at Resident Services. Since you're inviting even more villagers to your island, this loaded raccoon will tell you that more houses need to be built to accommodate everyone. He'll then give you a housing kit and will ask you to pick a location for this new home. Run around your island and select the perfect place for your new villager to live. You'll need to wait until the following day for this new house to show up on your island.

5. Wait for the villager to move in

You're going to have to do some waiting. It takes a day for the house to show up after you've chosen a location, and then it takes another day for the new villager to move into your island.

6. Use the NookStop kiosk at Resident Services

Once the new villager has moved in, head back to Resident Services and talk with Tom Nook. He'll tell you that he wants to bring even more villagers to the island. Now, run over to the Nook Stop kiosk and interact with it. He'll tell you that you can now use Animal Crossing amiibo cards to invite more villagers to the island. Just note that you can only have one camper per day.

How to invite villagers to the campsite using amiibo

Now that you've unlocked the ability to use amiibo cards, it's time to learn how to scan them in and convince campers to move into your island. You're going to have to scan a villager's card multiple days in a row if you want them to become a resident of your island. Here are the steps needed to acquire a new villager using amiibo cards.

1. Interact with the kiosk at Resident Services.

2. Select invite a Camper.

3. Select Yes, I do!

4.  Scan the amiibo card you want to use.

5. The kiosk will identify the character on the card. Now select Yes!

6. After scanning your card, a cutscene will play, showing the invited camper. Run to your campsite and enter the tent.

7. Talk with the villager a couple of times until they ask you to craft something for them.

8. Agree to their request. They might even give you a new recipe in the processes.

9. This villager will leave your island by the end of the night, so be sure to craft the requested item and give it to the camper before they're gone.

10. The camper is closer to being persuaded, but they won't be ready to move in just yet. The following day repeat steps 1 - 9.

11. After giving them an item on the next day, talk to them several times to see if they are interested in moving in. You might have to invite them back one more time and craft them another item before they're willing to move in.

12. If they agree to become a resident but you already have 10 villagers on your island, then you'll need to choose which of your current villagers gets kicked off the island.

How to use amiibo in Animal Crossing: New Horizons

There you have it. As long as you have either the Animal Crossing amiibo figurines or the amiibo cards, you'll be able to invite characters into your game by merely scanning the NFC chips. Remember that the cards are more useful when it comes to getting the villagers you want to live on your island, although the figurines are just too cute to pass up.

Enjoy your game! I hope you're able to get all of the villagers you want to come to your island.

Now that October has officially begun, you can start dressing your Animal Crossing avatar up for Halloween! When the Fall Update first hit in 2020, new body paint options and eye colors were added. But just how do you access these cool new looks? We're here to help you. Here's how to unlock Animal Crossing body paint and new eye colors and how to get all dressed up for Halloween.

How to unlock body paint and new eye colors

Unlocking these customization options in Animal Crossing: New Horizons is very easy. Just follow these steps to make it happen.

1. Head to Resident Services.

2. Interact with the Nook Stop kiosk.

3. Select Redeem Nook Miles.

4. Scroll down and select Body-Paint Costume Tips or Exploring New Eye Colors. They each cost 2,400 Nook Miles.

5. Select Redeem. A ticket will print out and your character will automatically learn these new customization options.

Now that you have the body pain and eye colors, you just have to apply them to make your character look different. Continue on to learn exactly how to use body pain and eye colors. 

How to use new body paint and new eye colors

Now that you've unlocked them, you just need to know how to use them. The secret is having a mirror. These can be crafted at a DIY station or purchased when they appear in Nook's Cranny. Here's how to apply body paint and eye colors.

1. Go interact with a mirror.

2. Select Change it up!

3. Choose the body paint color you want to use.

4. Press the R button twice on the controller to rotate over to the Eyes section of the menu.

5. Select the eye color you want to use.

6. When you're done making your selections, press the + button to finalize your look.

Now that you've got access to all of the new body paint and eye colors, you can perfect your avatar's look by getting dressed in festive costumes. You can find cool clothing options at Able Sisters so keep checking back each day to see what's in stock.

Animal Crossing Body paint and new eye colors

Wahoo! Now that you're all dressed up for October's spooky day, it's time to start decorating. There are plenty of pumpkin things to craft to get your island all spruced up for Halloween. Of course, acquiring real-life Animal Crossing goodies is also a fun thing to do.

Good luck decorating. I hope you can get your island looking just the way you want it to.

One of the best Nintendo Switch games of 2020, Animal Crossing: New Horizons features all sorts of weather and seasonal changes. Still, there's something else you will definitely want to watch the skies for: meteor showers! If you're lucky enough to wish upon shooting stars, your island will be blessed with Star Fragments - rare crafting materials. You can use shooting stars in Animal Crossing: New Horizons to D.I.Y. all sorts of things, and we have the complete list.

What are shooting stars in Animal Crossing: New Horizons?

Much like in real life, shooting stars are meteors - pieces of asteroids or comets that have broken up and burn as they enter the atmosphere. In Animal Crossing: New Horizons, these meteor showers last for several hours, nine hours to be precise. From 7 PM until 4 AM, hundreds of shooting stars will cross the skies on your island, but only on especially clear nights. Fortunately, if you're talking with your villagers daily, they will let you know when a meteor shower is going to happen. Then, just follow these easy steps:

1. Pick a nice spot with a clear view of the horizon.
2. Tilt the right joystick up to look up at the sky with empty hands.
3. Wait for a shooting star.
4. Press A to make a wish.
5. Repeat.

And just like that, you've lit up the stars shooting across the sky. You can keep doing this until 4 AM when the shower will end. Don't get discouraged if it seems like the shooting stars have stopped sooner than that. They tend to come in waves, with lulls in between.

Why should you watch for shooting stars in Animal Crossing: New Horizons?

Aside from being pretty, there's an excellent reason to watch the meteor showers: Star Fragments. By wishing on a shooting star (or lots of them!), you can make sure those meteors land on your island. When you wake up the next day, you will find Star Fragments washed up on the shore, just like seashells. 

Depending on how many shooting stars you wished upon, you can find a lot of these Star Fragments. They come in multiple different varieties and are a rare crafting material. Since this is the only way to get Star Fragments and meteor showers are relatively uncommon, you'll want to make the most of the nights when you have the chance. During any meteor shower, you can earn several normal Star Fragments and a couple Large Star Fragments.

You can also earn a few Zodiac Fragments based on the date of the shower itself:

• Aquarius Fragment: January 20 until February 18
• Pisces Fragment: Feb 19 until March 20
• Aries Fragment: March 21 until April 19
• Taurus Fragment: April 20 until May 20
• Gemini Fragment: May 21 until June 20
• Cancer Fragment: June 21 until July 22
• Leo Fragment: July 23 until August 22
• Virgo Fragment: August 23 until September 22
• Libra Fragment: September 23 until October 22
• Scorpio Fragment: October 23 until November 21
• Sagittarius Fragment: November 22 until December 21
• Capricorn Fragment: December 22 until January 19

Fortunately, you can get a lot of fragments from one meteor shower. For my first meteor shower, I earned 31 Star Fragments, seven Aries Fragments, and two Large Star Fragments. However, many have suggested there is a limit of 20 total fragments when you wish on stars on a friend's island. So far, I've not been able to earn more than 20 from friends' meteor showers, but this hasn't been officially confirmed.

Shooting stars in Animal Crossing: New Horizons — Nook Miles too!

Wishing on shooting stars will also count towards the Nook Miles+ Program challenges. That translates into a bunch of Nook Miles and six title keywords. It takes 200 wishes to complete all three challenges, but you can easily do this in one meteor shower.

Shooting stars in Animal Crossing: New Horizons — Can my friends come too?

Absolutely! Life is better with friends, and Animal Crossing: New Horizons is no different. If you have friends who play Animal Crossing too, open up your island and invite them over for the meteor shower! Throughout the evening, I was able to invite over five different friends to my first meteor shower via online multiplayer, and each of them found Star Fragments on their beaches the next day. Just keep in mind that you have to leave your island open the entire time your friends are visiting. 

Each friend coming and going will tie up your game for a little bit during which you could be missing out on shooting stars. You might want to coordinate with your friends to arrive before the shower starts, to wait to leave until everyone is finished, and use Dodo Codes, so other friends aren't just randomly popping in and out.

Kapp'n's Island Tours Star Fragment rocks

As part of the new Animal Crossing 2.0 update, players can now go on one island tour with Kapp'n each day. These tours can take you to a variety of islands with different seasons, times of day, and items. There's even an island that gives Star Fragments when you hit the rocks.

Landing on this island is likely very rare, but it will help you gather up those precious Star Fragments more quickly so you can get to building those awesome Shooting Star DIY recipes.

Shooting stars in Animal Crossing: New Horizons — Celeste

Once you have all these Star Fragments, you might be wondering what to do with them. Well, unfortunately, you might be stuck waiting. Eventually, Blathers' little sister, Celeste, will come to visit your island. Some players have reported it taking nearly three weeks for her to show up, others met her much sooner, and some have yet to meet her. When she does show up, however, this owl will give you new recipes to use your Star Fragments.

Shooting stars in Animal Crossing: New Horizons — D.I.Y. Recipes

There are several D.I.Y. Crafts to be made using Star Fragments. Most of these recipes come from Celeste on her rare visits, so make sure you're checking around your island often after sunset. If you find Celeste and talk to her, she will likely gift you with a recipe. If you show her one of the special Zodiac Fragments, she will also tell you a story about the Zodiac in question. There are a few recipes obtained in other ways, in particular seasonal event items, and more may be discovered in the future.

Magic Wands

The first DIY recipe you can get from Celeste is for a Magic Wand. The Magic Wand lets you change clothes between eight different outfits in the same way your Tool Ring lets you switch through preset tools. 

There are many varieties of Magic Wand you can craft, but for each, you need to collect a different D.I.Y. Recipe:

Note: While you can carry the variants of the Magic Wand and use them the same as the Magic Wand, regardless which you use, they all pull from the same set of eight outfits. You cannot save more than eight outfits at a time, no matter how many wands you have.

Zodiac Furniture

Each month, in addition to Star Fragments, you can also collect special Zodiac Fragments after wishing on stars. These fragments can be taken to Celeste, which will prompt her to share a story about the Zodiac sign and a recipe for a piece of Zodiac Furniture:

Because these recipes and Zodiac Fragments are only available during their respective months, without time traveling, it will take roughly one year to complete each.

Other Recipes

While best known for the Magic Wand and Zodiac Furniture, Star Fragments are used in many other recipes. Most, if not all, of these recipes are obtained from Celeste, but more may come in the future. These are all the ones we know of so far:

Wishin' and dreamin'

Celeste's presence has been greatly expanded in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, which is one of the best Nintendo Switch games. Magic wands allow players to change their outfits on the fly, and the space-themed furniture is great for decorating both your house and your island. For collect-a-thon fans, earning these DIY recipes over the course of a year is fantastic.

Nintendo announced the Series 5 amiibo that were specially made for Animal Crossing: New Horizons toward the end of its October 2021 Animal Crossing Direct. Series 5 includes 48 new cards, showcasing both new renders of NPCs in New Horizons as well as new villagers introduced in the 2.0 update. Previous series were 100 cards, so collecting less than half of that will be a lot easier than before. If you're interested in collecting, here's how you can get started!

Animal Crossing amiibo What are they for?

Series 5 released on Nov. 5, 2021, alongside the free 2.0 update and the Happy Home Paradise paid DLC. Players can use amiibo cards at the Photopia facility on Harvey's Island to call villagers and NPCs to the Roost Café located in the museum, to build vacation homes in the Happy Home Paradise archipelago, and to invite villagers to their island's campsite.

Animal Crossing amiibo How many come in a pack?

Although there are 48 cards in the new series, packs of cards sold in North America include six cards. Those sold in Europe and Japan include three. No matter where you buy genuine Series 5 amiibo cards from, one card will be a holographic NPC card, while the rest are matte villager cards.

The cards in each pack are randomly selected. You will have to keep purchasing these packs until you collect all 48. Or, alternatively, you can find the complete pack of 48 cards through a third-party, such as Amazon, but be wary of homemade cards.

Animal Crossing amiibo How much do they cost?

Each pack of six cards costs $6. So far, pages have gone live at Best Buy, Target, Walmart, and Nintendo's site. While pages may not always have stock, we'll keep you updated when restocks happen. You can also buy the complete mini 48-card pack on sites such as the aforementioned Amazon for a much higher price point.

But note that they aren't true amiibo cards; they are third-party NFC cards that have the same function as amiibos. Prices for these complete packs seem to start at around $49. Again, before purchasing, be sure to read up on homemade cards.

Animal Crossing amiibo Which games are they compatible with?

Source: Nintendo (screenshot)

It's worth noting that Series 5 Animal Crossing amiibo cards will not work with Animal Crossing: New Leaf and Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer on the Nintendo 3DS, or Animal Crossing: amiibo Festival on the Wii U. They can only be used in Animal Crossing: New Horizons.

Scanning incompatible amiibo cards into a game that doesn't support them could cause your game to crash and/or save data to be corrupted. Only use this series of amiibo with Animal Crossing: New Horizons on the Nintendo Switch.

Animal Crossing amiibo Can I buy homemade cards?

If you're purchasing amiibo cards on the secondhand market, be wary of people who may be selling homemade amiibo cards, which are usually printed on PVC plastic in the shape of an amiibo card and include an NFC chip containing the amiibo data for your respective villager.

While homemade amiibo will technically work on your island, you don't want to fall for a scam where you pay scalper prices for something that isn't even genuine. After all, some amiibo can be quite expensive to purchase secondhand, so you want to make the best purchase always.

Collect them all

Animal Crossing amiibo cards are a great way to enhance your gameplay. And if you're a collector by nature, it's fun to keep purchasing packs until you collect them all! Keep checking retailers' sites to see when they restock, or purchase them all in one shot via a third-party site. Just be wary of homemade cards that come with scalper prices. Otherwise, enjoy your new collection!

Yet another year has come and gone with Animal Crossing Toy Day and New Year's firmly in the rearview mirror. Now it's time to turn our attention to the year's first in-game celebration found in the form of Festivale 2023. Islanders are visited by Pavé, the fabulous peacock, who brings with him plenty of color and cheer to light up the cold winter months. Here's everything you need to know about Animal Crossing Festivale and Pavé.

One of the reasons that Animal Crossing is one of the best Nintendo Switch games is because it allows us to celebrate real-world holidays and seasonal events in-game. To learn more about other festivities, check out the Animal Crossing events calendar.

When is Animal Crossing Festivale?

This year Animal Crossing Festivale will be on February 20 2023. This festivity takes place the day before real-world Mardi Gras. Since the real-life holiday shifts depending on the year, Festivale is celebrated in either February or March.

What is Festivale?

Festivale is marked by Pavé the peacock appearing on your Resident Service Plaza and confetti falling from the sky. Your villagers will dress in sparkling clothes and feathery headdresses. When you talk to Pavé, this fabulous bird sends players off to collect feathers.

They can be caught with a net as they float down alongside the confetti. If players collect the proper color and amount of feathers, then Pavé rewards them with a dance, DIY recipe, or Festivale items. If you give Pavé a Rainbow Feather he will give you a Rainbow Festivale item in exchange.

What to do on Festivale

It will likely take you about 25-30 minutes to complete the Festivale tasks. The Able Sisters should have Festivale clothes in their store. Dress up to make the day that much more fun. Here's what to do on Festivale 2023.

1. Talk to Pavé (he's on the Resident Service Plaza) to get the Rainbow Feather DIY.
2. Run around your island and capture different feather colors (red, green, purple, blue) with your bug net. You can also wear a feather if you select it from your inventory.
3. Talk to your villagers and see what feathers they have. You might be able to trade the feathers you have for a color you don't have.
4. Craft a Rainbow Feather at a DIY station using one red, one green, one purple, and one blue feather.
5. Give the Rainbow Feather to Pavé and he'll give you a rainbow Festivale item. Continue to give him Rainbow Feathers to get the rest of the rainbow set. There are nine different items in total.
6. Once you have all nine rainbow Festivale items, craft three rainbow feathers and give them to Pavé. He'll do an awesome dance and then give you the Festivale Float.
7. If you give Pavé three feathers of the same color, he will give you a random Festivale item in that same color. For instance, if I gave him three purple feathers, he might give me the purple Festivale Drum. You can continue to collect every Festivale item color variation by doing this.
8. If you want something more to do after that, you could continue to catch feathers and then craft rainbow feathers. Timmy and Tommy Nook will give you 1,600 Bells for each Rainbow Feather you sell them at Nook's Cranny. The other feathers sell for 200 Bells each.

Festivale items can be purchased in the Nook's Cranny, however, each player only sees one color option in their store. For instance, all the Festivale items that show up in my shop are purple. Thankfully, you can customize these items and change their colors if you have enough feathers of a different color. Of course, you can also trade with a friend who has a different color in their store.

As mentioned previously, you can also get these items from Pavé if you give him three of the same feather color. However, you can only get rainbow-colored items from Pavé. Here are all of the Animal Crossing items for Festivale.

• Festivale Balloon Lamp
• Festivale Flag
• Festivale Stage
• Festivale Parasol
• Festivale Garland
• Festivale Stall
• Festivale Drum
• Festivale Confetti Machine
• Festivale Lamp
• Festivale Float

Animal Crossing Pavé & Festivale

It's time to celebrate the start of the new year with Festivale and our favorite fabulous peacock! Collect cute items as you enjoy the annual holiday.

Players can have up to 10 villagers on their Animal Crossing: New Horizons island. However, they don't get to choose their villagers unless they scan one of the 400+ Animal Crossing amiibo cards. Players can also use amiibo cards in other places on their own island as well as other islands in the game. These cards were initially sold in packs of six, but with the current state of things, you typically have to buy them individually from eBay if you want them. When it comes to authentic amiibo cards, the most popular villagers don't come cheap. Here are the official Animal Crossing amiibo cards with the highest price tags.

Please note: As most of these cards are rare, they may not be available through first-party sellers. Exercise caution when purchasing from a third-party source.

Beware the pirates

Amiibo cards have lots of different functionality in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, giving them tons of value. Not only can players use amiibo at the campsite to invite villagers to live on their island, but they can also use them at locales such as The Roost café, Photopia on Harvey's island, or via the amiibo scanner to build vacation homes for characters in the Happy Home Paradise paid DLC.

When purchasing cards on the secondhand market, make sure you exercise caution and read through descriptions before buying products. Some sellers offer handmade amiibo, which are plastic cards or chips with amiibo data. They often look similar to authentic amiibo at first glance, but the differences are apparent when you look more closely. While handmade amiibo will work the same as authentic amiibo, you don't want to pay more than MSRP for a knockoff.

The village people

There are hundreds of Animal Crossing amiibo cards, but some of them are incredibly hard to find and will cost you a pretty penny to acquire. If you're thinking about purchasing one of these rare cards, we suggest our personal favorite, Merengue. She's absolutely sweet, from her personality to the strawberry horn on her head.

If a dessert rhino isn't really your style, why not go for an adorable NPC, like Niko? This happy-go-lucky worker from the Happy Home Paradise DLC is certainly worth grabbing a cup o' joe with, provided you can get your hands on the new amiibo series 5 cards.

Finally, if you're the kind of person who loves big personalities, you should get Ankha's amiibo card. This kitty has a snooty personality, is dressed like an Egyptian queen, and is loaded with character.

Don't forget to check out all of the Animal Crossing amiibo figurines as well!

Exciting news for Animal Crossing lovers who own a Nintendo Switch Lite! You can play Animal Crossing: New Horizons on either Switch console. It does take a little extra work to use multiplayer functions on the Switch Lite since the handheld console doesn't come with extra controls or a way to play on your TV.

Since Animal Crossing: New Horizons doesn't use motion controls, single-player and online co-op will be exactly the same on either the Switch or Switch Lite. Up to four people can play on the same island with a single Switch or Switch Lite through Party Play mode. Since the Switch Lite doesn't connect with a TV, you might have to cram around the couch to see what's going on. Everyone will also need their own controller.

One player will serve as the leader, playing the game normally. The other three will be able to use tools to gather resources and can move furniture to help design a home or improve the space's look. Still, they won't be able to chat, access their inventory, craft, or access any features tied to the NookPhone. The leader can swap control over to another player using their own NookPhone.

It's a lot easier and more fun to play with multiple systems. Up to eight people can do this at once through either local co-op or online multiplayer. Online multiplayer requires everyone participating to have a Nintendo Switch Online account. Everyone with their own Switch and a copy of Animal Crossing: New Horizons can have their own island to design as they see fit. You can visit and trade resources like fruit and recipes when playing together.

Once you start playing Animal Crossing: New Horizons on your console, you cannot transfer your data to another device. That means there's no transferring your game from Switch to Switch Lite. Keep this in mind when playing with friends: if they create a home on your Switch Lite island, they can only access it on that Switch Lite.

What you need to know

• Animal Crossing: New Horizons is a relaxed simulation game centered around collecting items.
• The game's first and only paid DLC, Happy Home Paradise, features extended customization options for homes.
• The latest update to the game fixes bugs associated with the Happy Home Paradise DLC.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons received a new update, 2.0.3, which focused on bugs and glitches encountered within the game's paid DLC, Happy Home Paradise.

Here are the patch notes:

Fixed Issues related to DLC

The following issues related to the paid DLC Animal Crossing: New Horizons – Happy Home Paradise have been fixed.

• Fixed an issue where items could be duplicated through a specific method.
• Fixed an issue where the same character could appear twice on the island where Paradise Planning is located.

To update your game, ensure that your console is first connected to the internet. Upon starting up the game, you'll receive a prompt that a new update is available. Download the update to install it.

Alternatively, you can press the + button while your cursor hovers over the game to go to the game's Options menu. Select "Software Update" and then "Via the Internet". This prompts a manual search for updates. You'll be able to see what version of the game you're running in the upper right-hand corner of the Options menu.

The Animal Crossing titles are social games in many ways. They allow players to share and view each other's creations and are upbeat ways to spend time with others. Nintendo is making it easier for Animal Crossing: New Horizons players to customize their villages and communicate with each other by integrating NookLink within the Nintendo Switch Online app for smartphones.

Using this service, players can send messages in-game, import custom designs from two 3DS games, manage multiplayer options, and more. Here's a breakdown of each of the different features found within NookLink.

When does NookLink release?

This real-life smartphone app is available right now. You'll need to download the Nintendo Switch Online app for iOS or Android and then select the Animal Crossing: New Horizons button upon opening it.

What can I do with NookLink?

NookLink has 11 functions: Passport, Keyboards, Best Friends, Reactions, Catalog, Nook Points, Happy Home Network, Island newspaper, Island Life 101, Custom Designs, and Settings. Here's what each of these things can do:

Within New Horizons itself, the NookPhone also features a Passport app that allows you to visit other islands. However, within NookLink, Passport allows you to customize what your main character's passport looks like. This is basically an ID card that displays your birthday, the name of your island, your custom design creator ID, Dream Address, Happy Home Network ID, and other information about you.

Considering that Animal Crossing: New Horizons allows online players to visit each other's islands it makes sense that Nintendo would provide a way for people to communicate with each other. Using the Chat Keyboard, players can type in messages and chat with others they play with. Additionally, players can also use this app to voice chat with one another.

New Horizons allows players to visit each other's islands. However, tool limitations are placed on visitors, so they can't run off with all your materials and goodies. If you mark someone as a best friend, that player can use all of their tools while visiting your island. That way, you two can fully enjoy everything your get-a-way has to offer together.

The Best Friend section of NookLink allows you to quickly message specific friends individuals or send a massive text to anyone online.

Nintendo rolled out an update that added a Reactions tab to the NookLink service. Using this tool, players can easily select one of the reactions they've unlocked in-game to make their character react accordingly. It makes it much easier for players to interact with friends when we're visiting each other's islands.

How to use Reactions with NookLink

1. To use Reactions in NookLink, you'll first need to open the Nintendo Switch Online app. If you haven't downloaded the app to your phone yet, continue to the next section below and return to these steps.
2. Select Animal Crossing: New Horizons.
3. Select the Reactions button on the left side of the middle row.
4. You'll now see the list of Reactions you've unlocked. Tap the Reaction you want to use.
5. Press Send.

With your in-game Nook Phone, you can order items you've previously held in your pockets through the Nook Shopping app. In the NookLink catalog app on your real-life phone, you won't be able to order items, but you can view every item you've cataloged, their price, customization options, and even set which items are your favorites. Take note, however, that enforcing the Bell Boom Ordinance on your island can cause a discrepancy in what's shown in your NookLink app and what prices are on your own island.

If you spend way too much time on your smartphone, there's one more thing you can check into daily. The Nook Points tab lets you earn 10 points every day you check in (psst — sometimes you get double points!) to redeem exclusive prizes. After the game's 2.0 update, even more items were added, from clothing to furniture to pictures of NPCs like Isabelle and Tom Nook.

If you've accessed the Happy Home Paradise DLC either by purchasing it on the Nintendo Switch eShop or through the Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack, you'll be able to upload your vacation home projects to the Happy Home Network. The Happy Home Network tab in the NookLink app lets you view what projects you've uploaded to your main page, the last 20 users you've visited, and which users you follow.

In a feature that makes your island feel even more alive, the Island Newspaper tab chronicles important events that happen on your island. Who visited your island, what characters you designed homes for in Happy Home Paradise, which villagers moved away, and even tracks your turnip prices throughout the week if you'd like to participate in the Stalk Market.

The sheer number of features and mechanics can be overwhelming if you're new to Animal Crossing: New Horizons. Don't worry, Nintendo added this nifty app both for your in-game phone and in the NookLink app to give you tips and reminders on how to live your best island life! Veterans can turn off the tips in their game, so that no new tips show up in your app or on the loading screens in your game.

Source: Nintendo

Players who have the Animal Crossing: New Leaf or Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer games on the Nintendo 3DS can create designs for clothing and other things. Once a design has been created, players can then use the NookLink app to scan QR codes on the 3DS and bring their designs into New Horizons. That way, you can design clothing and bedding designs for your island.

How do I get NookLink on my smartphone?

NookLink is currently available. Here's how to set up NookLink on your phone.

First off, you will need a Nintendo Switch Online subscription in order to use NookLink with Animal Crossing: New Horizons. Once that's done, you'll need to download the Nintendo Switch Online app for your iOS or Android device.

Upon opening the Nintendo Switch Online app on your smartphone, you can tap on NookLink under the Game-Specific Services section to launch these New Horizons features.

You will then need to turn to your Nintendo Switch. With Animal Crossing: New Horizons running, press the - button to bring up the title screen. The Nintendo Switch and app will connect, and then you'll be able to use NookLink.

Animal Crossing continues to change things up and gives us something to do throughout the year, making it one of the best Nintendo Switch games out there. During a 10-day stretch in November, players find maple leaves falling from the sky. If you collect enough of them, you'll be able to craft adorable autumn maple leaf DIY recipes to decorate your island with. Here's everything you need to know about Animal Crossing maple leaf gathering and crafting.

How to get a maple leaf

Although leaves fall around your island to represent fall during the Autumn months, you can only collect maple leaves from November 16 - November 26 in the Northern Hemisphere or from April 16 - April 25 if you're playing in the Southern Hemisphere.

Just like with how you collect Cherry Blossom petals in spring, you need to use your bug net to collect a maple leaf. Thing is, only some leaves can be collected. To catch them, run around your island with your bug net in hand. When you see a larger maple leaf than normal flitting around, run up to it and catch it with your net quickly before it disappears.

How much does a maple leaf sell for?

If you head to Nook's Cranny, Timmy and Tommy will offer you 200 Bells for each maple leaf you want to sell.

How to get Maple Leaf DIY recipes

Aside from the Red-Leaf Pile DIY recipe given to you by Isabelle and Tom Nook, the only way to get Maple Leaf DIY recipes is to shoot down balloons floating over your island. So make sure to get your slingshot ready whenever a balloon goes over your head.

All Maple Leaf DIY Recipes

Some Maple Leaf DIY recipes require you to use acorns and pinecones, so be sure to gather those from trees when you can. If you've unlocked Tortimer and Cornimer at Harvey's Island plaza, he can also help you quickly acquire acorns.

Animal Crossing maple leaf guide

Now you know everything there is to know about maple leaf gathering and crafting. Good luck getting all of the leaves you want so you can decorate your island to fall perfection.

The Animal Crossing: New Horizons update is finally here! While Brewster and the Roost were the focus of the September Direct, we received so much more than just a coffee shop and a well-loved NPC in the announcement.

Along with new items, cooking, and so many more details, Nintendo added a merchant's village to Harv's Island. With this new addition comes plenty of recognizable faces, including the mysterious Katrina, who has been an Animal Crossing staple from the beginning. So, who is Katrina, and what role does she play? Let's look into the crystal ball and find out.

Who is Katrina?

Katrina is Animal Crossing's resident panther. This navy blue big cat is a stereotypical fortune teller, usually spotted wearing a robe, headdress, and gold bangles. Also, her birthday is on Oct. 28. Since the first Animal Crossing title, and likely in New Horizons, her skill is telling fortunes for a small fee.

Depending on the game, the price ranges from 50-500 Bells for a fortune. Katrina will also offer other spooky services, like charms or removing curses for a not-so-small fee. Believe it or not, Katrina's fortunes can actually impact your game, or at least they have in the past.

Fortunes can have various effects. Specific villagers may become more drawn to you or avoid you altogether. You may also find yourself very lucky, receiving unexpected bells and rare items. Other times, the outcome is very unlucky, and you'll fall flat on your face. It's also possible that absolutely nothing willl happen. Your mileage varies depending on Katrina's prediction. You can determine by what she says during the prediction.

If you want to obtain her poster, you can also use her amiibo card; that is, if you can find it.

Unlocking Katrina in Animal Crossing: New Horizons

Katrina is here...well, sort of. Despite his laid-back attitude, Harvey has been hard at work, planning his dream project, and Katrina is a part of it. Here's how to unlock the mysterious fortune-teller.

1. Boot up Animal Crossing: New Horizons, and head over to the airport. Make sure you have at least 100,000 Bells on you.
2. Talk to Orville and select, I want to fly!
3. Select Harv's Island.

4. When you arrive, Wilbur will let players know that Harvey isn't in his typical spot.
5. Head down the new path under the arches, where you will find Harvey chatting with a new NPC, Harriet.Source: iMore

6. Harvey will let you know his plan about opening up a Merchant Village, but he needs some funding. With the help of his friends, an army of Lloid gyroids, you can donate funds to bring merchants to the island.

7. Head to the lower-left corner and you'll spot a Lloid accepting donations for a mysteriously accurate fortune-teller.
8. Pay the 100,000 Bells. Lloid will thank you for your contribution and tell you that he will send off an invite for the new merchant.

9. Now, you play the waiting game.
10. The next day, check back at Harv's Island and Katrina's shop will be open!

Now you can have your fortune read by the mysterious Katrina! Something to keep in mind before you buy is that you can only purchase one merchant spot a day! So, if Katrina isn't a priority over some other merchants, consider going with one of them first.

What can Katrina do?

Now that you have the mystifying puma, what can she do? Well, she can tell your fortune for a fee. Like other Animal Crossing titles, you can head to Katrina for all of your fortune-telling needs, and she can predict how your day will go. Of course, she'll do so with a bit of flair.

For the price of 1000 Bells, Katrina will predict your luck for the day, or she will reveal your compatibility with another villager. Not too bad if you're trying to collect all those personal photos. But, it's not all good. Sometimes Katrina will predict bad luck, which can affect your game. However, you can pay 10,000 Bells to have the curse removed and Katrina may even send you something should you fork up the dough. Her services are available from 5 a.m. to 1 a.m.

Katrina's predictions

Katrina's skill is both beneficial and hurtful, depending on the outcome. When approached, she'll give you the option to predict your luck for the day or check your friendship with one of your villagers. You can select either option, but you can only do one per day.

If you elect to check on your friendships, Katrina will give you a list of villagers to choose from. Your results will depend on how much you've interacted with the villager you pick. If you haven't talked with them or they are new, chances are the bond will be low or just okay.

If you regularly bond with a villager, Katrina will likely tell you that your bond is strong. If Katrina tells you that the bond is strong, that means you're best friends! If your friendship isn't so great, Katrina will offer to strengthen the bond for a crisp 10,000 Bells.

If you decide to go for luck instead of friendship, there are plenty of other mysterious effects that may befall you. A luck fortune can affect your luck with Belongings, Bells, Friendships, or Health. Just like real luck, it could go both ways, so be wary when you buy in. Your fortune can either improve or diminish with some rather wacky side effects. Here are all the effects of Katrina's fortunes.

Don't worry too much if you get a bad fortune — that is, if you have Bells to spare. Katrina will wipe the bad energy for a mere 10,000 Bells, but that's not all! If you shell out the money, you'll be fine and you might get a gift from the mysterious puma the next day. Players can get the following items:

• Gold Turtle
• Horseshoe Door Decoration
• Mini Dharma
• Power Stone

So, it's not all bad. It may be worth the bad fortune if you want to collect them all!

The future looks bright

November is a month full of promise. And now that the update is finally here, we just have to wait for the new Animal Crossing: Happy Home Paradise DLC. Animal Crossing fans will have plenty to do. Just remember, the crystal knows all, and bad times... are just times that are bad.

The final major task Tom Nook asks you to complete in Animal Crossing: New Horizons is Project K. Basically, you'll be asked to pretty up the island to accommodate a K.K. Slider concert. This is a significant effort requiring that you spend a lot of resources without much guidance. But if you can pull it off, you'll get a huge reward in the form of terraforming, which lets you shape the space to your heart's content.

1. Upgrade Resident Services to a building and talk to Tom Nook

To get this far in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, you must have upgraded Resident Services from a tent to a building. If you haven't done that yet, get to it! These things must be completed to upgrade Resident Services:

• Upgrade your tent to a house
• Invite three new villagers
• Build Nook's Cranny
• Build a bridge
• Invite three more villagers

Once you've done all that, you'll find Tom in the newly erected Resident Services building. When you talk to him, he'll give you a rundown of everything that you can do in the new building, and then he'll mention that he wants to work towards Project K. Basically, the goal of this project is to get K.K. Slider to put on a concert at your island. To do that, you're going to have to make your island a more exciting place.

Tom Nook will tell you that he's interested in bringing more people to the island. He'll ask you to pick the perfect location for a campsite. Run around your island and select a place for the campsite to be built. It will show up the following day. The campsite won't be usable the first day it's open, so you'll have to wait for someone to show up the next day.

2. Invite new villagers to live on your island and build more houses

You need more people to live on your island if you're going to coax K.K. to perform a concert there. There are two different ways to attract new residents:

The Campsite

The first camper that shows up at your campsite is chosen at random. Still, eventually, you'll be able to invite specific villagers to your island using amiibo cards. However, you can't do it until you unlock the ability to use amiibo. While a camper is visiting, you can ask them to become a permanent resident of your island. Some of them play hard to get, so you might have to invite them multiple times before they agree to move in.

Island trips with Nook Miles Tickets

You can also invite villagers to your island using Nook Miles Tickets. Purchase a ticket from the NookStop at Resident Services for 2,000 Nook Miles and then take a plane to another island. While on your trip, you might just come across a villager you've never seen before. Talk to them and invite them to live on your island.

Build new houses

To accommodate all of these villagers, you're going to need to build some more houses. Talk to Tom Nook at Resident Services. He's eager to sell more land for housing. You'll have to pay him 10,000 Bells for each house kit you take from him. For your efforts, you'll be compensated Nook Miles once someone moves in. You can have a total of 10 villagers on your island, so continue to save up and place new housing plots until you reach the limit.

3. Improve your island to get feedback from K.S.

The most laborious and most time-consuming part about Project K is raising the star level of your Island Evaluation. Check-in with Isabelle at Resident Services to see what your island's current star rating is. She'll let you know what area you need to work on to improve your score through her recommendations are a bit vague and often repetitive.

The long and short of it is that you're going to need to build more homes, invite more villagers to move in, and increase the overall look of your island by placing decor and items everywhere to get a better rating. This will likely take hundreds of thousands of Bells and several days to complete.

Some key ways to do this are keeping the place clear of weeds, using a wide variety of outdoor decor, planting plenty of trees and flowers, and fencing off these new gardens. Browse the Nook Stop terminal for relevant recipes and impressive structures. Unlocking the Able Sisters shop will also give you a substantial boost, so try to do that as soon as you can.

Continue to check in with Isabelle at Resident Services every day to see what needs to be done around your island. Each time, she'll read some feedback that visitors have written about your island. One day, she'll read a note signed by "K.S." Nook and Isabelle will quickly figure out that this feedback is from none other than K.K. Slider himself.

Nook will then call K.K. from his phone. After a brief conversation, Nook will tell you that the famous musician will appear on your island as soon as tomorrow.

4. Attend a K.K. Slider concert

K.K. Slider will appear on your island the day after Nook calls him. When that happens, you and your villagers will all gather around and listen to this pup's awesome tunes while the closing credits scroll by. He'll even give you a new track called Welcome to Horizons. With the dawn of the 2.0 update, some new hidden features were included, such as the ability to clap during his concerts by pressing the A button.

K.K. Slider then becomes a staple island visitor who appears every Saturday in front of Resident Services. He'll spend most of the day playing whatever songs he feels like. However, once 6 p.m. rolls around, you can request a specific song. An awesome perk here is that he'll even give you a copy of the song you've asked for, which you can then take home and put in your stereo. Catching his first show will also reward you with Nook Miles, and you'll earn more by becoming a regular at his performances.

5. Purchase terraforming permits at the Resident Services kiosk

After the concert has ended, Tom Nook will talk with you and give you the Island Designer app, which unlocks terraforming capabilities. At first, you'll only be able to make pathways. To unlock specific terraforming permits, you'll need to spend Nook Miles at the Resident Services kiosk. But once you've acquired them, you can get to work moving rivers, adjusting cliffs, setting down pathways, and redesigning your island to make it the perfect getaway truly. Here are all of the permits you can purchase:

Live in Concert

Now you know how to get K.K. Slider to show up regularly on your island. This is a great way to collect all of his tracks and just bring more enjoyment to your game on Saturdays. Good luck with Project K! I hope you can quickly raise the star level of your island and get an amazing island evaluation from your favorite guitar-wielding doggo.

One of the best parts of the updates announced in the October 2021 Animal Crossing Direct was that players would be able to use unlockable features shown during the Happy Home Paradise DLC in their own homes in Animal Crossing: New Horizons. These features included ceiling items, partition walls, island counters in two sizes, and pillars. However, you'll have to work quite a bit to unlock them in your own home.

What do columns, and island counters do?

Columns are pillars used to support the roof of a structure and are usually found at the end of partition walls to make things flow better. Island counters provide a platform on which you can place all sorts of household items, like in the kitchen.

These new building features are two of many features included in the new Happy Home Paradise DLC. With these perks, you can divide larger rooms into sections to create smaller spaces like bathrooms without dedicating an entire floor or wing to one concept.

How can I unlock columns and island counters?

You'll have to have the full retail version of Animal Crossing: New Horizons alongside the Happy Home Paradise DLC to unlock columns and island counters. The Happy Home Paradise DLC can be bought individually, but subscribers to the Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack automatically gain access to the DLC with no additional charge.

Once you've acquired the DLC, you'll have to go through quite a few steps to unlock columns and countertops.

1. Head to the airport in your game.

2. Talk to Orville and select the option, "I want to go to work." Now it's time to take off!

3. After landing, follow Niko to Paradise Planning and meet Lottie, your new boss.

4. Complete 15 jobs on the archipelago.

5. The next time you visit the archipelago, Niko will give you the DIY for pillars and island counters. He asks you, Lottie, and Wardell to visit the school so he can explain how they're used. Pay attention because there's a pop quiz!

Note: You'll be able to use pillars and island counters on your own island once you've received the DIY for them from Niko in the Happy Home Paradise DLC.

How do I use columns and island counters?

Columns can be used to create corners without spaces when using partition walls inside a home. As for island counters, you can use them to create windowsills or make kitchen countertops without using an extra table. Island counters are available in two heights, allowing for more of the customization versatility that makes Animal Crossing: New Horizons such a great game.

More space!

The customization options in Animal Crossing: New Horizons are more expansive than ever with the introduction of the Happy Home Paradise DLC. Being able to use partition walls, island counters, and pillars on your own island in the base game after unlocking them opens up entirely new avenues for sprucing up your home. There are all kinds of facilities and customization options to unlock as you complete more jobs, so get to it!

The Animal Crossing: Happy Home Paradise DLC is one of the most relaxing and non-stressful expansions you'll ever encounter. You get to make dream getaways for any animal clients you talk to on the island. But if you specifically want to create a vacation home for one of your favorite villagers on your home island, you'll need to invite them over. You can do it by scanning their Animal Crossing amiibo card or inviting them in person. Here's how to do that.

How to make vacation homes for your home island villagers

1. While in the Happy Home Paradise island, purchase Souvenir Chocolates from the Paradise Planning building. They're located on the far left of the building. You can buy one for 800 Poki or three for 2,000 Poki.
2. Talk to Wilbur and head back to your home island.Source: iMore

3. Give your intended villager the Souvenir Chocolates.
4. Talk to the villager again.Source: iMore

5. When they express jealousy or appreciation for your vacation respond by saying Wanna check it out?
6. They will follow you to the airport and fly with you to the Paradise Planning island.Source: iMore

7. Run to the Paradise Planning building and talk with Lottie to change into your work clothes.
8. Now run back out and talk with your villager to initiate their vacation home design.Source: iMore

Now you've brought your villager to the island where you work, and you can get to making their dream vacation.

Inviting your villagers using amiibo

Source: iMore

Now, you can also invite villagers from your home island to come to the Happy Home Paradise DLC if you have their amiibo card. You unlock rewards as you continue to build vacation homes and the Animal Crossing amiibo scanning ability unlocks after you've designed vacation homes for seven clients.

Once amiibo scanning is available, interact with the amiibo device on the counter in front of Lottie. Select Contact Someone, and then hover your amiibo over the right joystick on your Joy-Cons or over the Nintendo logo on your Pro Controller if you're using one. Note that many third-party controllers do not offer amiibo scanning.

Once that's done, the villager you invited will show up, and you can create their dream home.

Come fly with me

Now that your favorite villagers can come to Happy Home Paradise, you can create the perfect vacation homes to match their personalities. Have fun decorating and getting to know your villagers even more than before.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons is a laidback game for Nintendo Switch that lets you spend an enormous amount of time building the perfect home on a deserted island. You'll gather plenty of resources, craft furniture, and eventually invite animals to move in too. If you haven't played an Animal Crossing game before, want to get familiar with the new features, or are starting over and want a refresher on starting strategy, here are a few tips that will improve your experience.

Choose your friends

Up to eight players — four locally and four more online — can share the same island and play simultaneously. Make sure everyone is involved when you start up so you can look at the map and pick a layout you all like. You start with a tent and will eventually upgrade to a home. Choose where to pitch your tent; options include the beach and a garden-ready grassland. You'll also be picking out houses for a few AI neighbors. Make sure you have enough room to build out and develop your island dream home.

Check your phone

One of the primary new features in Animal Crossing: New Horizons is the NookPhone, which effectively acts as the game menu. If you like your NookPhone so much you want to make your actual phone like it, there are Animal Crossing cases to keep you in that island vibe. The phone will provide you with a constant stream of challenges like pulling weeds, catching fish, or crafting tools. Complete them, and you'll earn a currency dubbed Nook Miles that will let you purchase certain items and travel to other islands. These are things you're going to be doing anyway, so you might as well be efficient and get paid!

The phone is also the way to initiate multiplayer sessions, view the map to figure out where you are, and find out what DIY and crafting recipes you've unlocked. That last one will be key to upgrading equipment and items. You'll gather recipes by going about your regular business on the island.

Gather everything

Pretty much everything has a use in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, and you'll want to grab tons of materials for building items, some of which will enable you to gather still more materials. Your NookPhone tells you what materials you need for whatever you want to craft. Ideally, you'll sync up your search for weeds, branches, stones, and other goods with a challenge, so you're also getting currency. Once you've gathered everything you need, swing by Tom Nook's workbench and get crafting. You can also collect bugs, fossils, and fish and bring them to the scholarly owl Blathers, who will let you know what you've found and put it on display in his museum.

Meet the neighbors

Check-in regularly with the other island residents as they might give you items, teach you recipes, or have tasks that they want you to accomplish in exchange for payment. Eventually, the island will also have shops with changing inventories, so make sure to stop in on those regularly as well since they might be the only way to get some items while you're building up your recipe collection.

Pay off your loan

While living in a tent near the beach may sound nice for a little while, you may want to work toward paying off your loan to upgrade to a home. This not only allows you to live in a house instead of a tent, but it upgrades your villagers' homes as well. Tom Nook provides you and all new residents with a tent to stay in when you first move in, but it isn't free.

All you have to do is collect resources or craft items to sell at Nook's Cranny for Bells and pay it off at the Nook Terminal in the Resident Services Center. Keep an eye on the hot item of the day at Nook's Cranny to see what you can craft and get the most Bells to help speed up this process.

2.0 update and Happy Home Paradise

If you were playing before and just getting back into the game since the 2.0 update was released, you will want to make sure you have achieved your three-star rating and have K.K. Slider visiting every Saturday. If you haven't reached this yet, talk to Isabelle to see what she recommends. This will help you get Kapp'n to your island and open up new opportunities for visiting special islands to gather more materials and bring in Brewster and his cafe.

Once you have K.K. coming to your island, make sure you have a good amount of items donated to your museum. You should be able to talk to Blathers about how to bring Brewster to your island. This will take a day for the museum to expand, so you'll want to prioritize this to give time for construction.

Alongside the 2.0 update came the Happy Home Paradise DLC. This DLC allows you to build vacation homes for residents in exchange for Poki (a different island's currency) that you use to buy furniture from the vacation island office. You get to decorate these homes without using bells or having to construct any furniture, so it's a great way to get a vision of the possibilities for designing your island once you get a little deeper into the game.

However, this does come at a separate cost. It's $25 for the Happy Home Paradise DLC, or it's free with the purchase of a Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack membership. Just keep in mind, should you cancel your membership, you won't get to keep the DLC.

Take your time

Animal Crossing: New Horizons is based on a real clock, with projects sometimes taking hours to complete. The encounters you can have also change based on whether it's night or day or the season you're in. This is a game that encourages checking in regularly rather than binging all at once. Luckily its relaxing tone is sure to make it perfect for when you need a little break from reality.

Don't like making vacation homes for random villagers you find on the beach? Don't worry; if you have the amiibo, you can build vacation homes for the characters you want. Players can use amiibo in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, including both cards and figures.

In the new Happy Home Paradise DLC, players can summon characters after unlocking the amiibo scanner to build a vacation home specifically for that character, without having to wait for them to show up on the beach.

Regular villagers, like the ones that become your neighbors on your own island, can be summoned via amiibo after around seven homes have been completed. Series 1 to Series 5, the Welcome amiibo Series, the unique Sanrio Series, and amiibo Festival cards can be used to summon villagers.

You'll be given the same task and furniture requests you would have received if they had shown up on your beach. If you accidentally call a villager who's on the beach already, don't worry! They'll still show up.

Source: iMore

On the other hand, special characters like Isabelle and Tom Nook are classed as VIP clients and cannot be summoned until you've completed around 20 homes. Special characters can be summoned either via their amiibo cards in Series 1 to Series 5 or by scanning their corresponding amiibo figures on your Joy-Con or Pro Controller.

March took forever to get here, but when it finally did, it wasn't at all what anyone was expecting. For the Animal Crossing fans, it was the finish line after a very long journey for the latest entry in the series: Animal Crossing: New Horizons. For the world, there was something much more troubling ahead. Still, New Horizons arrived, and at a time when people would need it most.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons is a charming, peaceful game that provides hours of entertainment, with maybe a little too much hand-holding to start. But with so many different ways to play, it really is a DIY experience. This game provides the perfect escape from the reality of today, and it was most definitely worth the wait.

You've arrived on your dream island

Animal Crossing: New Horizons What I like

Animal Crossing: New Horizons delivers on almost every front. It's a simple, easy-to-play life simulator that lets players do whatever they want with their deserted island package. Tom Nook is back with his next money-making scheme, but this time, he's starting from scratch, and he's bringing you and two other villagers along for the ride.

Players land on their island armed with nothing but a tent to sleep in and a Nook Phone provided by the raccoon in charge. From there, the world is your oyster. There's no set storyline or plot to follow, but to get certain items, you are going to have to spruce up the island and hit some goals. As you rough it, players get the ability to build their own tools and other items, name their town, and choose where the residents move. As a Residential Representative, this is your town to mold. So you can make it as developed or undeveloped as you like.

From the moment you boot up your Nintendo Switch, you can tell this going to be a sensory experience. While it may not have "realistic" graphics, the look of Animal Crossing: New Horizons is polished. When we last saw Tom Nook and friends, it was way back in 2013 on the Nintendo 3DS (ignoring all the spin-offs of course). This was a much-needed upgrade.

The world is so detailed; the plans and trees sway with the wind and drip with rainwater during a storm. Everything is so bright and defined, including every fish and bug (have you seen the tarantulas?), but it still has that cartoon-ish charm that we've come to love from the series.

The best example of improved graphics is displayed in the museum. The design and displays are gorgeous. It's fun walking through just to take it all in! There are so many colors and details that keep the classic Animal Crossing style, but with a nice coat of fresh, Hi-def paint.

A complementary addition to the beautiful island is the serene score the series is known for. K.K. Slider is at his best with the tracks you can purchase at the store, but the soundtrack is the perfect ambient noise to go about your tasks. It's not going to win any awards for "outstanding musical score," but it does a great job keeping the calm of your village.

Much like any other Animal Crossing game, you start with next to nothing. You're even Bell-less. You're going to have to rough it. You come with only the clothes on your back, but you're given a tent, a Nook Phone, a few items, and a whole lot of debt. From there, you're on your own. It's essentially your job to earn bells, upgrade your home, and fix up this uncultivated land into something amazing. And Tom Nook? He's there to finance and reap the benefits.

New to the main series, but first introduced in Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp, you have to gather materials and craft your own items. You start with flimsy material like twigs, but as the game progresses, you can build stronger and better items. It can take a while if you are running short on materials. Equipment upgrades don't happen overnight. You can only pick up what your island provides each day. You can also go to mystery islands (more on this later) to find resources, but you're still limited to what is presented to you.

As you perform tasks and build items, you can earn "Nook Miles" to pay off your debt, or to get special items via the Residental tent. However, once you gather all the materials, help Tom Nook out, and pay off your debt.

Even beyond the core game, there is a lot to do. Your island is home to all kinds of creatures, so catch bugs, go fishing, and even dig up some fossils. You can spend an hour weeding or planting flowers, collecting shells, or helping out your neighbors, along with the other people that show up on your island.

Of course, if you get bored, you can use all the Nook Miles you've earned from doing all the other simple stuff and take Mystery Tours to explore new islands with different creatures, materials, and maybe some new animal friends. Plus, you can always join up with some friends and visit their islands too.

There's no shortage of things to do on your island, but keep in mind, Nintendo likes to keep things slow. You may not be able to do everything at once.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons embraces multiplayer. While previous entries had ways of connecting with others, this game makes it easier. With online multiplayer, you have to have a Nintendo Switch Online membership. If you do, you can visit a friend's island and check things out. This is great, especially if you need the fruit or other material on their island. Plus, you can browse the shops, pick up things that might not be available in your town, and check out what they've done to the place. You can even send letters and gifts.

You can't do much else, but you can explore new places, which is still fun. However, if you only have a few friends, it can get boring fast. Luckily there are always new places to explore, and you actually don't have to leave home for something new. Fun events can occur in your town every day.

Nintendo promised frequent updates, and you can already experience some fun with celebrations as more shops and buildings get added to your town. Wandering individuals can randomly show up, like Gulliver, the shipwrecked seagull, or Daisy-Mae, the turnip salesperson. As the seasons change, new social events will pop up, new bugs and fish will appear, and as your town grows, so will your opportunities. There are always new ways to keep playing and fun stuff to explore.

Even sunny days can have a few clouds

Animal Crossing: New Horizons What I don't like

I love a lot about this game, and there's very little to dislike. It's a casual game, and anyone can pick it up, so it's perfect for just about anyone who just needs a break from the world. But there are a few things I wasn't a fan of. Let's cover the small problems first.

When you start, the game moves very slowly. Of course, it takes time to build a town, but you are limited to what you can do in a day. For instance, when I first started, I wanted to get to the museum ASAP. I got the specimens that Tom Nook needed, picked a spot for Blathers' tent, and then I had to play the waiting game. Not only did I have to wait a day for Blathers to arrive but I then had to gather specimens for him and then wait for the museum.

I had plenty of other things to do in the meantime, but I couldn't leave my island either. The airport wasn't running just yet. This slows players down so they can take their time to enjoy the start of the game, but after waiting so long to finally get this game, I wanted to hammer away as quickly as possible. I would have liked to move a little further along on my first day.

It's not just the first day, either. Players have to slowly work their way up to access their whole island, and they can't grind to do it. You could time travel, but I wanted to enjoy the game as it was meant to be played. Kudos to anyone who wants to time travel and skip all the waiting (I've seen some fantastic towns!)

Some activities can get stale, too. I've tried several mystery tours to get fruit and materials (I was gifted with peaches to start), but more times than not, I've run into an island with, you guessed it, peaches. I have happened upon an island with oranges and bamboo, but otherwise, I've found islands that give me standard items. Maybe it's just bad luck.

It's always possible to go find some friends with the resources I need, but even multiplayer loses it's fun after a bit since there isn't a lot to do. Animal Crossing isn't the kind of game you can binge though, and that's by design. Plus, there are ways to get around these issues if you want to. So, in the end, it's not that big of a deal.

Okay, now for the elephant in the room: Animal Crossing: New Horizons currently can't back up your saves on the cloud. This means things can go wrong quickly. After spending just four days to finally start getting somewhere, I can't imagine how I would feel if my Switch decided to bite the big one or if it was stolen.

Not only is it an inconvenience, but even if it's not your fault, you can't recover your data. This is all done for the sake of stopping cheaters, but as I mentioned earlier, this won't stop players from time traveling. It hurts people a lot more than it might stop some cheaters.

It feels odd that Nintendo wouldn't prioritize this feature for launch, but plans are coming in the future for a way players can recover their data. There's no time frame for this yet.

Another significant oversight occurs during local play for anyone who shares an island. The game boasts that your island can have several player residents living on the island, but when it comes down to getting started, the primary user is the person to reap all the benefits. Unfortunately, the forward progress at the start of Animal Crossing: New Horizons is tied to that primary user. So, if you are the primary user of your Switch or Switch Lite, and your partner or child wants to build a house on your island, things can get a bit ugly. As the main account holder, Nook Inc. relies solely on you to get the ball rolling on the events in-game.

That means everyone else has to sit around and wait for you to gather items for the museum, set up the other houses, and do all the fun stuff. The island "belongs" to the primary user. Not cool, Tom Nook.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons Bottom line

Animal Crossing: New Horizons manages to not only live up to the hype, but it surpasses all expectations. It's a fun, simple game with a whole lot to do. Plus, since we've got plenty of time to do it, now is the perfect time for an easy-going game like this to hit the shelves. It's a build-your-own experience game where you can shape your island and play however you like. Gather flowers, catch fish, create an island full of weeds and tents. It's completely up to you and your playstyle.

I'll gladly sink hours into this title trying my best to create my ideal island. While it may not have the action-packed adrenaline of other popular titles, it settles nicely into its niche. It's the perfect getaway game.

Review Changelog

This article was originally published in March 2020. It was updated in November 2021 with the following changes:

• Added new section review all additional updates to Animal Crossing: New Horizons
• New updates include versions 1.1 - 2.0
• New section contains information about Happy Home Paradise DLC

Animal Crossing: New Horizons: Version 2.0 and Happy Home Paradise DLC

Quite a bit has changed since Animal Crossing: New Horizons was released back in March 2020. For a while, the game acted as a great distraction considering the state of the world at that time. However, as time marched on, the new Animal Crossing formula grew old and was in dire need of updated content. While we did receive quite a few updates that added different holiday and seasonal events, new visiting merchants, and a swim mechanic, all of these changes weren't exactly ground-breaking.

Many of them should've been available at launch in the first place, like the ability to back up your Animal Crossing: New Horizons save data. We got that eventually, but it's still not an ideal process.

The game had grown stagnant, making us question if our previous review was off base. All of the updates had a similar design and there was a real lack of forward progress. Every Nintendo Direct left fans slightly disappointed, and it seemed like Animal Crossing: New Horizons was doomed to fade away quietly. However, that thought was immediately crushed when the 2.0 launched on Nov. 3, 2021.

Finally, at long last, fans were given the update they craved and on top of that, Nintendo added a paid DLC package. It was like a 1-2 punch to anyone who doubted the game could stay relevant. First off, the 2.0 update brought back fan-favorite NPCs like Brewster, Kapp'n, Katrina, and Tortimer. It also provided these merchants with a space to gather on Harv's island.

Additionally, the new update gives players an opportunity to farm ingredients and cook meals! That's just the tip of the iceberg. New furniture, larger storage, new hairstyles, more DIY recipes, new island tours, gyroids, and decor are aplenty.

And if you're looking to add even more fun, the Happy Home Paradise DLC gives you the opportunity to work as a Happy Homes designer, fixing up vacation homes for various clients. Though the DLC package will cost you $25 outright, it's a great way to add a sense of purpose to your island getaway. Plus, it will get you some awesome perks, like the ability to polish your furniture, add partition walls, and personal design you and your villagers' homes on your island.

You can also get the DLC for free along with a Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack membership, though, like with other memberships, if you cancel, you lose the DLC.

Overall, the additions made truly help this game maintain it's high rating as one of the best Nintendo Switch games.

Just when you thought Animal Crossing: New Horizons couldn't get any more content, Nintendo released the Happy Home Paradise DLC as part of the game's big 2.0 update. At the resort run by Lottie, you're tasked with designing vacation homes for various villagers who want nothing more than to relax in their dream getaway home.

You won't work for free, though — you're always paid for your efforts, thanks to your amazing boss, Lottie. Here's everything you need to know about the new currency introduced in the Happy Home Paradise DLC.

What is Poki?

Poki is an exclusive currency used on the island archipelago in the Happy Home Paradise DLC. You earn Poki whenever you design a new home, update your Happy Home Network photos, or remodel a home you've built already. You can only earn Poki by doing jobs on the island. Your new boss at Paradise Planning, Lottie, always makes sure to pay you for whatever jobs you do, no matter how small.

What can I use Poki for?

Poki can be used to purchase exclusive furniture items at the Paradise Planning building. Wardell runs a store on the ground floor with tons of unique furniture items you can't buy anywhere else, not even at Nook's Cranny. You can find new plants, beach items, and even exotic home furniture in this store.

The selection changes every day, so don't forget to keep coming back! You don't have to take on any designing jobs when you visit Paradise Planning, so don't feel pressured to take on more than you can. If you'd like, you can just stop by and check out the selection, talk to tourists, or explore the island.

How do I earn Poki?

The answer to earning Poki is simple — you've gotta work! To take on jobs, talk to Lottie and let her know that you'd like to work. Depending on the job you complete, you'll earn different amounts of Poki. Here are the different kinds of jobs you can take on:

You can continue to take on as many jobs from Lottie as you'd like — make it a full eight hours if you so desire! To take on a new job, let Lottie know that you're ready to work. You can find tourists on the beach and offer your home design services. Once you've picked a client and listened to their vision, choose a location and design their home!

Designing homes is easy, as you can follow the same rules as you do when moving furniture around at home. The only thing your clients require are the pre-determined furniture pieces they order ahead of time. After that, you can add as much or as little as you'd like, as long as those furniture pieces are incorporated — refurbishing them is okay.

When you first start out, you'll be earning 6,000 Poki per home. After completing more homes and facilities, you'll be promoted to different ranks:

1. Designer — 6,000 Poki per home
2. Promising Designer — 9,000 Poki per home
3. Breakout Designer — 12,000 Poki per home

Here are some tips on how to design homes to your liking:

• Press Right on the D-pad or the directional buttons on your left Joy-Con to access your inventory. You are not limited by what's in your storage at home. Any item you've held in your pockets can be used, in any color you want!
• Press Left on the D-pad or the directional buttons on your left Joy-Con to change both your and your client's clothes. Dress them up for the occasion!
• To customize the color of a furniture item, press the X button to see what colors you can select, then press the + button to confirm.
• You can cycle through different kinds of furniture and items with the L and R buttons.
• Move furniture and characters by pressing and holding the A button while hovering over them and moving them around with the L stick.
• Press A while hovering over an item or character to turn them around.
• Hold R while moving the cursor over furniture to select multiple items.
• Press ZR when hovering over a furniture item to duplicate it.
• You can remove any character or furniture item by hovering over it and pressing Y.
• Press the + button to switch between floor items, wall items, and ceiling items.
• Press Up on the D-pad or the directional buttons on your left Joy-Con to change the lighting.
• Press X when hovering over a character to change their clothing, using any clothing item you've held in your pockets before. NPCs' clothing cannot be changed, but they can wear hats and accessories.
• Press ZR when hovering over a character to change their expression.
• When you're finished decorating, press B to exit.
• Press Down on the D-pad or the directional buttons on your left Joy-Con after you've finished designing a home to move a villager around for photos. You can even move them onto chairs and beds, so get creative!

As you design new vacation homes, you'll unlock new furniture to use. If you think that a new furniture set would look great in an old client's vacation home, visit Niko on the docks and ask to visit a home. Select a client from your Happy Home Network, and interact with them to initiate remodeling. Once you've finished, speak with the client and take new pictures, if you'd like. After letting your client know you've finished, head back to the office where Lottie rewards you with 3,000 Poki.

Just like with designing new homes, you'll earn more as you design more homes. Eventually, you'll be promoted to different ranks that net you more Poki per remodel:

1. Designer — 3,000 Poki per remodel
2. Promising Designer — 4,500 Poki per remodel
3. Breakout Designer — 6,000 Poki per remodel

Your fifth project will be a facility, where you can customize a non-residential building to your liking. You can create facilities like a school, a café, a restaurant, and more. These projects are bigger and invite villagers you've designed homes for to participate in their usage. Lottie rewards you handsomely for facilities, giving you 25,000 Poki once you've finished.

Can I exchange Poki for Bells?

Unfortunately, no. Poki is exclusive to the Happy Home Paradise DLC and can't be brought back to your own island. You can't exchange Bells for Poki either, so even if you're a Bellionaire, it won't mean anything on the archipelago. Think of this as a chance to start fresh and really earn your money, all the while being as creative as you want!

Tickle me Poki

Designing homes away from home are a fantastic pastime in Animal Crossing: New Horizons. If you're looking for one of the best games on the Nintendo Switch family of systems to exercise your creative muscles, this one is for you! Remember that everyone who subscribes to the Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack automatically receives this DLC for as long as your subscription lasts. Try it out and see if you like it!

When you first start playing Animal Crossing: New Horizons, much of your island is inaccessible because you can't cross rivers or climb cliffs. Eventually, you'll be able to get across water by crafting a vaulting pole after Blathers pitches his tent on your island. Still, you're going to need to do some more work and have plenty of Bells to make it permanently easier to navigate your home.

Building your first bridge

After Timmy and Tommy have opened their shop, Nook's Cranny, Tom Nook will ask you to stake out plots of land for three new villagers who want to move in. You can put them all in your starting area, but you'll also have the option to build them across the river by constructing your very first bridge.

Tom will give you a recipe to construct a Log Bridge made from four log stakes, four clay, and four stones. Gather up the materials and hit the DIY bench, and you'll whip up a bridge construction kit. Stake out a decent spot. You'll need to find a place where the river is just the right width and the land on either side is even before you can begin construction. Like with any structure, you can imagine how it will look before you commit. Once you've found the perfect place, you'll be able to set up your construction site. The next day, your bridge will be built. Unfortunately, constructing more bridges only gets more challenging.

Let's talk infrastructure

You won't be able to do any more construction until you've finished upgrading Resident Services from a tent to a building by getting those three villagers to move into their furnished homes. Once that happens, Tom Nook will set up a desk where you can talk to him about projects to work on. One of the options is "Let's talk infrastructure," which will let you build additional bridges or inclines that allow you to reach elevated areas of your islands.

Unfortunately, you can't just craft these structures with materials you've gathered around the island. Instead, you'll need to pick out kits of varying prices and styles. These are the eight types of bridges and their prices.

• Log bridge: 98,000 Bells
• Suspension bridge: 129,000 Bells
• Stone bridge: 168,000 Bells
• Wooden bridge: 168,000 Bells
• Brick bridge: 198,000 Bells
• Iron bridge: 228,000 Bells
• Red zen bridge: 228,000 Bells
• Zen bridge: 228,000 Bells

Inclines must be placed in a clear area relatively close to the base of a cliff. These are the eight types of inclines and their prices.

• Natural ramp: 98,000 Bells
• Blue-plank ramp: 128,000 Bells
• White-plank ramp: 128,000 Bells
• Log staircase: 168,000 Bells
• Stone staircase: 168,000 Bells
• Brick staircase: 198,000 Bells
• Blue steel staircase: 228,000 Bells
• Red steel staircase: 228,000 Bells

You won't need to pay the price upfront. Instead, once you place a kit, you'll get a construction site supervised by Lloid, who will ask for donations. As with everything else on your island, your residents aren't actually going to help you. Once you've paid the full price, Lloid will let you know that the project is complete, and you can come back the next day to see it.

You'll want to be careful about where you place your inclines and bridges. The number you can place is limited. Since the 2.0 update, you can now have a total of ten across your island, increased from the previous limit of eight. But if you need more, there is also a new permanent ladder DIY addition as well.

Walk on

These ramps, stairs, and bridges will not only make your island more accessible but also give it a little flair and allow your villagers some more space to roam in. This is a fun way to start customizing your island. Get the villagers you want together with some amiibo figures, build up your bridges and inclines, and even redesign your home! Get creative and have fun!

Nintendo's amiibo may have lost their popularity in other games, but not in Animal Crossing: New Horizons. From inviting villagers to your island to taking pictures in Harvey's Photopia, there are tons of ways for players to use their amiibo in the game.

With the dawn of the Happy Home Paradise paid DLC that launched shortly after the massive 2.0 update, players can now choose which villagers and NPCs they'd like to design vacation homes for. The amiibo functionality is similar to the DLC's predecessor, Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer, on the Nintendo 3DS.

How to unlock the amiibo scanner in Happy Home Paradise

While amiibo functionality for Happy Home Paradise was mentioned in the October 2021 Animal Crossing Direct, you'll have to work a bit before you can scan in your precious cards and figures. To unlock it, you'll have to build seven vacation homes, not including your first facility. After that happens, Lottie promotes you, and your Designer rank increases to that of a "Promising Designer", meaning that you'll be able to scan in regular villager cards.

You could technically "speedrun" the game by simply opening the packages your client requests and telling them you're finished, to which they won't object. There's always the option to go back later to remodel the homes to your liking, which is great if you're looking to earn Poki quickly.

How to use the amiibo scanner in Happy Home Paradise

After unlocking the amiibo scanner, it's time to invite whomever you'd like! At first, you can only invite villagers via amiibo cards from the regular Series 1 to 5, Welcome amiibo series, and amiibo Festival card series. Here's how to get the amiibo scanner going:

1. While in uniform, face the amiibo scanner and press A. After being asked whether you'd like to invite a client via amiibo, select "Contact someone".

2. After the scanning service has booted up, touch your amiibo to the analog stick on your right Joy-Con controller, or the Nintendo Switch icon in the middle of your official Pro Controller, if you're using one.

3. Move through the dialogue and invite your client to talk about their vacation home vision. Just like with regular clients, they'll tell you what direction they want their home to go in and give you a list of mandatory furniture for you to use.Source: iMore

4. Decorate the way you normally would! Everything else is the exact same as designing a home for a client you've met on the beach. Use your imagination, and have fun! If you decide to change your mind, you can always remodel your house later.

When can I meet VIP clients?

Sure, designing Goldie's home is great and all, but we all know that the best dog in the game is none of than Isabelle, your helpful secretary. She deserves a vacation more than anyone, so when can you unlock the ability to design one for her?

Well, it's going to take a little more work. NPCs like Leif, Saharah, and Kicks are considered "VIP clients", whether you wish to summon them via amiibo cards or amiibo figures. To finally meet them, you'll have to design 20 homes from regular villagers; it doesn't matter whether you recruit them through the amiibo scanner or on the beach. VIP clients are a bit different than regular ones in that they don't give you any direction on what furniture they like — it's entirely up to you to design a home for them.

Flex your creative muscles

If you enjoy Animal Crossing, you know that the game can get you hundreds of hours out of you. With Happy Home Paradise, the possibilities are endless. With hundreds of villager homes to design, plus those of NPCs, you can create the homes of your dreams will all-new furniture, items, and styling options. The archipelago is your oyster, so go wild!

At long last, Animal Crossing: New Horizons received some much-needed updates. While we expected a few familiar faces and quality-of-life improvements, we got so much more, including a paid DLC package to kick our island experience up a notch. New Horizons was one of the best games on the Nintendo Switch, but if there's one thing that it was missing, it was purpose. While the game did have a few objectives, there wasn't much else to do from there once players checked all those boxes. It's why a lot of us fell off the game after a few months.

Well, my friends, that is a thing of the past. Stomp out those cockroaches and roll up your sleeves. The Happy Home Paradise DLC is literally going to put you to work, and yes, give you a purpose. Plus, you'll end up with some sweet rewards if you put in the extra effort. But is this DLC worth the $25 price tag?

Getting to work in Animal Crossing: New Horizons

First things first, I did not purchase this DLC outright. I picked it up with the Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack. If you don't want or care about the N64 and Sega Genesis games, you can buy the DLC outright for $25. Just keep in mind, if you do go the Nintendo Switch Online route, you won't be able to keep your save data should you cancel your subscription.

That's pretty pricey for a DLC package, but I tried to reserve judgment going in.

Happy Home Paradise is not just a little extension of Animal Crossing: New Horizons. There's a plethora of empty islands, and they are begging to be filled by would-be vacationers looking for a home away from home. Lottie, the Happy Home Paradise founder, is happy to do so, but she needs some help. That's where you come in!

Players are recruited by Tom Nook and have the option to work as a Happy Home salesperson. The goal is to find clients and build their vacation home vision precisely as they would like it. Of course, you're not just going to do this all for free. You'll get paid in Poki, a Bells equivalent, and you'll be able to buy rare furniture and other items you can't get back home on your island.

As you design more and more homes, you'll unlock different items, new skills, and snap photos of your creations. You start off slow, designing and placing furniture in a small home, and as you take on more clients, you'll get to design the exterior, the yard, and even expand the size of each home you design. After helping enough clients, you'll unlock extras to help, like the ability to polish furniture, use amiibo card clients, adjust lighting, and more. This pacing works as incentives to keep going.

All the fun, none of the fuss

Source: iMore

One of the best things about this expansion is the sense of purpose it gives the game, and a low-pressure one at that. You have the option to go to work, make some Poki, and all you have to do is design a vacation home to your client's tastes. While the game has the classic "Nintendo" tutorial, it's helpful that the game eases you into the job, like in real life.

The first client is right there, and they have pretty simple requests to start. You don't have to do a lot of the leg work, acquire or build anything, or guess what you need to do. You can simply be the designer. As the Happy Homes designer, your job is to realize the clients' vision, from the wallpaper to the decor. While they do have a few specific requirements for their homes, it's up to you to provide the theme, ambiance, and make it perfect.

It's actually pretty relaxing! I enjoyed getting each theme, and then selecting wallpapers, furniture, and flooring. There are just so many options, and the more clients you help, the more you can do. At some point, you can add partitions to separate sections of a room, have folks double up in homes, and even bring your knowledge back to the island! In fact, you can bring everything you learn from your Happy Home Paradise position home. Polish your furniture, adjust your lighting, add a little ambiance with a little background sound, or even use partition walls to add that kitchen island you've been wanting.

The fun part is that these houses can be ever-evolving. Your skills are pretty limited with your first house, but as you grow, you can always return to the client and spruce things up with your new know-how. Plus, you can design homes pretty much anytime.

Variety is the spice of life

Another thing that makes this expansion super fun is the strange requests clients have. Yes, you'll have simple clients that just want a quiet little place to read books or drink coffee, but then you'll end up with some that want to make it rain with a swanky apartment space. I may or may not have created a Scarface-esque vacation home, laughing the entire time.

As I said earlier, if you get struck by the muse or unlock new items or ways to build, you can double back and offer a new design for any of your existing clients. But that's not all. You can help Lottie develop the facilities surrounding the Happy Home Paradise offices too! Build a school, a cafe, and more. NPCs will use these facilities once you complete them, really bringing the island to life. There are 48 slots open, but there's no telling how many homes you can design since you have the option of doubling up on properties.

Since there is so much variety, it never feels like a slog to design each home. And each new happy customer earns you some pretty great perks you can eventually take back to your own island. All the hard work is worth being able to put up partitions and play different ambient sounds. What's more, you can put that "Happy Home" touch on your villager's homes as well once you get through 30 jobs.

Animal Crossings: Happy Home Paradise - Should you buy it?

There is a lot that comes with this DLC. It may not seem like much, but there is a lot of game here: at least 48 new homes, tons of new mechanics, a whole facility, new furniture, and Niko, your co-worker and ferry man. (I love him; he's just super adorable.) But is this worth the price? After spending a solid 15 hours in the game, I'd say yes. There's plenty here to do, and unlike worrying about your own island, you have everything at your fingertips.

You get to be the designer without digging for all the complimentary items. You have everything you need to make your client's vacation home a reality, and you can even share the fruits of your labor online. Plus, you get to bring all of those skills back to your own island.

If you love designing, making clients happy, and would like some awesome new perks you can use on your own island, this is definitely worth getting. Happy Home Paradise provides hours of relaxing fun and can actually make you pumped about "going to work."

The struggle to make more use out of your limited decorating space in Animal Crossing: New Horizons has been real for a while now. But the new Happy Home Paradise paid DLC makes this more doable by adding partition walls to your inventory. That way, you easily split up a room into two, three, or more sections. But you'll need to unlock the partition wall first. Here's how to do that along with an explanation of the partition wall's limitations.

What is a partition wall?

It's an item you can craft that serves as a partial wall so you can divide one space into multiple. For instance, if you want to clearly define a bedroom or kitchen area in a Happy Home Paradise vacation home or your own Animal Crossing home. Getting creative is what Animal Crossing is all about, and that's what makes it one of the best Nintendo Switch games out there. So, it's nice that this gives us even more creative opportunities to explore.

How to unlock partition walls

Partition walls can only be unlocked if you have the original Animal Crossing: New Horizons game and the Animal Crossing: Happy Home Paradise paid DLC. After you've purchased the expansion, the next time you open your game, you'll receive a call from Tom Nook asking you to meet him at the airport. There he'll introduce you to Lottie, the pink otter. She will invite you to come work for her as a vacation home designer.

1. Buy the Happy Home Paradise DLC.
2. Open your game and run to the airport.Source: Nintendo and iMore

3. Tell Orville you want to go to work.
4. Now say "Time for Takeoff!"Source: iMore

5. When you land, follow Niko to the Paradise Planning Office and talk to Lottie to get your new job instructions.
6. Complete seven vacation homes and renovate the school facility on your main island.Source: iMore

7. Now, on your eighth assignment, Niko will teach you how to make a partition wall and will give you the DIY.

Note: As soon as you unlock the partition wall DIY recipe in the DLC, you'll be able to use them back on your home island.

How to use partition walls

When you're in the Happy Home Paradise DLC. You can only use partition walls if you are editing or creating a client's home. While at their getaway, do the following:

• Press down on the D-Pad (or left set of buttons on your controller) to open the editing menu.
• Now press the right button on the D-Pad to open your inventory.
• Use the L or R buttons to cycle through to the Other tab.
• Select the Partition Wall to place it.

When you're on your home island

Instead of being able to put down as many as you want like you can in Happy Home Paradise, you'll need to first craft the desired number of Animal Crossing Partition Walls before you can use them.

• Run up to a DIY workbench.
• Select the Partition Wall.
• You'll need 3 Wood and 3 Clay to craft it.
• After crafting, press the X button to bring up your inventory.
• Select the Partition Wall.
• Select Place.

Partition wall limitations and rules

Unfortunately, partition walls have a few limitations that keep them from being completely customizable.

• They do not create a corner when placed at a 90-degree angle from each other. Instead, you will have a gap between them. To cover this gap, you'll want to place columns, which you can craft after working with 15 clients.
• You cannot hang anything on partition walls. For this reason, placing larger furniture against them is the best way to prevent them from looking empty in an otherwise filled room.
• You cannot give a different wallpaper to a partition wall.

Wall it up

By unlocking Animal Crossing partition walls, you can easily create various rooms in any given vacation home. Plus, you'll be able to use partitions back on your home island. Have fun decorating with so many new possibilities available to you.

There are tons of new features available in the 2.0 update for Animal Crossing: New Horizons. While lots of information was revealed in the heavily packed October 2021 Animal Crossing Direct, there were lots of changes made that weren't mentioned. The iMore staff and fans around the internet have slowly been uncovering these secrets since release, so this list may grow over time, but here are some changes you might have missed.

Isabelle's new morning report

Instead of constantly talking about her lost sock or what crossword puzzle she's done, Isabelle can now tell you which NPC character is visiting during her morning broadcast if there's no other news. Players can now find out whether characters like Leif or Redd are visiting without having to run around their island.

Cooking DIY recipes are everywhere!

After much waiting, cooking is now available in Animal Crossing. If you're wondering how to access all the lovely food recipes your friends have been raving about, you might want to check in with your villagers. Similar to crafting, you can obtain new cooking DIY recipes by visiting villagers in their homes. Villagers will begin a new recipe three hours after obtaining the last one, so keep checking in with them.

That's not all, though. You can get new cooking recipes by catching certain fish, befriending NPCs like Brewster, buying turnips from Daisy Mae, and stumbling across recipe bottles on islands you visit with Kapp'n. Where there's food, there's recipes, so keep looking to collect them all!

Crafting inspiration around every corner

Thousands of items were added to the game, so it's no surprise that new crafting recipes are available. Make sure to talk to NPCs like Celeste, who now has more to offer than star fragments. Popping balloons can also grant you new DIYs, so keep a slingshot on hand! Most importantly, hang out at every beach you see. There's a chance that new crafting DIY bottles can wash up on your own island's beach, beaches on islands you visit with Kapp'n, and the beach around the Paradise Planning building in the Happy Home Paradise DLC.

Group stretching with friends

Animal Crossing: New Horizons is a great game to play multiplayer. The number of activities to do with friends has since increased since the update dropped, including Group Stretching! Don your yoga pants and streeeetch! Note that you can only do group stretching online with best friends, so send an invite if you haven't already!

Go Dutch on coffee with friends

Nothing is more cozy than sitting with a hot cup of Brewster's coffee, complete with his signature pigeon milk. If you want to share the experience with friends, the last person to sit down is faced with the choice of paying for everyone, splitting the bill, or paying for it later. If one or more persons paying for coffee doesn't have enough Bells on hand, they'll receive water instead of coffee. That way, nobody gets left out!

Access your Bells from anywhere

If you're in the habit of trading items and services with other Animal Crossing players, you may be annoyed at having to schlepp all your Bell bags with you. No more! Your friends can redeem Nook Miles to purchase an Automatic Bell Dispenser, or ABD for short. If they place the ABD outside on their island, visitors can access their Bank of Nook accounts to withdraw and deposit Bells as they need to. The same isn't true for storage sheds, but hopefully Nintendo can patch it in later.

Another new item is the donation box, where visitors can donate Bells. Unfortunately, it's not possible to donate more than 1,000 Bells at the moment, but it's always nice to leave a tip when trading with others or playing with friends! Great for selling turnips on other islands!

Cheer Kapp'n on while he sings!

Kapp'n graces us with his sea shanties every time we go on a trip with him. It's possible to spam B to stop his singing if you're in a hurry, but only a monster would do that! You can cheer him on by clapping with the A button, laugh at his jokes with the X button, or even express shock with the Y button.

Clap at K.K. Slider concerts

Speaking of clapping, you can now show your appreciation for the legendary K.K. Slider by clapping during his concerts with the A button. Villagers and visiting friends can join in on the fun too, and villagers may even be seen waving around glow sticks! K.K. Slider's concerts are more like raves than ever.

Cornimer is love, acorns are life

If you've unlocked Tortimer on Harv's Island, you may see a... peculiar figure in his place during November. This is none other than the legendary Cornimer, who blesses all those around him with acorns. Harkening back to the Acorn Festival in past Animal Crossing games, you can get up to 10 acorns from Cornimer if you talk to him every day during November.

Pay to get rid of your weeds

If you've returned to Animal Crossing after a long hiatus, you may be overwhelmed by the sheer amount of weeds around. Luckily, there's a way to take the workload off your hands. You can choose to either enact an Island Ordinance for 20,000 Bells that keeps your island beautiful and removes weeds slowly over time, or pay Leif a de-weeding fee of 100,000 Bells to instantaneously remove all weeds on your island.

NookLink gets a much needed upgrade

Animal Crossing: New Horizons is one of the games supported by the Nintendo Switch Online app, with the special NookLink applet. As of the 2.0 update, new items have been added to the Nook Points store, like a new sweater and balloon.

You can also access the Happy Home Network from NookLink, which shows your Happy Home Paradise uploads as well as those from people you follow. Another new feature is the Island Newspaper, which chronicles new things you've done in your town, like who comes to visit, and whether you went for coffee. It also tracks your turnip prices throughout the week so you can see what kind of trend you have.

New handheld items from Redd

While players should be wary of Crazy Redd and the potentially fake artwork he sells, there's nothing shady about the raffle he offers over on Harvey's Island. Similarly to the raffle offered during the Fireworks Festival in August, you can pay 500 Bells to win one of 30 handheld items from him. These include donuts, ice cream cones, fans, canned drinks, books to hold while walking, and more!

All the new things

As time goes on, players are sure to discover new features and quality-of-life changes made to one of the best games on the Nintendo Switch. Remember to keep your eye out for new things to do, take your time, and most of all, have fun! Every island is perfect in its own way, so don't feel pressured to do everything at once if you prefer to take it slow.

One of the draws of Animal Crossing: New Horizons is the ability to completely customize an island to your vision. You can change the layout of your island, the style of homes, and make custom designs for clothes, furniture, and even wallpaper. The Happy Home Paradise DLC takes it even further, allowing you to create custom vacation homes for villagers without having to find, craft, or purchase items separately.

For many players, this opens a new creative outlet, and the results of these vacation islands are truly stunning. I have searched through shared designs on Twitter and Reddit to find my favorites. Here are my top picks for best islands so far.

Ankha's gold palace

Egyptian queen, Ankha, loves to be surrounded by gold. Reddit user AlphariousFox17 really did right by her in this beautifully adorned bedroom. With wall décor, ceiling fixtures, and gold in every corner, this is a truly magnificent design that gives us all the right vibes for this villager.

Cally's laundrobar

This laundromat is far from your basic boring wash and dry station. Who says laundry can't be fun? I love the unique twist Reddit user sudosussudio came up with of adding a bar to the laundromat. This shows how adding something outside the box can make for an extra fun design.

Cleo's purple paradise

The use of the partition wall to create a classy and relaxing bed/bath combo for Cleo here works wonderfully. The hint of color with the purple accent wall paired with the white walls, tiles, and furniture gives this a very clean and cozy look created by Reddit user StarsnBlvds.

Green oasis academy

Houses aren't the only thing you get to design in the Happy Home Paradise DLC. Among other options is the classroom. Adding their own flair to the usual classroom layout, Reddit user jxnnybxii88 created a plant-based school! Plant lovers will love all the ways greenery is spread throughout the room to spruce up the place.

Maddie's stylish streamer estate

A beautiful set for all types of streams! This space is very well thought out, from the green screen walls to the split couch recording and PC recording spaces. The wall the camera is filming is well decorated with wall hangings that are cute without being distracting and the equipment makes it all look very professional. Needless to say, Twitter user @Kaleri_ set up the perfect space.

Maggie's treehouse

This treehouse design for the adorable pig Maggie is accented with a great blend of wooden, roped, and plant-like features. The vines and leaves hanging from the ceiling in this treehouse give off Tarzan vibes. The hammock instead of a bed is my favorite furniture detail Reddit user jxnnybxii88 added.

Maple's bear bungalow

Reddit user Miss-Stunshine created a very cozy cabin-style home for Maple that has just a touch of bear. She brought together floral design, green, tan, and white tones, and wooden accents in a beautiful way that is seamlessly blended.

Pango's spa

Rooms like this make us wish we could go on vacation to these islands in real life. Pango's spa by Reddit user zeSulv has that relaxing, clean look you'd want from a top-quality spa. The partitions for privacy on the massage table to separate the desk space is an alluring way to make the most of a small space.

Skye's art exhibit

Art is alive in all forms in Skye's art exhibit by Twitter user @kyogre_c. Paintings, sculptures, and the home itself are beautifully displayed. The partition wall is a clever way to separate the paintings on display from the sculptures and the accent wall pattern used for the hanging pieces goes wonderfully with the windows and chandeliers.

Stella's pink home

I'm personally not a fan of the color pink, but you can't choose what the client wants, and there's no denying the brilliance that went into creating such a cohesive space filled largely with a single color. Reddit user @zeSulv created an entire home's worth of rooms just by using partition walls, accent walls, and splitting up the flooring perfectly. The use of some white accents and plants breaks up the pink color and adds some great dimension to the design of these rooms.

Keep creating!

There are so many players enjoying the Animal Crossing: New Horizons Happy Home Paradise DLC and doing great things with it. It's great to have this creative outlet on the island without the grind for when players start to feel a little drained. Get inspired by these islands and get to creating your own!

Animal Crossing: Happy Home Paradise lets us live out our creative dreams by making gorgeous vacation homes for clients. It seriously takes this cute game to the extra level and cements it as one of the best Nintendo Switch games out there. As you take on jobs and fulfill villager requests, you'll also unlock five facilities and several customization abilities. Eventually, you can even unlock the ability to edit your villager's houses on your home island. So what exactly are these rewards, and how do you unlock them? Let's dive in.

Animal Crossing: Happy Home Paradise All unlockable facilities

There are a total of five facilities you can renovate on the Happy Home Paradise island. In each location, you'll determine what the exterior and interior look like. When you're done, you select which of your clients works there and get to name the place. Here are all unlockable facilities.

• School
• Cafe
• Restaurant
• Hospital
• Apparel Shop

Animal Crossing: Happy Home Paradise Customization options

Get all the goodies

There are plenty of fun things to unlock as you make your way through the Animal Crossing: Happy Home Paradise DLC. Once you've had your fun on the vacation homes, you can take your new skills back to your island and implement them there.

The gyroid, a classic musical decoration from the series, has finally made its way to Animal Crossing: New Horizons with the new 2.0 update. Now villagers can get to work digging up, planting, and decorating with a variety of gyroids just waiting to create a groove in your home. We are hunting down all the options and will update this list with all the information and pictures as we find them.

How to obtain gyroids

To get these cute characters, you will have to visit islands with Kapp'n and use your shovel to dig up the "x" spots. These spots will have gyroid fragments. When you take the fragment back to your island, plant the fragment and water it. The next day, dig your fragment back up and a full gyroid will come out, ready to be placed in your home!

All gyroids in Animal Crossing: New Horizons

These gyrating gyroids all have different customization options, designs, and musical features. Collect them all or find the ones that suit your rooms best!

Gyrating gyroids

While this was already one of the best games on Nintendo Switch, we are so excited to jump back in to get all these moving, musical cuties in our home with all the different designs and customization options. Since you can only travel with Kapp'n once a day and there are only a few fragments on the island, it may take some time to build up your collection or find the one you're looking for. But it's so worth it for these symbolic décor creatures.

Now that we have Harvey's Island Plaza in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, there are so many new things we can do. For instance, Cyrus and Reese set up shop and let you customize items that you couldn't customize on your own. You just have to unlock Cyrus first and have the necessary amount of Bells to pay for each customization job. Here's everything you need to know about the Animal Crossing Cyrus customization business.

How to unlock Cyrus and customization

All of the customization features are what makes this one of the best Nintendo Switch games out there. To further you customization experience, you need to unlock Cyrus first. Here's how.

1. Have 100,000 Bells on you. If you need help, there are some things you can do to make money fast.
2. Go to the airport on your island and travel to Harvey's Island.
3. When you land, head past his house and run into the plaza on the right.
4. Harvey will talk to you and tell you about the plaza. When he's done talking, you'll see Lloids standing around in a circle. Talk to the one in the back next to the little windmill.
5. Pay the Lloyd 100,000 Bells.
6. Come back to Harvey's Island the next day to find that Reese and Cyrus have set up shop.

How to customize items with Cyrus

You must have an item in your inventory in order for Cyrus to customize it. That being the case, make sure you travel to Harvey's Island with all of the items you want to have customized.

1. Talk to Cryus and select "I sure am!"

2. Select the item from your inventory that you want him to customize.
   • If it can be altered, a stylized R will appear in the lower left corner of the icon. (The R is for Re-Tail, a store that existed in previous Animal Crossing games).
3. Choose the color, label, or any other customization options available to you.Source: iMore

4. Select Order.
5. Select Yes!Source: iMore

Cyrus will take your item, customize it, and hand it right back. Now you can move on to your next customization job if you have one.

That's the way I like it

Unfortunately, not everything can be customized, but more items, furniture, and food can be customized than ever before. You'll just have to try it and see if the item you want to change has any other options available.

Decorating the inside of your house with various furniture items has always been a core part of the Animal Crossing experience, and that hasn't changed in Animal Crossing: New Horizons. However, New Horizons offers plenty of ways to change the way the outside of your house looks, too. 

Unfortunately, you won't be able to do this instantly because the option won't be available to you. On top of that, the game never explains how to unlock it in the first place. Don't worry, though, because this guide will fully explain everything you need to do in order to customize your home's exterior.

How to fully upgrade your house

Before you can customize the exterior of your home in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, you're going to need to unlock the ability to do so. For this, you'll need to renovate your house by expanding the size of your main room, and then adding new rooms. Each room unlocked after the backroom addition unlocks new exterior customization options. You can purchase upgrades by speaking to Tom Nook in Resident Services. Each of these renovations costs a lot of Bells, each one more expensive than the last. 

Here's a breakdown of what each upgrade will cost you:

• Main room size upgrade: 198,000 Bells
• Backroom addition: 348,000 Bells
• Left room addition: 548,000 Bells (Unlocks roof and mailbox customization)
• Right room addition: 758,000 Bells (Unlocks door customization)
• Second floor addition: 1,248,000 Bells (Unlocks siding customization)

In total, you'll need to spend 3,100,000 Bells to get access to all of the different exterior customization options. This may sound difficult, and it definitely will be if you don't focus your efforts on making Bells as quickly as possible. However, you can make enough sooner than you think if you play smart. Make sure to catch our guide to all of the different ways you can make money fast, and also our tips and tricks for getting rich off of Turnips. If you're willing to put in the effort, you'll hit that total before you know it.

How to customize your home's exterior

Congratulations — the difficult part of the process is over! Now all you need to do is head over to the Resident Services building in your Town Plaza and speak with Tom Nook, and you can start customizing your home's exterior. Here's what you'll need to do:

1. Enter the Resident Services building.

2. Speak to Tom Nook at the construction consultation counter.

3. Select the "About my home..." option.

4. Select "I want to customize..."

5. Select "Yes, please!"

From here, Tom Nook will allow you to browse the selection of different customization options available.

Customization options and pricing

From the customization menu, you can select four different types of customizations for the exterior of your house: roofs, walls, doors, and mailboxes. If any are unavailable, it's because you haven't upgraded your home enough to be able to customize them yet.

You can also choose from one of four distinct house shapes, which Nintendo announced during the October 2021 Animal Crossing Direct. Players can choose between the default, townhouse, zen, and cottage shape options to tailor their home to their island's needs. Each house shape has their own distinct selection of roof, exterior, and door options, which don't always overlap.

There are several different materials to choose from for each part of your house, including shingles, wood, stone, and more. On top of that, each material can also be selected in a wide variety of different colors. Finally, by pressing the Y button, you can choose whether you want your windows to have curtains. All of these options give you plenty of room to come up with a creative look by mixing and matching. You can also press the X button to see how your house will look in both day and nighttime, which is much appreciated.

Once you've found a look you like, press the + button to confirm your selection. Tom Nook will tell you that the upgrade will cost 5,000 Bells and will take a day to complete. We recommend being absolutely sure of your chosen styles since each time you renovate your exterior, it will cost a flat 5,000 Bells no matter how much or how little you change.

If you accept, your chosen renovations will be finished the following day. Enjoy your fancy new exterior! It's also important to note that if you ever decide to get the final house upgrade that adds a basement (which costs a painful 2,498,000 Bells), Tom Nook will give you free exterior customization permanently once you pay it off. This may be ideal for people who plan on changing their style around a lot.

Playin' house

Animal Crossing remains one of the best games on the Nintendo Switch. With tons of free content and paid DLC in the form of Happy Home Paradise, players will have endless customization opportunities both indoors and outdoors. Have fun collecting items, browsing all of the cute decorations for your home, and letting your imagination run wild!

You can find different things on your island in Animal Crossing: New Horizon depending on the time of day. Some critters like the football fish and tarantula only come out at night, so you'll want to spend some time wandering around after dark to add them to your collection. While you're at it, you might come across one of the island's strangest residents: Wisp.

Much like the shipwrecked sailor Gulliver, the ghostly creature Wisp randomly appears on your island every few days, though you'll only find him at night. You're likely to encounter him for the first time soon after starting the game. Once you spot him, walk over and press A. He'll be so startled that he'll fall apart, with five pieces of his spirit flying off in all directions.

Finding the pieces

Luckily Wisp is a friendly ghost and will introduce himself. He's not a fan of the way he looks while his spirit is scattered, which is less like a cute smiling ghost and more like a glowing teardrop, so he'll ask you to do him a favor and help him pull himself back together.

Start wandering around the island again, and you'll find pieces of his spirit floating about. You can catch them in your net the same way you would with a flying bug. Once you've collected all five pieces, head back to where you spotted Wisp the first time. Like Gulliver, he wanders around but doesn't stray too far. You'll need to deliver all the pieces that night or they'll disappear from your inventory, and you'll have to do the quest all over again the next time you meet him.

Choose your reward

Once you turn in the quest, Wisp will put himself back together and offer you a choice of reward: something you don't have yet or something expensive. Unfortunately, Wisp isn't great with money, so he's not super clear on what's expensive. I chose that option and got a wild-wood wall. It sells for 1,800, which isn't all that impressive. You're better off using the quest to guarantee you can fill out your collection.

As a bonus, helping Wisp for the first time will reward you with some Nook Miles, and you'll get more once you've done his quest 10 times. Tom Nook doesn't want to scare away new customers, so he advises you don't tell anyone else the island is haunted.

Don't be scared

Wisp doesn't really get used to your presence and will freak out every time you see him, giving you the opportunity to do his quest all over again. Animal Crossing: New Horizons is so relaxing that it's particularly pleasant to grab your Switch with your favorite Animal Crossing accessories and play right before going to bed.

With the new Nightowl Mandate you can issue in the 2.0 update, there are more options of what to do on the island after dark, but this is still the perfect time to see if you can find Wisp. Just make sure to finish helping him before you nod off!

If you're playing Animal Crossing: New Horizons, it's a good idea to spend some time every day walking on your island's beaches. You'll find shells you can pick up and sell, ocean-dwelling fish to catch, and maybe even a bottle with a DIY recipe inside. You also might spot the seagull sailor Gulliver lying in the sand.

Walk over and talk to him and he'll spout some gibberish. Don't be discouraged! Just keep talking to him and eventually, he'll wake up and ask you for help. Gulliver's fallen overboard and needs to get his shipmates to rescue him. Unfortunately, his communicator is busted and the parts have been scattered all over your island.

Finding the parts

Gulliver needs five communicator parts to be able to signal his crew. To find them, go back to wandering the beach and look out for little spurts of water coming out of the sand near a tiny black shadow. It's the same animation you see when you can dig for a manilla clam, which is used for making fish bait.

Pull out your shovel and dig where you saw the spurt. The animation happens quickly but you don't need to dig while they're still active, just in the area where you spotted it. If you missed where it was, just wait a bit and you'll likely see another one nearby. While Gulliver's quest is active, instead of digging up a clam you'll find a communicator part.

Once you've dug up five of the parts, return to Gulliver who will be wandering the beach where you left him. Talk to him again and give him the communicator parts. He'll then be able to restore his communicator and send word to his crew that he needs a ride. They take their sweet time picking him up though and you'll be able to spot him on the beach for a few hours afterward.

Claim your reward

Gulliver will also promise to send you a reward in a few days, though my first one came the next day. Check your mail for a nice note and a present you can open to reveal your prize. I got a styling pigtail haircut. Gulliver seems to have a perpetual problem staying on his ship so expect to see him again soon.

Gullivarr and other beach dwellers

In the summer 2020 update, Gulliver wasn't the only salty seagull to end up on your beach. You're also likely to run into pirate Gullivarr and you get some booty for helping him out as well. While the recently released 2.0 update doesn't add any new seagulls or features for these birds, it does add another sailing creature, Kapp'n, who will take you on adventures to other islands on his boat. You can find him on your island's pier after you have a three star island.

Happy hunting!

All these happy sea lovers give you so many cool treasures to use on your island. It seems like there's always a new surprise to earn. Get some real life treasures with the adorable Animal Crossing accessories available for your Switch and go to the seas in full gear. Happy hunting!

We've already known how to plant and maintain pumpkin patches for a while now. But with the Animal Crossing 2.0 update, we can plant far more seeds and starts for a variety of crops. 

How do you unlock this new ability exactly? Where do you get seeds? And what's the best way to grow your crops? Let's dive in to answer all these questions and more.

Animal Crossing farming: All crops & how to grow them

There are six crops. You can drop them in the grass anywhere on your island and they'll grow. However, it's much more fun (and a whole lot nicer looking) if you take the time to set up a little fence surrounding darker soil and then drop the plants in place. Some plants must be purchased as seeds while others are purchased as starts.

In order for them to grow to their max potential, you'll want to water them every day until they're ready to harvest. Then you can cook cute little dishes using the things you've grown.

Animal Crossing farming: Where to get seeds and starts

In order to start the farming process, you'll need to head over to Harvey's Island. Here you'll jump into the hippie dog himself and he'll explain his new merchant plaza to you.

1. Head stright back and talk to the Lloid on the right of the little windmill.
2. Pay them 100,000 Bells to bring Leif to the plaza. There's an ABD kiosk near Harvey's house if you need to withdraw money.
3. Return the next day and talk to Leif.
4. He'll offer two farming options in exchange for Bells.

You might need to contact friends, trade with other players, or visit Kapp'n on the pier and have him take you to an island where you can bring back the goods in order to quickly find all of the available crops within Animal Crossing. But eventually, you can have a decent sized garden growing.

Animal Crossing: Farming Station

It's so fun finally having more options in addition to the pumpkins available to us in New Horizons. Have fun planting your crops and making cute little dishes. With Turkey Day on the horizon, the ability to prepare food opens up some fun new holiday activities like growing food and cooking your own feast. Animal Crossing: New Horizons really is one of the best Switch games out there, huh?

Fishing is one of the major activities you can do on your deserted island in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, but it's not the most intuitive activity. Tom Nook encourages you to start doing it without actually explaining how. Even when you learn the basic mechanisms, there are plenty of hidden tricks to discover. This guide should help make fishing as relaxing as possible.

How to get a fishing rod

Stop by the DIY Workshop at Resident Services, and you'll automatically unlock the DIY recipe for a Flimsy Fishing Rod, which you can craft with five tree branches. All flimsy tools break after 30 uses, so you'll need to craft another one or buy one from Timmy at resident services for 400 Bells.

However, If you buy the Pretty Good Tools Recipes from the Nook Stop terminal for 3,000 Nook Miles, you'll gain the recipe for a Fishing Rod. This tool is more durable but requires both the flimsy fishing rod and an iron nugget to craft. Iron nuggets are fairly rare, and you'll need 30 of them early in the game to unlock your island's shop, so I recommend just putting up with the flimsy version for a while.

How to fish

You can find fish in ponds, rivers, and oceans, and they'll take the form of fish-shaped shadows. Smaller fish have small shadows, larger fish have big shadows, and eels have long, skinny shadows. Make sure to cast your line in front of their faces to attract their attention. Fish will periodically swim forward or change directions, so you might need to recast if they move out of position.

When holding the fishing rod, press A to cast a line into any nearby body of water, though the cast may not work if you're not facing in the proper direction.

Once a fish notices your lure, it will swim forward and take a nibble. Don't pull the line in yet! Wait for it to pull the lure underwater and then press and hold down A. If you got the timing right, the fish will swim around in circles stirring up the water while your line goes taught. At the end of this animation, you'll reel it in and learn what you caught.

Finding new fish and filling in your Critterpedia will help you progress in the Island Ichthyologist Nook Miles task, while any catch will count toward the Angling for Perfection! challenge. You can also earn Nook Miles through the Cast Master challenge, which requires catching 10 fish in a row without one getting away.

What to do with fish?

At the start of the game, Tom Nook is interested in learning about the critters that live on the island and will ask you to gather five unique bugs or fish and bring them to him at Resident Services. Once you do that, he'll tell you that the scholarly owl Blathers wants to set up a museum on your island. You pick a spot for him to pitch a tent and Blathers will move in the next day. Blathers will ask for 15 more unique critters or fossils, and once he's got them, he'll start the two-day process of constructing his museum.

The museum is a gorgeous space that's way bigger on the inside than the outside. All the fish, bugs, and fossils you've collected and donated will be impressively displayed there. You can browse the exhibits and view plaques identifying each specimen and when you donated it. Expect plenty of empty tanks at first with plaques urging you to make more donations.

Once the museum is complete, you'll be able to donate critters and fossils to Blathers in bulk rather than giving him things one at a time. Blathers is only interested in taking one of each type of fish, though some tanks will display several of the same species swimming around anyways. You can view a fish in your Critterpedia to see if you've already donated it. Blathers will give you back anything he doesn't need, and you can display the extras in tanks in your home or sell them to Timmy.

Many of the Nook Miles+ tasks involve fishing, so look out for those so you can use your time efficiently and earn Miles while you fish.

That's not a fish!

Occasionally when you reel in a fish, you'll find that you've actually caught something else like a rock, an old boot, or a can. Don't be sad, though! Everything in Animal Crossing has a use, and this junk is no exception. The Trash Fishin' Nook Miles challenge will reward you once you've fished up three pieces of trash. Many of the junk items also inspire fun DIY recipes like a lovely succulent plant you can make by putting some weeds in that empty can.

How to find fish

Fish shadows come in different shapes and sizes, so you can guess what you're fishing for, but you won't know for sure until you get it. If you want fish to come to you, try using some fish bait. Wander the beach or river banks until you see little bubbles coming out of the sand, and then grab your shovel and dig. You'll pull out a manila clam and get inspiration for a DIY recipe that will turn it into fish bait. Once you've made a bag of bait, just sprinkle it by a body of water, and a fish will spawn! Remember that fish will only spawn with bait four times in the same spot. After that, you'll have to sprinkle the bait in a different spot of water.

The type of fish that appear on your island depends on the time of day and month, with different fish appearing at different times based on whether you're in the Northern or Southern Hemisphere. The hours when each type of fish is active will change with the season. Rainy weather is the only time to catch some fish.

There are 80 fish in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, and the table below shows the fish that can be found in the Northern Hemisphere, what months they spawn in, and what time of day you can catch them.

It ain't much, but it's honest work

While not all the creatures listed above can be considered "fish," like crabs for example, they're all lumped into one big fishy group in the game. Still, being able to learn about new sea creatures and where they live is something that makes this game one of the best games you can play on the Nintendo Switch. Get out there and catch a whopper!

What you need to know

• Animal Crossing received a 2.0 update with lots of new features and items this week.
• One new event is the "Nook Friday" event.
• This event should take place in November.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons often emulates real life with holidays such as Halloween and Christmas— err, I mean... Toy Day. Another new event recently discovered mirrors our very own Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving. Aptly called "Nook Friday", this event features door-buster sales in your very own Nook's Cranny.

A report from Nintendo Life suggests that the event starts on November 26, running up until the end of the month. Players who visit Nook's Cranny can receive up to 30% off on items during the event. We don't yet know whether the new Island Ordinances such as the Bell Boom Ordinance will affect this, but we'll be sure to update you as soon as new information is revealed.

While items offered at Nook's Cranny are random, there are thousands of new items that recently released alongside the 2.0 Update this week, so you may find something new! New items are also available at Resident Services and Harvey's Island, so don't count on Nook's Cranny to be your exclusive source for these items. Make sure to shop around at all the new stores every day in order to fill up your catalog. If you're in need of Bells, there's still a few weeks to go, so don't worry! Making Bells fast is super easy.

Life on your deserted island is pretty ideal. There are rare bugs to discover, unique fish to catch, and plenty of materials to harvest from the land. However, you won't be able to access every section of your island right away. If you want to scale those towering cliffs, you're going to need a ladder first. Here's how to unlock the ladder in Animal Crossing: New Horizons and reach those taunting goodies on the cliffs.

How to get the ladder in Animal Crossing: New Horizons

As with many other items on the island, you need to craft the ladder on your workbench. The thing is, you'll need to have completed several prerequisites if you want to unlock the ladder's DIY recipe. Here's what you need to do.

1. Invite new villagers to your island

As soon as you begin your island life, you're going to want to start earning Nook Miles. These are just rewards given to you for completing specific tasks, whether that be catching a certain number of bugs, bagging a certain amount of fish, or even making a certain amount of money. Once you have 2,000 Nook Miles, head to Tom Nook's green Resident Services tent and approach the green kiosk on the right side.

Here, you'll need to access Nook Miles Rewards and purchase a Nook Miles Ticket for 2,000 Nook Miles. Now it's time to head to the airport. Note that the airport isn't available on your first day of playing the game. Talk to Orville behind the counter and tell him that you want to visit other islands using your Nook Miles Ticket.

Upon flying to another island, run around until you discover an animal NPC wandering about. Talk to them a couple of times until you get the opportunity to invite them to your island. You'll need to visit three different islands and invite three different NPCs to your island to complete this portion.

While you're on these islands, gather all the resources you can, especially the wood you get from hitting trees with your ax and the stone, clay, and iron you get from hitting rocks with an ax or shovel. You're going to need it soon! Since you can never return to the same island, you don't have to worry about cutting down trees or breaking rocks, so pillage to your heart's content.

2. Open Nook's Cranny

The next day, Timmy Nook will let you know about his ambition to build his own shop. He's looking to you to provide the construction materials:

• 30 Wood
• 30 Hardwood
• 30 Softwood
• 30 Iron Nuggets

Gathering the wood is pretty easy. Just wander around hitting all the trees on your island with an ax a few times, and they'll drop some mix of wood types depending on the type of tree. You can always plant a few more trees to increase the rate at which you can gather, though they'll take a few days to grow big enough to be harvested from. Gathering the iron takes longer since there are only a few rocks you'll be able to access on your island, and they randomly produce iron, stone, or clay.

The resources you gathered on your island recruiting trips will help, but if you still don't have enough, you should try to gather up more Nook Miles and make another trip or two. If you talk to your villagers, they might also help you out with some of the components. You'll need to donate all of each type of material at once, so keep some pocket space open. Once you've given Timmy everything he needs, he'll ask you to pick out a location for the shop. Stake out a spot and come back the next day.

3. Build a bridge

Once Nook's Cranny is open, Tom Nook will receive a call letting him know that those three villagers you invited to your island are ready to move in. He wants to make sure it will be easy for the incoming villagers to get around and that there will be enough space for their homes. His solution is for you to choose the location for a new bridge which will be built the following morning.

He'll give you a recipe for the bridge, and then you'll need to craft it using four log stakes, four clay, and four stones. Once you've created the bridge, scout around your island for a good place to put it. Note that this recipe will disappear from your workbench list once you've made the bridge, so be sure to place this bridge somewhere useful.

4. Pick out some land for your new residents

Go back and report to Nook that you've placed the bridge somewhere on the island. He'll inform you that he needs your help picking out decent locations for each of the new residents that are on their way. Now you'll need to run around the island and stake out future homes for each of these newcomers. Once each of the three future homesites has been claimed, Tom Nook will call and tell you that he's sent you a recipe for a ladder.

5. Get crafting!

After all that running around, the only thing left for you to do is to craft the ladder. Head back to a workbench and supply four wood, four hardwood, and four softwood to build this handy tool.

To use the ladder, you simply run up to a cliff with the ladder in your hands and press the A button. Or, if you've got something else in your hands when you approach the cliff, select the ladder from your list of tools while standing at the base of the cliff and then press A.

Your character will automatically place the ladder on the ground and begin climbing. Now it's finally time to reach all those flowers, bodies of water, fish, and bugs that have been taunting you from the start of the game.

Going places

Now that you know how to unlock the ladder, you can really have full reign of your island. Pull those weeds, collect the best bugs, and catch the best fish in your never-ending quest to earn Bells and pay off your loan. Once all your new villagers move in, your little island won't look so deserted, and you'll be on your way to building the getaway of your dreams. Grab your favorite Animal Crossing: New Horizons accessories and let the island vibes take over you.

Fruit are an iconic part of Animal Crossing games since the Nintendo GameCube. While Animal Crossing: New Horizons doesn't have a ton of fruit variety, the classics are still here for you to enjoy. Fruit can be planted to populate your island with more trees, and different fruits can be sold to earn Bells fast. You can even use fruits in the new cooking mechanic that's coming to the new 2.0 update. Here are all the fruits available in the game, how to get them and what you can do with them.

How to get fruit

Every island in Animal Crossing: New Horizons comes with several fruit trees growing on it. They will all be of the same type, but that variety is determined randomly. The starting fruit varieties are:

• Apple
• Cherry
• Orange
• Pear
• Peach

Regardless of what type you have, the trees will follow the same rules. You can shake the tree by pressing A, and three pieces of fruit will fall off. If you use the ax to chop a fruit tree for wood, all of the fruit will also fall off with the first swing. You can then press Y to pick up the fruit and put it in your pockets. Picking up multiple fruit of the same type will "stack" them in your pockets, with up to 10 fruits being stackable before starting a new stack. This makes carrying fruit around much easier if you want to earn Bells) by selling them.

Nook Miles fruit

There are two other types of "fruit" that can't be obtained on your island, namely coconuts and bamboo shoots. They will never appear on your starting island. Instead, you get them by buying a Nook Miles Ticket with 2,000 Nook Miles from the Nook Stop terminal at Resident Services. Visit the airport, and you can use the ticket to go on a Mystery Tour, visiting an island where you can harvest anything you want.

Some of these islands will have your island's "sister fruit", a randomly generated foreign fruit that you can get on Nook Miles islands. Each island has one sister fruit, and it's a good way to make some Bells from foreign fruit if you take some back home to plant. Coconut trees will also line the beach of these islands, and you may find an island full of bamboo trees on occassion. Shake those trees like you would any other, and fruit will fall off. To harvest bamboo shoots, you'll have to dig up the star-shaped dig spots found near bamboo trees. They may look like there's a fossil hidden there, but it's actually a bamboo shoot!

Unlike other fruit trees, you need to plant coconuts on the beach. The game will let you put them on grass, but they'll never grow past the nursery version, unless you place a sand path on a patch of grass after unlocking terraforming. Find a nice spot for them on the beach, and they'll grow to full size in three days and start bearing fruit. Coconuts and bamboo shoots sell for 250 Bells each and can be used to make your island unique.

How to get foreign fruit

Fruit that's native to your island sells for 100 Bells, but fruit that originated elsewhere sells for 500 each. You can get your "sister fruit" from a Nook Miles Ticket island, and your mom also sends you foreign fruit at the beginning of the game. However, you'll still be missing at least two kinds of fruit. That means to get a really profitable orchard going, you're going to need to do some traveling. The best way to get a full variety of fruit is to engage in multiplayer play with friends. They can visit their island's airport and let Orville know they're interested in visitors. Your friends will need to connect to the internet, which may require updating the game software.

If you've already added someone as a friend on your Nintendo Switch, your friends can choose to open to all friends or "Best friends" which you can send requests for within the Best Friends List app on your Nook Phone. Alternatively, they can request a five-digit Dodo Code and share it with you. Visit your airport and tell Orville you want to fly, and you'll be prompted to enter the code.

Of course, you can open your town to nearby or online friends as well, just follow the prompts on-screen when telling Orville you'd like to invite friends over. Bring some of your native fruit, and you can drop it for your friend to pick up. They can drop some fruit for you, or you can shake down some of their trees and take them back home to plant.

How to plant trees

Your native fruit can be sold for 100 Bells each, and new fruit will appear on those trees three days later. If you want to grow more trees, you can dig a hole with your shovel, stand next to it, open your inventory and select a piece of fruit. A prompt will appear to plant it. Press A and you'll bury the fruit, and a nursery tree will appear. The tree will take three days to grow to full size, transitioning from nursery to small young tree, to a medium young tree. Make sure to leave enough room for it to expand. If you can dig a hole between the sapling and the nearest tree in all eight directions away from your sapling, you're good.

If you want to move it during this time, you can dig it up with your shovel and the growing tree will appear in your inventory. You can then replant it without losing any progress for its growth. Once it's fully grown, you'll need some help to dig it up. Luckily, that boost is close at hand. Just go into your inventory and eat a piece of fruit. You can eat up to 10 pieces of fruit to gain a buff that gives you the strength to dig up fully grown trees or shatter rocks when you hit them. Every time you use that strength, the buff ticks down by one. You can also get rid of it by using your toilet.

Fruit and bamboo trees can only be planted on the grass. Dig a hole on the beach, and the plant prompt just won't appear. A Nook Miles+ task to plant fruit trees regularly appears and awards 100 Miles, so look out for that to be efficient. You'll also earn progress towards the Fruit Roots challenge for each type of fruit tree you plant.

What can I do with fruit?

As previously mentioned, Nintendo announced that cooking would be coming to Animal Crossing: New Horizons. Vegetables and grains are heading to the game, which can be used alongside fruit to craft DIY recipe foods. It looks like you can prepare drinks, soups, and baked goods, so you'll definitely have a lot of things to do with everything you grow on your island! Just like regular fruit, food made with DIY recipes can be eaten. They'll give you an even bigger buff than single pieces of fruit will, so it's great for when you want to dig up lots of trees. We'll update this space as soon as the new cooking mechanics are unveiled.

Fruit can also be used in DIY crafting recipes, with different fruits used in specific recipes. Players can craft furniture, clothing, wallpaper, among other items with fruit. Who would have thought that crushing up oranges could give you wallpaper to decorate your home?

An apple a day keeps the Nook away

The wide variety of things you can do in Animal Crossing: New Horizons warrants its addition to the list of best Nintendo Switch games. Collecting different kinds of fruit, crafting furniture and clothing, and cooking with them are all fun activities that make the game that much more enjoyable. Follow these steps, and you'll be raking in plenty of Bells, and your island will look great.

In Animal Crossing: New Horizons, you can visit a series of islands that enrich your gaming experience. One of these islands is inhabited by Harvey, or Harv for short. Harvey is a dog NPC who made his first appearance in Animal Crossing: New Leaf as part of the Welcome amiibo update. He's got a bit of a hippie vibe about him, and takes everything — including life — slowly and one step at a time.

Heading to Harvey's Island is easy — simply speak to Orville at the airport and select, "I want to fly!". When Orville asks where you want to go, select "Visit Harv's Island". It's free to fly there, and you can head back and forth as many times as you'd like.

What is Photopia?

Harvey's got a passion for photography, and would love to share that passion with you! You can do this by heading on over to Photopia, located on Harvey's Island. In Photopia, you can set up photography shoot sets in a building and take pictures with various NPCs and villagers by inviting them over or scanning in their amiibo. You can decorate the inside of these rooms the same way that you would your own home back on your island! Simply press Down on the D-pad or the directional buttons on your left Joy-Con get get going.

Here are some tips for how to navigate Photopia:

• Press Right on the D-pad or the directional buttons on your left Joy-Con to access your inventory. You are not limited by what's in your storage at home, any item you've held in your pockets can be used, in any color you want!
• To customise the color of a furniture item, press the X button to see what colors you can select, then press the + button to confirm.
• You can cycle through different kinds of furniture and items with the L and R buttons.
• Scrolling to the Residents tab on the far right allows you to invite any villager currently living on your island.
• Move furniture and villagers by pressing and holding the A button while hovering over them, and moving them around with the L stick.
• Press A while hovering over an item or character to turn them around.
• Hold R while moving the cursor over furniture to select multiple items.
• Press ZR when hovering over a furniture item to duplicate it.
• You can remove any character or furniture item by hovering over it and pressing Y.
• Press the + button to switch between floor items, wall items, and ceiling items.
• Press Up on the D-pad or the directional buttons on your left Joy-Con to change the lighting.
• Press X when hovering over a character to change their clothing, using any clothing item you've held in your pockets before. NPCs' clothing cannot be changed, but they can wear hats and accessories.
• Press ZR when hovering over a character to change their expression.
• When you're finished decorating, press B to exit.

You can then open your Nook Phone with ZL and use your camera to take pictures with the sets you've created!

Are there special events?

In June, you can participate in a special Wedding event where you can recreate a wedding ceremony and reception scene for Reese and Cyrus. They grant you complete creative license when setting up the scenes, so go wild!

How do I expand the Market Plaza?

One of the biggest announcements from the October 2021 Animal Crossing Direct was the addition of a market plaza to Harvey's Island. Harvey has a vision for a co-op, harmonious living experience where various vendors and service providers can gather and give back to the community, which he tells you about in a letter addressed to your home.

When you first head to Harvey's Island after the update, Wilbur will note that Harvey has gone "missing." He also points out that a new area has opened — this is the new plaza! Head over there to talk to Harvey and his good friend, Harriet the poodle. You'll be asked to help out with expanding the plaza by giving donations to the various Lloid gyroids.

Source: iMore

Each of the seven Lloids asks for 100,000 Bells to unlock a special character that can provide a service or sell their wares. Paying 700,000 Bells may seem like a lot, but don't worry! There are tons of ways to earn Bells quickly on your island. To donate, simply talk to any Lloid, select the amount you'd like to donate, and that's it! Lloids will get donations from other sources so don't worry about paying it all off yourself. You also don't have to donate the entire amount immediately, so don't feel bad for taking your time. Only one Lloid can be paid off per day, and if you've forgotten your money, simply head to the ABD just outside the plaza.

Here are the special characters you can unlock:

To unlock her, head to the Lloid who collects donations for a "mysteriously accurate fortune-teller." Katrina first appeared in Animal Crossing: Population Growing. She can tell you about how lucky you are on that day, or evaluate your friendship level with any villager living on your island.

To unlock her, head to the Lloid who collects donations for a "merchant offering rugs and mysterious wallpapers." Saharah will offer a selection of rugs, wallpapers, and flooring that you'll be able to choose before buying. However, you won't receive any tickets for purchasing rugs. Saharah won't appear on Harvey's Island if she's visiting your island.

Source: iMore

To unlock him, head to the Lloid who collects donations for a "an old-timer specializing in storage." Tortimer used to be the mayor of past Animal Crossing towns. Now he allows you to access your storage, in case you forgot something you wanted to give to Cyrus. During November, he takes on his "Cornimer" personality from Wild World and New Leaf, and offers to give you up to 10 acorns a day.

To unlock them, head to the Lloid who collects donations for a "talented husband-and-wife furniture-refurbishing team." They can customize furniture items for you, even ones that you're unable to customize at home, such as items purchased with Nook Miles from the Nook Stop terminal at Resident Services. You won't need any customization kits, but you will need to pay with Bells.

To unlock him, head to the Lloid who collects donations for a "botany expert with the greenest of thumbs." Leif sells bushes, flower seeds, and produce seeds for various vegetables. He also offers to buy weeds at twice the price of Nook's, and can weed your entire town for 100,000 Bells if you're overwhelmed with them. Don't worry, you aren't required to get rid of weeds this way! Leif won't appear on Harvey's Island if he's visiting your island.

To unlock Redd, head to the Lloid who collects donations for a "legitimate art dealer." He sells up to two pieces of art that can be donated to the musem's art gallery, but be careful! They can still be fake. Remember to inspect them closely before buying. You can also participate in Redd's Raffle by interacting with the red raffle box. You can win new items that you can hold in your hand, like a pocketbook or fruit juice. Redd won't appear on Harvey's Island if he's visiting your island.

To unlock him, head to the Lloid who collects donations for a "dapper dealer of fine shoes and handbags." He offers a broader selection of shoes, socks, and bags than when he's on your island, and his selection changes daily. Kicks won't appear on Harvey's Island if he's visiting your island.

Harriet doesn't require a donation to unlock, but ever so often she stands next to a salon stool in the middle of the plaza. If you talk with her, she offers to cut your hair in a new hairstyle for free. Accept, and she'll give you a brand-new hairstyle that you can't learn anywhere else. If you tell her you don't like it, she'll revert your hair back to it's original style. Love it or hate it, she'll teach you the hairstyle so you can always change whenever you use a vanity or mirror on your own island.

The heart of the community

Harvey's Island provides lots of content for when you need a break from your own island. You can take pictures with villagers in Photopia, or even try out new design options for your own home without all the fuss. With the special characters you can unlock in the plaza, you can visit NPCs whenever you want, in the event that you missed them on your own island. The wide variety of content Animal Crossing: New Horizons has to offer makes it one of the best Nintendo Switch games.

It's time for Animal Crossing: New Horizons fans to get excited. Nintendo announced during the September 2021 Nintendo Direct that changes were on the way and then teased the arrival of two long-awaited NPCs: Brewster and Kapp'n. Well, the wait is over! These two fan-favorites are here in the last major free update.

So, hop on board as we explore who Kapp'n is and what impact he could have on New Horizons.

Who is Kapp'n?

Those familiar with the series will instantly recognize this green sea turtle. Kapp'n has a distinctive character design, from his crinkly mouth to the bald spot on his head. Sporting a green shell and a heavy accent akin to pirates or an ol' salt of the sea sailor, he is an equal mix of creepy and codger. Oh, and don't forget about all the sea shanties he sings!

Fun fact: Kapp'n is loosely based on a Japanese mythological creature called the Kappa. Kappas are mischievous, reptilian river demons known for taking children unless you gift them with cucumbers. While he may not be as nefarious as his namesake, he does love cucumbers. He also takes on the role of a ferryman of sorts, transporting players in several Animal Crossing titles. He drives taxies, rowboats, buses, and more, and usually sings as the new scenes load.

His costume changes depending on which game you're playing, but he's been seen in a bus driver uniform and a more relaxed flower-print button-down. And he has his own amiibo, though it's not super rare.

Kapp'n has worn many hats over his Animal Crossing tenure, but he mostly does the same thing. He transports the player between loading screens and gets them where they need to go. He'll sing, make inappropriate comments, and get you there safely.

Kapp'n in Animal Crossing: New Horizons

With the new update, Kapp'n is back doing what he loves best: Boat Tours! Players can find Kapp'n chilling in his boat right on the pier. Any time you want to head out on the open sea, Kapp'n will take you to mysterious islands, much like the Dodo Airlines Mystery Tours. Planes can't access these new islands, so the only way to go is by boat.

For a small fee of 1,000 Nook Miles, not Bells, Kapp'n will take you to a random island where you can find rare plants, dig up gyroids, and explore uncharted territories. And Kapp'n will sing all the way! Oh, and you can clap along if you'd like.

Also, you'll need to head out on an island tour if you plan to find Brewster. These island tours are much like the Mystery Island Tours. You pay Kapp'n his fee, and he'll whisk you off to an island. It should be noted that this is the only way to find gyroids. While on a tour, you can dig up gyroid fragments, which you can then bring back and plant on your island. After enough nurturing, they will grow!

Aside from finding new foliage and gyroids, players can experience different seasons, weather, and even times of day. So, each island will have a bit of variety, so it's not the same old island with a chance of bamboo. If you're a gyroid collector, it's definitely worth the 1000 miles!

All aboard!

The wait is over! So, you and Kapp'n can take to the seas once more! However, this is the last big free update from Nintendo. The last big update will be paid DLC, Happy Home Paradise DLC, so unless there are a few small tweaks, this is it for New Horizons. Still, now that he's here, it's time to see what the big 'ol blue has to offer. Happy sailing!

If you're looking to get some more exercise in your life, you can now do group stretching in Animal Crossing: New Horizons. This is a new activity introduced in the 2.0 update during the October 2021 Animal Crossing Direct. If you want do take part in this group activity, here's how to do it.

What is group stretching?

This activity makes its return from the Nintendo GameCube game, Animal Crossing: Population Growing, and is based on a Japanese tradition called "Radio taisō", which was first introduced in 1928. People are encouraged to exercise with Radio taisō, where special music is played on the radio every morning at 6 a.m. and participants engage in calisthenics exercises. You won't need to wake up at 6 a.m. to participate in group stretching in New Horizons, so both early birds and night owls can take part in the stretching! You can even earn Nook Miles by participating in group stretching.

How can I do group stretching?

Here's how to do group stretching with your villagers and special characters on your island!

1. Head to Resident Services.
2. Press A to interact with the radio to the right of the entrance.

3. Select "Let's stretch!"

4. Select your controls. You can participate in group stretching with button inputs or by using your Joy-Con controllers.
   • Remember to make sure you have enough space to move around if you use your Joy-Con!

5. Follow the instructions! Don't worry if your timing is a bit off. You aren't penalized if you aren't perfect. Remember to have fun and stay hydrated!

Can I stretch with friends?

Yes! As long as you're best friends with a player, you'll be able to stretch with them. The steps are the same, but you'll be able to do it alongside a friend. You also aren't locked into using whatever control scheme your friend is using, so you can use buttons or motion controls if you'd like.

Move ya body!

Animal Crossing: New Horizons provides a great experience on the Nintendo Switch. Nintendo has always tried to incorporate health-conscious activities in their game lineups, and now you can bond with your villagers by stretching with them. These immersive experiences are what makes New Horizons one of the best games on the system.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons lets you make your deserted island your own by customizing the entire landscape. Now you can make your island even more unique by implementing the Island Ordinances that were first introduced in Animal Crossing: New Leaf, which Nintendo announced in the October 2021 Animal Crossing Direct.

Island Ordinances can be enforced by the Island Representative — the player who founds and names the island with Tom Nook. Island Ordinances cost 20,000 Bells each and go into effect the next day. To change or drop an ordinance, head over to Isabelle's counter at Resident Services. Talk to her and select "Review island features", then select "Discuss ordinances".

Here is each Island Ordinance and what they do:

Beautiful Island Ordinance

The Beautiful Island Ordinance keeps your island tidy, making trash appear less often in rivers, ponds, and seas. Weeds are less likely to appear on your island, and villagers contribute to watering flowers more. Hybrid flowers are also 20% more likely to spawn when watering two parent flowers next to each other. Cockroaches will not show up in your home, no matter how long you haven't played the game.

Early Bird Ordinance

With the Early Bird Ordinance, all villagers go to sleep earlier and wake up earlier. All stores will also open earlier: the Able Sister's shop opens from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m., while Nook's Cranny opens from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m..

These are the sleep cycles according to villager type:

• Normal: 12 a.m. - 5 a.m.
• Peppy: 1 a.m. - 7 a.m.
• Snooty: 2 a.m. - 8 a.m.
• Sisterly: 3 a.m. - 8:30 a.m.
• Lazy: 11 p.m. - 7:30 a.m.
• Jock: 12 a.m. - a.m.
• Smug: 2 a.m. - 7 a.m.
• Cranky: 4 a.m. - 8 a.m.

Night Owl Ordinance

The Night Owl Ordinance has all villagers go to sleep later and wake up later. All stores will also close later: the Able Sister's shop opens from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m., while Nook's Cranny opens from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m..

Here is each villager type's sleep cycle:

• Normal: 2 a.m. - 6 a.m.
• Peppy: 3 a.m. - 9 a.m.
• Snooty: 4 a.m. - 9:30 a.m.
• Sisterly: 5:30 a.m. - 11 a.m.
• Lazy: 1:30 a.m. - 9 a.m.
• Jock: 2:30 a.m. - 7 a.m.
• Smug: 3:30 a.m. - 8:30 a.m.
• Cranky: 6 a.m. - 10 a.m.

Bell Boom Ordinance

The Bell Boom Ordinance lets shops pay you 1.2x the selling price for any items you wish to sell. This means that native fruit that normally sell for 100 Bells will sell for 120 Bells under the Bell Boom Ordinance. However, items are also sold for 1.2x the price, so you won't notice a change in your "cost of living" unless you conduct business on another island. Turnips are not affected by the Bell Boom.

Changing the culture

If you're an early riser or the type to burn the midnight oil, the Early Bird and Night Owl Ordinances will help you avoid missing shop times or talking to villagers. If you're a busy bee who wants to take breaks from your island but gets overwhelmed by weeds, the Beautiful Island Ordinance will keep things nice and tidy until you're back. While the Bell Boom Ordinance won't help you in the Turnip Stalk Market, you'll have an easier time if you enjoy shopping on other islands.

Making your island your own is what makes Animal Crossing: New Horizons one of the best Nintendo Switch games. Get out there and tailor your experience to what suits you best!

What you need to know

• The Animal Crossing: New Horizons Version 2.0 update is available nearly two days early.
• The massive update was previously announced to go live on Nov. 5.
• However, it appears that the Happy Home Paradise DLC is not yet available.

In a surprise and quiet drop, Nintendo has released the highly-anticipated and free Animal Crossing: New Horizons Version 2.0 update nearly two days early. It was originally scheduled to release on Friday, Nov. 5 but multiple users online, including the Animal Crossing World blog, noticed it had dropped Wednesday night.

It's super easy to update your game. All you have to do is hit the + button on the home menu while you have the icon highlighted on the home menu and hit software update.

The huge update was announced during Nintendo's Animal Crossing Direct last month, which highlighted a ton of changes, including many that longtime fans of the series had been waiting for. Fan favorites Brewster and Kapp'n would be returning, along with The Roost cafe and Boat Tours. The update also overhauled Harv's island, which will be receiving new NPCs like Katrina and housing older ones like Saharah and Kicks. You can also enact new island ordinances with Isabelle, cook, plant crops, stretch in the plaza with your neighbors, dig up gyroids, and more. Finally, you'll see even more new Villagers for you to potentially invite to your island.

The direct also announced that the game's first DLC, Happy Home Paradise, would be launching the same day. However, it seems like it's still not available. We expect it to drop on the previously-scheduled Nov. 5. You can buy it for $25 through the Nintendo eShop or get it for free through the Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack.

What you need to know

• My Nintendo is a platform where users can earn coins to redeem for various prizes and services.
• Nintendo is hosting a sweepstakes for Animal Crossing: New Horizons in celebration of the upcoming update.
• The prizes include a blanket, Nintendo Switch controller, and more.

If you're a My Nintendo member who's a fan of Animal Crossing: New Horizons, you should know that Nintendo is hosting a sweepstakes in celebration of the 2.0 update coming this Friday!

Every week, users can redeem 30 My Nintendo Platinum Points on the official website. These can be used to enter in the Animal Crossing: New Horizons Cozy Winter Sweepstakes, with 3 entries costing 10 Points each being possible. This means that even if you're behind on collecting Platinum Points, you'll still be able to enter! Participants must be legal residents of the United States, District of Columbia and Canada (excluding Quebec) and must also be over the age of 13.

Prizes include a PowerA wired Animal Crossing controller for your Nintendo Switch, a My Nintendo exclusive Animal Crossing Sherpa blanket measuring at 50 by 60 inches, the Animal Crossing edition Monopoly board game for the whole family to play, and a Club Mocchi Mocchi 15 inch Isabelle Mega Plush. For any Animal Crossing fan, this is an opportunity you won't be able to miss! The sweepstakes runs until December 8, 2021.

Now that Animal Crossing Halloween is over, the leaves on your island will continue to change colors until they become warm autumn hues. What's more, mushrooms will pop up all over your island, and you'll be able to use them to craft super cute Mushroom sets. These seasonal changes are part of what makes this one of the best Nintendo Switch games out there. Dying to learn more? Here's everything you need to know about Animal Crossing mushrooms and mushroom DIY recipes.

When do mushrooms sprout?

If you live in the Northern Hemisphere, mushrooms will pop up on your island throughout November. If you're in the Southern Hemisphere, mushrooms will sprout in May.

How many mushroom types are there?

Five different types of mushrooms sprout on your island during the fall. I've listed them in alphabetical order and have included how much they sell for at Nook's Cranny.

Where to find each mushroom

Source: iMore

Mushrooms are partial to trees, so you'll find them near wooded areas. The most valuable one is the Rare Mushroom, and unlike the others, it's actually hidden underground. If you see a crack in the ground near a tree, like the ones you see when you're digging for fossils, then it might just yield a Rare Mushroom when you use your shovel.

How to gather the most mushrooms

There are a few things you can do to increase the chances of your island sprouting more mushrooms.

• Plant several trees if you don't have that many: Since mushrooms sprout near tree trunks, your island will have a higher likelihood of spawning mushrooms if you have plenty of trees. It doesn't matter if they are fruit trees or evergreens.
• Clean up around your tree trunks: Mushrooms won't be able to spawn if the floor around the base of your trees is covered with weeds, sticks, flowers, or other items. Clear the area, and then you're more likely to get more mushrooms.
• Harvest mushrooms every day: A fresh batch of mushrooms will appear on your island each morning. Clear out the old to make way for new fungi.

How to get Mushroom recipes

Mushroom DIY recipes can be collected by popping the balloons that fly over your island. Much like the Cherry Blossom recipes, they can be rather hard to find, so pop as many balloons as you can during this month.

All Mushroom DIY recipes

Mushroom recipes are simply enchanting. They're the perfect way to create a fantasy-themed area of your island. My personal favorite is the Mush Lamp, which glows in the dark. Here are all Mushroom DIY recipes listed in alphabetical order.

Animal Crossing mushrooms

Now you know what mushrooms to look for and how to craft each mushroom recipe for your island. Have fun harvesting and creating gorgeous decor.

When you first start on your Animal Crossing: New Horizons deserted island, all you have is a tent, a cot, a radio, a lamp, and a NookPhone. There aren't any buildings or any easy paths to get you to the far reaches of your island. If you want to turn this beautiful location into the perfect tropical getaway, you're going to need plenty of Bells. Fortunately, in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, money does grow on trees, and there are several quick ways to enlarge your wallet. Here are some tips for earning tons of Bells quickly.

Go the extra mile

As part of the Nook Getaway Package, players can repay their loan with Nook Miles as well as with Bells. Luckily for you, it's easy to earn Nook Miles, especially at the start of the game. There are a lot of simple tasks like taking a photo, writing on the board, or putting something in your house, that will help you earn Nook Miles and get you closer to paying off your loan.

Once you've paid off your initial move-in fees, you'll get access to Nook Miles+ tasks, a series of easy, constantly rotating challenges that will let you rack up Nook Miles even faster. Once you've upgraded Resident Services to a building, you can spend 500 Miles at the Nook Stop kiosk inside to buy a Bell voucher. It will be issued immediately, and you can then take it over to Nook's Cranny to sell it for 3,000 Bells.

Weed the island

When you first start, your island will be covered in weeds. Fortunately, cleaning them up will get you a decent amount of money. Run to Resident Services and talk to Timmy. He'll give you 990 Bells for every 99 weeds you pull.

Simply smashing

You'll find plenty of rocks around your island. If you use a shovel or ax to wack at them, Bells might pop out. Otherwise, you'll get stones, clay, iron, or gold. Bugs hiding under the rock might pop out too, which you can catch with your net. Make sure to save 30 iron nuggets to build Nook's Cranny but you can sell the rest. Increase your chances of getting eight items from rocks by using the Rock Trick.

Shake it like a polaroid picture

In addition to fruit, you'll find that there are coins and items hidden in the trees around your island. Simply go up to the trunk and press the A button on your Switch, and then your character will shake a tree lodging anything in the treetops loose. If you're lucky, something rare will fall out. If nothing else, you can always gather up all of those fruits and sell them at Resident Services.

Gotta catch 'em all!

Source: iMore

There are plenty of bugs inhabiting your island. As in real life, some of them only appear at night. Take the opportunity to run around and catch as many bugs as possible. You can get a decent amount of Bells when you sell them.

Butterflies are the easiest to catch, but most of them don't give you that much money. But every little bit helps. To make some cash, you'll need to be more careful and sneak up on the other insects that are quick to run away. Just be cautious around wasps, scorpions, and spiders as these creepy crawlies can hurt you. That's probably why you can get a ton of Bells from selling them. Try shaking trees with your net equipped to lessen the chances of getting stung by wasps.

Catch of the day

You'll find plenty of fish swimming around your island, whether it's in the ocean or one of the rivers. If you happen to catch one of the rarer fish, you can really turn a profit from it when you go to sell. Spend some time fishing every day and see if you get lucky. If nothing else, all the money you earn from catching more common fish can quickly add up. To help, we've made a list of the most valuable fish in Animal Crossing: New Horizons.

You're more likely to come upon a rare fish if you cast your line into the water while it's raining. For that reason, it's a good idea to drop what you're doing and spend some time gazing at the water whenever water falls from the sky. Some of the rarest fish are worth thousands of Bells, like the Coelacanth, which can be sold for 15,000 Bells.

Just keep swimming

After it was added in the 2020 Summer update, players could comb the ocean floor for all sorts of crawly deep sea creatures. Getting a wetsuit is pretty easy; you can redeem some Nook Miles for one, purchase one in the Nook Shopping app, or buy it directly from Timmy and Tommy.

Just like bugs and fish, sea creatures can sell for a pretty penny if you know what you're doing. Deep sea creatures caught while diving can be sold for anything between 500 and 15,000 Bells! You'll want to put on your snorkeling mask quickly if you're looking to make some money early on in the game. Well... a snorkeling mask isn't required for swimming in Animal Crossing, but you'll certainly look cool doing it!

Money does grow on trees

If you happen to come across a glimmering spot of ground while running around town, you can use your shovel to dig in that spot and find 1,000 Bells. While you can just pocket the money, you can also get way more if you're patient.

Select the bag of Bells from your inventory and choose to bury it back into the ground. Note, that you can bury up to 10,000 Bells in one of these unique holes. Upon burying the bag, a sapling will appear. Leave the sapling alone for several days. If you need to move the tree, dig up the sapling and re-plant it elsewhere.

Eventually, it will grow into a tree and drop three Bell bags. Note that a new money tree glimmer spot appears on your island every day. You can have multiple money trees growing at one time, so you'll definitely want to be on the lookout for these shining spots.

Buy low, sell high

You can make or lose huge amounts of Bells by playing the stalk market. Every Sunday between 5 a.m. and noon, Daisy Mae will show up somewhere on your island and offer to sell you turnips. Her prices will vary week to week between about 90 and 110 Bells, so try to buy when they're on the low side. Stock up on as many as you can afford. Keep in mind, you can't keep them in your house storage, so you'll need a place to dump them. Otherwise, you'll be carrying them around in your pockets.

Timmy and Tommy won't buy turnips on Sunday, but after that, they'll offer varying prices throughout the week. Check back in regularly and wait for the price to be more than what you bought them for and then unload your turnips and make a big profit. Just don't hold onto them too long because if it gets back to Sunday, they'll all rot and become worthless.

Old money

Fossils are another collectible you can add to your museum. Up to four fossils spawn each day, but if you miss a day, no more than six fossil spots can be on the island. These dig spots can be identified by a brown star shape on the ground. Whenever you dig up a new fossil, bring it straight to Blathers and donate it to the museum like the kind citizen you are.

However, Blathers won't take duplicates. What do you do with all of these doubles? Well, sell them of course! Fossils can be sold to Timmy and Tommy for anywhere between 1,000 and 6,000 Bells. Of course, you should always let Blathers identify fossils for you before you sell them. That way, you'll know which ones you've already donated.

Ring in the Bells!

At its core, Animal Crossing: New Horizons is all about earning money to pay off your loan and build your perfect life. There are plenty of things you can do to quickly earn Nook Miles or Bells as you go about your island. Good luck crafting the perfect getaway. I hope you're able to find the rarest creatures and build the home of your dreams in one of the best Nintendo Switch games.

Your amiibo can do different things depending on where you are in Animal Crossing: New Horizons. You can invite villagers to your island's campsite if you've built one. You can also visit Harvey's Island and take photos with both NPCs and villagers. As of the 2.0 update, players can invite villagers and NPCs to The Roose café to hang out and drink coffee with Brewster. You'll also be able to build vacation homes for villagers and NPCs on the island resort in the game's Happy Home Paradise DLC.

That's correct. For Animal Crossing, there are two types of amiibo collectibles available: the standard plastic toy figures and two different series of collectible cards.

For the amiibo figures, the following characters are available at the moment:

• Blathers
• Celeste
• Cyrus
• Digby
• Isabelle - Summer Outfit
• Isabelle - Winter Outfit
• K.K.
• Kapp'n
• Kicks
• Lottie
• Mabel
• Reese
• Resetti
• Rover
• Timmy & Tommy
• Tom Nook

There are several series of amiibo cards that are compatible with New Horizons:

• Series 1-4 amiibo cards
• Series 5 amiibo cards
• Welcome amiibo cards
• amiibo Festival cards
• Sanrio amiibo cards

The Welcome amiibo set has 50 total cards, while the regular Series collection has 100 cards in Series 1-4 and 48 cards in Series 5, creating a pool of 448 cards total. There are three cards in the amiibo Festival set for the Nintendo Wii U and six Sanrio-themed villagers that give access to some adorable furniture.

Some exclusive villagers can only be obtained with their corresponding amiibo cards. Both NPC amiibo figures and amiibo cards serve the same purpose in New Horizons. This is different from Animal Crossing: New Leaf, where figures allowed players to access NPC RVs at the camping ground, while NPC amiibo cards only granted players a picture of the NPC.

All villager amiibo cards are compatible with New Horizons. As for figures and NPC amiibo cards, only characters who organically show up in the game are compatible with the game. This means that you won't be able to scan in NPCs like Nat, Pelly, Phyllis, or Digby, for example. NPCs like Labelle, Pavé, Leif, and Sable can be summoned into the game with cards, even if they don't have corresponding figurines.

While amiibo figures and cards aren't mandatory for enjoying your time in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, it can make things easier to invite certain villagers to your island or design vacation homes for them archipelago. Bonding with NPCs by inviting them for coffee, designing homes for them, or even taking pictures with them outside of their regular routine can also enrich your experience.

While Animal Crossing: New Horizons is one of the best and most adorable games on the Nintendo Switch, but that doesn't mean everything is rainbows and sunshine. Yes, Tom Nook promises to whisk you away to a tropical paradise; and that is just what he does. Unfortunately, with an untamed landscape at your feet, there are bound to be a few setbacks when you traverse the terrain. If this is your first outing, or you are coming back to enjoy some sweet, sweet DLC, you might want to prepare yourself.

With overgrowth, weeds, and hardly a soul in sight, there are more than a few dangers on the island. Like past games, the leading cause for injury is those pesky bugs: wasps, scorpions, and tarantulas. If you're unlucky enough to encounter one of these dangerous bugs, you can end up with a nasty bump.

Bug bites can be nasty, but Timmy and Tommy Nook have just the thing to help you out. Like past Animal Crossing games, you can purchase medicine to heal any inflicted injuries. If you don't want to keep coming back to the shop every time you get into a battle of the bugs, you can pick some up for the road.

Beware, though; if you get stung more than once, or a scorpion or tarantula bites you, you'll end up back in your home like the previous games. While not the worst thing to happen, it certainly can be a pain if you wanted to cash in on those tarantula bells.

From the very first Animal Crossing game to Animal Crossing: New Horizons, gyroids have been a thing. They are unique statues that take on a variety of shapes and colors, and they function like other furniture or decor. What makes these little guys unique is their sound effects and how you find them.

In previous games, you could find gyroids buried in the ground following a rainy or snowy day. Much like fossils or other buried items, players could discover dig spots around the town, and you could use a shovel to unearth them. Like furniture, there isn't just one type of gyroid. They come in all shapes, sizes, and colors. The best thing about these little guys is finding a bunch, turning them on, and seeing how they sound together. Gyroids each have a unique sound, and you could easily mix and match your collection to play some unique beats.

After its launch, Animal Crossing: New Horizons was easily one of the best games on Nintendo Switch. However, the musically little decor pieces were nowhere to be found in the new title, which was a little disappointing for long-time fans. Aside from Lloid, who showed up only when community funding was needed, there was a distinct lack of gyroids.

Fortunately, during the October Animal Crossing direct, it was announced that gyroids would finally be added to New Horizons in a massive update. Much like past games, players will be able to dig up these musical statues, but this time, you'll be able to customize your gyroids to match your decor. That's pretty exciting! There's nothing worse than finding a gyroid that has the perfect sound by just doesn't match your aesthetic.

Gyroids, customization, and a whole lot more are coming to Animal Crossing: New Horizons on Nov. 5 in the last big, free update.

The Animal Crossing series has always been low-key and happy-go-lucky. Players typically just go about their day doing chores for their neighbors, hunting for insects, or fishing off the shores, trying to forget the amount of Bells they owe. While there have been a few spooky elements over the years, like the Wisp character, perma-death has never been a worry. The same is true for Animal Crossing: New Horizons on Nintendo Switch, which is pretty much one of the best games on the system.

While the late-night stroll may mean encountering a wisp in the night, the real danger lies with bugs. On this underdeveloped island, it's possible to encounter the likes of wasps, scorpions, and tarantulas. As dangerous as these creatures sound, the likelihood that you'll experience perma-death is pretty slim.

Just like in past Animal Crossing games, if a player is stung or bitten, two things happen: your avatar has a bump and needs medicine, or you may pass out and wake up in your home. Neither situation has you pushing up daisies, so you don't have to worry.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons is all about customizing your island, and that also includes the macabre. The gravestone is just another island decoration for players to use as they wish, whether for a memorial or to make a spooky scene for Halloween. So, if you are a fan of the macabre, you're in luck!

Now, get decorating and have a little fun.

What you need to know

• Animal Crossing: New Horizons is getting its first and only paid downloadable content in November.
• The Happy Home Paradise DLC can be accessed through Nintendo Switch Online's Expansion Pack.
• However, players will need to be online if they choose to access it through the NSO service.
• Players can purchase the DLC and access it offline permanently for $24.99.

Nintendo sparked a lot of heated debate after their October 2021 Animal Crossing Direct when they announced that paid DLC would be coming to Animal Crossing: New Horizons. The Happy Home Paradise DLC allows players to design vacation homes for villagers, unlock new furniture, and much more.

Players could purchase the DLC for $24.99 before its release on November 5, 2021. However, Happy Home Paradise is also accessible to players who subscribe to the Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack, which includes Nintendo 64 and Sega Genesis games.

Things aren't all smooth sailing, though. Players who access Happy Home Paradise stand to lose their access to most of the content should their subscription lapse. We reached out to Nintendo, who confirmed that anyone who accesses the DLC through the online is required to be connected to the internet, in order to check whether your subscription is still active.

This treats the Animal Crossing DLC the same way as the retro games offered through the Nintendo Switch Online service, which need an active subscription to be accessible. If you want to access the DLC offline, you'll have to purchase it separately. While this may not be a big deal for fans who play the game in docked mode, portable players who want to decorate some vacation homes during their commute may have some issues. We'll be sure to keep you updated if new information arises.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons is here. While we've thoroughly enjoyed one of the best multiplayer experiences on the Nintendo Switch, not everything is smooth sailing. For anyone hoping to transfer data from console to console by just using your copy of the game, it's possible! However, you have to follow a lot of extra steps.

Nintendo stated that the new game works with one new island per console. Players who wish to keep their island's data safe, or transfer their save data to another console, will have to enable the Island Backup & Restore Service on their Switch. While it is possible to transfer your Animal Crossing island to another console, you also won't be able to play on your personal island on more than one system.

In addition, island backups and transfers are only possible with a Nintendo Switch Online subscription, so offline players are out of luck. While this may not seem like a big deal, it could be a problem for anyone who may have their Switch or Switch Lite stolen, lost, or broken. Animal Crossing is a slow game that fosters its players coming back for years, so some may not be happy about paying for NSO just to keep their island safe.

Having a single island on a console won't necessarily affect solo players unless, of course, they want to play Animal Crossing: New Horizons on both their Nintendo Switch and Switch Lite. However, the one island per console could pose a problem for anyone interested in playing locally with friends.

To play local multiplayer, each player must have a house on the island. While playing, this isn't really an issue. However, once the game stops and your friends want to transfer save data to their own consoles, it could prove to be troublesome. Only players who are not the Island Representative can move out and start their new island elsewhere on another Switch. So if you're playing with siblings and one of them gets their own console, only they can move out if you're the Island Representative.

For now, it looks like anyone who creates a home on one Switch or Switch Lite will be landlocked for the foreseeable future, since Island Representatives are tied to the islands they create. Hey, at least it gives you an excuse to hang out with your friends more! Plus, there's always the online multiplayer option.