Announced through the recent Animal Crossing Nintendo Direct presentation, the free 2.0 update for Animal Crossing: New Horizons is set for release on November 5th, bringing with it a host of familiar faces but also debuting some completely new features. Fans are excited as it's the first significant update since the game's launch in March of 2020.
In addition to the large free update, a DLC called Happy Home Paradise will come out on the same day, priced at $24.99. This new content promises to bring back former users who had grown tired of the game as well as inspire new users to explore the many unique islands, characters, and activities that made New Horizons so popular.
Brewster And The Roost
With Brewster's return, players can delight in something they've wanted to see added to New Horizons since its release last March. The highly memorable pigeon barista will open his café, The Roost, inside the island's museum, allowing not only players but visitors and villagers the ability to taste his delicious coffee.
Brewster's appearance will allow players the chance to develop a friendship with him over time, owing to his initially reserved personality, whilst also relaxing in a cozy new environment. Additionally, a station for Amiibo cards can be accessed within the café, allowing players to invite their favorite Animal Crossing characters to enjoy a drink with them.
Kapp'n Returns
A green turtle (or Kappa in the games' Japanese versions), Kapp'n is a sailor and driver who will make his New Horizons debut to take players to distant islands, where they can find unique flora and fauna, as well as experience places with different climates.
This return eradicates one of the huge differences between New Leaf and New Horizons, allowing players to visit islands with more variety outside of using Nook Miles Tickets all while engaging with Kapp'n, whose penchant for sea shanties is always entertaining.
Harv's Island Is Expanded
Perhaps one of the most dramatic changes coming with the update is the expansion of Harv's island, accessible to players via the island airport. The space will stretch back into a marketplace which players can aid the expansion of, giving characters like Leif and Redd space to sell their wares and also bringing back fan-favorites like Katrina and Tortimer.
This change gives Harv's Island far more utility, allowing players to purchase a variety of items in one spot whilst providing an external project for development, helped along by player donations. It also expands the immersive nature of the game, by broadening the horizons of its world.
Gyroids Are Back
Though they've been glimpsed at in New Horizons when players set up building projects like inclines or bridges, standing watch to collect donations, the Gyroids are back in full force with this update. Players will be able to dig up fragments of Gyroids as they do fossils, which upon re-planting and watering will become cute ornamental figures.
In a big change to previous Animal Crossing games, the Gyroids are now not only wooden, but have more varied appearances, and lots of customization options. Their new aesthetic makes the figures easier to integrate into the visuals of the game, and gives players more space for a great collection of them.
Ceiling Lights And Hanging Items
The near-unlimited number of ways a house can be decorated in New Horizons just got bigger, with the update's addition of items that can be hung directly from the ceiling, including shelves and all manner of light fixtures.
This capability gives players the chance to really maximize the space of any given room in their house and allows for more great interior innovation. When coupled with another update feature allowing players to decorate a single wall of a room as a feature wall, the possibilities only grow for gamers to fully enjoy what New Horizons has to offer .
Increased Storage And ATMs
A problem many people come up against when going about day-to-day tasks in New Horizons is finding places to put everything. Though a character's pockets and at-home storage are fairly large, it can be frustrating to have to run home and drop things off. This update gives players the chance to purchase a storage shed, which can be placed nearly anywhere outside and connects to storage at home.
Alongside this feature, which streamlines placing and retrieving things from storage, updates for the size of at-home storage have also been announced, with the new maximum for the number of items stored now 5,000. Similarly, the addition of ATMs for outside on the island means that depositing or withdrawing Bells no longer requires a trip to Resident Services.
Cooking And Growing Vegetables
The occasional food items have been available as seasonal purchases in New Horizons, along with the presence of fruit and seasonal crops like pumpkins, but this feature means the chance to grow not only vegetables like tomatoes, potatoes, and carrots but also sweet crops like sugarcane. Not only that, but players can then craft those crops into delicious plates of food, which can either be eaten for extra strength or placed on display.
This aspect of the update adds another kind of simulation to the game, granting players greater freedom over the crops and priorities of their island, whilst also providing a fun new kind of crafting with lots of applications.
New Nook Miles And Nook's Cranny Items
Part of what makes New Horizons the best in the Animal Crossing series is the system of Nook Miles, rewarding players for completing certain tasks each day with Miles that can be used to redeem items or Nook Miles Tickets. The Nintendo presentation showed that plenty of new items will be available for purchase not only through this feature but in Nook's Cranny too.
Among those items the fabled favorite of many older Animal Crossing players has finally returned, the distinctive froggy chair, which provides not only a cute place to sit but a lot of nostalgia. These new items, which also include big things like Ferris wheels, will help to enhance both indoor and outdoor island spaces.
Group Stretches
An aspect of the update that involves not only players but islanders as well, characters will now be able to take part in group stretches in the plaza, which when set to music make for a fun and charming way to start off the day.
Mirroring a group exercise feature from the old Animal Crossing games, this new activity can be completed either by using the buttons on a Switch controller or through motion controls, further adding to the experience. This gathering of island characters will also grant players a perfect chance to snap pictures of the island community altogether.
Squeeze Through Narrow Gaps
Given the wide range of items that can be used to customize island homes, it becomes natural to fill such spaces with lots of things. The only problem with this tactic has been a character's inability to move through the narrow spaces this kind of decorating leaves between pieces of furniture. To remedy this, the update gives players the freedom to squeeze through such gaps.
Not only does this small but highly useful feature give players more freedom with the amount of furniture which can be placed, but it also means that items can be grouped together in a way that's more pleasing, as well as more true to life, without the annoyance of having to walk around it.