If you’ve been playing Animal Crossing New Horizons you’ve probably noticed a lot of additional content since the much-anticipated release in March this year. The summer update does not disappoint!
Swimming
The swimming feature has been added in this latest update. A much-loved feature from New Leaf and welcome addition to New Horizons by Animal Crossing fans.
The only item you need to swim is the wetsuit, however, there are a few other related clothing items you might be interested in. Check your mailbox upon starting your game as you will find a swimming-related present from Nintendo waiting for you.
The Nook’s Cranny cabinet will stock a wetsuit for you to buy. These items change colour daily, much like the wrapping paper and other items, so you may wish to visit again tomorrow. There’s also a different wetsuit available to purchase at the Nook terminal inside Resident Services.
The final item on the list is water shoes and flip flops. These will be in stock randomly at the Able Sister’s clothing store so check back daily if you’re after these.
Diving
With the swimming feature comes diving. Swim around and you’ll see bubbles coming up from under the water surface. This where you can dive down. There will be a shadow of varying sizes, as soon as you’re over the top of it, you’ll resurface with a sea creature in hand.
There is a raft of new sea creatures and Blathers can’t wait for you to donate them to the museum! Much like bugs and fish, these new creatures are seasonal and some change as the months’ progress.
Pascal
Should you stumble upon a Scallop, new NPC Pascal may appear. He will trade you either a Mermaid Furniture DIY recipe, a Mermaid clothing item, or a pearl for your Scallop. He only appears once a day, so don’t worry about saving the first one of the day for Blathers. Scallops appear all year round and at any time of day.
Mermaid Furniture DIY recipes are given to you by Pascal and to craft the full Mermaid DIY furniture set you will need 20 pearls. These can also be found while diving and Pascal will occasionally give you one. Timmy and Tommy will buy any you don’t want for 10,000 bells so they are well worth hunting for.
Gullivarrr
Gulliver has had a makeover for the update, he’s now Gullivarrr! This time he’s going to send you diving for his communicator as he’s lost it somewhere in the ocean. As usual you’ll have until 5am to find it for him and he will reward you with Pirate items which will be sent to you the following day. If you still require rested parts be sure to check the recycling box after his visit.
Tanabata Festival
A Tanabata Festival item is available from the Nook terminal inside resident services. This is a seasonal purchase so grab it while you can! Along with the Tanabata Festival item, you can also find a Summer solstice crown (pictured below) and a Winter-solstice sweater.
NPC*
Not only did we get a bunch of amazing new features, dialogue for Saharah has also been condensed. As much as we love the rug selling camel, I think we can all agree to go through the same speech to simply select an alternative sized rug was a little tedious. Sahara will now just ask you if you’d like to buy another. Yes, yes we do!
One other change with the NPCs was their appearance on your island. Leif, Saharah, and Kicks are no longer guaranteed to appear once a week. Instead, you should find the more elusive visitors appearing more often. I’m looking forward to Redd appearing again so I can tear him a strip off about that fake painting he sold me last time!
Dream Suite may be making an appearance soon. For those of you that never played New Leaf, this suggests the return of NPCs Luna and Wendell. In New Leaf, you could download other people’s towns to explore and upload your own. No news yet on when this new feature will be available but we’ve got our fingers crossed for the next big update!
*The above information is from a Datamine
Developer: Nintendo EPD
Publisher: Nintendo
Release Date: 20/03/2020
Platforms: Switch
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