Animal Crossing free 2.0 update article:

On Friday 15th October, Nintendo livestreamed an Animal Crossing New Horizons direct, which was previously announced at the recent September Nintendo direct, showcasing all the new features coming to the game in the upcoming months. The direct was split into two segments, one which talked about the free 2.0 update and the other which revealed a new paid DLC content addition which sees players designing vacation homes for villagers which are the in-game NPCs on separate islands which is quite similar to a previous spin-off title part of the franchise known as Happy Home Designer on the 3DS. There were so many announcements, so we have compiled them all into two articles and in this one we will discuss the free 2.0 update. Both the update and paid DLC will be made available on November 5th with DLC digital pre-orders on 29th October. 

The direct started off by showing off the new free 2.0 update which will go live on the 5th of November. The first trailer was of something that was teased during the September direct which is: Brewster! The familiar friendly pigeon from previous animal crossing games such as New Leaf will be returning once again with the Roost (his café) being situated in the left wing of the museum. From there, he will be able to serve coffee to you and all your island friends. NPCs such as Isabelle will often make a surprise visit and join you in the café. You can also invite villagers and other NPCs with amiibo cards as the café will include a rotary phone where you can scan in your Amiibo cards or figures, and they can enjoy a hot beverage with you. Of course, you can also invite your buddies via online or local play! Brewster was a much-wanted addition to the game as many players feel nostalgia for him from old animal crossing games and he was shown in lots of data mines, so it is great that he is finally here!

Another returning NPC joined the new horizons crew: Kapp’n! He takes you to a mysterious island which could hold mysterious flora, be set at a different time of day or with a different weather pattern to your own island! Vines were shown off on an island with a different environment which players can climb and so were some new weeds. Each island visit costs 1000 miles. In addition, Kapp’n also sings a lovely song as you journey to mysterious places on the small rowing boat!

Even MORE returning NPCs are coming to the game! Harv’s island which is a photography studio with Harv a cute dog with sunglasses as the owner, is getting a huge expansion with a plaza that can be expanded with bells. Each time you pay to expand, it unlocks a new RV shop each featuring an NPC selling goods. These include Harriet the hairdresser who will teach you new hairstyles to be worn on your own island, Saharah’s rug shop, Kicks’ shoe shop, Redd’s shop (which seems to feature some of his paintings) and Leif’s plant shop which appears to also sell fertiliser along with his usual stock of plant seeds and starters. In addition, Reese and Cyrus will also have an RV where they help you customise items that you couldn’t previously such as the ones that you can purchase with Nook Miles from the Nook Stop. Katrina, the fortune-telling cat will be able to tell you your fortune for the day that you visit her on. 

A slightly strange new addition to the game is stretching in the plaza. You, your villagers, and your friends can take part in a stretching routine in the plaza with either button controls or motion controls using joy cons. 

Island ordinances have made a comeback! The island representative can choose between four different types of ordinances:

Tom Nook also holds new options for your house (of course at a hefty price) which include new house exterior options and a storage increase from the maximum amount at the moment of 2400 items to a whopping 5000 items when you have fully expanded it. There are three more expansions now going from 2400 to 3200 to 4000 and finally to 5000. You no longer need to worry about not having enough space in your house! You also have more options for your island’s infrastructure with the maximum number of inclines and bridges will increase to 10 each instead of 8. 

The next feature arriving on our islands is cooking! On top of that, you can grow more crops such as tomatoes, wheat, sugarcane, potatoes, and carrots and of course we already were able to grow pumpkins in the game. Food recipes will be redeemed in the same way as diy recipes,and you will be able to use cooking utensils in the game such as the stove to whip up some tasty meals. These can be displayed in your house or eaten in the same way as fruit is eaten but instead replenishing five hunger points instead of just one. 

By purchasing a pro decorating license from the Nook Stop, you can now hang items from the ceiling such as lamps and shelves and you can also set accent walls so that one wall of the room you are designing has different wallpaper to the other walls. You can use the patterns provided by Sable for this or your own custom designs. You can also use Sable’s patterns as flooring or to wear as clothes. 

New types of fencing are coming to the game, some of which will be able to be customised such as the picket fence. In total, nine new fencing types were featured in the direct: park fencing, block fencing, corrugated fencing, large lattice fencing, log-wall fencing, bamboo-slats fencing, green bamboo fencing, log fencing and frozen fencing. To customise the fencing, it seems as though you will have to redeem the “Custom Fencing ina Flash” item from the Nook Stop so make sure to stock up on your Nook miles before the update!

The Nook Phone is also getting an update for its camera app. You can change to handheld phone mode which means that the camera views align with your eye level. There is also tripod mode which means you can take close-up selfies with your island residents. There is also a new app for the Nook Phone called Island Life 101 which aims to provide hints and tips for new players. 

11 new hairstyles will be added including the ones that Harriet teaches you at Harv’s island (which can be used at your own island). Some of the new hairstyles can be purchased at the Nook Stop with Nook miles. There are new reactions which, again can be redeemed at the Nook Stop with Nook miles (called the “New Reactions Notebook”), which include: waving goodbye, stretching, jamming, listening ears, and saying cheese. 

There will be new items that you can redeem with your miles at the Nook Stop which include Park Fountain, Plaza Balloon Wagon, Plaza Game Stand and Plaza Ferris Wheel. This looks like a really cool new set of furniture!

Another new feature is a storage shed. This is a placeable item that you can put anywhere on your island, which if you interact with, gives you instant access to your home storage without having to go all the way back to your house to put away items you are not using anymore if you’re trying to design a new area. Along with this, you will also get an ABD that you can also place anywhere on your island to deposit or withdraw money from. This is more convenient than having to go to Resident Services to get some bells out of the bank. 

K.K. Slider is getting a new setlist with 12 new songs to add to your music library. These include K.K. Break and K.K. Polka. You can use a music box which is one of the many new items coming to the game to listen to these new tunes. 

Gyroids are back! You can dig up gyroid fragments from the same star-shaped holes that you can dig fossils up from and if you plant it in a hole and water it, it will grow over night. If you have grown gyroids on your island before, you can find more to dig up the day after it rains. They can be placed in your house and make interesting sounds. You can place multiple gyroids at a time to discover new sound combinations or you can play music and have the gyroids playing at the same time to find new beats and grooves. You can even customise them with different colours!

Nook’s Cranny will have a new stock of items including ceiling items and items such as a gaming setup and an amazing machine. There is also a new tool you can craft called the “wooden ladder set-up kit” which you can purchase the DIY recipe for at Nook’s Cranny and once you’ve crafted it you can permanently place ladders next to cliffs instead of having to get your ladder tool out every time you want to climb up to the next level of your island. 

You can now walk through tight spaces in your house where there is lots of furniture. 

The last feature revealed in the new free update is a realcool one as it means your villagers can invite you to hang out at their house or they can make surprise visits to your house. This is definitely a new addition that fans have welcomed. 

On top of all this new stuff, fans of the game have already been spotting loads of new furniture items sneakily featured throughout the trailer and loads more in the new paid DLC called Happy Home Paradise (see a more in-depth look at this in another article). 

Towards the end of the presentation, the commentator says “you might experience this new content in various ways, some of them outside of what we’ve shown you today” which hints to the fact that there may be more new things included in this update that we are yet to uncover…