A whole new game: Playing the AC:NH update and DLC

Though I’ll admit I was a little late to the party on the November 5 update and DLC for Animal Crossing: New Horizons, I am now fully on board!

See, Shane and I have this agreement (which I will admit was my idea, this has been a life-long issue for me) where I’m not allowed to buy anything after Halloween because I have a bad habit of accidentally buying what people get me for Christmas.

Anyway.

I picked it up about a week late, and now that I’ve had a little bit to play around with it, I have to say I love what they’ve done. It’s basically an entirely new game, and has reignited my obsession with all the things I love about AC:NH, to the point I’m now checking Nook shopping every day again.

But beyond that, it’s turned even time-traveling days into long, intense adventures that I can’t squeeze in before bedtime, and I love it.

So today, I wanted to share some of the new adventures I’ve been having, and what I think of the new content.

My new home-designing obsession

Okay, not new. But new to this degree in Animal Crossing! The DLC introduced for AC:NH lets you go to work as a vacation home designer for pretty much any villager in the entire game, and each of them has a unique theme challenge for players to meet.

So far, I’ve found it really fun and challenging to try and meet their themes and expectations, especially some of the more abstract ones. They all come with required furniture, some of which is a little unwieldy, but for the most part I think they’re turning out all right!

Harv’s island plaza

I will be honest, I never got into Harv’s island, so I didn’t read too much about the changes that were coming. In hindsight, I should have been excited!

Part of the free 2.0 update is a new sales plaza/trailer park on Harv’s island for the wandering sales-critters of AC:NH, where you can find characters like Redd, Sahara, and Leif. Admittedly, their wares only reset once a week on Monday—but when players could previously go three weeks without seeing Redd, that’s not bad at all.

This plaza also introduces a few semi-new vendors, like Cyrus and Reese, the furniture-customizing llama couple who have been hard at work helping me get the variations I’ve had no luck with, and Harriet and her seven new hairstyles, only one of which I actually like. Be warned, she does not discriminate and will happily give any and all players Jude Law’s hairline.

New furniture items and collections

Of course, a whole new career as a home designer requires new furniture—and this update did not disappoint. I know that so far I’ve only scratched the surface, but there are all kinds of new collections for players to buy or craft.

Some of them look incredibly sharp and stylish, too—I especially love the Nordic set, the simple set, and the new crafted wooden partitions.

And let’s not forget the building items players can use now, including pillars and partitions that adopt your room’s wallpaper so you can build rooms within your rooms! I’ve seen a lot of creative ideas around these that I can’t wait to try, from ensuite bathrooms to reading nooks and everything in between.

Have you played the new update and DLC? What did you think?

One thought on “A whole new game: Playing the AC:NH update and DLC

  1. I never got into Happy Home Designer but I love that they added it to AC: NH! I didn’t spend too much time on Harv’s island either but I find myself flying there a lot more now when I’m looking for something. I still don’t really understand how the island’s you boat to differ from the island’s you fly to besides that there’s no villagers and there are gathering mats but the 1 trip a day thing kinda kills lol.

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