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Replayability in New Horizons easily becomes an appealing factor for newcomers to the game. However, some players need to take note that some aspects of their playthrough might not make New Horizons as entertaining as they make it out to be. In fact, committing some basic mistakes can ruin their New Horizons playthrough entirely.
Updated on May 8, 2022, by Rhenn Taguiam: Despite the mellow nature of Animal Crossing New Horizons and its “big” updates, the game remains consistent with its seasonal changes and the updates that come along with them. With February 25 marking the transition towards spring for the Northern Hemisphere and fall for the Southern Hemisphere, ACNH offers unique celebrations for the coming months with their own unique knick-knacks and gimmicks. However, first-timers to the game might feel a bit overwhelmed with the number of things they could do in the base game alone and with all these events offering new items, and features. To ensure that players are maximizing their experience, what can new players avoid so they don’t ruin their playthrough?
14 Not Letting Villagers Go
As of 2022, the game currently has a roster of 413 Villagers, all divided into different species with completely unique appearances and personalities. With players only given the option of 10 Villagers at any given time, players can try at least 3.56x10^30 combinations of Villagers in their settlement. With some Villagers asking to move out every so often, players can let them go and have new Villagers come and stay.
Players are making a big mistake if they simply keep all of their Villagers throughout their playthrough. While players can definitely keep favorites and play with them, it wouldn’t hurt to meet new Villagers every couple of weeks just to spice things up - especially in terms of interactions.
13 Not Hanging With Real-Life Friends
While New Horizons can be played completely solo, the multiplayer component of the game does allow players to come by and explore, play, and interact in each other’s villages. Players who look at New Horizons as their relaxation time can keep things private, but if they’re willing to meet with their friends or explore other hobby groups would miss a lot if they skip multiplayer.
At its core, playing multiplayer lets everyone do many things on another Island. These include picking up resources and items, doing shopping, and interacting with residents. Since some players choose different hemispheres and have completely different indigenous plants, completionists can gather much-coveted absent items in their islands. Likewise, there are players that actually create interactive experiences in their islands, such as mazes, competitions, and much more.
12 Skipping Events
Players who played New Horizons for a couple of months might notice that the game has quite a variety of daily and weekly offerings - from the occasional K.K. Slider visit to unique events. In fact, the game doesn’t just offer events in the form of Fishing Competitions and other “basic” holidays such as Christmas and New Year. Depending on the occasion, the game can offer completely unique events for certain occasions.
Players are advised not to skip events for a couple of reasons. Aside from the fact that events can completely change the Island’s aesthetic for a couple of days, events offer things such as unique dialogue, and exclusive items. Upcoming interesting events this 2022 include Bunny Day (April 17), Wedding Season (Whole June), and Cherry Blossom Season (October 1-10).
11 Not Waiting For Seasonal Changes
As players might already notice, New Horizons doesn’t just have weather effects but also seasons as well. Like in real life, choosing a particular hemisphere will have player Islands experience different kinds of seasons, and these change every three months.
Players who like juggling through games might not necessarily be able to wait until seasons change, but they provide a great change of pace for players who want alternating aesthetics in their New Horizons experience. These include color changes in trees and grass, the change in bug and fish types, and even special island visitors.
10 Skipping Custom Designs
One of the best new features of New Horizons is allowing players to customize the appearance of some items in the game. Canvasses, dresses, and even clothes can be formatted with new designs straight from players’ imaginations. While players might want to stay “vanilla” and stick with the game’s offerings, avoiding custom designs can definitely leave out an artistic POV that can improve an island’s designs.
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To avoid this, players can download the NookLink service via the Nintendo Switch Online App, or get designs from places such as Nook’s Island. Players can even make custom designs from the Custom Designs app on the game’s NookPhone!
9 Selling All The Fossils
It’s easy to look at a pretty Fossil and sell it for much-needed Bells, especially for early-game investments such as buildings. However, while it’s true that almost any item in the game can be sold, players should hold on to their Fossils first. If they constantly sell their Fossils, they’ll never get to complete the interior of their Museum.
Remember, the Fossil collection is a huge aspect of gameplay, and geeky owl Blathers will slowly showcase Fossils in the Museum - much in the same way with Bugs and Fish. In turn, players who encounter a Fossil should always donate it to Blathers first and then sell the duplicates.
8 Ignoring Biodiversity
When players get into their island for the first time, they will have one of six native fruits. Most fruits (Apples, Cherry, Peaches, Pears, Oranges) grow on grass, while Coconuts grow on sand. For the most part, players can just ignore these fruit trees and get on with the rest of their day, same as with flowers that can just grow wild in various areas. However, doing this will have players neglect an important aspect of island decoration: biodiversity.
For instance, instead of letting flowers grow on their own, players can rearrange colored flowers in a checkboard pattern. That way, flowers with new colors can sprout in empty spaces. Likewise, players can visit Mystery Islands (via Nook Miles Tickets) or friends to get their own native fruits to plant back home.
7 Traveling With A Full Inventory
Thanks to the friends feature and Nook Miles Tickets, players now have a means of visiting incredibly-unique islands. Aside from hanging out with friends, the Tickets also allow players to visit Mystery Islands - almost-empty places with a random Villager and unique features. Theoretically, players can interact with all elements of these islands and get new furniture, recipes, and other loot - which means traveling with a full inventory is a big no-no.
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Players who plan on going to a Mystery Island should at least get two to three rows of free inventory space. That way, they can gather loot without worrying about having enough space to bring stuff at home.
6 Fast-Tracking Loan Payments
Here’s a very real-life story of a New Horizons setback: paying off loans as quickly as possible. Of course, it’s always a smart plan to get off debt as soon as possible. However, New Horizon players shouldn’t pay too much at the expense of scoring good store offers for the day. Unless players are dead-set on paying off loans first while not having a lot of good items for their island (which is very unaesthetic), they should approach their loans more smartly.
For instance, players should have a set number of Bells for paying off loans and a separate amount for their savings. That way, players can slowly pay off their loans without compromising their quality-of-life needs.
5 Buying All The Art
Thanks to Redd the fox, players have another thing to collect: artworks. Redd only appears at the back of the player’s island at set times, so seeing him is such a rare opportunity. However, players should remember that Redd sells both fake and real art pieces - and scoring fake art means Blathers won’t accept the donation and will waste money.
Instead, players should always cross-check Redd’s offerings with how the artworks appear in real life. This is similar to a minigame of spot the difference, where players have to check for small inconsistencies that make Redd’s items a bit less genuine than what he makes them out to be.
4 Forgetting Extra Inventory Space
At its core, players can have as much as 40 inventory space in their backpack at a time. After setting down their furniture and other island decorations, they’ll probably have a lot of leftover for their item collection. However, players easily know this isn’t nearly enough if they’re planning to loot items in Mystery Islands.
Thing is, there’s an extra inventory space that players almost always forget: the island itself. Remember, players can leave items in empty space and they won’t ever get lost (unless players have friends visit and hoard them without asking, but that’s just bad behavior). In turn, players can have an empty patch of land on their island dedicated for emergency storage.
3 Not Planning Ahead For Terraforming
Newcomers to New Horizons today will likely know that the game eventually offers an Island Designer feature. This lets them change almost any aspect of their island’s overall topography. In turn, players can design their dream island, brick by brick. Any players who has done terraforming will know this is an exhausting process - and players who don’t plan ahead will definitely have to allot extra time than necessary.
To avoid this setback, players might want to have an “ideal” image of their island before playing the game. Thankfully, free apps like the Happy Island Designer exist to help players layout their island in advance. That way, players can build their buildings and position their Villager houses where they want that still accommodate their post-terraforming vision.
2 Having A Set Schedule
Granted, given its casual experience, newcomers will be delighted at the prospect of playing New Horizons in their set schedule. However, playing at the same time every day will have players miss out on a majority of exciting things that can happen on their island. For instance, some Villagers roam around the island at set times during the day. Moreover, players might miss out on special events, such as rare NPCs like Celeste and Wisp.
Instead, players should at least try to play twice a day - once in the morning, and once in the evening. That way, they get to experience their island’s offerings both with the sun up and the sun down. This is also a great way to set the mood for playing with some of K.K. Slider’s best tracks.
1 Ignoring Time Travel
Newcomers to New Horizons might feel pressured about the prospect of looking into their island every day. After all, it doesn’t help that the game has a built-in mechanic where rocks and other unpleasant elements begin to populate the island when it’s unmanaged. Worse, some Villagers may feel neglected and outright leave - sometimes, even before the player gets back!
Surely, there’s a way to avoid this kind of pressure, right? As a matter of fact, there is! Through time travel, players can just revert their Switch calendar back to the last day they played and continue their progress there. After doing their thing, they can save their progress and change the calendar to the next day. Players can do this until they’ve “fast-tracked” the days they missed until the current day.
Animal Crossing: New Horizons is available on Nintendo Switch.
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