Falling Leaves

Maple leaves started falling from the sky this week, so you can now catch them with a net and use them in crafting. And, they’re pretty. 🍂

This maple leaf is such a pretty red. It's like the exact color of fall!

On Wednesday, Kid Cat pinged me as I was walking towards him. But I saw some ants on my spoiled turnips, so I stopped to catch one (I needed one more bug for a Nook Miles+ goal).

Kid Cat calls out to me as I catch an ant.

But Kid Cat stopped to applaud me when I caught the ant, and then he forgot that he pinged me. So when I spoke with him, I had to choose the “chat” option and it was just a normal conversation.

Kid Cat: Come on! In my dream, we battled to see who could defeat the monster and restore peace to the island first!
Well, “normal” is a relative term.

Today, Grizzly was camping at the campsite. He recently lived in my City Folk town (from 2022-24), but I didn’t necessarily want him to move in here.

Grizzly: Heya! I'm just here to do some campin' for a spell. This sure is a nice island.

An unusually large crowd had gathered for K.K. Slider’s performance tonight. Ankha, June, Peanut, and Bones joined me for a performance of “K.K. Swing.”

June, Bones, Jeff, Peanut, and Ankha gather around K.K. for a concert.

I posted my latest New Horizons Moments video yesterday. I hope you’ll check it out!

Here are a few other quick notes about this week:

  • On Sunday night, I helped out Wisp and got a sailor skirt.
  • I gave medicine to a sick Louie, and he gave me a tee with silicone bib. Does he think I’m a baby?
  • Tuesday, I returned a lost bag to Bob. He thanked me with an instant-muscles suit.
  • Wednesday, I caught a black bass for Static. He rewarded me with some funny glasses.
  • I recovered Wisp’s spirits again, and he gave me a floral lace dress! First a skirt, and now a dress? Not my style, Wisp! 😛
  • I recovered Gullivarrr’s phone, and he sent me a pirate wall yesterday.
  • Also yesterday, I sold 28 fish to C.J. for 272,250 bells.

Relaxed Rocks

As you probably know, rare mushrooms are the mushrooms that you can find buried around town. They’re worth a whopping 16,000 bells apiece, so they’re kind of a big deal. 😛 Yesterday, I found two of them very close to each other (near Able Sisters). In this screenshot, you can actually see the dig spot in the background where I found the 2nd one.

Look! I dug up a rare mushroom!

I know they’re not as rare in New Horizons as they were in previous games, but it was still surprising to find two back-to-back.

Curly the pig was camping at the campsite, so I stopped in to say hello.

Curly: Yo! How's it going? They call me Mega-Arm Curly.

I like Curly, but not enough to kick someone out for him. Besides, I already have two jocks on my island, and I don’t want a third one. Jocks kind of annoy me a bit in this game, although I love them on GameCube.

Tonight, I encountered Pascal while diving for a Nook Miles+ goal. He shared some words of wisdom about hot springs, and how they’re home to the most relaxed rocks around. 😛

Pascal: Hot springs are naturally occurring hot tubs, and they're home to the most relaxed rocks on earth, maaan.

He then gave me a pearl for the scallop I caught.

Outside of Resident Services, I joined Bones for a concert. K.K. Slider performed “Rockin’ K.K.” for us.

K.K. Slider performs for Bones and Jeff.

Here are a few other quick notes about this week:

  • On Sunday, I gave medicine to a sick Bob. In return, he handed me a student cap.
  • Yesterday, I returned a lost bag to Merengue. She rewarded me with a gym tee.
  • I recovered Wisp’s spirits, and he thanked me with some vertical split curtains.
  • I dug up Gulliver’s phone pieces for him, and he sent me a kaffiyeh in the mail today.

My 5 Most-Wanted Features of ACNH 3.0

Last week, we learned about the new Version 3.0 update that’s coming to New Horizons in January. (Need to see the trailer with my thoughts?) In this entry, I’m going to rank the features that I’m most looking forward to. This is just about the (free) Version 3.0 update, not the Switch 2 upgrade. (So, no megaphone listed here.)

Okay, let’s start the countdown with my 5th most-wanted feature.

#5: Zelda Items

The Zelda items coming to Animal Crossing: New Horizons 3.0.

The Legend of Zelda is probably my favorite game series of them all, and I always found it puzzling that New Horizons never had Zelda items. Even the original GameCube game had a Master Sword, and later games added a Triforce, Link’s outfit, Majora’s Mask, and more.

The idea of making a Zelda-themed room (or even better, an outdoor forest) sounds so appealing. I’m sure nearly everyone will be doing the same thing around the same time…but that’s okay. I can’t wait!

#4: Storing Flowers and Plants

Flowers and bushes in storage.

For the first year or two of New Horizons’ release, I would sometimes change the flowers on my paths depending on the season. I’d use orange and black flowers for Halloween, I had some red and white (candy cane colors) around Christmas, and so on. But without the ability to store those flowers, I’d usually have to sell them.

Of course, some colors (hybrids) can’t be bought as seeds. So there was no good option if you wanted to regularly cycle through various flowers. It was particularly annoying when you consider flowers could be stored in most previous games. Now it’ll be easier to save these flowers without sticking them in awkward spots on my island.

#3: Tourists in Town

Tourist: Oh, hello! You live here, right? It's so nice to meet you. I'm Maggie.

Guests at the new hotel will have decorated, themed rooms to stay in…but they don’t have to stay there the whole time. The trailer showed tourists roaming the town, and that just sounds so cool. Seeing fresh faces around your town could really liven things up. Besides, it never seemed realistic the way that campers would just stay in their tent for their entire visit.

Some previous Animal Crossing games let you interact with non-residents, but usually just in the city (City Folk) or on Main Street or the Roost (New Leaf). The GameCube game would occasionally let a former villager return for a visit, but that seemed rare (and they’re not random visitors). So this is definitely an exciting thing that I’m looking forward to!

#2: Resetti’s Clean-Up Service

Should I contact Resetti to reset this area?

Sure, multi-crafting will be a time saver…but nothing like Resetti’s clean-up service. Redecorating outdoor areas no longer seems like such a huge, tedious chore when Resetti can clear the slate for you in a flash. He can even dispose of flowers for you, or put them in storage! Flowers have a way of breeding out of control in rainy seasons, so this is huge!

Honorable Mentions

Before I get to #1, I want to list a few features as honorable mentions. They’re all cool features, but they didn’t quite make my top five. Here’s the list:

  • multi-crafting
  • the hotel itself
  • playable video games
  • storage increase to 9,000 items
  • Nintendo items
  • Splatoon items

    Many of you might be surprised that multi-crafting didn’t make my top five, and I imagine it would be high on your lists. But at this point (over 5 years into the game), I don’t do much crafting any more. So it’s not as helpful to me now as it would have been 4-5 years ago. But I’ll still use it, especially once I start redesigning some new areas.

#1: Slumber Islands

Which island will you visit? Make a new island.

Some of you may remember a video I made in 2019, about features I’d like to see in New Horizons. One of the features on my list was a designated play area that we could design, that was completely separate from our town. I wanted to make race courses or obstacle courses without using up a big chunk of the real estate in town.

At the time, I envisioned it as a barge that we could call over when we wanted to use it. Despite the fact that this new feature is accessed through dreaming (and not on a barge), this is pretty much exactly what I was hoping for!

I’ll be able to make those obstacle courses, starting in January, without taking up half my town. 😛 It’ll (potentially) let me get more creative and make bigger races than I could before. Of course, I haven’t played the game online for over a year and I’ve kinda gotten out of the habit. But I guess I’ll have to get back into it.

Well, that’s my list. Do you agree with any of my points? Feel free to share your lists in the comments below!

And if you haven’t yet seen my Tomodachi Life song about the new features coming to New Horizons, please check it out:

This Week in Forest

In other news, life goes on in Forest. This wasn’t a particularly eventful week on my island, but here are some highlights:

  • On Monday night, I returned Wisp’s spirits to him. He rewarded me with a pop-up toaster.
  • I helped Gullivarrr on Wednesday, and he sent me another pirate-ship cannon in the mail.
  • Thursday, I sold 8 bugs (7 wasps and a scorpion) to Flick for 38,250 bells.
  • Yesterday, I returned a lost item to Agent S. She thanked me with an argyle sweater.
  • Tonight, K.K. Slider performed “Surfin’ K.K.” for me. No other villagers attended the show.

See you all next time!