ACNH - Animal Crossing: New Horizons (Switch)

List of New Features

Animal Crossing New Horizons (ACNH) - New Features

This is a summary all of the newest features in Animal Crossing: New Horizons. New features such as DIY, Nook Miles, the vaulting pole, and many other things are introduced and described here, so read on to get updated!

New Features Coming to Animal Crossing New Horizons

Table of Contents (Tap to jump to a topic)
NookPhone DIY Crafting and Customization Place Furniture Outside
Sell and Craft with Weeds Nook Miles Pick Flowers
Vaulting Pole Ladder Dig Up & Replant Trees
4-Player Local Play 8-Player Online Player Develop Your Island
Northern & Southern Hemisphere Home Placement Resident Home Placement
Moving Buildings Rescue Service Storage Feature
Import Old Custom Designs Chat with Your Smart Phone Swimming and Diving
Free Updates - -

NookPhone

ACNH - NookPhone menu
You can use your NookPhone to access many apps such as Camera, DIY Recipes and Rescue Service. You get it from Tom Nook when you first arrive on the island.
List of NookPhone Apps and How to Unlock Them

DIY Crafting and Customization

ACNH - DIY Recipes
DIY is short for Do It Yourself, and in New Horizons it's a new feature that allows you to create tools and furniture yourself by using materials and crafting at a workbench!
List of DIY Recipes | How to Get DIY Crafting Recipes

Change Item Color through Customization

ACNH - Customizing furniture color
You can also change the color of your furniture through item customization which will be available after your workshop with Tom Nook!

Collect DIY Materials

ACNH - Gathering materials
On your island, you can collect the materials needed for DIY, such as branches, wood and stones. Wood can be found by cutting trees, and stone can be found from hitting rocks.

List of DIY Materials

Place Furniture Outside

ACNH - Placing furniture outside
With New Horizons, it has become possible to place furniture outside your house as well. Furniture that does not really fit indoors, such as bonfires, can now be placed outdoors without feeling out of place.

Sell and Craft Items with Weeds

ACNH - Selling weeds
Before New Horizons, you were unable to actually collect weeds. They were just pulled out of the ground and disappeared. However, now you can not only collect them, you can sell them too! Sell them at Leif's Garden Shop to get more Bells! Additionally, you can use them to craft certain DIY items!
How to Unlock Leif's Garden Shop

Nook Miles

ACNH - Nook Miles Program
The Nook Mileage Program is a system where you can get special points called Miles by completing set tasks. The Miles you collect can be exchanged for special items and recipes, so make sure to do a lot of bug catching, fishing and DIY!

Pick Flowers

ACNH - A resident wearing a flower garland
In New Horizons, you can make flower garlands by collecting the flowers you've grown. You can also place picked flowers as decoration. Another newly added feature is that when you pick flowers, the stems remain, and the flower will grow back in 2 days!
List of Flowers

Cross the Water with a Vaulting Pole

ACNH - A resident pole vaulting across a river
You can use a vaulting pole to easily cross rivers. Until now, the only way to get across rivers was by bridges. However, the vaulting pole allows you to cross rivers wherever you want, so this new item means you don't have to worry as much about where to place your home.
How to Get the Vaulting Pole | Vaulting Pole Recipe

Climb Cliffs with a Ladder

ACNH - Climbing up cliffs with a ladder
Now, your island can be 3 levels high! When starting the game, the only way you can access cliffs is by using a Ladder. Later on, you'll be able to build slopes and stairs.
How to Build Slopes, Stairs and Inclines

Dig Up and Replant Trees

ACNH - Digging up trees
In New Horizons, you can dig up trees after eating things like apples to boost you. The trees you have dug up can be planted anywhere you want. Rearranging is going to be super easy!
How to Chop Wood and Pull Up Trees

Play on the Same Switch

ACNH - Co-op with friends
In Animal Crossing: New Horizons, up to 4 players can play on the same Switch at the same time. Since you can group up this way, gathering materials and such will get a lot easier!
How to Use Party Play | Playing on One Switch | Local Multiplayer

Play with 8 Players Together Online

ACNH - 8 Players online together
Using online play, players can play up to 8 players together. In the previous games 4 players was the limit, so now you can have double the amount of people.
Do You Have to Pay for Online? | How to Play Online

Develop Your Island

ACNH - Making paths
Once you've developed your island to a certain extent, you'll be granted the Island Designer permit, allowing you to change the island even more. In the official videos, things like pathways and rivers being made and changed have been showcased.
Terraforming Guide | How to Use the Island Designer App

Northern and Southern Hemisphere

ACNH - Choosing hemispheres
First you will be asked to choose between the Nothern and Southern Hemispere. The seasons are reversed for the Nothern and Southern Hemispheres, so this choice will probably change the gameplay quite a lot!
Which Hemisphere Should You Choose?

Find the Perfect Spot for Your Home

ACNH - Placing a tent
You can now freely choose where to place your house (or rather, tent) when you first start out on the island. This no doubt gives a lot more freedom than the 3DS games.
Best House and Tent Location | How to Move Your House

Decide Placements of Villagers' Houses

ACNH - Placing other villagers
It's also possible to choose where the resident animals will live, making it even easier to create your ideal island layout!

Moving Buildings

ACNH - A resident moves a building
In New Horizons, it has become possible to move buildings. This is super helpful if you placed a building in the wrong spot at first, or decide to change the layout of your island.

Rescue Service

ACNH - A resident calls rescue service
If you get lost or stuck, you can now use your NookPhone to escape. The Rescue Service operator sounds suspiciously like Mr. Resetti!
How to Use the Rescue Service App

Storage Feature

ACNH - House Storage
Your house has a built in storage space. Once you've obtained an item, you can freely put it in your storage and take it back out.
Designing Your House - How to Use Storage and Decorating Mode

Use Old Custom Designs

ACNH - DS Designs
It's possible to bring Custom Designs made in previous games to New Horizons. Why not make some new designs while waiting for New Horizons to release and import them after?
How to Create Custom Designs & Use the Custom Design Pro Editor

Chat by Using Your Smart Phone

ACNH - Chatting with the smartphone
You can use your real smart phone to chat in-game in Animal Crossing: New Horizons by connecting your user to your phone through the NookLink feature.
NookLink Features and Release Date

Swimming and Diving

ACNH - ACNH - A resident dives into the ocean
You can jump into the ocean, swim, dive, catch new sea creatures, and trade with Pascal the Sea Otter!

This feature is available in the V1.3 update of the game. Learn how to update the game here.
Swimming and Diving

Free Updates!

ACNH - Free updates for the game
For the first time in the game series, free updates are introduced. Seasonal events will be added to the game this way.

Update Information & How to Update

Related Guides

Head Back to News & Updates
Pre-Release Info
List of Pre-Order Bundles.pngPre-Order Bonuses Demo Version Information.pngDemo Information
System Requirements.pngSystem Requirements Switch GiveawayACNH Edition Switch Giveaways
Animal Crossing Direct Highlights.pngNintendo Direct List of New FeaturesNew Features
Characters
List of Villagers.pngList of Villagers Special Characters.pngList of Special Characters
New Characters.pngList of New Characters
System Info
System Requirements.pngSystem Requirements How to Move to Another IslandHow to Delete Save Data
Update Information.pngUpdate Information How to Pre-Load (Download before Release) - Partial.pngHow to Pre-Load
For Beginners
Unchangeable FeaturesUnchangeable Features What Should You Spend Nook Miles OnSpending Nook Miles
Picking an IslandPicking an Island Name Choosing the Best IslandBest Island Layouts
How to Change Your Face and Hair .pngChanging Hair and Face Choosing the Best Tent LocationBest Tent Location
Which Hemisphere Should You Choose.pngChoosing a Hemisphere How to Use the Camera - Partial.pngHow to Use the Camera
Game Modes
Party Play (Local Multiplayer).pngHow to Play With Friends amiibo Compatibility.pngamiibo Compatibility
How do you play online.pngOnline Play Nook Stop Features ExplainedNook Stop Explained
NookLink Release Date and Features.pngNookLink Features How to Get DIY Crafting Recipes.pngHow to Get DIY Recipes

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