Animal Crossing: New Horizons is very similar to New Leaf in many ways. You begin with a small town with not too much going on, and as the days roll out you get to see it slowly be upgraded with new things becoming unlocked each day. However, unlike New Leaf, this time you have to build nearly everything yourself, and you start with even less.
So if you're one of the people who would like to know what actually lies ahead, I've put together a small guide just for you. It details all of the milestones along the way, and the unlock requirements. If you want to keep the game a secret however, and would like to discover things for yourself — then stop here because we are about to spoil it all. (You have been warned!)
That being said, these dates may not line up perfectly with your game, as everyone will complete things in different orders. This is just a basic outline of what is to come, so don't expect it to be 100% accurate to your town.
The first day in Animal Crossing: New Horizons has you moving to your island and getting the basics setup
There's not too much you can actually do on this day, other than place your tent and move in your first two villagers, but that's fine. We have a whole virtual lifetime ahead of us, and this honestly isn't anything new for the series. Animal Crossing games are known for their slow start, and this day is nothing but the basics of the basics.
After you place your tent, and your two villager's tents, you can use the rest of the time to get to learn the controls, and see different ways you can interact with the world. While long time fans will already be familiar with shaking trees and picking up items, the game will ease newcomers in nice and slow.
You will also be given a fishing rod and bug net to begin catching bugs and fish, which can then be donated to Nook. Try to catch and donate as many as possible, as bringing enough in will trigger the arrival of the Museum on day 2.
Day 2: Air Port and Museum Start and Nooks
On the second day you gain access to the Air Port and the beginning of the Museum.
The Air Port lets you travel to friend's islands, or let others come to you. This effectively begins the game's multiplayer functions, and is one of the biggest draws of New Horizons. You can also use it to travel to random islands (at the cost of Nook Miles) to meet and talk to random animals.
As for the Museum? This is where you can donate Bugs, Fish, and fossils to build up your collection. Unfortunately the Museum will also begin as a tent, so you will need to donate at least 15 items on this day if you want to start the actual Museum's construction.
In addition to these two facilities, you will also get the pole on this day, so you can finally cross your rivers, and possibly find a place to build the store Nook's Cranny. Your starting area is a bit small, so having access to more of your island really helps out when it comes to placing new buildings.
Day 3: Mostly Construction
This is mainly a waiting day. You need a day to get everything built from the previous day, so there will be no Museum or Shop access for now. Take the time to enjoy your island, because it is about to get hectic from here, with so much more to do going forward. I would recommend begin gathering resources and saving them however, as you will be needing a lot of rocks and pieces of wood shortly.
Day 4: Things are Built, Time to Expand (Bridges and Neighbors)
If you have followed our advice up until now, on day 4 the
Museum and
Nook's Cranny will be open, and you'll have the ability to build your first
bridge. This will allow more villagers come to your island, and make traversal across rivers much easier.
Once you are ready to place the bridge, Nook will ask you to pick the space for both it and for your future neighbor's houses. The first three neighbors will be those you talked to at the random islands (assuming you've done so), however they will not begin moving in until you meet their "requirements." These requirements can be checked by reading the sign that will be placed in front of each lot, and on the sign it will detail which furniture items you will need to obtain.
Although the game is pretty straight forward up until this point, this is where the game will branch off for each player. Everyone will be assigned different animals, and because of that the furniture goals will be different, and gathering the materials needed will be a bit luck based as well. Each island only has so many resources available each day, and going to random islands is a mixed bag as well. Those who gathered and saved resources on earlier days will have a head start, but it may take longer to actually obtain all of the requested items.
In addition to the bridge construction project, and these new plots of land, the initial two villagers you moved to the island with will now have full houses, and you should be able to buy clothes at Able Sister's stall that is now setup in your town square. This is the first step to getting them to open a location on your island.
Day 5: Moving Part 1 and Able
Assuming you built all three houses and have villagers lined up to move in, then this is the first day they will do so.
Animals will only move in one at a time however, so one must wait three days for all three spots to be filled.
Your bridge should also be complete, so traversal across your island will become much easier now. Additionally you should've unlocked the ability to place fences, so you can begin customizing your island a bit more.
On another note, the Able Sister's stall will be back once again, so make sure you talk to Mabel and buy something from her. You need to speak to her and buy something three times total to get her to open her store, and it must be on different days.
Additionally, once you have three villagers moved onto your island you can meet the special character Harv. He will invite you to his island which can be accessed from the airport. Here you can use his house as a photo studio to setup and take pictures of different villagers.
Day 6: Moving Part 2 and Able Sisters
If everything has gone according to plan, day 6 will see your new neighbor finishing unpacking, and they will now be walking around the island. The
second of your new villagers will also move in and begin unpacking their own stuff, which will be completed by tomorrow.
This is also the day when Mabel should start talking about building her store, so you will be able to pick its location as well. If this doesn't trigger on day 6, then it will be happening on day 7. There is a chance that Able will not appear on your island every day, so just keep playing and checking daily until she does. Again, one must speak with her three times on three separate days.
Day 7: Moving Part 3 (and possibly Able Sisters)
Finally, day 7 will be the last day before something major happens.
Following the pattern of the previous two days, this day is when you will get your 5th villager. It is also the day the Able Sisters will begin construction on their shop, but if you missed speaking with Mabel, then today is the day to finish that off. She will ask you to place the location of her store, and it will go under construction on day 8.
Now that your island is more like a town, it's time to finally get a proper Town Hall, or rather a "Resident Services" building.
Nook will start the process and introduce you to Isabelle, then let you know that they will be closed tomorrow for construction. There isn't much else you can do this day milestone wise, but it is a perfect chance to continue gathering resources, making money, and to decorate your island.
Don't neglect your house upgrades either, as it never hurts to finish that off as soon as possible as well.
Day 9: Construction of Resident Services
Not much you can do here besides wait. Sorry guys.
Again, work on gathering resources (rocks, wood, etc), and getting that bank account up. You're going to need every Bell and item.
Day 10: Resident Services Complete and Projects Unlocked
On day 10 a lot will change.
The Resident Services building becomes unlocked, new furniture and recipes become unlocked in the Nook Mile exchange store, and you can even expand your inventory! On top of this you're now allowed to build more bridges, slopes/steps up to higher ground, and you can start customizing your island even more by relocating previously constructed projects.
It will be expensive of course, as nothing in this game can be done for free, but at least the options are there for when you do have the Bells.
Before you get too crazy though, Nook has yet another request for you to complete, and that request is to bring in more villagers. And to do so, he wants you to open up a camp site.
So, just like with everything else, go pick a location for it to be placed, and wait for tomorrow.
Day 11: Camp is now Open
The 11th day will see the camp site being opened to the public, but no one will visit on this day. Instead Nook will begin selling plots of land for 10,000 Bells each, and you will be given the option to place them around the island as well.
An island can hold up to 10 plots of land in total, and campers will begin visiting once a week. Campers can be recruited to your island to fill these newly opened plots of land, or villagers can be brought in by visiting random islands as well. Additionally if any friends online have villagers ready to move out, or if they have villagers who did recently move, then there is a chance they will come to your island instead.
Either way, the goal here is to start filling your island, but it will be a one day at a time process.
Day 12: Someone is Here
On day 12 you should get your first visitor to your camp. It's up to you if you want to ask them to move in or not, but you might want to consider it so you can get things moving along.
Again, this is another spot where days may vary between players as everyone will gain villagers at different rates. In the mean time you could build more bridges in town, or use Nook Miles to buy some cool new things, but I recommend saving at least 14,000 for the coming days.
Day 13 is move-in day for your camper and that's about it.
Continue saving Nook Miles, and possibly get other island projects rolling. It is really up to you and how you want to customize your island, but your goal is to develop the island as much as possible. So before you fully settle on your own theme and style, simply get as much out there as you can. You're going to need it for the next step.
Day 14: Possibly Another Villager (Let's get K.K.!)
By day 14, if you still have empty lots to fill, another villager can move in on this day. Still, even this isn't enough for Nook as he will continue to push you to develop the island. Both he and Isabelle would like to gain the attention of the world famous singer K.K., and to do so your island needs "something" to attract him.
In other words, your island should be decorated as much as possible, with 10 villagers, plenty of plants, flowers, and projects developed. Your ultimate goal is to reach a 5 star island, which is kinda similar to the whole "Perfect Town" thing from past Animal Crossing titles, but that rating isn't required for K.K. to perform his first concert.
Day 15: Another Villager
By this point you should have 8 villagers, and that should be enough to get a letter from K.K. telling you that he likes the place, and will be stopping by sometime. If the letter doesn't come however, then simply keep placing furniture, and keep waiting until you have all 10 plots filled.
This can take some time, so don't worry if your day 15 ends up being day 16 or even day 20 instead. Again, each player will reach these milestones at their own pace, and a part of it does come down to luck.
Day 16: K.K. Arrives and Island Creator
If K.K. was invited to your island yesterday, then today is the day he'll play. He'll sing his new song for Animal Crossing: New Horizons, and then the credits will roll.
Congrats!
You've beaten Animal Crossing—yeah, not really.
K.K. will now play a song every Saturday night just like he did in past games, and Nook will give you the Island Creator tool as a bonus as well.
You'll need to buy the land development and water tools using Nook Miles, which are 6,000 points each (why it was previously recommended to save Nook Miles), but the tools do start off with a basic path.
You can also
buy new patterns for your paths by using points as well, or even use your own designs, so there are plenty of design options available. This is when the game completely opens up, and you are now free to start customizing your island as you see fit.
Day X: One Month Later
Roughly one month or so after starting the game, and after using Nook's Cranny quite a bit, the store should receive an upgrade to a much larger version of Nook's Cranny.
This will happen roughly 30 days after Nook originally opened, and is the current maximum upgrade for the store. In addition to more inventory, the shop will now begin selling colorful tools as well, which can be customized using Customization Kits to prevent them from breaking. Simply change their color prior to their destruction, and they can be used indefinitely.
Day X-2: Museum Upgrade
After the patch released on 4-23-2020, the Museum can now be upgraded to the next level. This occurs after the town is visited by Redd for the first time, and you buy a painting from him to donate to the Museum.
The upgrade itself will take another day, so this ends up being roughly a three day process. When this happens will vary from person to person, with long time players being able to do so on the day this patch released. As for new players, this could happen at any time as long as you land on a day that Redd spawns, and the Museum is already open.
Day X-3: Brewster and Kapp'n
As of Animal Crossing: New Horizons Update 2.0, Kapp'n can be found at the island's dock, and Brewster can now be found on the random islands Kapp'n can take you to.
To start the process of unlocking Brewster's coffee shop "The Roost," begin by speaking with Blathers in the Museum. (Note: you must complete the previous Museum upgrades prior to this step.) Next speak to Kapp'n and give him 1,000 Nook Miles to set out on one of his mystery island tours. Once on one of the new islands, Brewster can be found walking around. Speak to him, and he will give you a gyroid fragment, and will ask you to locate others on the island. Simply dig them up, speak to Brewster again, and head back home. Once on your home island you can inform Blathers you meet Brewster, and he will be invited to stay on your island.
Following these steps will unlock the coffee shop for the Museum, but it will take an extra day to complete the renovations once construction has begun.
Day X-4: Harv's Island Upgrade
Along with the addition of Kapp'n and Brewster, Update 2.0 included a major change to Harv's Island. Players who have invited K.K. to their island can now visit Harv's Island to discover a new section has opened up. Here players can spend 100,000 Bells to open up stalls to allow special characters to set up a daily shop.
These stalls include:
- Harriet (Hair Stylist)
- Leif (Sells Plants)
- Kicks (Sells Shoes and other Accessories)
- Saharah (Sells Wallpaper and Flooring)
- Redd (Sells Paintings and Statues)
- Cyrus and Reese (Customizes Items)
- Katrina (Fortune Teller)
- Tortimer (Item Storage)
While most characters will appear weekly on your island, Harriet, Cyrus and Reese, Katrina, and Tortimer are exclusive to Harv's Island.
Day X-5: Happy Home Paradise (Paid DLC)
The final aspect of Update 2.0 comes from the paid DLC Happy Home Paradise.
Once the Resident Services Building is complete, and players have upgraded their own home from a tent to an actual house, then it is possible to receive a call regarding the Happy Home Paradise island. From there players can visit the airport and choose the "go to work" option to fly out and begin the DLC.
Although Happy Home Paradise is separate from the main game, the DLC allows players to customize and build vacation homes for villagers and get rewards in the process. These rewards can be brought back to the main game to be used on your home island. This includes the unlockable customization features, such as the ability to add counters and half-walls to homes.
Those who complete the main part of the DLC will be given the option to customize villager's homes, though they will be unable to change the size of them—which is an option available when customizing the vacation homes.
Day X-6: The Resort Hotel
In Animal Crossing: New Horizons Update 3.0 the Resort Hotel will be added in place of the original dock. The hotel is operated by Kapp'n's family, and will allow players to create and decorate rooms for guests to come stay in. While unlock conditions are currently unknown, it is expected that all previous milestones will need to be reached before the Resort Hotel will open.
We will revise this article once the update releases, and we have more information about the new content.
Fully Developed:
It is a long road, but stick with it and someday your island will become something special. Once all of the milestones are taken care of, Animal Crossing: New Horizons becomes a sandbox with nearly unlimited potential, and it is up to you to make the most out of it. This is when the real fun begins.
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| (March 21st, 2020) |
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| (June 21st, 2025) |
