Animal Crossing: New Horizons is all about relaxing, unwinding, and not stressing about the little details in life which is a bit funny because the game is actually packed with dozens of wonderful, tiny secrets, references, features, and quirks that we can’t stop obsessing over.
Oh, and if you’re wondering how to make tons of money in Animal Crossing, maximize your daily resource collecting, or invite a bunch of friends in on the fun for some island multiplayer, we’ve got you covered with tons of wiki and guide coverage. In the meantime, here are some of our favorite little details in Animal Crossing: New Horizons.
[widget path=”global/article/imagegallery” parameters=”albumSlug=77-brilliant-little-details-in-animal-crossing-new-horizons&captions=true”]
Flip through the gallery above or scroll down for the full list!
Interactive Items
1. If you put a T-Rex fossil in your home activate the placard on it with A, the mouth opens.
2. Instruments like the tambourine and ocarina can be equipped to your tool ring and played with A — some instruments like the ocarina play random notes each time you hit A.
3. Press A when you see a shooting star and a star fragment will appear on the beach the next day.
4. Star fragments can be used to make a wand that helps you quick-switch between stored costumes.
5. Some fish appear in different bowls in your home; The seahorse is in a pet tank, while goldfish are in a china basin.
6. You don’t need a wardrobe item in your home to store stuff anymore since every player’s home has a built in storage, but adding one to your room will allow you to use it to change outfits quickly.
7. Eventually, using Nook Miles you can purchase a giant Godzilla inspired monster item that you can place outside your home. Hitting the A button on it even makes it breathe fire!
8. The brick oven can be opened to reveal a pizza cooking inside.
9. Leave instruments out in the open, and Villagers may find and play with them
10. You can put items in trash cans.
11. Some of the wallpapers you display in your home have animated features, such as clouds drifting by.
12. Eating fruit before you smash a rock will allow you to destroy it in one hit rather than chip away at it repeatedly until your shovel breaks!
13. You can hang clothes, shoes, and hats on the walls of your home now to show off and display or grab down the line when you want to change your outfit.
14. Some wallpapers have interactive curtains or blinds that can be opened and closed to let more light in your room.
15. You can have different music playing devices (like turntables, stereos, and radios) all playing different songs in different rooms of your home – assuming you bought songs with Nook Miles!
16. Got a new piece of furniture you love but you’re not crazy about the color? If it has a small paintbrush icon in the corner of its description you can bring it to a crafting table and change its color.
17. If you put a toilet furniture item in your house, you can sit on them and get a small pop-up message when you “use” them.
18. Once you get your house upgraded enough times, Tom Nook gives you the option to move your mailbox around the front of your house.
19. When you buy K.K. Slider songs from Tom Nook’s ATM, you can mount them as framed album covers on the walls inside your home.
20. Missed out on the Animal Crossing: New Horizons themed Nintendo Switch console in real life? Nook’s ATM machine in the Town Center will periodically have it for sale. And if you managed to buy one of those consoles in real life, it will be listed in the ATM as a free item!
21. Tools come in a variety of designs and colors in the Nook Stop, including a cute elephant watering can and a patterned shovel. They aren’t any more durable, but they are as stylish as they are impractical.
[ignvideo url=”https://www.ign.com/videos/16-things-we-loved-and-didnt-about-animal-crossing-new-horizons”]
Island Secrets
22. You can jump across gaps that are one or two spaces across. Use this to make free land bridges across rivers without stopping them entirely.
23. You can bury holes in the ground with your foot by hitting “Y” when you’re facing one.
24. During the day a small yellow bird can be found on the bulletin board with a new message, while at night, an owl roots there.
25. Mom bakes you a different kind of birthday cake every year! Wow, you’re so creative mom.
26. If you eat a fruit you get a temporary boost of strength to allow you to safely dig up a tree with a shovel. You can then replant it elsewhere.
27. Each island has its own set of Nook Miles Reward furniture colors for items you can purchase. You might have a blue phone booth, for example, while others have yellow or white. These make good gifts!
28. Although you can guarantee a 30,000 Bell money tree by planting 10,000 Bells in the golden spot every day, you can bury more than 10,000 — up to 30,000 — to get triple the money but it’s not guaranteed. You’ve seen the tweets, but just know: It’s probably not worth the risk.
29. Bamboo shoots appear in dig spots beneath bamboo trees.
Nearby Island Secrets
30. The Nearby Islands sometimes has unique flower types and colors you cannot get in shops.
31. Islands are the only place you can get bamboo and coconut palms.
32. Weird Nearby Islands sometimes appear, including a horrifying one covered in tarantulas.
Nintendo References
33. The Leaf Mask sometimes available in the Able Sisters shop resembles a Korok mask from The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.
34. A Netted Ballcap sometimes available in the Able Sisters shop has an abbreviated NTNDO on it.
35. When you hit a rock with money in it several times it gives out bags of 1,000 bells with each to the tune of a Super Mario Bros. 1-Up chime.
36. K.K. Song is a record you can buy that is a song featured as an Easter egg in many Nintendo games Kozumi Totaka composed music for, from Super Mario Land 2 to Luigi’s Mansion.
37. The Power Boots, obtainable from Kicks’s shop, resemble Samus’s footwear in her Power Suit.
Multiplayer
38. After a friend visits your island, the Dodo Airlines airplane leaves a contrail in the sky above your island.
Museum
39. The ants in the bug exhibit have broken out and infested the lab.
40. In one wing there is an exhibit connecting animal villagers to their distant kin. A villager will sometimes appear and stand in its animal silhouette and remark on its ancestry.
41. If visiting the museum, you may find a random villager taking in the sights, and will compliment you if you were the one to donate the thing they’re admiring to the museum.
42. You can stand on a blue dot in the fossil exhibit to refocus the camera on a wide shot of the full exhibit.
43. Donating a single fish sometimes results in a whole school in the exhibit. They’ve been busy!
Collecting
44. Leaving stumps in your town attracts unique bugs you can’t get any other way. So does leaving rotten turnips on the ground.
45. Giving a villager a gift can result in getting an instant gift in return. Try this with fruit for a low-risk trade.
46. Those little water spurts you see popping out of the sand by the beach are Manila Clams – or Gulliver’s broken communicator parts! Dig them up with your shovel!
47. If a villager gives you an item (like a shirt, for example) and you gift it back to them in a later conversation, they’ll mention how it “looks familiar” but still start wearing it immediately anyway.
[ignvideo url=”https://www.ign.com/videos/how-to-get-more-diy-recipes-in-animal-crossing-new-horizons”]
Crafting
48. If you leave Gulliver’s communication parts in your pocket, the next day they will become a rare rusted part crafting material.
49. Gold can be acquired from floating gifts and hitting stones and is used as a crafting material.
50. Many stone things you craft can be customized to add moss.
51. If you keep shaking a tree, more branches will fall out.
52. You can buy a phone case using Nook Miles which will unlock the ability to craft custom designs on your in-game phone.
53. Fishing up garbage like tires and boots isn’t such a pain this time around. Catch trash repeatedly and you’ll start to learn DIY recipes on things you can craft with them, like tire stacks and garbage themed wallpaper.
54. Those rocky surfaces you see along the beach aren’t just for show. You can craft items like chairs and satellite dishes and place them there to stare longingly at the sea.
55. In some seasons new crafting material appears, like falling flower petals in the spring which you can catch with your net.
56. The recycling bin is full of cardboard boxes which seem boring… but can be used to craft, uhhh…boring cardboard furniture.
57. Shells can be collected and used as a crafting material for some recipes like the Shell Arc and Shell Bed.
Mischief
58. If you hit a villager three times with a net, they will react and talk to you and might change their expression to sadness (or anger). To execute the hit, you’ll have to hold the A button to “sneak” up on them. Let go of A to hit them.
59. You can later apologize to the villager — and they may even accept your apology.
60. Continually run into a villager, and they’ll get annoyed at you intruding on their personal space.
61. If you enter a villager’s home and leave without saying anything, they’ll have a quizzical reaction at your surprise arrival and departure.
62. You can push a villager out of the way.
63. You can give villagers garbage like spoiled turnips and garbage fished from the sea and enjoy their reactions.
64. You can steal money tree bells from any town you visit. Rude!
65. If you dig a hole on one side of the river, and a friend uses a pole vault to cross, they can fall in the hole and become stuck for a short period of time.
[widget path=”global/article/imagegallery” parameters=”albumSlug=every-animal-crossing-new-horizons-villager&captions=true”]
Villagers
66. Villagers can gather in the town square for an assortment of activities, including workouts, running around, or drinking tea.
67. Looking for a low-impact gift? Villagers seem to love fruit — and might even give you a much, much better item in return.
68. Villagers will regularly change clothing to fit their activity – changing into comfortable clothes for exercising, rain coats and hats when it’s raining, and sunglasses when it’s sunny out.
69. If you display designs for shirts (and even hats) at the Able Sisters, another villager might wear it for a while.
70. If you see something you think a villager will look good in, buy it and give it to them. They’ll put it on. Even when you give Renee glasses which look ridiculous, to be frank.
71. Even when villagers stop wearing things you’ve given them, they’ll display the clothing in their house.
72. Some villagers will practice yoga, either in their house or outside.
73. Villagers can sing! Sometimes they assemble and sing together in the town square.
74. If you place a music player down where villagers are singing, and play a K.K. Slider song, they’ll sing along to it!
75. If you like the villagers’ singing, be sure to sue the “Delight” emote to clap for them. The villager might even blush!
76. When talking to villagers, they may reference an object nearby and look or gesture at it.
77. Sometimes villagers will be crafting when you enter their house. Talk to them and they will share their recipe!
[poilib element=”accentDivider”]
So what are your favorite little things in Animal Crossing: New Horizon? Let us know in the comments below and for all things Animal Crossing – from the tiniest insects to the biggest Godzilla monsters – stick with IGN.
Source: IGN.com 77 Amazing Little Details in Animal Crossing: New Horizons