Animal Crossing: New Horizons is back in the spotlight with a free 3.0 update now available to continue those island adventures, sitting alongside a paid Animal Crossing: New Horizons – Nintendo Switch 2 Edition.
Animal Crossing: New Horizons 3.0 Update Guide
Version 3.0 of the bestselling Nintendo Switch game includes a wealth of quality-of-life updates, including extra items and storage, plus a dedicated hotel room decorator mode akin to 2021’s Animal Crossing: New Horizons – Happy Home Paradise DLC. Plus, it’s free and doesn’t require the Nintendo Switch 2 edition to play. Tom Nook’s a changed racoon.
With a fair few updates in the Animal Crossing: New Horizons 3.0 update to discover, here is a guide to getting back up and running with the game on either Nintendo Switch or Switch 2. No bells required to read.
How do I transfer my Animal Crossing: New Horizons island to Nintendo Switch 2?
Unlike most Nintendo Switch games, which are cloud save compatible, the challenge with Animal Crossing: New Horizons is moving an island from one Switch console to the next. To move an Animal Crossing: New Horizons island from Switch 1 to Switch 2, download a specific app called the “Island Transfer Tool” on the Nintendo eShop.
The app should be downloaded on both consoles, and both machines should be physically close to one another to transfer. More details on transferring an Animal Crossing island can be found on the Nintendo Website.
How do I upgrade to Animal Crossing: New Horizons – Nintendo Switch 2 Edition?
In a surprise move, Nintendo released the 3.0 update free of charge . The Hotel, quality of life changes and additional items are all available to play on both the original Nintendo Switch or Switch 2 without needing to purchase the Nintendo Switch 2 edition upgrade.
A separate Animal Crossing: New Horizons – Nintendo Switch 2 Edition includes the base game, plus a handful of exclusive features and performance tweaks to run better on the newer hardware. Those with the standard Animal Crossing: New Horizons base game can upgrade for £4.19 / $4.99 by grabbing the Animal Crossing upgrade pack from the eShop.
Anyone looking for a physical edition may benefit from buying the original Switch edition and the upgrade pack separately, instead of the single Nintendo Switch 2 Edition cart, as it works out a fair bit cheaper!
How do I design rooms at the Animal Crossing: New Horizons 3.0 Resort Hotel?
One of the biggest highlights of the Animal Crossing: New Horizons 3.0 update is a swanky new hotel that spawns on the island pier overnight. Not content simply spending his days sailing about, Kapp’n decides to venture into hotel management as a nifty side hustle with the fam’. With the help of an always-willing player, well, you, the hotel needs its rooms decorated and furnished.
After completing the main game (achieving a 3-star island rating and the end credits roll with a certain musical dog), the hotel becomes available on the island pier, near where Kapp’n’s boat is normally found docked.
Once recruited as the island’s resident hotel room designer, its time to jazz up eight different themed rooms to mix things up. This isn’t your standard Travel Lodge affair, but instead a funky must-visit destination for those furry holiday influencers. A paradise boutique, if you will. From Seaside to Dreamy, Japanese to Modern – there are a handful of broad themes to let those creative juices loose on.
The decoration process is very much like the Animal Crossing: New Horizons – Happy Home Paradise DLC – an empty canvas with the flexibility to fill the space with items galore. No need to craft or pull items from existing storage. Essentially the Hotel mode provides an unlimited budget and a wide range of items to let loose on without a strict grade – it’s a playground of unfiltered fun!
Up to eight rooms can be designed and reworked when needed. Villagers who do book in roam about the island for a day… who knows who might show up!
How does the VIP Room work in Animal Crossing: New Horizons 3.0?
After finishing the main eight rooms in the Animal Crossing: New Horizons 3.0 update, an additional space unlocks called the VIP Room. What happens in the VIP Room stays in the VIP Room, or so they say. The difference here is that this space resets the next day once a visitor checks out. Be sure to capture as many photos as possible before the slate is wiped clean. Ooh-er!
Just who are the VIP guests exactly in Animal Crossing: New Horizons 3.0? Amiibo friends or tourists walking about the island can be invited for that luxury, one-off experience. Neat!
Returning villagers remember you in Animal Crossing: New Horizons 3.0
Ever wanted to see a villager who had flown the nest, so to speak? That long lost villager who left the island for that aspiring far-away career? Or perhaps the one you regret bullying for months on end? These villagers can be guests in the New Horizons hotel, taking a scenic trip back to honour their roots.
A little line in their dialogue suggests that previous villagers do remember their time oh your island. Oh, the memories!
How to bulk craft items from storage in Animal Crossing: New Horizons 3.0
One of the biggest frustrations of the original Animal Crossing: New Horizons was crafting items. Decorating and building outdoors in particular was a slog. It still is, in ways. Don’t have enough materials in the inventory? A mad dash home, inventory shuffle and returning to the crafting bench was the only solution.
To make things slightly less painful, the New Horizons 3.0 update introduces bulk crafting and remote materials. Multiple items can be made in a single pass, with material available to grab directly from storage without needing to go home.
It’s a simple change on paper but makes things far more streamlined – especially for players who have decided to restart their islands or who have picked up Animal Crossing: New Horizons for the first time.
How do Slumber Islands work in the Animal Crossing: New Horizons 3.0 update?
There’s always a fear, right? The decision to reset the Animal Crossing: New Horizons island and start from scratch. Nintendo’s decision to only allow a single island without save files or individual islands for each system user is a strange one.
To remedy this, in some ways, are new Slumber Islands introduced in the New Horizons 3.0 update. Essentially these are three dream islands that allow players to play about on. Pick from small, medium or large and even host online multiplayer sessions to work together in a shared space.
Each of the three spaces can be terraformed, bridges and inclines added and items dotted about. Unfortunately, at time of writing, Slumber Islands do lack the ability to add villager homes or other buildings, so it can be a little barren – which is a shame. In addition, whilst the time of day and weather for Slumber Islands can be toggled, the season can’t be set.
There are limitations with the option, but it is a good addition for players who want to experiment without tearing apart their main island or shell out for an additional Nintendo Switch or Switch 2 console. It could be beneficial for Nintendo to patch in extra settings in the future to really flesh out the experience.
How do I call Resetti to clean my Animal Crossing: New Horizons island?
Most Animal Crossing players have been here before. The dreaded return to their New Horizons island that’s not been visited for a while. That’s where the notorious Resetti comes in as part of the 3.0 update. Resetti’s Reset Service is available, where players can hire the rampant mole to clean up their island without putting in the hard slog. Neat.
To find Resetti in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, he’ll be wandering around the island, waiting for the next job. The old mole is a little bit more chilled this time round. He’s probably seen things. Many, many, things.
How to use hop and sidestep in Animal Crossing: New Horizons 3.0
Another challenge in Animal Crossing: New Horizons is positioning characters when decorating outdoors. When inside, the grid format is a nifty way of aligning objects – but outdoor placement can be, well, tricky.
Whilst it would be ideal for Nintendo to introduce outdoor grid formats for a future Animal Crossing game, the 3.0 update allows characters to jump, skip and sidestep when outdoors by simply hitting the L button and using the left stick. Feels a little bit like “wavedashing” in Super Smash Bros. Melee.
What additional items are there in the Animal Crossing: New Horizons 3.0 update?
Every major update for Animal Crossing: New Horizons comes with the anticipation of what new items are available to spruce up that decorating itch. A fresh batch includes themed Animal Crossing crossovers with LEGO, The Legend of Zelda and Splatoon. Retro Nintendo consoles, cat plushies and even select items from Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp are all on offer to spend those precious bells and miles on.
How to upgrade Animal Crossing: New Horizons storage in the update
With so many additional items to collect in New Horizons 3.0, hording them away in storage can be a little bit of a chore. What to sell off? What to dump in an unsuspecting corner of the island?
To upgrade storage in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, speak to Tom Nook at the Resident Services building and select “About my house…”, followed by “Expand my storage”. After shelling out a significant amount of bells, the extra space is soon available. Simple!
