Since its release way back in March of 2020, Animal Crossing: New Horizons as of May 2021 sold over 36 million copies. By now, Animal Crossing: New Horizons is likely the best-selling game on Switch, ever. Accordingly, Animal Crossing: New Horizons has received updates and new content after launch, but for a long while much hasn’t been added to the game. This all changes with the game’s huge, free 2.0 update and the $24.99 Happy Home Paradise DLC coming November 5th, 2021. In this article, we’ll tell you everything you’ll need to know about what’s coming in the update as well as the DLC.
Before we dive into the truly staggering list of new features, it’s important to acknowledge that this DLC will be the only DLC for Animal Crossing: New Horizons and that the 2.0 update will be the last major content update for the game. Nintendo explained this to IGN, so there is official confirmation, but don’t expect there not to be any changes to the game going forward.
After November 5th, there will certainly be patches and bug fixes coming as well as new seasonal events and the odd occasional small feature, but don’t expect any major drops of new content, new features, new villagers, or anything else after the 2.0 update and the release of Happy Home Paradise. A year and a half after the original release of Animal Crossing: New Horizons, this big new update and paid DLC is basically Nintendo’s formal goodbye to New Horizons, transitioning to simple maintenance of the game as the development team focuses on new projects.
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Since it’s Nintendo we’re talking about, there has to be an appropriately confusing way to actually buy the Happy Home Paradise DLC, and luckily Nintendo doesn’t disappoint: While you can purchase the Happy Home Paradise DLC for $24.99 outright, there’s also a subscription option. Yes, you read that right, there’s a subscription option for a single DLC pack.
Essentially, you can subscribe to the Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack plan for $49.99 a year and you’ll get access to the DLC for no additional cost because Nintendo Switch Online also costs $49.99 a year if you opt for the yearly plan. However, if your subscription expires, features unlocked in the DLC usable on your main island will remain available on your main island, but you will not be able to access any off-island DLC content until you resubscribe or purchase the DLC separately for $24.99.
The following is a list of the new features coming to the 2.0 update as well as the Happy Home Paradise DLC, but we’ll explain the biggest general changes coming to Animal Crossing: New Horizons in a little more detail below, so keep reading!
- 2.0: Brewster + The Roost
- 2.0: Gyroids
- 2.0: Cooking + growing a variety of crops
- 2.0: Kapp’n Island tours
- 2.0: Harv’s Island Open Market
- 2.0: Group daily stretching
- 2.0: Island Ordinances + Resident Services upgrades
- 2.0: Storage sheds, ATMs, + permanent, customizable ladders
- 2.0: Ceiling décor, improved movement at home, + accent walls
- 2.0: Custom designs usable on clothes or as flooring or wallpaper
- 2.0: NookPhone Camera update
- 2.0: New villagers + new villager interactions
- 2.0: New K.K. Slider songs
- 2.0: New Nook Mile Rewards + new reactions
- 2.0: Island Living NookPhone app
- 2.0: Tons of new items
- HHP: Fly to resort archipelago to build dream homes for villagers
- HHP: Build a variety of facilities on the archipelago
- HHP: New ways to customize homes
- HHP: Polish furniture
- HHP: New currency ‘Poki’ to spend at new shop
- HHP: Villager roommates
- HHP: Paradise Planning Portfolio NookPhone app
- HHP: New Amiibo functionality
There are tons of new features coming to Animal Crossing: New Horizons, and we won’t know every single change coming to the game until we actually get our hands on the update and the DLC, but there are a few major focuses for both the 2.0 update and the Happy Home Paradise DLC you should keep in mind before jumping back into Animal Crossing.
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With the 2.0 update many new things to do are being added and many more customization options are being given to the player. New things to do include hanging out at The Roost coffee shop in the Museum; collecting Gyroids; growing crops and cooking; taking tours to new Mystery Island-style islands via Kapp’n Island Tours; a whole new area to customize and build up at Harvey’s Island where vendors will sell you goods, and more.
New customization options in the 2.0 update include various Island Ordinances you can enact to change the way your island runs; Resident Service upgrades that allow for storage expansions as well as more bridges and inclines; storage sheds you can use to access your storage out of the house; ATMs you can use to access your bank account outside of Resident Services; placeable ladders around the island; ceiling décor and accent walls at home, and more.
Happy Home Paradise as a whole package aims to essentially give players a whole new island to build up and customize to their liking. Now, it’s a series of islands, i.e. an archipelago, and not your own island exactly and rather a resort destination, but functionally, picking up this DLC will give you access to another island’s worth of content.
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The main island on the archipelago can have schools, hospitals, and restaurants built on it, while each villager will have their own private island and vacation home you can individually design, too. Designing homes is going to be a lot easier with Happy Home Paradise as well because HHP is bringing a number of new ways to design homes to Animal Crossing.
You’ll be able to partition walls; set up counters of different heights; add in ceiling-supported pillars; adjust lighting; and set soundscapes in Happy Home Paradise alongside other customization options all of which you’ll be able to do on your main island as well.
There are too many features to list out in one article contained in update 2.0 and the Happy Home Paradise DLC, but suffice it to say together this is the biggest content drop we’ve ever seen for Animal Crossing: New Horizons and the game is practically doubling in size.
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If you’ve left Animal Crossing: New Horizons behind because you thought you had seen everything there was to see, this November is going to be the perfect time to return to your island and reintroduce yourself to your villagers. Stay tuned for more information as the update goes live and the DLC releases, because we’ll soon find out exactly how all the new features work.
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