The big new Animal Crossing: New Horizons update is here, and it packs in a whole lot. Many of those elements aren’t even brought to your attention when you boot up the game, so you’ll need to do some poking around to find it all. That fits in with the relaxing nature of the game, but if you’re in a hurry to see what’s new (and are, understandably) unwilling to time skip, there are certain things you’ll want to ensure you do as soon as possible in order to get the clock started. Here’s all of the stuff you should do on day one.
Find Brewster and get cafe construction underway
The Roost is a new coffee shop that Blathers is looking to open inside the museum, but to get the ball rolling, you first need to find Brewster, who will manage it. As you can read in our guide on where to find Brewster, this involves taking a boat trip with Kapp’n, another newly added element that returns from earlier in the series. Once you complete the initial steps, construction will begin the following day, and the coffee shop will open the day after that. At two full days of waiting, this is arguably the very first thing you should do.
Donate 100,000 bells to open a shop
You can open a shopping plaza on Harv’s Island, but this will be a multi-day process. That’s because each individual shop requires a 100,000-bell donation, and once that amount is secured, no further donations can be made that day. While you’re free to open the shops in any order, we’d suggest starting with Leif–that way, you can begin to purchase the items necessary to plant new crops, which in turn will let you start digging into the new cooking features.
Implement an ordinance
Chat with Isabelle and you’ll be able to enact an ordinance. These each have different effects, like keeping stores open late (and villagers up late) or ensuring everyone on the island does their part to make things prettier (which it seems like they should be doing already, but what are you gonna do?). Only one can be in effect at a time, and issuing one won’t cause it to go into effect until the following day, so make your choice now so you can start enjoying the benefits.
Expand your storage
If you’ve managed to fill up your house’s storage, this update will bring a welcome development, as Tom Nook will allow you to once again increase its storage capacity. From the previous cap of 2,400 items, you can now store up to a whopping 5,000. This improvement will take a day to complete. If you haven’t already bought the previous upgrades, including the 2,400 slot one, you should order that now, as it’s a necessary step to unlock the ability to order the new storage shed from the Nook Stop. It’s priced at 6,000 Nook Miles.
Order overnight Nook Miles items
Whether or not you’re prepared to buy the storage shed, it’s worth paying a visit to the Nook Stop, as there are numerous new items for purchase with Nook Miles. You can buy a notebook with new reactions, recipes for new types of fences, and an assortment of items to decorate your island. The physical items need to be delivered by mail, which takes a day, so be sure to place an order for the ones you want most. Remember that there’s a cap of five items per day that you can order here, so prioritize your wishlist and order accordingly.
Plant your gyroid fragments
If you’ve already found Brewster, you should have received a gyroid fragment (possibly in addition to any you were able to dig up on the island he was hanging out on). Gyroid fragments on their own can’t be displayed, but bury them on your island and water them, and you’ll receive a proper gyroid the following day. These can be used to decorate your house and annoy your friends all in one go. Make sure to plant any you get your hands on to get the growing process started.
While everything outlined above is time-sensitive and thus worth doing first, before the daily reset occurs, there’s a ton of other stuff you can start to engage with right away in the new update. You can now craft permanent ladders that can be freely placed around your island, new cooking recipes can be purchased from the Nook Stop and Nook’s Cranny, villagers can visit you in your house, you can take part in group stretches with other villagers, and much more.
