Like many games, Animal Crossing: New Horizons has its own language and beloved characters, items and options. Here is a compilation of terms which may reoccur frequently during your browsing of the diary entries.
Animal Crossing’s currency. You can earn bells by selling items and purchase items using bells.
Every Sunday, players can buy turnips from Daisy Mae. The aim is then to resell them at a higher price before the next Sunday, which has led many to take the turnip stock market very seriously.
Many contributors have added their dream address to their entry – this refers to a saved state of their island at a point in time, which can then be visited at any point by any player, via their in-game dreams.
Players can use a tool called Island Construction to shape the appearance of their island, which is commonly referred to as terraforming. This has allowed players to undertake drastic remodellings or their islands.
The character Harvey invites the player to travel to his island where he runs a photography studio called Photopia. This studio has the advantage of bringing in a range of settings and props as well as invite current island villagers to act as models. Many players have used the tools that this studio provides to create entire new imagined settings as well as short films.
A villager buries an item and the player must dig it up!
A tanuki, Tom Nook has fulfilled many roles in other versions of the game. In New Horizons he is the head of Nook Incorporated. He is responsible for any house upgrades the player wants to make, resulting in increasing loans the player works to pay off.
A yellow shih tzu working for Nook Incorporated. She is responsible for the daily reports at the start of every first game session everyday, which will also indicate if a particular in-game event is happening that day. Either day, she will usually talk about the weather, a programme she saw or another everyday event
All islands have a cast of villagers who will gradually arrive to settle into their new homes. They can also leave at certain points and be replaced by new villagers. Many players form strong attachments to their villagers and some New Horizons villager characters have been particularly popular! This Diary Entry is a great primer on all the different types of villagers you can encounter.
An owl who is the curator of the island’s very own museum and accepts donations of bugs, fish, fossils and works of art. He appears to be a very busy museum professional, both welcoming visitors, assessing donations and arranging for their almost immediate display!
Wilbur is a pilot for Dodo Airlines, the airline service which a player must use to visit other islands, whether these are deserted neighbouring islands or a friend’s island.
These two small tanukis start out on the island with Timmy buying and selling items and Tommy providing tips to the player, until the shop Nook’s Cranny is built, prompting them both to move there to sell their various wares – and buy yours!
A device used with video games to provide input too a videogames, which means to usually control objects or characters in the game. For example, players can move their character in Animal Crossing: New Horizons using their fingers to provide input via a joystick and buttons.
The Nintendo Switch, released in 2017, is a console that is a table with dual use, both as a home console and as a portable device. A new model was released in 2020, just after a first release of a lighter, non-dockable version called the Switch Lite. Animal Crossing: New Horizons being exclusively made for the Switch means that many first-time players also acquired one in order to play it.
The Nintendo DS, released in 2004-2005, is a hand-held game console – DS stands for “Developers’ System” or “Dual Screen.” Its two LCD screens work together with the bottom one being a touchscreen amongst a range of other features. It was followed by the 3DS, which introduced the ability to view 3D effects on the console.