These 15 NEW Features Are Coming In Major Animal Crossing: New Horizons Version 3.0 Update

23 hours ago Justin 9 Comments

The unthinkable is happening: A new major update is coming to Animal Crossing: New Horizons four years after Nintendo released the ‘final’ Version 2.0 update!

Set to launch on January 15th, 2026, the Version 3.0 update will be free with new features for all players on both the original Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Switch 2.

Alongside the free update, a paid Nintendo Switch 2 Edition upgrade pack will be made available at the same time that adds features exclusive to the new system like 4K graphics and mouse controls.

Kapp’n’s Resort Hotel Opens

The flagship new feature found in Version 3.0 of Animal Crossing: New Horizons will be the new Resort Hotel opened and operated by Kapp’n! This new resort facility can be found attached to the existing island dock where players can currently find Kapp’n offering island boat tours.

Inside the hotel, you can find all of Kapp’n’s family members helping out, including a store selling items in the top right, mannequins to dress up in the bottom right, and a desk in the top left to help decorate guest rooms.

Decorate Hotel Rooms For Guests

Within Kapp’n’s Resort Hotel, you can decorate various guest rooms to match requested themes such as the Seaside Room. Using new furniture themed to the room, and your previously obtained furniture, arrange the room to match the requested theme to earn a new currency called Hotel Tickets.

As one example seen so far, decorating the Seaside Room for a villager earns you 200 Hotel Tickets.

This feature certainly looks fun, but at first glance, it’s a bit perplexing of an addition given how the Happy Home Paradise DLC already introduced a similar type of gameplay. Perhaps there’s more than meets the eye in this initial reveal though!

Craft DIY Island Goods For Tom Nook

Another way to earn Hotel Tickets as part of the Kapp’n Resort Hotel expansion to your island is a new kiosk supported by Tom Nook on the dock!

Inside the kiosk next to Kapp’n’s boat, you can find four requests available at a time for special island goods to be crafted through DIY Crafting. Fulfilling these requests is another method to obtain more Hotel Tickets.

Spend Hotel Tickets For New Items

After earning the new Hotel Tickets currency in Version 3.0 of Animal Crossing: New Horizons, they can be spent at a new souvenir gift shop operated by Grams inside the Resort Hotel. New exclusive items introduced in Version 3.0 appear to be sold at this shop, including Hotel-themed knickknacks and clothing, Tubular-themed items, Artful-themed items, Kiddie-themed items, and more.

This is a similar technique used by the Animal Crossing developers in past updates to implement new items behind some kind of gate that requires interaction with the new update’s features. For example, the MEOW Coupons system in Animal Crossing: New Leaf’s Welcome Amiibo update and the Poki system in the Happy Home Paradise DLC.

Decorate Hotel Outfit Mannequins

Two mannequins can be found on display in the bottom right of the Resort Hotel, which you can dress up with outfits of your choosing for hotel guests to wear on your island.

What’s particularly special about this feature is that friends who come over to visit your island in multiplayer can wear the outfits from your hotel, making for a great way to have everyone matching their clothes for photos!

Create Slumber Islands (Creative Mode)

Perhaps the second biggest addition in Version 3.0 of Animal Crossing: New Horizons will be Slumber Islands, or what appears to effectively be a creative mode version of Animal Crossing!

A Slumber Island is a completely separate dream-like island where you have much greater abilities that improve decorating quality of life, such as:

• Freely place all furniture you’ve previously obtained from a menu
• Instantly grow plants and trees to any of the growth stages
• Easily install bridges and inclines (presumably at no cost)
• Customize the current time of day and weather
• Change the size of your island to a small or medium size for cozier builds

Some of the minor details are still yet to be seen, but Slumber Islands generally appear to be Nintendo’s take on a creative mode for island building and designing in Animal Crossing! This is a huge addition for the decoration lovers out there.

Build & Decorate Online With Friends

What’s better than building and decorating an Animal Crossing island by yourself? Collaborating with a friend… or 11 friends!

An incredibly impressive aspect of Slumber Islands is that they allow you to invite up to 11 friends (or 7 on the original Nintendo Switch) to your dream island. Then your friends can actually build and decorate the island together with you! That’s a pretty surprising addition to Animal Crossing, and we’re glad to see it.

Not Just One Slumber Island

One more small, but incredibly meaningful, feature to Slumber Islands — you can create and decorate up to 3 at once! This is a fantastic solution to the classic issue of only being able to create one island at a time on a single Nintendo Switch system.

Although it’s certainly not as great as being able to play the simulation side of Animal Crossing: New Horizons with multiple islands, it’ll be great to see all players be able to try their hand at designing a themed island without saying goodbye to their main island.

Buy Nintendo Products & Games

After spending enough time designing guest rooms at the Resort Hotel, a special selection of retro Nintendo product and game system furniture will be unlocked, such as the Ultra Hand, Love Tester, and Famicom! You can buy these at the souvenir shop using Hotel Tickets.

And as a neat special touch, if you have an active Nintendo Switch Online membership, you’ll be able to play a select retro game inside Animal Crossing by interacting with the retro game systems sold at the shop.

Get LEGO Collaboration Items

A new LEGO themed set of furniture and clothing items will be introduced to the Promotion tab of Nook Shopping, in a similar fashion to the Super Mario items released back in 2021.

These collaboration items will come in a few style variations too, like pastels and dark woods, to help increase their appeal in different rooms.

The Legend of Zelda Villagers & Furniture Return Via Amiibo

A collection of brand new The Legend of Zelda inspired furniture and clothing is coming to Animal Crossing: New Horizons in Version 3.0 when tapping compatible amiibo! New items include the Zonai authentication crest, triforce, rupees, heart container, Majora’s Mask, Korok Forest flooring, and much more.

Just like in Animal Crossing: New Leaf, there are themed villagers to go with the Zelda collaboration too. This time around, you can meet and invite Tulin or Mineru to your island!

Tulin’s matching amiibo is $10 off on Amazon US for $19.99 right now: https://amzn.to/4qw0cYd

Splatoon Villagers & Furniture Return Via Amiibo

Splatoon collaboration content is joining the party in Version 3.0 too! Scanning compatible Splatoon series amiibo can unlock the Cece and Viche villagers returning from Animal Crossing: New Leaf, now with updated designs inspired by Splatoon 3’s Shiver and Frye.

And when it comes to matching loot, there’s no shortage of new Splatoon themed items including the super sea snail, squid jukebox, splattershot, Big Man bench, golden egg, crab tank, octoling head, and many more!

Craft DIY Items In Bulk, FINALLY

Going back all the way to the launch of Animal Crossing: New Horizons back in 2020, the ability to craft DIY items in bulk without needing to craft each item one at a time has been one of the most requested features by fans.

Even though this addition somehow got skipped over in the big Version 2.0 Update in 2021, we can finally craft in bulk in Version 3.0! It appears this feature was inspired by Tom Nook’s new kiosk requesting DIY items.

Expand Your House Storage To 9,000

Another minor nitpick from fans for a long time has been item storage limitations in your home. Despite slowly being increased over time with various updates in 2020 and 2021, the final maximum limit of 5,000 wasn’t enough for the most prolific hoarders.

In Version 3.0, there will be new upgrades available to expand your home’s item storage up to 7,000 and then 9,000! And as a bonus, grown trees, shrubs, and flower plants can all be stored too.

Island Cleanup With Resetti Reset Service

Getting started with a makeover on your island’s design can be quite a nightmare sometimes when trying to clean up your previous mess. Resetti’s finally back in full force (and walking!) with a new reset service.

Using Resetti’s resetting powers, you can easily remove all furniture, flowers, and custom designs from a select area of your island, the beach of your island, or even the entire island as a whole. And of course, everything that’s reset will be safely returned to your storage for future use!

All of the new features, additions, and updates mentioned above will be available for free to all Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Switch 2 players in the Version 3.0 Update releasing on January 15th, 2026.

Then as a bonus, a separate paid upgrade pack will be available for Nintendo Switch 2 bringing a few extra improvements related to the new system — more on that in our full article here.

Stay tuned to Animal Crossing World for everything on the upcoming Version 3.0 Update of Animal Crossing: New Horizons! Follow us on X, Facebook, Bluesky, and our mailing list below for updates. Or check out our most popular guides like Redd Art, Bush Types & Colors, Villager Houses, Sea Creatures, and K.K. Slider Songs.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons News Update Version 3.0 Update