9 Secret Surprises In Animal Crossing: New Horizons Version 3.0 Nintendo Didn’t Announce
2 days ago
Happy update day everyone! The major Version 3.0 Update for Animal Crossing: New Horizons is now available with plenty of secret surprises that Nintendo never announced in the pre-release trailer.
While the update’s main highlights such as the Resort Hotel, Slumber Islands, and new amiibo collaborations were revealed in advance, there’s always more secret details hiding beneath the surface that Nintendo doesn’t talk about! In this article, we’ll go over nine of these secrets.
New Sliding & Jumping Controls
A new set of controls for more easily moving your Animal Crossing character around have arrived in Version 3.0!
Start by pressing the L shoulder button at any time to ‘jump’ your character into place on the nearest spot in your island’s ‘grid’. Then, while still holding down the L button, move the L stick in any direction to quickly ‘slide’ around to other spots on that grid without changing how you’re facing.
You might need to try it yourself to fully understand, but essentially this solves the issue of easily aligning yourself with the ‘grid’ of tiles on your island when working on it. You can also use the initial L shoulder button ‘jump’ as a quick way to firmly change the direction you’re facing.
Also, let’s be honest — beyond actual utility, it’s just really fun to play with and we love that Animal Crossing technically has a jump button now!
Although these new controls are introduced to the player when loading up the Island Designer app and intended for that usage, they’re actually available to use at any time outside of it by just pressing the L shoulder button.
In fact, it’s super useful beyond intense island decorating for simply cleaning up your island! This helps a lot with the sluggish or clunky nature sometimes of Animal Crossing’s controls that can conflict with trying to work on an island.
Fully Decoratable Expanded Pier
Since the Version 3.0 Update was first announced, there’s been some concern in the Animal Crossing community about whether the Resort Hotel addition might effect or otherwise block off decoration of the island’s Pier. Designing the Pier area has been a favorite of the design community, so stakes were high.
It turns out those fears were overblown, and in reality, this update may even be an improvement for decorating the Pier as the entire expanded space is fully available for placing decorations. That includes furniture of course, but also custom designs.
You can even block the entire entryway to the Resort Hotel with items, if you so desire, as seen above.
So in a very small sense, technically the decoratable size of an Animal Crossing: New Horizons island after Version 3.0 has actually increased, not decreased!
Go Down Memory Lane with Past Villagers on Slumber Island
We’ve known for a while that the new creative mode Slumber Island would allow you to invite over villagers to roam the island, but this option goes farther than originally expected.
It turns out that the Residents tab when decorating your Slumber Island actually holds an extensive memory of all the villagers you’ve previously invited to live on your main island, even if you later moved them away in favor of someone else!
Hotel Villagers Remember You Too!
Along the same lines, new villagers who visit your island through the Resort Hotel have quite a long memory too.
If you happen to encounter a villager in a hotel room from your island’s past, they’ll remember who you are with unique dialogue, even if it’s been years! It’s a small, but very thoughtful touch from Nintendo.
100 Dedicated Custom Design Slots on EVERY Slumber Island
Speaking of Slumber Islands, there were a lot of questions and concerns prior to release regarding how Custom Designs would work. Many dedicated Animal Crossing designers have already felt the limitations on how many slots are available to fill with Custom Designs on their own island.
There’s really great news here — each Slumber Island has its own dedicated storage of 100 Custom Design slots! You can setup and use Custom Designs completely separate between your main island and all three available Slumber Island slots. For clarity, that means there’s up to 400 slots to use across all four ‘islands’ if you’re so inclined.
One small drawback though is that the process for importing Custom Designs using online design codes seems rather frustrating and cumbersome. Unless there’s another way we haven’t spotted yet, you cannot directly use the usual portal to input codes. Instead, you need to use the portal on your own island and then later copy over the designs to your Slumber Island separately.
Help Lost Tourists on Your Island
If you find an unfamiliar villager walking around your island that you don’t recall inviting over, don’t worry — that’s just a lost tourist!
New in Version 3.0, lost tourist villagers who don’t live on your island can sometimes be found wandering around with a thinking speech bubble above their head. If you bring them over to the hotel, you can design a special room for them and earn 50 Hotel Tickets while you’re at it.
There’s a new Nook Miles achievement dedicated to this task as well titled “Take Tourists to the Hotel”.
Town Tune Suggestions from Isabelle
Changing your Town Tune has been a staple of the series since the very beginning, but now the less creatively inclined have a helping hand in Version 3.0!
With the update, when discussing changing the Town Tune at Resident Services, Isabelle can offer a few different suggestions for changing the Town Tune if you don’t want to adjust it manually. These suggestions also include the original Town Tune in what is basically a reset option.
Speaking of resetting, the Island Flag can now be reverted back to the original version too.
Pocket Camp Collaboration Items Unlocked For All
When Animal Crossing: New Horizons first launched in 2020, a big effort was made on Nintendo’s part to promote the mobile game Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp, by requiring players to download the game and redeem a promo code from it to unlock exclusive Pocket Camp themed campground items.
Well, a lot has happened since 2020 — and that includes the main Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp game shutting down its online services, which made these items unobtainable for anyone who hadn’t already unlocked them.
As a nice touch for new players or anyone who missed out before, Nintendo has kindly removed the unlock gate for these Pocket Camp items in Version 3.0. Now you can find them freely available for sale at the bottom of the Promotion tab in Nook Shopping’s Special Goods! Keep on scrolling past the LEGO and Super Mario items.
All These Minor, But Helpful, Quality of Life Changes
Finally, here’s some more small tidbits of quality-of-life changes that Nintendo snuck into the Version 3.0 Update without announcing them in the trailer:
- You can now craft from materials stored in your house without taking them out manually, in addition to previously announced bulk crafting up to 10.
- Customization Kits, crucial for remaking furniture into new variations, can now be purchased in a bulk set of 50 for 30,000 Bells at Nook’s Cranny.
- Pascal is now more generous, giving you a Pearl to craft the Mermaid Set every time you give him a Scallop, instead of only on occasion.
- Leif’s weed picking service fee is now cheaper and more readily available, even when you have fewer weeds.
For more on the Version 3.0 Update for Animal Crossing: New Horizons, check out our other new articles and guides below:
- Check Out All 100+ New Items in Version 3.0 Animal Crossing: New Horizons Update (Datamine)
- Resort Hotel Guide: How To Get Tickets & New Souvenir Items (List)
- EVERYTHING New In Animal Crossing: New Horizons Version 3.0 Update! (Discoveries & Patch Notes)
- Which Splatoon & Zelda Amiibo Unlock What in Animal Crossing: New Horizons Version 3.0
Stay tuned to Animal Crossing World for everything on the 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.
Get The Latest Animal Crossing News & Guides
Sign up for our newsletter to never miss out on the latest Animal Crossing news, guides, and deals with email updates!
Animal Crossing: New Horizons News Version 3.0 Update