Animal Crossing: New Horizons Update Adds Fireworks, Dreaming, Raffles

The second phase of summer is arriving later this week in Animal Crossing: New Horizons. The Summer Update - Wave 2 will contain fireworks, raffles, and even the return of the Dream Suite system! Best of all? It's dropping this Friday.

Since its release, Nintendo has been dropping regular content updates to the hit life-sim game. This has included an art gallery, shrubs, swimming, and more. Now the next update has been announced to cap off the end of summer, releasing on July 30. Here are the details:



Fireworks

During the month of August, every Sunday evening will be sprinkled with pyrotechnical pizzazz. Starting at 7 PM, a fireworks show will take place on your island. During the event, players can spend bells on Raffle tickets, sold by Jolly Red. These raffles will reward the player with festive items like sparklers and glowing headbands. To further customize the experience, players will be able to apply custom designs on the fireworks.

Dreaming

Referred to as Dreaming, this feature is the return of an old feature known as the Dream Suite. When the player lays in a bed at home, they will have the option to dream. Doing so will grant them a visit by Luna. From there, players will be able to visit a dream-copy of another persons island. Different from multiplayer, this is a solo experience that allows players to visit each others homes even when they aren't online. They'll also be able to register a copy of their own island for other people to visit.

It's important to note that a Nintendo Switch Online subscription will be required to participate in the Dreaming feature.

Island Backup & Restoration Service

The final addition isn't the most exciting but is still important. This update will launch the Island Backup & Restoration Service. Some players may have noticed that they cannot use the Nintendo Switch Online cloud save option to backup their game. This means that if their Switch is damaged or lost, so is their island. To offset this risk, Nintendo is launching a separate backup and restoration service for the game.

If you enable the feature and you experience a lost or damaged Switch console, you can contact a Nintendo representative and ask that your island be restored onto a new console. It's a process, yes.

The current assumption for this oddly roundabout method is due to the multiplayer nature of the game. If players can freely restore from a backup, they could manipulate the game, giving away items and bells and reloading a backup to get it back, essentially duplicating it. The unorthodox backup system might be a method of ensuring this doesn't happen.

All of this will be available as a free update to Animal Crossing: New Horizons on July 30, 2020.

What Comes Next

Keeping with the trend of monthly updates, Nintendo also confirmed plans for a Fall update. Details about the update were not mentioned, but a picture of Jack, the self-proclaimed Czar of Halloween was on the screen. So the update is likely related to the fall holiday. Time will tell.