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An extensive Animal Crossing: New Horizons datamine has unveiled a lot of possible features for the social sim game, like add-ons for the Museum, harvesting vegetables, and the return of Redd (via Animal Crossing World).
I’ve not posted much about this, but I think it’s a good time to share some secrets about unreleased features in Animal Crossing that game code hints at…
Some of this might make it into the Earth Day update, some might change before release
Mute #ACspoilers if not interested
— Ninji (@_Ninji) April 19, 2020
Animal Crossing dataminer Ninji was the one to uncover the following features. We must be careful, though, because the presence of these additions in the game’s code doesn’t necessarily infer that they are in development. They could be artefacts of an earlier iteration of New Horizons, and were accidentally left behind by the developers. As a result, we should take this report as a rumour.
Firstly, the datamine alleges that there are two more buildings to be added onto the island’s Museum. This is alongside the expansion for an art gallery (more on this in a moment). These two buildings are the Museum Shop and a Museum Café, which would return from earlier games in the series. The Museum Café, presumably run by Brewster the barista, would also feature a Gyroid shop. Other than Lloid, Gyroids are absent from New Horizons, and they would add an extra layer to those wonderful island sing-a-longs.
The art gallery would be supplemented by the reappearance of Redd. A con artist, he would weigh anchor at the small “secret” beach that all players have at the very back of their island. This area of the map is specifically named “Nã¤ããã¡,” which is Redd’s name in Japanese. Apparently, he will dock onto the secret beach with his own ship to sell artwork and sculptures to the player. It is possible that the pieces he sells are forgeries, which may be why he would keep his distance from Tom Nook at the edge of the island.
Thirdly, azalea, hibiscus, holly, and hydrangea bushes will be available, like they were in Animal Crossing: New Leaf. Two more foliage options, camellia and osmathus, were also found in New Horizons code. Moreover, references to vegetables and cooking have been seen, including tomato, potato, carrot, pumpkin, wheat, and sugar. Animal Crossing has never featured cooking before, but it had never featured crafting before, either. New Horizons does make use of seasonal recipes, and perhaps there could be pumpkin dishes for the autumnal months. And, an unused shop interface titled “cGardening” has been uncovered, and would apparently work like the Nook Miles menu of rewards.
The datamine has dredged up code pertaining to diving and sea creatures, which was a feature in New Leaf. I noticed the diving gear in the Museum and wondered if this was only set dressing. If this datamine is verifiable, the player might be able to explore the ocean for 33 new “Seafood” items, including animal and seaweed species. Finally, the last big discovery is another expansion for the Nook’s Cranny store. Not much else is stated about its features or size, but it might offer a greater range of tools and limited-time items.
Once more, we don’t know if all, some, or any of these aforementioned additions are on their way to New Horizons. These could be experiments that Nintendo made with the game, and then ultimately abandoned because they didn’t work for whatever reason. The most likely of these to be a real feature is the Museum Café, because villagers have been describing Brewster as if he’s on the island already. Be that as it may, we’ll keep you in the loop once we get a confirmation from Nintendo.
Animal Crossing: New Horizons is out now for the Nintendo Switch.
