A New “Animal Crossing” Update is Coming

And yes, you can swim now.

Melanie Pineda
The Interlude
2 min readJun 25, 2020

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New mermaid theme DIY recipes will also be available. Photo Credit: Nintendo.
New mermaid theme DIY recipes will also be available. Photo Credit: Nintendo.

Nintendo announced today that a new update for Animal Crossing: New Horizons will be available on July 3, including new furniture, new fish, and new friends.

Players will — finally! — be able to swim into the ocean to discover new creatures. The updated feature is similar to the diving ability introduced back in Animal Crossing: New Leaf, where players were able to dive for sea animals when wearing a wetsuit. This time around, starfish, eels, scallops and more will be available to find and donate to Blathers at the museum.

A familiar face will also be swimming alongside players from time to time, with Pascal the sea otter returning to villagers’ screens. The special character will be offering players recipes for a new set of mermaid furniture in exchange for scallops. Pascal, known for his tidbits of sea-related wisdom, was introduced to the series in Animal Crossing: Wild World, and has since appeared in most versions of the game.

Pascal sharing some wise words in Nintendo’s official trailer for the update. Photo credit: Nintendo.

Island visitor Gulliver will also be getting a summer look, so watch out for the pelican’s new pirate gear the next time he washes up ashore. Nintendo included in their announcement that another summer update is planned for early August, hinting that fireworks may be involved. Both updates will be free, and you can watch the full announcement here. Happy diving!

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Melanie Pineda
The Interlude

I write about immigration, women, culture, and other topics I’m passionate about.