On November 5, Animal Crossing: New Horizons is getting a paid DLC expansion - and it's a big one. The DLC, titled "Happy Home Paradise," feels like an entirely new game. Happy Home Paradise gives players the opportunity to design custom vacation homes for all of their favorite Animal Crossing: New Horizons characters, but it goes far beyond that with unique features that create endless possibilities.
In addition to being a DLC for New Horizons, Happy Home Paradise is also something of a spin-off. Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer is a full game developed and released in 2015 for the Nintendo 3DS featuring the same premise. Happy Home Designer was never a part of the main Animal Crossing series, but it was the first Animal Crossing game compatible with amiibo, and it allowed players to express their creativity in ways mainline Animal Crossing games didn't. Happy Home Paradise expands on that idea and seamlessly integrates it with Animal Crossing: New Horizons.
Happy Home Paradise DLC Features
The premise of Happy Home Paradise is straightforward: players learn of an opportunity to "go to work" as a vacation home designer in an archipelago made up of several different islands. Through a local resort-planning company called Paradise Planning, players can consult with villagers to learn what their dream home looks like.
Following the consultation, players are given full creative license over the villager's vacation home with seemingly endless customization options. Players are responsible for both the interior and exterior of the vacation home, and can even customize the season and weather. Happy Home Paradise comes with a built-in inventory so that players aren't limited by their own resources. Building inventory can take forever in New Horizons, so it's great to know that grinding won't be necessary.
Players can encounter clients organically in the DLC, but it's also compatible with amiibo if there are specific villagers that players want to design for. Completed vacation homes can be showcased through the Happy Home Network app, which can also be used to tour other players' designs for inspiration similar to Dream Addresses in New Horizons.
Finally, players can be assured that they aren't working for free. Designing vacation homes can earn players Poki, a special currency that can only be used in the archipelago. With Poki, players can buy exclusive "rare" items and furniture to bring back to their own islands.
Unique Decorating Opportunities in Happy Home Paradise
A lot of new decorating options are being added to Animal Crossing: New Horizons with the 2.0 update also coming on November 5, but there are some options exclusive to Happy Home Paradise. Just like in New Horizons, players will be able to add accent walls and ceiling lights. For villagers wanting to be roommates, players can also decorate with partitions to divide up a room. Rooms can then be customized with mood lighting and soundscapes.
The DLC adds a lot of quality-of-life updates that completely change the pace of home design. Furniture items can be customized in the moment while decorating a room, and the exterior design tools are more efficient than what New Horizons players are used to. Fences, paths, plants, and items can be easily moved with a grid system just like in the home's interior, which will make things easier. The houses themselves can also be moved without having to get a construction permit in advance from Tom Nook. Rooms can also be resized to suit the villager's style.
How Happy Home Paradise Affects New Horizons
One of the best things about Happy Home Paradise is that the entire DLC doesn't exist separate from the player's main island. Most of the time it does, but after spending time designing vacation homes at the archipelago, players can unlock the opportunity to customize villager homes on their own islands. Some villagers have dreadful interior design skills, so Happy Home Paradise lets players fix all of that.
Customizing villager homes allows players to improve upon a villager's style or completely change it. Starter villagers can greatly benefit from this new feature. The villagers that players start the game with will never have their personalized home, so players often kick their starter villagers out in favor of bringing in a new one with a personalized home. With Happy Home Paradise this won't be an issue any longer, and those starter villagers may have a fighting chance. The DLC will also allow players to bring back exclusive items to decorate their islands.
New Happy Home Paradise NPCs
There are three new NPCs that come with Happy Home Paradise. Fans might already be familiar with Lottie, the otter who worked as a receptionist in Happy Home Designer and walked the player through its tutorial process. Lottie is also present in New Leaf and Pocket Camp as an employee of Happy Home Academy, and she'll be helping the player out in Happy Home Paradise.
The other two NPCs are Niko the monkey and Wardell the manatee. Both Niko and Wardell are new to the Animal Crossing series and are exclusive to Happy Home Paradise. The specific responsibilities of Lottie, Niko, and Wardell aren't exactly clear, but each will play a role in supporting the player on their quest to become a vacation home designer.
How to Buy Happy Home Paradise
The Happy Home Paradise DLC is available now as an individual expansion to pre-order and pre-load through the Nintedo eShop for $24.99. Considering there's enough content to warrant an entire spin-off game, it's not a bad asking price.
Alternatively, players who are interested in the Nintendo Switch Online Expansion Pack membership can receive Happy Home Paradise with their membership at no additional cost. The expansion includes access to a collection of Nintendo 64 and Sega Genesis titles, and costs $49.99 for 12 months if players go in by themselves. The catch is that members can only access the Happy Home Paradise archipelago for as long as their subscription is active, so hardcore Animal Crossing fans might be better off buying it outright.
Happy Home Paradise is confirmed to be the first and only paid DLC coming to Animal Crossing: New Horizons. With November 5 also marking the release of the last major free update for New Horizons, it doesn't look like there will be much content added afterward. It's a good thing Happy Home Paradise looks as deep as it does so that replayability won't be an issue. Although Animal Crossing updates and expansions are coming to an end, the fun doesn't have to end anytime soon.
Animal Crossing: New Horizons is available now on Nintendo Switch, while Happy Home Paradise will release on November 5.