The latest seasonal shift has taken place in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, with Northern Hemisphere players finally getting their chance to explore a snow-covered island. As part of the winter festivities, Islanders are invited to simply play in the local snow, as the snowballs that now conveniently appear can be rolled into an entirely new seasonal character: Snowboy.
Snowboy is essentially the Animal Crossing: New Horizons equivalent to "Frosty the Snowman," and players can meet the icy character every winter by forming him from snow. When summoned, the jolly snowman will sometimes offer the player a valuable "Snowflake DIY," which can then be used to craft one of the game's many different winter seasonal items.
Players can create one new Snowboy every day of winter proper by using the two snowballs that will randomly spawn on their islands every day. The snowballs can be kicked around until they're large enough to roll by hand, or until they fall into a body of water or crash into a hard surface. To summon Snowboy, players simply have to roll one of the snowballs onto the other.
Despite its simplicity, players will only receive a guaranteed reward upon their first encounter with Snowboy. To receive a Large Snowflake and Snowflake DIY after their first meeting with Snowboy, players will have to create a Snowboy with "perfect" proportions. Specifically, fans will usually refer to a 90% rule when crafting a perfect Snowboy - the Snowboy's head must be just about 90% of the size of the body. Another technique involves keeping the numbers 17 and 12 in mind.
Players who find the 90% rule a bit too nebulous can simply use a timer, or pay close attention, while remembering 17 and 12. The Perfect Snowboy's body will take approximately 17 seconds of uninterrupted rolling to create (alternatively, 17 full rolls). Accordingly, the Perfect Snowboy's head will require approximately 12 seconds of rolling, or 12 full rolls. The timing aspect is important because once a snowball becomes too large to kick, players will be unable to precisely identify a "full" single roll by sight alone. Some players also use crafty custom designs and paths to make a "Perfect Snowboy track" that they can simply roll their snowballs along.
If players accidentally go past either 17 or 12 when doing the above, they should simply compensate by rolling the other snowball an appropriate amount of times, with regard to the 17-12 ratio. In other words, keep the 90% rule in mind too. For rolling guidance, players are encouraged to seek help from a recent bug arrival known as the Dung Beetle - they're often found rolling snowballs in winter.
Islanders will know they've made a Perfect Snowboy because the frosty lad will declare it himself, not to mention reward the player with a unique DIY and Large Snowflake. Large Snowflakes are only obtained from Perfect Snowboys, and they're one of several ingredients required by the Snowflake DIYs. For reference, some of the items that can be made with these DIYs are the remarkable frozen furniture pieces seen in the houses of popular characters like Roald. Thankfully though, players will be able to receive an additional Large Snowflake from each Perfect Snowboy on their island on every day of their existence. They won't offer up extra DIYs, but Perfect Snowboys will each bestow Large Snowflakes once a day, until they fully melt, which makes for many Snowflake-related items.
Animal Crossing: New Horizons is available now on Switch.