Animal Crossing New Horizons getting huge paid DLC called Happy Home Paradise

Hoo boy. That Animal Crossing Direct sure was something, huh?

Nintendo have revealed that, in addition to the massive free update coming to Animal Crossing New Horizons next month, it’ll also be getting a hefty paid DLC. The DLC is titled Happy Home Paradise, and like its name suggests, it’ll basically be an expanded version of Happy Home Designer for the 3DS.

Happy Home Paradise offers you a gigantic archipelago, on which you design and build holiday homes for a number of creatures. Much like Happy Home Designer, you’ll be expected to design to a theme, with particular furniture items required to fit the bill. There’s also a range of buildings you’ll be able to customise to your liking, creating structures like schools, hospitals, and much more. There’s also a host of new decorating tools, and you can transfer those tools over to the main game eventually too, to design some cool new stuff on your own island. You can watch the trailer, and read the press release, below.

Happy Home Paradise will cost $37.50 AUD to buy individually, but you also get it included in a Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack subscription. You can find the pricing and details for that here. Happy Home Paradise will launch alongside the free update on the 5th of November.

In this expansion, players will join the Paradise Planning team, where they’ll have the opportunity to design vacation homes for characters, with dozens and dozens of vacationers enjoying their design inspirations. Let’s take a closer look at just some of the experiences players can expect with this new add-on, beginning 5^th November:

• Work with Lottie as a member of the Paradise Planning team: Clients with different dream vacation requests will visit a new resort area located in an archipelago, made up of several different islands, where the Paradise Planning team is located. You can talk to a client and find out the details of their requests for a vacation home, and then make their dreams happen!
• Design dream vacation homes: After choosing a location for your clients’ dream vacation home, you can design the interior, where you’ll place designated furniture that was delivered ahead of time. As you continue designing vacation homes, you’ll acquire various design techniques, from changing how the home is structured by adding partition walls and pillars to divide the space, to adding counters, ambient lighting and soundscapes to add depth to the room design, and more. The vacation home themes vary depending on the client, and many requests await your expertise. You can also decorate the exterior yard.
• Make remodelling and roommate recommendations: As you gain experience as a designer, more furniture will become available and you’ll also be able to make more suggestions. These include recommendations like suggesting to remodel the vacation homes of clients you’ve helped previously with different furniture, or even recommend that two clients share a vacation home together as roommates.
• Design Facilities: There are several vacant buildings on the island where Lottie’s Paradise Planning team is located. Lottie wants to make this island more robust and developed, so you’ll be able to help design facilities such as a school, restaurant and café.
• Get inspiration from the Happy Home Network: Capture photos of the vacation homes you design and save them to your catalogue, which you can check out through the in-game Happy Home Network app in your NookPhone. From this app, you can also access your Showroom to view the building examples of designers from all over the world who have posted their creations online.**** You can follow the designers you like and view their samples for inspiration.
• Use amiibo to invite more clients: Usually your job is to look for clients on the resort who may be considering having their own vacation home, but … if you use the current Animal Crossing series amiibo, you can invite a specific client to discuss their vacation home. With amiibo, you can even design the vacation homes of busy individuals like Isabelle and Timmy & Tommy!
• Bring your techniques back to the main island: Techniques you’ve obtained through your work on the Paradise Planning team can also be used on your home island. Perhaps this will be a great opportunity for you to overhaul the design of your own home. And if you give island residents souvenir chocolate from Paradise Planning as a gift, they may become interested in what the archipelagos and vacation homes have to offer. Then, one day when you become a veteran designer with lots of experience, you will eventually be able to remodel resident’s homes on your island by making suggestions to them too!