New Animal Crossing: New Horizons Summer Update Adds Diving

A new summer update for Animal Crossing: New Horizons has added diving and new encounters.

Nintendo announced the first wave of a summer update for the game yesterday, releasing a video explaining that diving will be returning to the game from New Leaf as well as new encounters with Pascal and a revamped version of Gulliver.

Similarly to New Leaf, players will be able to swim in the ocean surrounding their island and will be able to dive for sea creatures, a brand new selection of critters you can catch and donate to the museum. Some of the sea creatures spotted in the trailer included scallops, sea stars, and plenty more.

The diving mechanic works similarly to the one from New Leaf in which players move towards an underwater shadow, dive, and then catch the sea creature. The main difference between the two versions is that you can see your character underwater in New Horizons.

The update also brings back popular character Pascal from previous games. In New Horizons Pascal rewards players with mermaid-themed DIY recipes in exchange for special scallops found when diving.

To dive, players will need to purchase swimsuits from Nook’s Cranny which will become available after the update, or purchase a special swimsuit with Nook Miles. Also, Nintendo will gift players free snorkels as a thank you for updating.

New And Familiar Enouncters

Finally, the update also introduces what appears to be an alternate version of Gulliver, a seagull who washes ashore on your island. The alternate version of Gulliver wears pirate-themed clothing and will most likely reward players with pirate-themed DIY recipes for helping him.

It’s unclear if this version of Gulliver will act as a completely new encounter and we’ll still see the original Gulliver wash up on our island, or whether this pirate-themed version replaces the original.

The update will release on July 3rd, 2020, and is the first wave of the New Horizons summer update. The second wave was teased in the trailer and will reportedly be released early August, fans believe the second wave will include new events such as the fireworks show which has remained a staple in the series since Animal Crossing: Wild World.

You can watch the trailer for the new update here: