Wave 2 of Animal Crossing: New Horizon’s summer update introduces a slew of new content including fireworks events, dreaming, cloud saves, and more!
Nintendo has finally announced what’s coming in Wave 2 of its summer update for Animal Crossing: New Horizons, including fireworks, dreams, island cloud save backups, and more, as well as the update’s release date of July 30, 2020. Wave 1 of the summer update was released back in July 3 and introduced swimming, diving, and the return of Pascal the red sea otter.
Wave 1 of the summer update was considerably the most significant the game has received so far. The return of diving and swimming to the game, which was originally introduced in Animal Crossing: New Leaf, seemed like a perfect addition to New Horizons, given its island setting. The update also added a significant number of new items to the game, including both mermaid and pirate-themed items. With how significant Wave 1 of the summer update was, there has been a lot of anticipation for Wave 2.
Nintendo dropped a Summer Update Wave 2 video today, revealing that fireworks shows will be held every Sunday in August, although the time and day may vary depending on player timezone. Players will also be able to purchase raffle tickets from Redd’s Raffle to potentially earn prizes during the fireworks events. Players will also be able to create their own custom-designed fireworks that will be included in the fireworks show. Wave 2 of the summer update is also introducing dreaming to New Horizons. Players will be able to sleep on any bed within their homes and meet returning character Luna in the dream realm, where they’ll be able to visit dream versions of other players’ islands. Players who choose to share their islands in the dream realm will receive a “Dream Address” they can share with friends to allow them to explore their islands. Fortunately, the dream version of a player’s island isn’t permanent, so their real islands will stay safe.
Lastly, players will finally be able to backup and restore their islands via cloud saves for Nintendo Switch Online subscribers. Members can enable the new island backup service which will periodically upload island and user save data so those who lose or damage their Switch consoles will still be able to retrieve their island and player data on a new or repaired console. Nintendo also teased a new feature that will allow players to move users and save data to another console, which is scheduled for release later this year. The new feature could be released at the same time as the next free update for Animal Crossing: New Horizons, which is scheduled for sometime in the fall of 2020.
Nintendo has definitely packed the two summer updates with a lot of great content and it’s great to see the return of both the fireworks event and the ability to visit other players’ islands via dreaming (both of which were initially introduced in previous Animal Crossing games). The ability to backup island and player data to the cloud will also save players from a lot of grief in the event their consoles are either lost or damaged. It’ll be exciting to see what other small additions Wave 2 of the summer update for Animal Crossing: New Horizons has in store when it releases on July 30, 2020.