Time traveling is one of those aspects in Animal Crossing that players love or loathe, there doesn’t seem to be any in between. For those that fancy themselves the New Horizons version of the Doctor (Who), the new Animal Crossing: New Horizons update makes drastic changes to how this workaround functions in-game.
The new winter update is here and brings with it two events with Turkey Day (on Thanksgiving at 6 AM PT until November 26th) and Toy Day (December 24, with items arriving on December 1st), as well as random dream destinations with the “Surprise me” option with Luna.
In addition to the usual bug fixes and winter update features that was shown earlier this month, Nintendo has at long last addressed the time-traveling functionality within the game, a trick that players use by changing the time settings on their systems to manipulate time on their islands.
Now, players will not be able to travel forwards in time for special events, only backward. Players will be able to go backward in time for turnip sales and previous events, but no more sneak peeking future events as of now.
For those curious, below are the full patch notes as shared by Nintendo:
General updates
- Two seasonal events, Turkey Day and Toy Day have been added. Residents can visit Resident Services to put in a request to increase the capacity of their home storage. Luna can now offer random dream destinations by selecting the “Surprise me” option. A new feature for transferring save data between different systems has been added.
- This feature only transfers save data for Animal Crossing: New Horizons. When necessary, please use the Nintendo Switch “Transfer Your User Data” feature as well.
The following content has also been added:
- Additional Nook Miles redemption items. Additional limited-time seasonal items from Nook Shopping. Additional DIY recipes that use seasonal materials. Additional Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp collaboration item.
Fixed issues
- Other adjustments and corrections were made to improve the gameplay experience.
A lot of players use the time traveling to go back to old events and new events on the horizon. It’s also a trick loved by those that don’t have as much time to spend in the game as others, but what the same amount of island-building experience. For those that are against this mechanic, they are really against it, at least if comment sections on anything Animal Crossing ever are something to go by.
[Update] After testing the time traveling for ourselves, it looks like you can still time travel forwards a little bit, but you can’t time travel during specific future dates blocked out for events like in the past. We’re still testing out other blocks, but it looks like forward-time travel is restricted but not completely taken away.
What do you think of the recent update for Animal Crossing: New Horizons and the restrictions put on time travel? Sound off with your thoughts in the comment section below!