Animal Crossing New Horizons: How to Build a Campsite (& What It’s For)

Animal Crossing New Horizons allows players to build a campsite. This guide will teach players how to unlock the campsite and describe its very helpful function in the game. Animal Crossing New Horizons is all about building a strong and healthy community within the island. Players can interact with their neighbors, unlock expressions by speaking with them, occasionally be given special furniture items, or if the player just wants to participate in a healthy conversation, they have that option too. When the game begins, the player and two random neighbor characters are dropped off together for Tom Nook’s island escapade. Very early on, the player and these two neighbors can come together and help build the island to a better stature. The main goal of the game outside of paying Tom Nook’s massive home loans would be to build a community on the island. There are over 200 potential neighbors in Animal Crossing New Horizons and players can cap out of having over 10 neighbors per island. There is a multitude of ways to increase the population of the player’s island, including a campsite, which is an area that is unlocked by playing through the game. Campsites can be filled by either waiting for random characters to arrive or by using amiibo figures and cards. This guide will help players unlock the campsite and explain its purpose.

The campsite is a helpful location that will be unlocked decently deep into the playtime of Animal Crossing New Horizons. The way Animal Crossing New Horizons works is by having new content be unlocked through real-life days. Most games allow players to unlock various perks, items, and locations by just playing the game. In the case of Animal Crossing, regardless of completing a certain task, the player must wait a certain amount of time to reap the benefits of their work. For example, once the player pays off their first loan from Tom Nook for their housing expansion, the player must wait until the next day to take out another loan from Tom Nook. Although, there is a method to skip the waiting process. If the player exits the game and enter the Nintendo Switch system settings, they can change the date on their system to a future date. Entering the game again will make the day move forward by one date, and whatever construction process that was being done will be completed. The campsite is unlocked after certain days in the game. Here’s how to unlock it and what it does.

Unlocking The Campsite in Animal Crossing New Horizons

The Campsite is a helpful location that brings new potential neighbors to live on the island. The campsite is introduced to the player after Tom Nook has upgraded the Resident Tent. The Resident Tent, now Resident Building, will bring along Isabelle, a veteran character in the Animal Crossing series, as a new employee on the island. Speaking with her allows the player to either change the island tune, change the design of the island flag, or potentially kick out unwanted neighbors from the island. Once the construction on the Resident Building is complete, Tom Nook has an idea to bring KK Slider, another veteran character of the series, onto the island to perform a concert. To do this, the island must build a stronger reputation to invite his presence. To build a stronger reputation, Tom Nook explains how bringing over more neighbors can raise the popularity of the island and provides the player with a Campsite set and the player can place it wherever they’d like on the island.

Placing the campsite takes a day to be constructed. Once the campsite is constructed, occasionally new potential neighbors will arrive and stay for a visit. Here, players can visit the campsite and convince these new characters to move into their islands. Although, if its a character the player is not too fond of, they can ignore them and after a few days, a new character will arrive. Players will then be given a set to build a home for this new neighbor from Tom Nook. Place it down wherever the player would like, then wait (or use the time travel method) for the new character to move in. Also, if the player has a healthy collection of amiibo figures or cards, scanning these NFC items will bring the character to the island and will have them staying at the campsite. This is the only way to get an exact neighbor, as all other methods provide neighbors at completely random. Speaking with them takes a few attempts, but soon these characters will offer to move onto the island as a permanent resident.

While Animal Crossing New Horizons is a game that can theoretically go on forever due to updates and the nature of the game lacking a “final boss”, the game does have an end credits sequence that can be unlocked. To unlock the end credits, the player must successfully raise the popularity of their island and have KK Slider perform. The end credits sequence plays while KK Slider is singing his song. Gathering neighbors is an essential part of raising the popularity of the island. In the beginning, players are only given two neighbors. After unlocking Nook Tours, players can travel to other islands and meet new characters to invite them to move onto their island. The campsite is the final piece in completing a fully stocked neighborhood of colorful and interesting characters. Animal Crossing New Horizons is about building relationships with these neighbors. Veteran Animal Crossing players already have all-time favorite neighbors and newcomers have begun to follow suit. As this may be millions of players’ first Animal Crossing game, these new neighbors may appear in a future title. It’s pleasant to see amiibo figures and cards also getting a function after feeling like a forgotten feature created by Nintendo back in the Wii U’s lifecycle. The Campsite is the perfect time to dust off those old collectibles and bring them along for a tropical adventure.

Animal Crossing New Horizons is available now on the Nintendo Switch.

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Sky Flores
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Sky Flores is a writer and game player based out of New York City. His hobbies consist of creating content on YouTube and streaming video games on Twitch. His online alias is @SkywardWing.

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