‘Animal Crossing: New Horizons’ free summer update delivers customized fireworks and dreams on July 30

Some updates are just better than others, and the upcoming summer patch for “Animal Crossing: New Horizons” belongs to the “better” category. It will deliver new features allowing players to have dreams and customized fireworks, and it is going live later this week.

Next ‘Animal Crossing: New Horizons’ update delivers 3 new features

The next patch for “Animal Crossing: New Horizons” called Summer Update - Wave 2 will be released with three major features. First up are fireworks display that will show above each player’s island every Sunday at 7 p.m. throughout August.

The update’s trailer video suggests there will be fireworks presets, but players can also design their own fireworks. During this time, players can also use their “Animal Crossing: New Horizons” Bells in-game currency to get raffle tickets at the island’s plaza that can then be used to buy themed items.

“Animal Crossing: New Horizons” avatars will start dreaming this summer when a player chooses to take a nap in any of their beds. In the dream, they will meet an NPC named Luna, who will offer players to visit other people’s islands. They can also opt to open their islands for other dreaming visitors through a “Dream Address” that players can give to one another. Since it is a dream, visiting characters can explore and do whatever they want on the destination island without causing any permanent effect or change.

Nintendo is also introducing the Island Backup & Restoration Service to “Animal Crossing: New Horizons” in the upcoming update. As the feature’s name suggests, players with linked Nintendo Switch Online accounts to their games will have to worry less about unsaved data because the game will automatically do it. This will also come in handy if a Switch console is lost or broken because Nintendo Customer Support will help players recover their data.

How to install the ‘Animal Crossing: New Horizons’ summer update

The “Animal Crossing: New Horizons” Summer Update - Wave 2 will start to roll out on Thursday, July 30. One easy way to check if the next Summer Update is available is by restarting “Animal Crossing: New Horizons.” Before doing so, make sure that game data is saved. Once it is ready, a prompt asking the player to download and install the update will appear on the screen.

The available times might not be the same for all players around the world, but there is a way to manually download and install the update. This can be accomplished through the “Animal Crossing: New Horizons” Software Update settings and choose the “Via the Internet” option.