Animal Crossing: New Horizons - Happy Home Paradise (Nintendo Switch)

On this game, you work for Paradise Planning as a holiday home designer. The upside of this, apart from the salary, is that you get access to all the furniture and décor pieces you will need without having to painfully grind to earn them. Your mission is to create the perfect holiday home for your clients. Your client will tell you the things they must have in their home: a library, a swimming pool etc – the rest is entirely up to you.

Your work on the various homes takes place on one of a number of islands, each with their own special features for you to consider during your renovations.

In your spare time, you can repurpose abandoned buildings into working facilities across the island. The empty buildings almost always have a pre-set purpose (school, café, fire station, etc.) and you must ensure they will function well and fit the available space and fulfil the item requirements – but aside from that, you can choose décor schemes, colour themes and more! Once built, these buildings populate and operate automatically, making your clients happy.

You meet and interact with new characters, who you take on as clients, building their perfect holiday home. But don’t rush off: stick around at the end of the job for a photoshoot. During the photoshoot, you can position your client as you desire, which seems small and negligible, but is curiously satisfying. You aren’t forced into leaving once the job is complete, you can hang around and play a bit more, especially if you are still working on the facilities.

If you crave complete creative control in your builds, do keep on playing as you will eventually unlock the ability to design a house completely from your own likes and dislikes, no client instructions at all. You can even build a house for villagers to share as ‘roommates’ – and then you can pretend they’re dating if you like!

The Nitty Gritty

As mentioned earlier, bells aren’t as important as they are in other games in the series. Not only are things more readily available, but you are paid quite generously in Poki – a currency unique to this archipelago – and this allows you to start buying pretty freely right from the beginning.

The more work you do, the more salary increases you get along with your new expertise, so money really isn’t ever a problem for you. This allows you to just roll up your sleeves and get on with making cute and cool things – although you do have to work your way up to unlock the full inventory: life can’t be too easy for you now!

Pro-tip: Speak to, Wardell, the manatee in charge of the giftshop and befriend him! He will do you logistical favours when you become a favoured customer, even delivering items to the client’s house as you need them.

There is a bureau de change, so you can swap Poki for bells. As well as this there are some cool features you can add to your client’s houses. Not only can you change a room in size (anywhere between four by four and ten by ten is allowed); but you can also add soundscapes to various rooms (these are constant ambient noises such as the sound of the sea) or add pillars and a second floor to the house.

You can also, as you progress, invite specific amiibo using the game’s cards, or encourage your own villagers to come and see your work. You might need to bribe them with souvenir chocolates as they can be reluctant to travel!

Tips for Beginners

The following aims will give you something to do while you work to open up the inventory and reach a level that allows you more freedom and independence.

Complete at least seven buildings

Facilities will take longer than houses so do be patient with them

Make personal choices: you will spend a while working on a client’s house, make sure you have fun while you take their choices into account