Download the free New Leaf update now to experience all the new features!

Nintendo streamed an Animal Crossing Direct today focusing exclusively on the new update for Animal Crossing: New Leaf on the 3DS. Nintendo had announced an Amiibo support update for the game months ago, but no one could have guessed the update would be this big. Or that they would be releasing it as a new “remastered” game you can buy–Animal Crossing: New Leaf – Welcome amiibo. Of course, if you already own New Leaf, you can simply download the update for free today. The update has so many different features. Let’s take a look at them.

The Campground

Your town has a new section with two new NPC’s: the Campground, featuring Harvey the hippie dog and Wisp the ghost. This place is a hub of activity revolving around most facets of the update. Here, you can scan in Amiibo cards to invite villagers, scan select compatible Amiibo figures from other games to come visit, use new MEOW coupons to buy special in-game items, visit new characters in their RVs to buy exclusive furniture from them, and gain access to the new minigames. That’s a lot of stuff, so I’ll break it down even more.

MEOW Coupons

MEOW coupons are a new currency you can use in the Campground to purchase items. So throw your bells in the bank and focus on MEOW-ing for a bit. Steps for obtaining and using this currency are pictured below.

Amiibo Support

We knew Amiibo support was coming, but we were fuzzy on the details. Now we know you can use all Animal Crossing Amiibo cards, previously only compatible with Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer and Amiibo Festival. Scanning these cards brings villagers to your new Campground, where you can invite them to move into your town. You can also scan Amiibo cards of NPC’s to come visit and sell you furniture items. Perhaps the most exciting aspect of the Amiibo support is the ability to scan Amiibo figures from other Nintendo game series like The Legend of Zelda and Splatoon. Characters from these games can visit your campground as Animal Crossing-ized characters, sell you items, and move to your town!

There are also new Amiibo cards coming out for New Leaf on December 2nd. The Animal Crossing: New Leaf – Welcome amiibo series cards feature brand new villagers in their RVs. You will be able to scan in these cards to invite these villagers to your town and obtain new furniture items from them.

New Ways to Decorate

Home designing has always been a big feature of the Animal Crossing series, and now it’s getting even bigger. With the Amiibo
support comes new furniture items. Many of the items will be familiar to players, as they are coming from Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer, though some are completely new. Also, you can now link your save data from HHD to New Leaf to gain access to 20 giant furniture items only available in HHD. Another great feature being pulled from HHD is the ability to decorate rooms in your home by moving furniture around on the touch screen instead of having your character push the items around manually.

Get Bells for Restarting your Town

Players often decide they want to get rid of their town and start fresh with a new one. However, this sets you back to square one with no items and no bells, the in-game currency. With this update, Tom Nook might offer to purchase your town from you when you decide to restart. This way, you’ll have plenty of bells, so you can develop your new town quickly.

Two New Minigames

The 16 Animal Crossing Amiibo figures you can scan in will all have Wii U console and New Nintendo 3DS XL or New Nintendo 3DS items in their RVs. If you buy these in-games consoles, you will have access to new minigames: Animal Crossing Puzzle League and Desert Island Escape.

IRL Photos with Game Characters

You can now snap photos of your game’s characters and villagers in your real life background!

Like I said, this update is huge. You can purchase Animal Crossing: New Leaf – Welcome amiibo and the new Amiibo card series on December 2nd. But if you already own New Leaf, the free update is available to download now from the Nintendo eShop. Check out the Animal Crossing website for even more details and images!