Animal Crossing: New Horizons Opens the Ocean in New Update

Animal Crossing: New Horizons will be allowing players to dive into the ocean with its first summer update. Nintendo made the announcement in a new trailer that was released this morning.

This new update, releasing on July 3, will mark the first time that players can explore the ocean. Up until this point, players were only able to fish in the ocean, but never able to actually jump into the water themselves. The trailer showed the player swimming in the water and diving underwater to collect new sea creatures. These sea creatures can be donated to the museum owner Blathers so they can be displayed in his ocean exhibit.

A new character encounter is being introduced with this update as well. Collecting scallops in the ocean will cause an otter named Pascal to pop up and ask for it. If you choose to let him have it, he’ll leave some DIY recipes underwater for you to dig up.

There’s also a new encounter surrounding Gulliver that’s being added with the update. The trailer showed him washed up the beach like usual, but this time he’s wearing a red outfit instead of his usual sailor one. In addition, he’s talking like a pirate, implying that his new encounter will be pirate-themed.

This isn’t the only summer update that the game will be receiving. A second update will be arriving in early August, though no details about what it entails were given outside of a small fireworks tease.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons has been offering players new events each month since the game’s launch that offer them new things to do. Currently, there’s a wedding event going on in which players can earn a number of different wedding themed items for their own personal use. This first Summer update looks to be the biggest addition yet for fans of the game.