The sheer volume of content that's been added with the Animal Crossing: New Horizons 2.0 update can be a little bit overwhelming if players are jumping in without having done any research about it. One aspect of the update that fans shouldn't put off engaging with, however, is Harv's Island. The island was a little bare in terms of content in the base game, but the 2.0 update completely changed its functionality and has turned it into one of the most important places for players to visit.
Now, instead of simply being a place for players to pose for pictures with their favorite villagers, the island has been transformed into a Market Plaza thanks to the help of Harvey's hair-stylist-turned-planner friend Harriet. The Market Plaza can become a place that hosts vendors of all different types for the player to visit, but it comes at a price as asking vendors to set up private booths is a costly endeavor. This means that players will need to choose wisely on which vendors they want to bring to the island first and, while there's plenty of merit in hosting the rotating cast of traveling vendors that were found in the base version of Animal Crossing: New Horizons, players should consider prioritizing the new vendors over the ones they've already been patrons of.
New Faces and New Content in New Horizons
The vendors that Harv can host on his island are made up of a lot of the usual Animal Crossing retailer cast, but characters from previous games who were notably absent when New Horizons was released have finally made appearances again to the delight of many fans. The vendors available to set up permanent booths on the island are Katrina, Saharah, Tortimer (and his alter-ego Cornimer during the Fall season), Reese and Cyrus, Leif, Crazy Redd, Kicks, and Harriet.
The temptation might be for players to prioritize the vendors they know so that they can finish up things like their art, shoe, and rug collections. However, the new vendors bring a lot to the table for fans to engage with that hasn't been seen in Animal Crossing: New Horizons so far. The newcomers to the game are Katrina, Tortimer, Reese and Cyrus, and Harriet. The vendors with the most uses are certainly Reese and Cyrus as the couple is able to customize items for the player. While players were given plenty of customization options of their own in New Horizons, Reese and Cyrus have a lot of exclusive designs that can't be accessed anywhere else.
Tortimer's vendor stall works directly to compliment Reese and Cyrus' as he allows the player to access their entire in-house storage space from Harv's island, meaning that they won't have to travel back and forth to get a lot of custom jobs done. It's a little unfortunate that this feature is gated off by a high bell price, but it's always nice to sit and talk with Tortimer for a while either way.
Harriet's station is also a new step for anyone looking to further their customization options, as her stall allows players to expand the number of hairstyles in the game. The new addition greatly increases the number of styles available for players to use, giving Animal Crossing: New Horizons fans even more personalized customization options.
Katrina doesn't give the player access to new items, but she does offer insight into their relationships with their villagers and can tell the player's fortune. Luck is a relatively obtuse mechanic in the Animal Crossing series and, since Katrina is new to New Horizons, no one really has a good understanding of what it means when she tells the player that they have good luck. Some have noticed that, following a lucky trip to the fortune teller, their tools won't break, but it looks like players will need to spend more time with her to know for certain what her fortune-telling actually does in this entry in the franchise.
Animal Crossing: New Horizons is available now for Nintendo Switch.
