Animal Crossing: New Horizons update 1.2.0 rolled out on April 23rd and along with it came a whole slew of new additions to the game, including the next few special timed events. The first of these events started on the same day as the update, an Earth Day-themed event called Nature Day. While not as intense as Bunny Day, Nature Day still has a number of different elements to it so we’ve put together a useful guide on this special in-game event!
What and when is Nature Day?
Despite being called Nature Day, this event actually lasts for a bit over a week. From April 23rd through May 4th players will be able to earn bonus nook miles for completing a daily Nook Miles+ task with a nature-centric theme. In addition to that, Tom Nook will give you a special recipe after you complete your first task of the event!
Hedge DIY Recipe
After you complete your first Nature Day themed Nook Miles+ task and speak to Tom Nook, he’ll reward you with the DIY recipe to build hedges! Hedges are a new type of fence element for you to decorate your town with, and unlike other fences, its appearance will change over the course of the year along with the seasons.
To build a hedge just go to any DIY workstation with 10 clumps of weeds, 5 tree branches, and 2 stones.
Leif’s Garden Shop & Shrubbery
While not specific to the Nature Day event, Leif’s Garden Shop does play a significant role. After you install the update Leif will start visiting your town square randomly in the same way that Kicks & Label do from time to time. You can buy a variety of shrubbery from him, along with flower seed packs not available in your Nook’s Cranny. In addition to selling you rare plants, Leif will pay you double for any weeds you bring to him!
Shrubs also play an important role in the Nature Day festivities as several of them require you to plant shrubs in your village. To make things even better, a new set of Nook Miles achievements have been added for planting 1, 10, and 20 shrubs in your town!
The types of shrubs you can obtain include:
- White & Pink Azaleas
- Orange & Yellow Tea Olives
- Blue & Pink Hydrangeas
- Yellow & Red Hibiscus
- Pink & Red Camellia
- Holly
We’re not sure exactly how the shrubbery availability works just yet, but I’ve only encountered Azaleas, Tea Olives, and Hibiscus in my town so far. Leif will also tell you which shrub is in season when you make your purchase, which is in reference to the period of the year where the flowers on the shrubs will bloom.
Nature Day Nook Miles+ Tasks
Every day a new Nook Miles+ task worth 5x miles will appear in your Nook Phone. The tasks themselves are pretty self-explanatory and range from planting flowers & shrubs to giving flowers to your villagers. The complete task list is as follows:
- Craft Fencing for Beautiful Gardens
- Decorate with Flowers
- Get Stylin’ by Wearing Flowers
- Plant Coconuts on the Beach
- Plant Cosmos Seeds
- Plant Hyacinth Bulbs
- Plant Lily Bulbs
- Plant Mum Seeds
- Plant Pansy Seeds
- Plant Rose Seeds
- Plant Shrub Starts
- Plant Tulip Bulbs
- Plant Windflower Bulbs
- Pluck Blossoms and Craft a Flower Crown
- Send Gratitude with Flowers
- Tree Transplantation
- Weave Flowers to Craft a Wreath
From what we can tell, the flower planting tasks will only ever be for the 2 native flowers from your island but we can’t guarantee that to be the case.
These daily achievements are a great way to stock up on Nook Miles over the course of the event, so be sure to clear them every day!
What’s Next?
That’s everything for Nature Day, and I’m pretty thankful for it after the event fest that was the beginning of April. The next in-game event is going to be May Day starting on May 1st, so there will be a little bit of overlap once again, but that event looks to be based on mystery islands which means it will be much easier to manage both. Much like Bunny Day before it, time-traveling won’t initiate the May Day event, so we’ll have to be a little patient before we see what it’s all about.
I love the way Nintendo is handling updates & events this time around, it makes me excited to keep my daily routine going. In addition, it shows that new content will be regularly added for the foreseeable future and make the game truly ever-evolving. I hope you’re all having just as much fun with it as I am, and good luck raking in the Nook Miles during Nature Day!