This week I got a sneak peek at the new Animal Crossing New Horizons: Happy Home Paradise expansion pack and was able to ask the team at Nintendo some pressing questions for ACNH fans!
I answer some of the burning questions about playing this new expansion pack and what you can do in the game.
Animal Crossing: Happy Home Paradise is out now and can be purchased for $24.99, or upgrade your Nintendo Switch Online account to include Expansion Packs, and it comes included along with the new Nintendo 64 and SEGA Genesis expansions!
Your Animal Crossing Happy Home Paradise Questions Answered!
I’ve bought Happy Home Paradise, now what, it’s not loading?
Now that the DLC is live, you need to close out of the software to make sure everything is downloaded. In the Nintendo Shop, make sure the button says “Downloaded.” Close out of Animal Crossing New Horizons and hit the + sign to make sure everything is updated. I had to close out of the game completely to get it to load fresh.
When you start the game again, it will ask to check online if you can play. Make sure to hit Check so it can access the internet and activate your download!
Restart the game again, when you walk out of your home, Tom Nook will call you on the phone and ask you to meet someone new at the airport. There you will meet Lottie and be asked to join the Happy Home Paradise team. You’ll also see the Happy Home Paradise delivery in your mailbox.
You then just have to tell the Dodo “I want to go to work.” Away you go!
What happens if you take on a client and need to leave the game or it closes?
Just like the normal game, the data saves periodically while you’re playing. If you are actively working on a client’s house and you need to end your sessions, the work you’ve put in so far will be saved. You can leave or close the game and come back to the project to complete it for the client later. There are no time limits for decorating. So if a spark of genius comes to you later, you can go back and work on it again.
Can everyone on my island (Nintendo Family) use Happy Home Paradise DLC?
Yes, everyone in the Nintendo family can play the expansion pack. We have two Nintendo Switches and a Nintendo Switch Online Family account. This allows my kids to play on my main island. Each time a new account plays the game, they will be asked to meet Lottie and start their new job.
Secondary Switches can also play! No need to purchase multiple times.
Are the Happy Home Paradise characters different?
Yes! Just like when you start your island, the Happy Home Paradise auto-populates a getaway destination that is different than say a family member or a friend on the same Switch. With over 900 characters in Animal Crossing, it allows for all different characters to be selected. While you may get a set of characters, another person on your island will get a completely different set!
If you’re one of those people with two islands or multiple villagers, you have the ability to create vacation homes for tons of different characters.
Can I decorate more than just homes?
Yes! There are other buildings on the island, too called facilities, like a school, a café, a restaurant, a hospital, and a retail shop. You’ll design them in that order as well. You can pick if you want to do a cafe or a restaurant but the rest happen in this order with the retail shop as your final facility.
Put all those items to good use. The new 2.0 update added over 9000 new items! 
What can I design in Happy Home Paradise?
Short answer, EVERYTHING! Homes, you can change the size, outside design, roofs, colors, and more. Yards can be designed with paths, stairs, bridges, and fences. Items for inside the home pull from the ENTIRE library of items, and then you can customize them without buying customization packs. You also have the ability to use patterns from Sable. So a crib blanket can rock an awesome pizza pattern. Because the catalog is so extensive, it generally shows a collection of recommended items.
The latest addition also brings a new tool to create walls to section off rooms and create accent walls. Another tool you’ll unlock is the shining tool to make a home sparkle.
The fun doesn’t stop at homes, buildings, and items either. You can even customize the lighting, time of day, and season that the home is in. It can be twilight as the sun is setting in Spring when the cherry blossoms are blooming. Or late at night when the sky is clear and full of stars in the middle of winter.
Is everything unlocked when you start Happy Home Paradise?
No, just like in New Horizons, you need to earn these skills and upgrades. It wouldn’t be fun if everything was unlocked the moment you started playing. The more you create and the happier you make your clients, the more you will unlock in the DLC.
Niko will start creating DIY recipes that you need to bring materials for and leave in the storage box. Island counters, pillars, and partition walls are some of the recipes. These are all recipes that you can also use on your island.
The game is fully unlocked after 30 homes. The final task is the do your retail shop and then celebrate with a huge party on the beach with DJ K.K. You’ll also learn a bunch of new Dance reactions.
Can I use Happy Home Paradise items back on my island?
Yes…eventually. Again, the more you go to work, the more you can take ideas and items back to your island and start designing for characters on your island.
Wardell also works as “Furniture Procurement” for Paradise Planning. He helps to get you the items you need in the game.
After 30 homes, Tom Nook will call you to discuss redecorating homes on your island. You’ll have to pay a fee on your island, but you’ll go to Tom Nook’s counter and ask “Let’s talk homes.”
Can you also change a villager’s paradise home island later on?
Yes, after you finish a home, you can return later to Remodel or Move the character to a new location.
What to do if you fill every island spot
You can put multiple vacationers on a plot (not sharing a home) of land. Sometimes you just need those pretty Spring blossom or covered vine pillar areas for the perfect home location. There also isn’t a limit (that anyone has found yet) to how many homes you can design for on the island. Maybe if you run through every single character and amiibo card available!
Is the Happy Home Paradise worth the money?
Absolutely, YES! The access to the extensive library of Animal Crossing New Horizon items alone is a huge plus. While the job is a fun side game, it makes sitting around and relaxing on Animal Crossing even more fun. Take your time decorating homes and unlocking features instead of blowing through the full expansion pack as quickly as possible.
More Details from Animal Crossing Happy Home Paradise DLC
More Details from Animal Crossing Happy Home Paradise DLC- When you walk around the island to find a client, a little thought bubble comes up to share what the character’s main theme is that they are looking for on the island.
- Each client has three item requirements per job, everything else is up to you!
- A new app is added to your Nook Phone to showcase all the homes you’ve designed.
- Lottie pays you in Poki not Bells, so you can only purchase things that are sold in her shop.
- The items in Lottie’s lobby are only available there and you can bring them back to your island, including chocolates you can give to your villagers as gifts.
- There are 48 plots around the island that can be designed. But that does not include the buildings around the main island that Paradise Planning’s office is on.
- You can place multiple villagers in the same style plots. They don’t share the homes (until later).
- The main island has five other buildings that you can unlock.
- Paradise Planning Island has a bung of vines and cool weeds you can take home with you and use on your island.
- New jobs pay 6,000 Poki, after you get a raise (after your first building) you’ll make 9,000 Poki. Then 12,000. After 20 homes you’ll make 15,000 Poki.
- Remodels pay 3,000 Poki
- Small jobs like taking photos for Lottie pay 2,000 Poki
- Buildings like the school pay 25,000 Poki
- Wardell with teach you how to use Soundscapes to change the atmosphere of a room beyond using music.
- Your characters can share homes with other characters to become roommates. When you unlock the ability to make larger room sizes and two-story homes, this is a great way to group vacationers together.
Your First Design Client
Your First Design ClientYour first design job is automatically picked for you when you first visit. Eloise the cute yellow elephant visits Paradise Planning after you change into your uniform. You’ll have your first consultation with Lottie to discover Eloise’s dream vacation home, which is “My Relaxing Reading Room.” She also has the perfect spot picked out already.
This allows you a practice decorating the inside of a home. For this reason, you won’t get to decorate the outside of the house at first, but when you return you can. It also helps you get started with requirements like the three items that need to be included at the special request of the client. You’ll earn 6,000 Poki during your first job.
After you complete your first job you can continue designing or head back to your island. If you want to continue designing, make sure you’re still wearing your uniform. Chat with Lottie and she will promote you to sales and ask you to drum up some business around the island. There were three island visitors wandering around that you can talk to. Without your uniform on, they think you’re just another traveler. Once you have your uniform on, you can “read their minds” about the island life they are dreaming about. Move close to them to see their desires and to select the next project!
Earning perks
After you start creating vacation homes, the clients will start to gather on the north side of the island. You can talk to them and they will gift you with items as a way of saying thanks. The items are generally items that you used in their home design.
Decorating Your Island Villagers Vacation Homes with Happy Home Paradise
Use your Poki that you’ve earned from jobs to buy souvenir chocolates for your villagers. When you give them one as a gift they will want to visit to check out your new job. Once you arrive you can put on your uniform and get to work.
Just remember, if you bring one of your islanders over, they will want to place their vacation home on this new island. This will take the place of a random character that might have the chance to visit.
You can also invite characters, including non-playable characters like Isabelle, Kicks, or Celeste to the island with amiibo Cards at the kiosk that you can unlock from Lottie.
Need Happy Home Paradise inspiration?
Check out the Happy Home Network app that Lottie adds to your NookPhone. This app will let you showcase your homes and facilities for other members to see. You can all see their showroom creations by going online. The app populates a collection of homes and there is a separate tab for facilities. You can refresh the page to see more.
Check out the full announcement about Happy Home Paradise in the Nintendo Video.
If you quit a project in home design, can you come back to it later? Can you also change a villagers paradise home island later on?
Yes, you can revisit homes to “Remodel or Move” them anywhere you want on the island.
I had a quick question. I’m currently creating my cafe, and I was just told “the room is full, so you can’t place anything else”. Is this a normal thing, or an error in the game? I’ve never been limited to adding a certain amount of items to a room before?
I got that message during a design recently too. I think there’s a maximum number of items that you can put in one room.
We haven’t encountered that problem. Were you able to expand the walls to the 10×10 size? It might be a bug worth reporting to Nintendo. They have been releasing bug updates all week!
Hi,I’m not receiving a call from Tom Nook, why? Help please!!!!
Did you find out the fix for this? My main player can use HHP but my kids can’t.
Are your kids linked to your main account under a family account? You can’t share purchases without them being linked. If it’s linked and not working, I would reach out to Nintendo Support.
Make sure you’ve closed out of the game and closed the software completely by hovering over the game from the home screen and selecting X, then Close. Then hover over the game and hit + to open Options. Choose Software Update to make sure everything is up to day.
You also need to make sure you are connected to the Internet. This allows the game to verify that you have in fact purchased the expansion. If you have a family Nintendo account you have to make sure to redeem the game on the primary parent account.
If all else fails, call Nintendo Support. They are SUPER helpful in working out the kinks. Happy Home Designing!
Will i loose the happy home paradise planning if i restart my whole game?
I haven’t tested this, but if you purge the save data to restart the game, HHP will go with that because it ties directly into the main game.
this just saved me from tears ! I couldn’t figure out why the dlc wasn’t loading so thank you so so much
Glad you got it working!
Don’t know how I did it but planted roses on an island and don’t know how to remove them. Can you help?
You should be able to remove plants just like the items you’ve placed by selecting the Y to remove. If something isn’t being removed, I would submit a bug report to Nintendo so they can patch it in future updates.
How to reset happy home paradise my map is all fill up and I want to reset so I can play it all over
You can also have multiple islanders to a plot even if someone is in the same area.
I’m pretty sure your HHP data is saved with your main ACNH data, so you would have to reset your island to also reset HHP. If you end up resetting can you come back and let me know if that worked?
Hi. In case of multiple accounts with two consoles under family membership, is one account entitled to a different island to work on in happy home paradise? Or will it be a continuing job/work or a shared island like the one in new horizon where different users get to share one island only? Your answer would greatly help.
I think I understand your question, but it might be easier to explain how we have ours set up. My family of four is on the Family Online Members with Expansions. We also have two consoles. Each console can play ACNH and Happy Home Paradise with only purchasing the game and expansion once. Each console will have its own island though. The primary person on the account (in my case that’s me) can launch the game and play, however, I can’t play under my profile on both Switches at the same time. I have to close the software on one to play the other. I have two separate islands and HHP job/work. My secondary console saves my game data on the SD card or hard drive while my Primary Switch saves to the cloud. My kids each have their own profiles as well and while they live on the same island as I do, the HHP work they do is completely separate also. I’ve finished all of the cool features on HHP while my kids are still working to unlock things.
I hope this answers your question about family sharing. Let me know if you have any more questions.
If I was to restart my game completely, would I have to re-buy the DLC?
So I restarted my game and looked at Nintendo eshop and it says that it’s still purchased so no need to rebuy it!!
No, your purchases are connected to your Nintendo account. If anything happens to your Switch and it’s broken or replaced, this allows you to redownload the content that you’ve purchased.
i restarted my island, when do i get a call from tom nook to start working? i can’t find the answer anywhere online!
If you recently reset the whole island you need to get through the initial “tutorial/learn to play” portion of the beginning of the game. They normally includes a few days of tasks from Tom Nook. Once you are out on your own and have the ability to talk to Orville. Make sure your Switch is connected to the internet as well. The game requires connecting to verify you own the game before you can play.
So if I delete my island completely were either he said everything it won’t delete happy paradise planning because if it does I’m gonna cry
Unfortunately, I’m not sure about this question because I’m not sure how Happy Home Paradise saves game data and if it is directly linked to your island. My gut reaction would be that it is and you may need to start HHP again from the beginning.
Hi! So basically I restarted my island a couple days ago and my resident services building is being upgraded and should be done by tomorrow, I’ve done a TONE of research about if I restart my island when do I get the dlc back, and it has told that I need to at least had the full resident services building, know DIYs and have at least 5 villagers, do you think I should be receiving a phone call from Tom Nook tomorrow when I leave my house?! I only restarting my island bc I finished hhp so quickly!! I’m honestly gonna cry if I don’t get a phone call ????????????????????????
Oh no! Please come back and tell us what happens.
Will do!
Have you figured out what happens to HHP when you reset your island?
How do you stop my permanent school students from being swapped out.
My neighbors are permanent students in that school, at least for awhile. It ticks me off to see them playing hooky, because the game swapped them out AGAIN.
Ant how do you keep uniforms from resetting to the default each day. Each of the players on my island hates the defaults, and some hate school uniforms too.
I also want the patien in the exam room wearing a hospital gown for their exam.
How do I keep my changes permanent.
Even a remodel does not change ANYTHING.
The patient still needs their gown,
The next day, my neighbors have to be thrown back in the classroom,
Their clothes have to be changed to what I want it to be.
The school students and patient wards defaults really annoy me.
How do I keep my outfits permanent, when remodeling does not prevent the resetting to the not liked defaults.
One player also wants to regulate the attire of the cafe or restaurant patrons.
Such as beach wear or black tie rather than regular clothes.
I’m not sure about this. I think these features are all set by the game.
I have a question. I made a vacation home for Ankha and she wasn’t on my island. I will have an open plot tomorrow and was considering buying a move in service for Ankha to be one of my villagers. Can I do this since she already has a vacation home? What happens in this situation? Two Ankhas?? They both are the same??
They are technically the same Ankha. She is just visiting her vacation home, and your island plot is their primary residence.
So if I do restart my island, my HHP will still be there?
Small edit: Side jobs (or at least remodeling) pay more the more homes you do, it seems. Case in point, I’m at the highest pay amount (15k Poki per vacation house), and after I remodeled an existing vacation home a little (changed the exterior of the house), Lottie paid me 5k Poki.
Also, question: I read elsewhere that if I do a vacation home for one of my town villagers by giving them Souvenir Chocolates, then later kick them out of my village, I can’t edit their vacation home anymore. Is that true? Do I lose them on HHP as well? Or what? It sounds mean, but this “Make a town villager vacation home, then kick them out of the village” idea could be a way for me to indirectly “keep” a villager I want to be rid of in favor of someone I like better if they at least stay in HHP.
Example Scenario:
* I have Pecan in my village. So I give her the chocolates and make her a vacation home.
* Sometime afterwards, I decide to kick her out of the village with an Amiibo card, a campsite visitor, or saying yes if she has the “Stay or go?” thought bubble.