What do amiibos do in animal crossing

Animal Crossing: New Horizons supports the amiibo and amiibo cards made for previous games in the franchise. However, their function is fundamentally different. In this guide, we’ll show you how amiibo work in Animal Crossing: New Horizons on Nintendo Switch.

Take photos with amiibo

Not too long after you move to your island, a dog named Harvey will appear and roam around. He’ll invite you to fly to his island, Harv’s Island — also known as Photopia, which functions as a photo studio. There, you can scan amiibo and pose them to take silly screenshots with your favorite characters.

Inside his house/studio, press down on the D-pad. This will bring up a Happy Home Designer-like interface for you to arrange the set. While this interface is up, tap any amiibo to the NFC touchpoint to scan them. You can tap multiple amiibo in a row.

Scan amiibo cards to add your favorite villagers to your photo set and unlock a poster of them. You can’t change the outfits of notable characters like K.K. Slider and Isabelle, but you can change the outfits of villagers you invite.

Once they’re in the scene, you can move and pose them however you want, but you won’t be able to talk to them.

After you’ve scanned an amiibo for a photoshoot, you’ll be able to order a poster of the character from Nook Shopping in the Resident Services building back on your island.

In our tests, some characters (Reese and Cyrus, for example) did not appear for photos, but we did get a poster of them. A New Horizons-themed Nintendo Direct did note that some characters would get added support in future updates, so they may join in on the photo fun later.

Invite amiibo characters to stay at your campsite

After your Campsite opens and your first guest comes to visit you (which might take a day), you’ll be able to use the Nook Stop at Resident Services to invite campers to your campsite. Even if you can scan an amiibo (or card), this doesn’t necessarily mean that the character will show up at your Campsite.

You can’t technically invite NPCs to the Campsite, but they will give you a special message. For example, Isabelle will appear with a message saying she can’t go camping and that she’s standing right in front of you, silly! Just like with Photopia, some NPCs will not appear and the game will tell you that they’re not available at the moment. These seem likely to be added later.

Villager amiibo cards also all scan in and will invited the villager to camp at your Campsite. However, based on our tests, we weren’t able to invite any of the amiibo card villagers to permanently move onto our island, even with plots open for them to move into. While the option to invite them does appear, they all declined, saying they had things to do at home.

Reports from other players have noted that the villagers will agree to move in after inviting them to the campsite three times, but we haven’t been able to confirm this yet.

What about the Smash Bros. amiibo and the Sanrio amiibo cards?

The Villager and Isabelle amiibo for Super Smash Bros. will also work with New Horizons. You can get a poster for the Villager amiibo, but he won’t appear at Photopia or the Campsite. Isabelle’s Smash Bros. amiibo will work at Photopia, but she won’t camp with you.

Scan the Sanrio collaboration amiibo cards at Photopia to receive a poster of the character, but they won’t appear in the game or your Campsite.

Update (March 24): We’ve added more information involving inviting villagers to live on your island from campsites.

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