Unlocking New Horizons: Top Changes Animal Crossing Should Bring to Milestones

Highlights

Completing tasks in Animal Crossing: New Horizons and earning Nook Miles is a key part of progression in the game.

The milestone rewards in the game are in need of an update, as they currently feel inadequate. Animal Crossing: New Horizons should consider enhancing the milestone rewards by providing unique items that are only available upon completing specific milestones. Additionally, the game could introduce bronze and silver versions of the golden tools as part of the rewards.

Rewards in Animal Crossing: New Horizons play a significant role in the game's progression. By completing tasks on their NookPhone and earning Nook Miles, players can redeem various rewards. These tasks serve as a measure of a player's time spent in the game, guiding them towards achieving major milestones like completing the Critterpedia or obtaining an S Rank house from the Happy Home Academy. However, the current rewards for these milestones feel inadequate and could benefit from an update in the next installment of Animal Crossing.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons primarily rewards players with Nook Miles for completing lifetime milestones. These Nook Miles can be used to purchase a range of rewards, including new hairstyles, DIY recipes, construction permits, furniture, and clothing. Additionally, players earn titles that can be added to their passports and displayed when connecting with other players online. While these rewards are satisfactory, there is ample room for improvement in a sequel to Animal Crossing: New Horizons, where completing milestone tasks could be made even more fulfilling.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons Could Have Done More with Milestone Rewards

Although Nook Miles can be used to purchase furniture and clothing items as rewards for milestone achievements, Animal Crossing: New Horizons could have enhanced this system by offering exclusive items for completing specific milestones. There are numerous unique items that are only available through special events, such as the Fishing Tourney or Bug Off, which could have been used as random rewards for achieving milestones related to catching fish and bugs. While the option to choose rewards with Nook Miles allows players to select what they want, it takes away some of the excitement of receiving a surprise item when they can see the list of available options.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons also offers coveted golden tools as rewards for completionists who achieve milestones like catching every type of fish and bug, or shooting down 300 balloons. To make these special tools more accessible to casual players, the game could have introduced bronze and silver variants that unlock at lower milestones. This would reward players for their efforts and encourage them to continue progressing towards obtaining the coveted golden tools. This way, players who prefer a more relaxed style of gameplay can still earn their own special tools.

If the Animal Crossing series wants to maintain its tracking and rewarding player's progress, it should improve the daily challenge feature in Nook Miles+. While these rewards are a nice incentive for players who have achieved most of their milestones, the current limit of three challenges per day quickly loses replay value. Animal Crossing: New Horizons could adopt the approach of many mobile games by allowing players to use Bells or another currency to purchase a new set of challenges once they have completed their daily tasks.

Considering that Nook Miles were the series' initial attempt at tracking and rewarding milestone completion, it is understandable that the system may not be perfect. However, the next Animal Crossing game should learn from the flaws in its implementation in Animal Crossing: New Horizons in order to advance the concept. Offering players more unique rewards at shorter intervals would be an effective way to engage casual players while also motivating completionists to strive for perfection in completing the game.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons is available for Nintendo Switch.