The characteristic wasn't in the game at launch, but y'all can now swim and dive in Animal Crossing: New Horizons. It isn't that hard to do if you can follow a few simple steps. Here, nosotros'll walk you through where to become a wetsuit, how to swim and dive into the ocean, tips on swimming faster, and what to exercise with sea creatures. You'll exist a freestyle proficient in no time.

How To Get A Wetsuit For Swimming

  • Requires: 3,000 bells

If you lot want to swim in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, the first affair you need to exercise is buy a wetsuit. To buy a wetsuit, caput over to Nook'south Cranny. The wetsuit will be available to purchase in the cabinet where you usually buy tools, seeds, and wallpaper/flooring.

The wetsuit costs 3,000 bells. You tin can also purchase a wetsuit from your Nook Stop terminal for three,000 bells. They come in new designs daily, and then y'all tin can continue checking back if you don't similar what you lot end upwards with. Your Nook Terminate besides offers a Nook Inc. wetsuit for 800 miles.

Purchasing a wetsuit from Nook's Cranny.
Purchasing a wetsuit from Nook'due south Cranny.

To equip the wetsuit, just select it in your inventory, press A, and select "Wear." The wetsuit volition be equipped straight over your clothes, so you don't demand to manually remove shirts or bottoms in order to clothing it. Your shoes and any socks or tights may still exist equipped though--yous tin can notwithstanding swim with them on, but if you desire to take them off or swap them for something more beach-appropriate, you lot'll take to do that manually.

Once your wetsuit is on, you're gear up to start swimming!

How To Swim

  • Requires: Wetsuit

Once you buy a wetsuit, Timmy and Tommy will give you a quick how-to on pond, but if you skipped it on accident or don't call back, we've run through the basics below.

How To Get In The Water

To swim, y'all need to head to 1 of your body of water's beaches and arrive the water get-go. There are ii primary means y'all tin enter the body of water: wading in from the sandy beach, or diving in from either your beach rocks, that narrow strip of state that juts into the ocean, or your pier.

The first day of the summer update, and it's raining on my island...
The first day of the summer update, and information technology'southward raining on my island...

Either way, you lot'll have to run upwardly against the water and press A to enter the water. (You must have all tools unequipped.)

Swimming Controls

To keep swimming, press A. Each time you press A, you'll practise a stroke, but if you merely hold A down, you'll keep paddling. Yous can use the left stick to move around. If you don't press anything, your grapheme will just tread water. While treading, you can still apply the analog stick to paddle lightly around, but you volition motion very slowly. Your grapheme volition never become tired of treading h2o, then don't worry about floating around if you go tired of pressing A.

To swim fast, merely continue tapping A while moving around in the water.

To go out the water, you have to swim back to a sandy beach. Just swim right up to the embankment until your character reaches land and can walk out of the water.

How To Dive

  • Requires: Wetsuit

There's no bespeak in swimming in Animal Crossing: New Horizons if y'all don't know how to dive.

To swoop, merely press Y while you're in the water. Your grapheme will dive under the waves, and from at that place, you can only use the usual swimming controls to move around--A to swim, joystick to move around. If you lot want to come support to the surface, just hit Y once again, only don't worry--your character won't run out of oxygen and will just come up for air when they need it, so yous don't have to time your dives.

How To Catch Sea Creatures

  • Requires: Wetsuit

The new swimming and diving features are all near exploring the ocean effectually your isle, which means in that location are new ocean creatures to catch and rare treasure to find. All you need for this is your wetsuit--no net or any other tools required!

A column of bubbles in the water signals a potential discovery.
A column of bubbles in the water signals a potential discovery.

When you're swimming around, yous might notice columns of bubbles floating up from beneath the waves. If you swim directly over the bubbling and press Y, your character will dive nether and, if y'all positioned yourself right, come up support with a body of water creature, like a sea star or a ocean anemone. You lot tin can also find new types of vegetation, like seaweed.

Another way to take hold of sea creatures is to dive underwater and wait for piffling shadows. When you dive, the camera will tilt and give you a better view of what's below yous. Those bubble columns and shadows line up, and so an easier way to notice creatures is to dive under and swim towards the shadows. Your character volition automatically collect whatever's down at that place once you lot reach the shadow.

Diving under reveals a shadow, which makes it easier to locate and collect sea creatures.
Diving under reveals a shadow, which makes information technology easier to locate and collect sea creatures.

In addition to the new sea creatures you can gather upwards for your Critterpedia and the museum, you volition also find scallops and pearls. You can use pearls to arts and crafts certain DIY recipes, including the new mermaid-themed prepare. Scallops can be traded in to Pascal, a red otter who you will run into on one of your swims, for DIY recipes.

What To Exercise With New Body of water Creatures

If you bank check your Critterpedia, you lot'll discover there's a brand new tab for "sea creatures." Anything you find on one of your underwater excursions will end up in this department, even if--equally Blathers afterward explains--it isn't exactly a "animal." Seaweed, sea grapes, and other ocean establish life volition become categorized hither too. Check out our full listing of all twoscore sea creatures added in the new summertime update.

The new sea creatures tab in your Critterpedia. We're still filling ours out!
The new sea creatures tab in your Critterpedia. We're still filling ours out!

Not only does the new swimming update mean new wildlife to log in your Critterpedia, just new things to donate to your museum equally well. Blathers will gladly accept any new ocean brute or vegetation y'all discover while diving as a donation to the museum.

You can too, every bit with any other wildlife observe, place it as decoration. While well-nigh of what we've establish so far will appear in a standard display tank, a few items similar the seaweed accept a unique placement mode that you tin use to decorate your island, and so don't forget to experiment!

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