In this Animal Crossing New Horizons guide, we are going to talk about the changes and new features we're going to see around our island throughout the month of February. 

Animal Crossing New Horizons February Updates & Changes

We are now coming to the end of January and the first month of 2021 on the New Horizons island, and as you'd expect we're about to see a whole bunch of changes as we move into February. Of course, with us also coming to the end of an entire season this time, some of these changes are because of that seasonal transition with things like craft materials, whilst others are events and other typical environmental changes across both hemispheres. Plus we now have the new content from the latest January update which changes things too. Surely some of you know about some of the more obvious changes but we'll go over pretty much everything just in case. Here are the main changes and new additions we can expect to see during the month of February, which is summed up from Mayor Mori’s Video.

1. February Weather Change - No Snow

February is a pretty significant month as it's the final few weeks of winter, which means the end of snow showers and any settled snow on the ground melting away. Winter ends around the 24th of February, at which point any snowfall will return to the usual rain showers and the iconic green grass will return. Furthermore, with the snow finally disappearing, this sees the end of snowflake craft materials, the ability to build snow boys, and of course unlocking their corresponding DIY recipes. Once this snow has melted, it will officially be Spring here in the northern hemisphere, players in the southern hemisphere have it slightly different as they remain in the summer season until the 1st of March.

2. February Seasonal DIY Recipes and Crafting

With the first anniversary of Animal Crossing New Horizons fast approaching, we're about to experience Spring for the second time. From the 25th of February, young spring bamboo crafting materials will begin spawning inside bamboo trees alongside the standard bamboo, these are obtained by hitting bamboo trees with an axe. These seasonal materials can be used to craft the young spring bamboo furniture set including items like the basket pack, the bamboo doll, and the green leaf pile. The ACNH DIY recipes for these items will begin to spawn again inside the balloon presence that floats across our islands again, this is of course only relevant to the northern hemisphere players, in the southern hemisphere who can continue to collect summer shells until the autumn in March.

3. February Seasonal Events

Thanks to the latest 1.7 update, Animal Crossing New Horizons has a bunch of new content being distributed throughout February in the form of seasonal events and items in celebration of regional holidays all around the world. Some of these seasonal events such as Setsubun, the Big Game Celebration, and Groundhog Day are already underway and have items available for sale at both the Nook Shopping and the Abel Sisters. But February has even more seasonal events in store for us including Valentine's Day, the Lunar New Years, and the Korean New Year. These three mini-events and their corresponding limited-time items are currently time locked with Valentine's Day items releasing from the first and the New Year's items from February 10th.

4. February Island Aesthetics 

As we mentioned earlier, we're approaching a brand new season as we transition from Winter to Spring in the northern hemisphere and Summer to Autumn at the very end of the month in the southern hemisphere. During this time, players in the northern hemisphere will of course notice the grass change back to normal but the colors of the trees will also begin to change with everything looking more vibrant. Players in the northern hemisphere won't see any changes to their bushes though as the red and pink camellia bushes have only just started blooming, however, players in the southern hemisphere would already have noticed blue and pink hydrangeas are no longer flowering in favor of red and yellow hibiscus which will continue to bloom through the entire month of February. Furthermore, the New Horizons island will see some other subtle changes thanks to the shift in seasons, most notably the decorations on display at Nook's Cranny will change from a wintry theme to a Spring theme to include flowers and butterflies.

5. February Festivale Event

Once again, thanks to the 1.7 update released just a few days ago, a brand new event called Festivale is returning to the franchise and scheduled for February. From the 15th of February, Pave will stop by to host Festivale and bring with him a bunch of awesome carnival themed furniture and clothing items, as well as some new colorful crafting materials. This one-day event will see us collecting a variety of different feathers in return for lots of dancing and limited-time items. Don't worry too much about obtaining these items from the event though, all but one of the items can be purchased from Nooks Cranny with ACNH Bells from the first of the months, you'll find them in the seasonal slot at the bottom left of the store.

6. February Bug Off

With it still being summer full players in the southern hemisphere for the entire month of February, players have the opportunity to take part in the fourth and final bug off of the summer. The Flick will stop by the plaza on the 20th of February to host the event and bring with him plenty of bug-off prizes. As usual, it's slightly more challenging than a typical fishing tourney, as there's no easy way to attract extra bugs. With that said, it's a great opportunity for new players or anyone looking to get a different type of trophy for taking part. Unfortunately, players in the northern hemisphere won't see a bug-off of their own until June 

7. February New Reactions

From the 1st of February 4, new reactions will be available to purchase from Nook's Cranny as part of the viva Festivale reaction set. This set is only available to purchase from the 1st and through to the 15th of February. Once bought you can learn the confetti, the viva, then let's go, and the feeling its reactions, which are all perfect for celebrating the festival season. With that said, they aren't actually time locked so can already be obtained through time travel if you want to.

8. February Critters

Now probably the most obvious change, especially for players who have been playing for a while, is of course to the bugs fish and deep sea creatures that we can encounter around the island. With it being winter for a few more weeks in the northern hemisphere, there's no surprise that the only new critter is the tiger beetle. You can expect far more to begin spawning in March once fully in Spring, as we tend to see a larger shift than usual in the first few days of a new season. Players in the southern hemisphere have a little more of a challenge though as February brings a bunch of new critters to the island, there are too many creatures to go over right now, you'll be able to find the likes of the rice grasshopper, the moray eel, and the flatworm amongst others. 

So there we have it that was eight pretty significant changes that we can expect to see during the month of February most of which happen in both hemispheres.