Animal Crossing update adds new rewards, changes NPC visits

The first wave of Animal Crossing's summer update was released earlier today, but it only took a few hours for dataminers to dive into the code and discover some new secrets.

Thanks to the new NPCs introduced in the update, players will be able to earn some new items and DIYs by helping either pirate-themed Gulliver or Pascal, the red sea otter. As hinted in the update trailer, there's a whole bunch of pirate and mermaid-themed items, which some dataminers have kindly put into some neat tables:

While the selection is quite limited, there are also a couple of new seasonal items that can be purchased from Nook Shopping, including a summer solstice crown, winter-solstice sweater, and some rather lovely bamboo grass.

Something a little less expected is a change to the NPC visiting timetable - as found by seasoned Animal Crossing dataminer Ninji. The main difference is that Leif, Saharah and Kicks are no longer guaranteed visitors every week, meaning that you should get a more "even spread" of visitors to the island. Ninji also observed that Nintendo is actively tinkering with a save data backup function, something it had previously promised to implement post-launch. Oh, and apparently you can now buy multiple items from Saharah at once - thank goodness.

Meanwhile, the community has already been experimenting with the new swimming mechanic, which can be activated by purchasing a wet suit from Nook's Cranny (or redeeming it with Nook Miles Points). Players are working on perfecting their second-level dives, taking part in synchronised swimming routines, and collecting all sorts of weird and wonderful sea creatures from the ocean floor.

Some players have discovered it's possible to dive off the pier at the entrance, however, so if you've blocked off some of your island to visitors without securing the beach, you could end up with some unwanted guests.