Animal Crossing: New Horizons Summer Update Wave 2 Brings Fireworks

Animal Crossing: New Horizons' Summer Update Wave 2 will bring fireworks, dream travel and island backup and restoration services to the game when it arrives, free of charge, Thursday.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons Fireworks

Players will be able to attend a fireworks show on their island each Sunday in August. The show will begin at 7 p.m. local time, and players will be able to buy raffle tickets during the shows to win prizes. They'll also be able to design and launch their own fireworks.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons Dreams

Jumping in any bed will allow players to fall asleep and access a dream world hosted by a new villager named Luna.

"Luna offers visits to other islands as a dream, and with her help, you can share your island as a dream with others too," Nintendo said in its announcement of the feature. "She will grant those who share their island a ‘Dream Address’ which players can exchange and use to visit each other’s island in a dream. In dreams, nothing is permanent because nothing you do is saved, so explore to your heart’s content.”

Animal Crossing: New Horizons Cloud Backup & Restoration

Summer Update Wave 2 also brings the long-requested ability to backup islands to the cloud and restore to those backups.

"Nintendo Switch Online members can enable the new island backup service, which automatically uploads island and user save data to the internet at certain times," said Nintendo.

"If your Nintendo Switch system is lost or damaged, you may be able to recover your island paradise as long as you’ve enabled island backup. In the event of loss or damage, contact Nintendo Consumer Support about restoring the island and user save data on your new or repaired Nintendo Switch system. After your island data and individual player data is restored, you can get back to building your island community."

Another function to move users and save data to another system is planned for later this year, with further details to come, Nintendo announced. A free autumn update is also slated for later this year.