Animal Crossing: New Horizons version 2.0 adds a new feature called Kapp’n’s boat tours, where Kapp’n will take the player to mysterious islands in exchange for some Nook Miles. Dataminers discovered some hidden mechanics though for this feature, namely that certain types of rare mystery islands will only be accessible via Kapp’n when certain conditions are met.
Hidden Mechanic
- Dataminers discovered that certain rare mystery islands are locked behind the player’s character creation date, such that a rare island will only appear if the player has progressed far enough in the game to experience the mystery island’s assigned date or season.
- For example, the Winter Mystery Island has an assigned date of February 24th, and will only appear to players who have already exprienced February 24th on their home island.
- A player who has been playing since launch would have already experienced February 24th in 2021.
- A new player will have to wait until February 24th 2022 before the Winter Mystery Island will spawn.
- If the player has not met the date requirements for a particular rare mystery island, they will be sent to one of the following “normal” mystery islands instead:
- Gyroid Fragments Island: The most basic and most common type of island where Brewster is initially met.
- Vegetables Island: A common island with ‘abandoned’ farms that contain a random type of Vegetable, like tomatoes.
- Vines & Glowing Moss Island: The somewhat less common island featuring special Vines, Glowing Moss, and Plumeria Bushes.
- Raining Full Gyroids Island: A relatively rare island where the weather is raining and full gyroids can be dug up without fragments.
Rare Mystery Islands
When setting out on Kapp’n’s Mystery Island Tour, there is a 22% chance of landing on a “rare” island, provided the conditions to encounter them are met and the date below is mentioned;
- Winter Snowflakes
- February 24th NH
- August 24th SH
- Spring Cherry Blossoms
- April 10th NH
- October 10th SH
- Spring Bamboo
- May 31st NH
- November 30th SH
- Star Fragments
- June 15th NH
- December 15th SH
- Summer Shells
- August 31st NH
- February 28th SH
- Autumn Maple Leaves
- November 25th NH
- May 25th SH
- Autumn Mushrooms
- November 30th NH
- May 31st SH
Please note that meeting the conditions is not a guarantee that the player will land on these rare islands, and that landing on a “normal” island is still more likely. Either way we hope this helps getting to these islands.
