Summary
Animal Crossing: New Horizonsexpanded the creative potential the series offered players by introducing the ability to craft items using DIY recipes. While there are a variety of ways to obtain new DIY recipes inAnimal Crossing: New Horizons, the most consistent way is by finding messages in bottles washed up on the player’s beach. However, this system of discovering new DIY recipes could be expanded upon in the nextAnimal Crossingtitle to give players more opportunities to experience the excitement of finding a new DIY while also giving them access to more recipes quickly.
Although nothing has been confirmed yet, the recentrumors about the nextAnimal Crossinggamepoint to it being even bigger thanNew Horizons, with a focus on allowing players to explore a city and even potentially drive vehicles. It’s also likely that the game will expand the crafting and DIY mechanics introduced inAnimal Crossing: New Horizons, given the popularity of these features among fans. If this is the case, the game can go beyond its predecessor by creating more ways to find DIY recipes as players explore the world than was possible inAnimal Crossing: New Horizons.

The Next Animal Crossing Needs More Ways to Find DIY Recipes Throughout the World
The main wayAnimal Crossing: New Horizonsplayers can find DIY recipes is by looking for message bottles that have washed up on the beach of their island. These bottles appear daily on the beaches of the player’s home island, but can occasionally be found when going on aMystery Island Tourand are not always guaranteed to have a DIY recipe the player doesn’t own yet. Message bottles have appeared in pastAnimal Crossinggames as well, but were primarily used as a way to send messages to other players via Tag Mode inAnimal Crossing: Wild Worldon the Nintendo DS.
Aside from daily message bottles, there are other ways to obtain new DIY recipes inAnimal Crossing: New Horizons, but they are much less consistent. Players can purchase some recipes from Nook’s Cranny, but they are limited to a set selection, much like the ones that can be obtained by redeemingNook Milesat the Nook Stop kiosk. There is also the chance to obtain a new recipe from a balloon or when entering a villager’s house, but these are less predictable and make farming or every DIY recipe somewhat frustrating.

How Animal Crossing Can Build Upon the Message Bottle DIY Mechanic
To improve upon the methods of obtaining DIY recipes, the nextAnimal Crossingneeds to find ways to make finding new recipes more consistent while also being a pleasant surprise for the player when they find one. One way the game could accomplish this is by making it possible to find DIY recipes by shaking trees around the player’s town.Tree-shaking is a classic pastime in theAnimal Crossingseriesthat can yield anything from a piece of furniture to the dreaded beehive, so adding the potential for DIY recipes to pop up from this activity would be a natural progression for the mechanic.
If the nextAnimal Crossinggame does focus on sending players to a city, it could provide a variety of new ways to give playersDIY recipes, such as finding recipes pinned to signs, buildings, or even on billboards as they walk around the city. Another option could be to receive recipes from characters handing them out on the street corner like one would do when handing out fliers. Options like these would be a great way to add flavor to the nextAnimal Crossinggame’s world while also making finding new DIY recipes more consistent.







