'Animal Crossing: New Horizons' Lets You Challenge Your Friends In Multiplayer Games

Get ready for some exciting co-op fun. You can now play Animal Crossing: New Horizons with your friends to have a fun game night even when you can't all be together. Here's how to play Animal Crossing: New Horizons with friends to start exploring the islands with your pals.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons was released on Friday, March 20, and the latest addition to the Animal Crossing series will transport you to an island paradise where you'll be joined by talking animals. To add your friends to a game of Animal Crossing, you'll need to first make sure you have a Nintendo Switch Online subscription to play others online. If you'd like to play the game from your smartphone, you can access the Animal Crossing features in the NSO mobile app if you already have a Switch subscription. After you've started a game, you'll need to wait a day so that your island's airport is up and running. Once the airport is operational, you'll be able to start traveling to your friends' island and accept visitors to your own.

To invite friends to your island, you'll need to tell Orville at the airport that you want visitors. You can do this by either choosing to connect to local players or those playing online, or allowing all your friends or only your Best Friends to visit. After you've made your decision, Orville will open your gates to allow the selected visitors. When you want to close your gates, just ask Orville.

You can also invite players via a five-character Dodo Code, which is for people who aren't on your friends list, as well as your friends and Best Friend. You'll get the code from Orville, which you can then give to any friend who you'd like to invite to your island (you can share the Dodo Code through text or however you normally communicate with your buddies). Once you close your gates, the Dodo Code will expire.

If you'd like to visit a friend's island instead, tell Orville you'd like to fly and visit someone. He'll ask you to decide between local play and online play, and you'll be able to either search for a friend to see if anyone has their gates open or find a friend's island via the Dodo Code they've given you.

The special Best Friends feature is different from your Nintendo Switch friends. You can play with your Best Friend and friends in similar ways, but Best Friends can use all your tools on your islands, while friends can't use destructive tools like shovels and axes. To get Best Friends, you'll need to unlock the Best Friends List app by paying online with at least one other person. Once you've done that, you can add your friends in-game via the Best Friends List app on your NookPhone, which is the smartphone in the game.

Though playing through local co-op won't allow your friends to do much on your island besides take a tour, since one player is designated as the leader, you can still play the game as you normally would. The online multiplayer feature unlocks plenty more activities, if you want a more interactive experience. There, you'll be able to more easily acquire unique items by trading goods with your pals and leaving gifts hidden around the island for them to find. No matter which way you team up, it's time to take on island life with your best buds.