What to know about the Animal Crossing: New Horizons Nature Day event

Hot off the heels of Bunny Day, the next Animal Crossing: New Horizons event is about to celebrate Earth Day, or as Tom Nook and the rest of Animal Crossing's cast like to call it, Nature Day. As Nintendo promised in March's Nintendo Direct Mini, the new nature-focused event will kick off in late April after yet another major update goes live in the game.

Here's everything you need to know about Nature Day, including what you can do during the event and some other cool updates that are coming alongside it.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons Nature Day launch time and end date

You won't have to wait too much longer for Nature Day to begin. Nintendo released a new trailer Tuesday for Animal Crossing: New Horizons' April update, and it reveals that Nature Day will start on April 23, 2020. As for when exactly the event will kick in, days in Animal Crossing: New Horizons turn over at 6 a.m. local time that day, so players will have to first install the new update before the event goes live in-game.

Don't worry about playing right away: The event will run for 11 days and end on May 4, 2020.

What can players do during Nature Day in Animal Crossing: New Horizons?

While it won't be the island overhaul with eggs that Bunny Day was, Nature Day still comes with event-specific tasks, characters, and items. To start, a loveable sloth named Leif will show up on your island during Nature Day and will seemingly stick around for the foreseeable future, visiting on a weekly basis just like Kicks or other weekly NPCs. He not only sells flower seeds but also shrubs, a new plant type. If you enjoy decorating your living space, you'll want to engage with Leif on an ongoing basis to beautify your island even further.

This event will mostly focus on limited-time activities that players can complete to acquire more Nook Miles. In the update trailer, we see a challenge that has to do with planting shrubs, while the official press release mentions activities for planting trees and watering flowers as well. This event is aimed towards nature-loving Animal Crossing: New Horizons players and should give everyone a lot to do for the rest of April.

What other updates are coming to Animal Crossing: New Horizons alongside Nature Day?

Even though Nature Day will be the first major event to take place following this latest Animal Crossing: New Horizons update, some other new features will also be immediately available. To start, Jolly Redd will begin showing up on your island on a ship called the Treasure Trawler to sell art and furniture, but some of that art will be fake. Here's the official word from Nintendo:

After downloading the free update, Jolly Redd will occasionally show up in his boat to sell in-game art, as well as furniture with unique colors. Like in previous Animal Crossing games, players will have to figure out which art pieces are real and which are fake. After purchasing genuine art, players can donate it to the island museum to open an art gallery, which will display all types of donated pieces, from paintings to sculptures.

To accompany this part of the update, there'll also be a series of expansions for Blathers' museum to accommodate the new art pieces.

This update does follow through on some of the new information found in last weekend's data mine, though there's still a lot from the leak that hasn't been added to Animal Crossing: New Horizons yet. Nintendo has detailed support for the game through to the start of July, so there's still plenty of time to explore even more new mechanics for the game.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons is available now for Nintendo Switch.