How to upgrade Harv's island in Animal Crossing New Horizons

Animal Crossing: New Horizons Harvs island
(Image credit: Nintendo)

Harv's island now has shops thanks to Animal Crossing: New Horizons update 2.0. Our very groovy dog friend needs your help with his latest venture to establish a collective of stores, which you'll first learn about when you receive a letter in the mail after you first download the patch. With a range of different stores to set up and a host of familiar vendors to run them, you can enjoy the benefits of being able to access shops more frequently without having to wait for stores to visit your island. Not to mention it also lets you get your hands on some exciting new items and experience some more features. But before you board your flight to Harv's island, it's worth knowing what awaits you so you can best prepared. We've detailed how it all works, how many Bells it will cost you, what stores are available to set up, and everything else you need to know to open all of the shops on Harv's island in Animal Crossing: New Horizons

How to open shops on Harv's island in Animal Crossing: New Horizons 

Animal Crossing: New Horizons

(Image credit: Nintendo)

Once you've popped over to your airport and asked to take a flight to Harv's island, Wilbur will declare that Harvey has gone AWOL! Fortunately he's not too far off, with the Dodo pilot pointing out that a new path has appeared on the island for you to check out. Head directly over to Harv, who will introduce you to his pink pal Harriet. Harv will tell you all about the new collective he's trying to set up, and that he needs your help to get some funding together. Dotted around the area are friendly buddies of Lloid, the gyroid you speak to back on your island when you want to build a bridge or incline.  Just like Lloid, you need to give these gyroids donations to build a new shop. You can only fund one shop per day, with seven different stands in total to open. Once you've donated enough bells for a shop, it will open up the next day. 

Animal Crossing: New Horizons

(Image credit: Nintendo)

How many bells it costs to open a shop on Harv's island  

Animal Crossing: New Horizons

(Image credit: Nintendo)

Each shop requires a donation of 100,000 bells in order to open on the island. With seven different stalls to fund, you're looking at spending 700,000 bells in total. To make things easier on your first visit, be sure to have enough to open up one shop. Handily, you'll also find an ABD machine oppose the photo studio, so for future visits you can take out the bells you need to fund more shops. Harriet will also open her hair salon after your first shop has opened up to help Harv out, so you won't need to pay anything to get one of her special new haircuts. 

Animal Crossing: New Horizons

(Image credit: Nintendo)

All of the shops you can open on Harv's island in Animal Crossing: New Horizons 

Animal Crossing: New Horizons

(Image credit: Nintendo)

When you speak to one of the gyroids, they will say they're trying to fund a particular shop by describing the owner. So, Redd, for example, is the "legitimate art dealer", and Leif is a "botany expert with the greenest of thumbs". When you've established a store, the vendor will be there on days when they're not visiting your island, so you can purchase their goods. Below, you see all of the shops and the familiar faces they belong to. 

Animal Crossing: New Horizons

(Image credit: Nintendo)
Swipe to scroll horizontally
Villager Shop
Kicks Shoes, socks, and bags
ReddPaintings and sculptures / Redd's raffle
LeifCrop starts, flowers, shrubs / weeding service
Reese and CyrusCustomization shop
TortimerStorage access
SaharaRugs, flooring, and wallpapers
Katrina Fortune teller
HarrietHair salon

When and how often does the shop stock change on Harv's island? 

Animal Crossing: New Horizons

(Image credit: Nintendo)

As you'll no doubt notice if you pop to Harv's island each day, the shops will have the same stock several days in a row. This is because stock changes on a weekly basis, so the vendors will carry the same stock until 5am on Monday. When the new day starts on the Monday, each store will have a new selection of items that you can buy for a week. 


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Heather Wald
Senior staff writer

I started out writing for the games section of a student-run website as an undergrad, and continued to write about games in my free time during retail and temp jobs for a number of years. Eventually, I earned an MA in magazine journalism at Cardiff University, and soon after got my first official role in the industry as a content editor for Stuff magazine. After writing about all things tech and games-related, I then did a brief stint as a freelancer before I landed my role as a staff writer here at GamesRadar+. Now I get to write features, previews, and reviews, and when I'm not doing that, you can usually find me lost in any one of the Dragon Age or Mass Effect games, tucking into another delightful indie, or drinking far too much tea for my own good.