How to get pumpkins and craft Halloween items in Animal Crossing

It's officially Spooky Season in AC
Plant your pumpkins and watch them grow
Nintendo
Jack Webb @JackWebb925 October 2020

Animal Crossing: New Horizons is shifting gears to deliver a spooktastic Halloween as new seasonal DIY recipes and items can now be found.

In the latest free title update, Nintendo has added Halloween-themed cosmetics, items and other craftable items to help give your island a scary makeover in time for All Hallow's Eve.

If you've been given some new Halloween recipes from your villagers or found them from shooting down balloons, you might have noticed they all require pumpkins to craft.

Just where do you get pumpkins from?

If you live in the northern hemisphere, autumn is well underway and in the latest title update, new items have been added to the Nook's Cranny shop, you'll want to look here first.

Here is everything you need to know about getting your island ready for Halloween.

How to get pumpkins

First, update your game to the latest version. Then, you'll need to have unlocked the Nook's Cranny shop, which sells furniture and other useful items.

Head on over to the cabinet by the till and you'll see two new items on the first page: candy and pumpkin starters.

Buy pumpkins and candy from the store!
Nintendo

Upon buying them Timmy and/or Tommy will explain that candy is limited to one purchase per day and that pumpkin start sets will only be available in the shop during October (you can also buy them from Leif).

Go ahead and buy around 20 or so and then pick out the perfect place on your island to grow a spooky pumpkin patch!

You don't even need to water pumpkins for them to grow, they'll just do it automatically over a few days.

Animal Crossing is getting spooky
Nintendo

They will grow in three different colours, which are seemingly random each time you plant one

When you come to harvest your pumpkins, the majority will be orange, but some of them will be white and others will be green. These different coloured pumpkins are used in conjunction with Customisation Kits to change the colour of the Halloween items.

Now you've got your pumpkins, all you need are some DIY recipes...

How to get Halloween DIY recipes and items

There are only two ways to get your seasonal DIY recipes in Animal Crossing, so it's pretty much down to random chance.

First, you can get one from presents you shoot down attached to balloons.

Second, when you visit one of your villager's homes they will be 'crafting' one and give you the recipe card for it.

However, both of these options have a completely random chance to give you the related item. But it does seem that villagers have an increased chance of giving you a Halloween-themed ones.

If you didn't know, roughly every three hours there is a window of opportunity that one of your villagers is crafting something in their home.

There is a new Halloween-themed item here each day
Nintendo

It's always worth checking in on each one to see if they are crafting because if they are they will give you the recipe so that you can make it yourself.

There are three crafting sessions per day in your village and, depending on when you log in to the game, you will have that three-hour window to get one.

In case you also missed it, in the Nook's Cranny shop there is a new Halloween-themed item to buy every day in the bottom left corner (if your shop has been renovated to the max).

Elsewhere in the world of Animal Crossing, there are new bugs, fish and sea creatures to catch this month. Check out our guides to make sure your Critterpedia is up to date.

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