Animal Crossing: New Horizons Shooting Star Guide – When are Meteor Showers and What to do

There’s so many hidden secrets within Animal Crossing: New Horizons that many players are just now discovering some of its more interesting elements. This is definitely true of shooting stars, which show up during meteor showers and offer a lot of unique items to craft and collect. But if you haven’t gone through a meteor shower before, you probably have a lot of questions. Let’s break all of them down here with our Animal Crossing: New Horizons shooting star guide. We’ll discuss what to do when a meteor shower starts, what to do, and a few more details.

What and When are Meteor Showers

Meteor showers are random events that happen at night within Animal Crossing: New Horizons. There’s no way to know for sure a meteor shower is coming, until the day it will happen. Sometimes random shooting stars will streak across your sky, so you should always keep an eye up and listen for the chime that happens when one appears. However, during a full blown meteor shower there will be dozens, starting around 7pm and going until 4am.

If there’s one coming that night then Celeste, Blathers’ sister, will show up in town. Though she can show up on other nights, when you see her walking around and villagers talk about a meteor shower, be ready to watch for shooting stars. She will also give you a crafting recipe for an item that can be made using star fragments, the result of all this work (more here). These are often based on the constellations in the sky during this month, so make sure you get these recipes while you can. Once you know a meteor shower is coming just follow the next few steps.

What to do During a Meteor Shower

All you need to do once a meteor shower begins is find a clear, open spot to stand in. Press down on the d-pad to be sure you don’t have any tools equipped, then hit up on the right analog stick until you’re looking up into the sky. Now you wait. Shooting stars should begin streaking across the sky and when they do you just need to press A to wish upon them. Each wish you get in will deliver a star fragment on your beach the next morning. And yes, you will get star fragments for visiting your friend’s island during a meteor shower and wishing. They will appear on your own beach the next morning.

So that’s our Animal Crossing: New Horizons shooting star guide, explaining when meteor showers are and what to do.