How to Unlock Reactions in Animal Crossing: New Horizons

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What Are Reactions?

Reactions are a great way to express how you feel towards your fellow villagers and other gamers in Animal Crossing: New Horizons. There are 44 different reactions to learn and you can only learn one a day. Unlike the previous game, Animal Crossing: New Leaf,  you could go to see Dr. Shrunk in Club LOL, who would teach you a new reaction every day until you had unlocked them all. However, in New Horizons, it has been made more difficult but much more rewarding as it helps to level up your friendship with the villagers. This guide will teach you what reactions there are, and how to unlock them to complete your list.

How Can I Unlock Them?

A villager will approach you after the 3 day mark and teach you about reactions, this unlocks 4 default reactions. The more you play, the more you will unlock. Your villagers will charge at you as soon as you cross their field of view, with a bubble over their head, meaning wanting to talk to you. This doesn’t automatically mean they are going to teach you a new reaction, they might just want to give you a gift so it is always a good idea to see what they need. But on the occasion they do want to enlighten you about a new reaction, what reaction they decide to teach you depends on what personality they are and how much of a friend they consider you.

This is one of the main reasons you need a variety of villagers living on your island. Specifically, one of each personality type. There are 8 in total, 4 for each gender. The female villagers can have Normal, Peppy, Snooty or Uchi/Big Sisterly personalities and the male villagers can have Lazy, Jock, Smug or Cranky personalities. There are almost 400 villagers in the entire game to choose from. Not only do they teach us different reactions, they will give out different DIYs based on their personality as well. How exciting!

learning-a-reaction

What Reactions Are There?

Below is a guide of what reactions you can learn from each individual personality type. You can unlock an extra reaction once you have achieved the highest level of friendship with a villager. To level up your friendship you must talk to your villagers everyday, complete their requests and gift them items they will adore.

Default Reactions

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These reactions are unlocked the first time a villager comes to talk to you about emotions. You can start learning about them after 3 days of beginning the game.

Peppy Villager Reactions

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These reactions can only be taught by Peppy villagers, to unlock Mischief you must be best friends with a Peppy villager.

Jock Villager Reactions

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These reactions can only be taught by Jock villagers, to unlock Flourish you must be best friends with a Jock villager.

Normal Villager Reactions

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These reactions can only be taught by Normal villagers, to unlock Daydreaming you must be best friends with a Normal villager.

Cranky Villager Reactions

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These reactions can only be taught by Cranky villagers, to unlock Inspiration you must be best friends with a Cranky villager.

Snooty Villager Reactions

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These reactions can only be taught by Snooty villagers, to unlock Love you must be best friends with a Snooty villager.

Lazy Villager Reactions

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These reactions can only be taught by Lazy villagers, to unlock Pride you must be best friends with a Lazy villager.

Uchi/Big Sisterly Villager Reactions

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These reactions can only be taught by Uchi/Big Sisterly villagers, to unlock Confident you must be best friends with a Uchi/Big Sisterly villager.

Smug Villager Reactions

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These reactions can only be taught by a Smug villager, to unlock Showmanship you must be best friends with a Smug villager.

How to Use and Change your Favourite Reactions

To make use of your reactions press ZR on your Switch controller, this will bring up your reaction wheel. To perform a reaction, select your choice and press A. After you have pressed ZR, and you can see your reaction wheel, press Y to gain full access to all of your reactions. Press Y to try a reaction out, or press A to perform it. Using Y instead of A allows you to spam a reaction or use many at one time, as it keeps the bubble open. The reaction wheel has 8 spaces for you to have your favourite reactions ready to use, to remove a reaction from your wheel press X.  When the space is empty press X again, choose the reaction you want in that spot and press A.

Another detail Nintendo hasn’t forgotten is the when you use a reaction near a villager, or any other fellow animals inhabiting your island, such as Tom Nook. They will react back. How cute!

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Nook Mile Reward – Reaction Ruler

You can also reap in the rewards at specific mile stones of learning reactions. Down below is a list of how many reactions you need to learn before you can earn a set amount of Nook Miles.

  • Learn 1 Reaction – 300 Nook Miles
  • Learn 10 Reactions – 500 Nook Miles
  • Learn 20 Reactions – 1000 Nook Miles
  • Learn 30 Reactions – 2000 Nook Miles
  • learn 42 Reactions – 3000 Nook Miles

reaction-ruler
And that’s everything you need to know about learning and using reactions in Animal Crossing: New Horizons.


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