Datamine: Hidden Mechanics Of Kapp’n Mystery Tour Rare Islands In Animal Crossing: New Horizons Discovered

The Version 2.0 update for Animal Crossing: New Horizons adds a new feature called Kapp’n’s boat tours, where returning seaman Kapp’n will take the player to mysterious islands in exchange for Nook Miles.

Since the update’s release, dataminers have discovered some hidden mechanics for this feature, namely that certain types of rare mystery islands will only be accessible via Kapp’n when certain conditions are met. You can find the details down below, as documented by Animal Crossing World:

The Hidden Mechanic Explained

• Dataminers have discovered that certain rare mystery islands are locked behind the player’s character creation date, such that a rare island will only appear if the player has progressed far enough in the game to experience the mystery island’s assigned date or season.
• For example, the Winter Mystery Island has an assigned date of February 24th, and will only appear to players who have already exprienced February 24th on their home island.
  • A player who has been playing since launch would have already experienced February 24th in 2021.
  • A new player will have to wait until February 24th 2022 before the Winter Mystery Island will spawn.
• If the player has not met the date requirements for a particular rare mystery island, they will be sent to one of the following “normal” mystery islands instead:
  • Gyroid Fragments Island: The most basic and most common type of island where Brewster is initially met.
  • Vegetables Island: A common island with ‘abandoned’ farms that contain a random type of Vegetable, like tomatoes.
  • Vines & Glowing Moss Island: The somewhat less common island featuring special Vines, Glowing Moss, and Plumeria Bushes.
  • Raining Full Gyroids Island: A relatively rare island where the weather is raining and full gyroids can be dug up without fragments.

List Of “Rare” Mystery Islands and their Dates

• When setting out on Kapp’n’s Mystery Island Tour, there is a 22% chance of landing on the following “rare” islands, provided the conditions to encounter them are met:

• Island	Date (NH)	Date (SH)
  Winter Snowflakes	February 24th	August 24th
  Spring Cherry Blossoms	April 10th	October 10th
  Spring Bamboo	May 31st	November 30th
  Star Fragments	June 15th	December 15th
  Summer Shells	August 31st	February 28th
  Autumn Maple Leaves	November 25th	May 25th
  Autumn Mushrooms	November 30th	May 31st

• Note that meeting the conditions is not a guarantee that the player will land on these rare islands, and that landing on a “normal” island is still more likely in general.

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