“Don’t remodel your neighbors’ houses when the airport is open” sounds like one of those bizarre, antiquated laws that was put on the books for a very specific reason a hundred years ago and was then forgotten about, but right now it’s a very real rule you should follow in Animal Crossing: New Horizons.
A tweet from the official Nintendo UK account warns players not to go to resident services and request to model a neighbor’s home while the airport gates are open, lest they experience unintended “gameplay bugs.” The same tweet was made by the official Nintendo of Australia and New Zealand account, though notably Nintendo of America hasn’t said anything about it yet.
#AnimalCrossingNewHorizons players who own the Happy Home Paradise DLC may experience gameplay bugs if they visit Resident Services and ask to remodel a resident’s home while the gates at their airport are open. [1/3]
— Nintendo UK (@NintendoUK) November 5, 2021
You’re still good to remodel neighbor’s homes, just close those airport gates first. Nintendo says if you do make this error and encounter bugs, you can simply end the play session and relaunch the game without losing data or having any other issues. A patch is on the way later this month that will prevent this from happening entirely.
It’s not clear exactly what gameplay bugs are being referred to here, but it’s probably best to be safe and just avoid the airport unless your island is just how you want it. Generally, having the airport open in Animal Crossing: New Horizons prohibits you from doing certain activities, like using Island Designer to change the terrain, sending mail, or buying items via Nook Shopping. And if a visitor is actually on your island, you can’t change the decor in the area they’re in. So it makes some sense that there might be an issue with completely changing a neighbor’s house while your game is connected online.
The ability to remodel your neighbor’s homes appeared in game just today with Animal Crossing’s Happy Home Paradise DLC. If you’ve purchased the DLC, we have guides on how to unlock the new content and all the new activities you can do, alongside our general guide to everything else in the free portion of the Animal Crossing 2.0 update that dropped earlier this week.
Rebekah Valentine is a news reporter for IGN. You can find her on Twitter @duckvalentine.