Animal Crossing New Horizons: How to Unlock Reactions

When starting out in Animal Crossing New Horizons you'll only have access to a limited suite of features. You won't be able to use reactions, for instance, until you've built up your island a bit. To keep you in the loop, we've detailed how to unlock Reactions in the game, and included some info on adding new Reactions to your repertoire.

On this page:

• How to Unlock Reactions
• How to Use Reactions
• How to Get New Reactions
• What Are Reactions For?

How to Unlock Reactions

To unlock Reactions in Animal Crossing New Horizons, you'll need to have keep speaking to your neighbours. At a certain point, one resident will run up to you and teach you how to use Reactions. For reference, this all unlocked at around day four on our island, though it all depends on how quickly you can build up your relationships. We were taught our first reaction by our first villager we invited to the island (so the third one). For more info on inviting them, head here.

How to Use Reactions

To use a Reaction you'll need to press ZR. Doing so will bring up a wheel of different Reactions. Press A on the one you want and you'll react. Doing so near another character will cause them to react back.

How to Get New Reactions

In our time playing Animal Crossing New Horizons we've only been able to earn new Reactions by speaking to other characters. Every now and then a neighbour will run over to you and teach you a new Reaction. This appears to be a random event.

What Are Reactions For?

Reactions don't really offer any real bonuses in Animal Crossing New Horizons. Instead, they are mostly a way to express certain emotion toward your neighbours, and any other players you are playing with. Performing a Reaction at another character will often trigger a Reaction in them, which can help to build a sense of friendship with your favorite pals.

Reactions List

There are a variety of Reactions in Animal Crossing New Horizons. They are as follows:

1. Joy
2. Delight
3. Greetings
4. Surprise
5. Shyness
6. Curiosity
7. Laughter
8. Cold Chill
9. Smirking
10. Aggravation

How to Change Reactions

You can only have 8 Reaction assigned at once. To swap a Reaction out, press 'ZR' to bring up the menu. select the one you'd like to swap and press 'X'. Replace it with one that you want.

There's plenty more Animal Crossing content to be found right here on USG. To see some awesome Roald fanart, head here. For Caty's official verdict on the game, head to her review.