It’s Spooky Season in ‘Animal Crossing’ — Here’s How to Get Your Pumpkins!
Updated Oct. 1 2020, 3:19 p.m. ET
Even though it’s been several months since Animal Crossing: New Horizons was first released, Nintendo is still putting out significant updates with each new season — and we couldn’t be happier about it! Now that we’ve officially entered October, there’s one thing on every ACNH player’s mind: Pumpkins!
Chances are you’ve seen that some ACNH users have secured the festive gourds in their game, and now you want some for yourself. We can hardly blame you. Those pumpkins look absolutely adorable. Without further ado, here’s how to get pumpkins in Animal Crossing — plus how to get the Halloween DIYs that require them!
Here’s how to get pumpkins in ‘ACNH.’
Finally, the game now includes a farming mechanic that allows you to grow crops. (Sure, technically you could grow fruit trees before, but you didn’t have to water them so this is a big change for those of us who love a good farming sim!) And, as it happens, pumpkins are the first crop available for planting.
All you have to do is buy some Pumpkin Starts from Nook’s Cranny. They’ll cost you 280 Bells apiece and are only available in the month of October. You can also wait to buy them from Leif for a bit cheaper — he sells them for 140 Bells each.
Plant the seeds in an open area on your island and before you know it, pumpkins will start to grow! We mentioned earlier that you have to water the pumpkins in order for them to grow. Technically, they will grow without being watered, but the plants will produce more pumpkins if you do water them regularly, so you might as well!
The pumpkins you grow will be either green, white, yellow, or orange, and there’s (unfortunately) no way of knowing what color they’ll be beforehand. There is also no way to crossbreed pumpkins to get additional colors like you can with flowers. You’re going to need the orange pumpkins for Spooky DIY items, and you can use the other colors to customize those items.
Here’s how to get the Halloween DIYs in ‘ACNH.’
Just like with the Cherry Blossom and Bunny Day DIY recipes, the Spooky, pumpkin-themed recipes are seasonal and therefore only available for one month. You can still use the recipes to craft Spooky items year-round, but the recipes themselves will only appear in October.
You can find Spooky DIY recipes the same ways you find all recipes: by talking to your villagers while they are crafting, by picking up bottles on your island shore, and by shooting down balloons. Also, you don’t necessarily have to craft the Spooky items. Most of them will also be available for purchase from Nook’s Cranny — you just won’t be able to craft them unless you have the recipe, obviously.
There are 14 Spooky DIY recipes total, four of which are only available on Halloween (Oct. 31). Out of those four recipes, two of them (Spooky Garland and Spooky Table Setting) can only be obtained by giving your villagers Candy, and the other two (Spooky Carriage and Spooky Wand) can only be gotten after you talk to Jack.
If you love the spooky aesthetic, October is basically the best time ever to play Animal Crossing: New Horizons. Now get out there and start growing those pumpkins!
