Animal Crossing: New Horizons Swimming, Diving Guide: How to Swim and Dive

Way back in the summer, Nintendo released an update that allowed players to swim in Animal Crossing: New Horizons. No longer were beaches just for terraforming or soaking up rays — now they were for swimming, too! If you’re here, it’s likely you’re wondering how to swim in Animal Crossing: New Horizons. 

In this guide, we’ll show you how to do that, as well as everything you need to know about enjoying the waves.

How to Swim in Animal Crossing: New Horizons

To swim, you first need to get the wetsuit. We have an in-depth guide for that, but the TL;DR is: visit Nook’s Cranny and buy the wetsuit for 3,000 Bells. 

The Nook brothers will actually give you a rundown on the basics of swimming and diving, so you’ll know what’s going on before you take a dip. 

Once you have the wet suit, head over to the shore and press “A” to dive in. 

You can get into the water from the beach or from the dock. As you might expect, you do have a limited exploration area, as the entire section is closed off by a net.

After you jump in, there are a few things you can do. The main thing, other than snapping some summer pictures of your adventures, is to swim around and collect things. You can press “A” to swim faster, though it doesn’t work while diving. 

While swimming, you’ll occasionally come across sets of bubbles. These indicate collectible items, and you’ll need to dive beneath the surface to collect them. 

How to Dive (to Collect Sea Creatures)

To dive in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, press “Y.”

Once you do so, you’ll go underwater and be able to swim over to the shadow beneath the bubble to collect it. Press “B” to collect the item and then “Y” again to resurface.

Most of these items are sea creatures, and there’s no shortage of them to find. Though, you might also come across pearls and scallops while diving, so make sure you pick up everything you can find.

While collecting items, you might come across a friendly sea otter named Pascal, but we’ll cover more about that here. Pascal will reward you with Mermaid DIY recipes, so do keep an eye out for him. 

That’s everything you need to know about how to swim and dive in Animal Crossing: New Horizons. Check out more tips over in our Animal Crossing: New Horizons guides hub for even more. If you found this guide helpful, consider giving it a share!