If you’re in the northern hemisphere, then your Animal Crossing: New Horizons island has been blanketed in snow for a few weeks now. Winter brings plenty of frosty fun to Animal Crossing, and one of the most long standing means of that is rolling snowballs and creating snowmen!
In New Horizons, the snow-family has been trimmed down to just the standard snowman, here called a Snowboy. Piecing one together daily for the winter months will grant you both DIY recipes and crafting materials, and not to mention the existential hubris. Below we’ve detailed how to put together a perfect Snowboy, the rewards you can expect, and other helpful info to keep things rolling all the way into February.
When can I make Snowboys in Animal Crossing: New Horizons?
For North America and the rest of the northern hemisphere, snowballs will appear from December 11th until February 24th. For those in the southern hemisphere, that range is pushed ahead six months: June 11th until August 24th.
How do I make perfect Snowboys in Animal Crossing: New Horizons?
The first step to a Snowboy is a snowball. Every day during the snowy winter season, you can find two snowballs on your island. Thankfully they always spawn close to each other, eliminating potential hassles like rolling them across bridges.
That said, snowballs are fragile and can break. By rolling them into stable structures (like buildings, trees, rocks, and more) they’ll crumble away. You’ll also want to be especially careful with water, as you can accidentally kick snowballs into rivers or the ocean. Don’t panic, though, as so long as a Snowboy hasn’t been built that day, snowballs respawn. Simply enter a building and a new one (or two) will appear!
The first dozen or so rolls of the snowball will be kicks. Once done enough, the snowball will be large enough to roll with your hands instead, which offers more control. Rolling snowballs on snow will cause them to grow in size, while rolling across non-snowy surfaces (cobblestone, sand) can make them a little smaller.
The body of a Snowboy should be about as big a snowball as you can make. This will be close to your villager’s height, and will even slow down your rolling speed. Once you’re at this point and have set the body where you’d like your Snowboy to be, it’s time to roll up the head.
This is the trickiest part, as the head must be the perfect size in order to get your daily reward. The Snowboy head should reach the height of your villager’s ears. Personally I aim for between the exact middle of the ear and the “lobe.” Shifting the in-game camera upward to get a better view. Depending on how much space is between your head and body before you roll them together, you could be rolling up additional snow – plan carefully!
Once these are both ready, you can roll the head onto the body. Sometimes this will be prevented, such as if the Snowboy is too close to a house or other placed item. When they finally form together into a Snowboy, you’ll immediately know if you got it perfect. You’ll either be praised for your efforts, and receive the dreaded “So close!”
What do I get for making a perfect Snowboy?
Putting together a perfect Snowboy has two main rewards. The first of these is a Large Snowflake, an important crafting material this time of year. Not only do you get one for making the Snowboy, but every day until he melts you can get an additional Large Snowflake by talking to him. That means each Snowboy can gift you four Large Snowflakes!
Those are all fine and good, but the real prize are frozen DIY recipes. These icy prizes are seasonal and only available so long as Snowboys are. Thankfully, the two month window is fairly generous both for getting all 15 Snowboy recipes and enough Large Snowflakes to make them all.
List of Snowboy DIY recipes in Animal Crossing: New Horizons
- Frozen Arch
- Frozen Bed
- Frozen Chair
- Frozen Counter
- Frozen Partition
- Frozen Pillar
- Frozen Sculpture
- Frozen Table
- Frozen Tree
- Frozen Treat Set
- Ice Flooring
- Ice Wall
- Ice Wand
- Snowperson Head
- Three-Tiered Snowperson
More Animal Crossing: New Horizons guides
Looking for more help with Animal Crossing: New Horizons? Check out our other guides!
Written by Ricky Berg
When he isn’t writing for Nintendo Wire, Ricky’s anticipating the next Kirby, Fire Emblem, or if the stars ever align, Mother 3 to be released. Till then he’ll have the warm comfort of Super Smash Bros. to keep him going.
