What do Wands do in Animal Crossing New Horizons?

If you ever watched Power Rangers or Sailor Moon growing up, you’ve probably dreamt at least once of picking up some nondescript magical doodad, waving it around, and transforming. It’s okay, I have too, nothing wrong with it. And hey, there’s one more perk to playing Animal Crossing: New Horizons: you can really do that! One more improvement over real life in Animal Crossing’s corner. Here’s how to use wands in Animal Crossing: New Horizons.

Wands are sort of an extra subclass of tools in Animal Crossing: New Horizons. There are 23 different variations of wand you can get, but they all do the same thing: allow you to transform yourself into one of eight different pre-set outfits. There are no wands that can be outright purchased, but you can get the DIY recipes for them all over the place. Some are found in floating presents, quite a few come as gifts from Celeste or holiday islanders, and a couple, like the fish wand or bug wand, are won as prizes from tourneys.

The hardest part of crafting a wand is obtaining star fragments, which fall to the beach the day after a star shower. Make sure to keep an ear on Isabelle’s morning announcements to know if a shower is coming, and when one does, keep your eye on the sky for shooting stars. Whenever one passes overhead, press A to make a wish. For every wish you make, more star fragments will wash up on the beach the next day.

What do Wands do in Animal Crossing: New Horizons?

Once you’ve crafted/obtained your wand, you’ll need to visit a closet/armoire/refrigerator to set it up. Just interact with whatever you store your clothes in and click “edit wand outfits.” Select a wand slot, then build an outfit the same way you normally would. When you’re done, give it a name, and it’ll be saved to that slot. Whatever you name your outfit, your character will shout when you transform, so if you’re doing a Sailor Moon thing, make sure to make it cool. Just a heads up, any clothing you assign to a wand outfit can’t be put on normally from your closet. To get your clothes back, just edit the outfit again.

To use your wand, simply equip it from your pocket and press A to give it a little wave. Select your wand outfit and you’ll transform! It’s a fun way to change into different outfits without going all the way home, though remember, your transformation is considered an “outfit” in itself. You can’t change your clothes while you’re transformed, and you can’t use the changing room at the Able Sisters’ store either. To change back, just wave your wand again.