Social upkeep is a big part of Animal Crossing: New Horizons - almost as important as pulling up your weeds every day, arguably. Basic communication with the neighbors has a domino affect, as neglecting them can affect not only who leaves and who stays, but can also alter how they rate your island. As the Resident Representative, the player is an unofficial manager of social relations on your island, so its important to check in often with the villagers.
Learning all of the reactions is part of your social relations work, so you should take the initiative to learn each and every one. Though only twenty six are currently known, players believe there are forty four out there since that’s the amount of spots in the reaction list tab, and all of them unlock through general conversations with villagers. Algorithms to get a specific one don’t exist and the one you learn will be always be random. Fortunately, they are easy to accumulate as long you regularly chit chat with the neighbors. We’ll go into detail soon, but first here is a list to have on hand of every confirmed one in the game and their physical descriptions. Check off each one as you get it.
Every Known Reaction And How You Acquire Them
Aggravation - Your sprite’s face turns red, and steam blows off their head.
Apologetic - Your sprite frowns as they click their feet together and bow.
Bashful - Flowers appear around the head, and your sprite will place an arm behind their ear.
Cold Chill -Random wind with a brown leaf blows around the character as they shiver.
Curiosity - A question marks show up on the players tilted head.
Delight - The player claps with a tilted head and eyes closed. You need to press a button to get it to stop.
Disagreement - The player frowns and shakes their head. This is another one where you have to press a button to stop.
Distress - Your sprite gets a sweat drop and flails around stressed.
Encouraging - Animated lines come off the players face while they are tilted forward with an open mouth.
Greetings - The player waves and smiles with closed eyes while a chime sound is heard.
Happiness - The player smiles with a tilted head and closed eyes.
Heartbreak - A split heart can be seen above the players tilted head that has an open mouthed frown.
Intense - The players stares sharply forward with a slightly bowed head.
Joy - The sprite character sways from side to side with a smile while flowers speckle around their head.
Laughter - The player bellows with a titled back head as yellow lines appear around the side, and their eyes stay open.
Mistaken - The player smacks themselves in the head with a hand, and a random star suddenly falls on them.
Pleased - The character sprite smiles with closed eyes and a tilted head while the chime sound from the Greeting reaction is heard.
Resignation - The player shrugs their shoulders with closed eyes.
Shocked - A sound similar to a piano lid being slammed is heard while a yellow zigzagged box appears behind the head of the now wide eyed player.
Shyness - The player sways side to side with half shut eyes and a tilted forward head.
Sleepy - Bubbles come off the droopy eyed characters head.
Sorrow - The character sobs wet tears with a tilted back head and hands on the face.
Sneezing - The sprite achoos before shaking their head.
Surprise - An exclamation point pops up over the now wide eyed players head.
Thought - The sprite gets a thought bubble over their tilted head while their hand is on their face.
Worry - The player frowns with droopy eyelids.
One of the reasons having good relationships with your villagers is important is because you typically learn reactions during those times they suddenly run up to you with a lightbulb over their head. If they aren’t comfortable talking to you, chances are they won’t do this. One way to gauge these stats is by talking to them and seeing if there’s an option to gift something. This is a good indicator that you have had positive interactions with that neighbor. Hang around them enough, and you’ll find they regularly initiate chitchats with you.
In order to access your reactions and use them, press ZR - this will bring up the shortcut wheel, which can be mapped to eight reactions at a time. Pressing Y after bringing up the wheel will open your full reaction library, where you can reassign reactions to your shortcuts.
You Accumulated Several Reactions, Now What?
Reactions themselves don’t serve any kind of game progression purpose, they are there solely for you to have fun in whatever way you like. For example, if you use one on a villager, they’ll do the same one back to you. Many players use them for photo ops when their friends visit, so get creative with your company, or even remake scenes from your favorite television shows or movies or games, as some have already done. Couple them with the several costume codes out there, and you’re ready to go. Dress up, experiment, and have fun!
Source: iMore
