Since the release of the Happy Home Paradise paid DLC (and the Animal Crossing: New Horizons free DLC), I’ve been making daily visits to my island again. It feels like the first time I played the game last year, back when I was so into it that I’d change clothes based on what I was doing—yes, I did, in fact, wear pajamas to bed before I logged out of the game.
The free DLC was already a hefty amount of content, but Happy Home Paradise feels like a full-on Animal Crossing game.
What do you do in Happy Home Paradise?
Once you download the DLC, Tom Nook will ask you to meet up with him. Here, you’ll meet Lottie, the otter in charge of Paradise Planning. She wants you to join her team along with Niko, the happy-go-lucky langur, and the soft-spoken manatee, Wardell (who I adore with my whole heart).
If you accept Lottie’s request, you’ll be in charge of creating vacation homes (and, later on, facilities on the island). You’ll be able to pick the land the home gets put on before being tasked with decorating the house, inside and out, to the client’s tastes. The more you decorate, the more skills you acquire to apply on your own island. You also have access to new materials like vines and glowing moss, and yes, recipes wash up on the beach for you to take advantage of.
You’ll notice, as you’re decorating, that these homes have a lot of furniture pieces that are new to the game. There’s also a shop on the island that updates its items daily (save for the souvenir chocolate), those items new to the game as well.
What makes Lottie such a great boss?
For some reason, it never occurred to me that you would be getting paid to do this job, but yes, you do earn income from each house you decorate. Granted, you are paid in a currency that can only be used on the island, but the money is definitely appreciated since the island has completely different items to purchase than are available at home.
Lottie is also appreciated and has quickly become one of my favorite video game bosses to work for.
Lottie gives you raises and is happy to do it
You start out making 6,000 Poki per house (Poki is the currency used on the island). Over time, Lottie promotes you as Promised Designer and increases your pay by 3,000 Poki. Can you imagine a 50% pay increase as your FIRST raise? Lottie is more than happy to do it, though, and the raises keep coming as you do more work (I’m currently at the Promised Designer level).
Lottie will pay you more money if you do a bigger job
You find out that there were plans to make various facilities on the island, which is why there are a couple of empty buildings scattered about. Eventually, Lottie will ask for your help in creating those facilities (the first thing she asked me to make was a school). Here, she teaches you how to expand the space so you have more room, an absolute godsend so you don’t have to try and cram an entire school in a small amount of space.
Once you finish the job she gives you WAY more than she does for the vacation homes, after all, creating an entire school is more intensive work than a single home.
Lottie will pay you if you do more work on a house you’ve already done
You’re encouraged to check on past clients to see if there’s anything new they’d like to have done to their homes. This is to be expected as you gain more abilities like being able to decorate outside, add more space in the home, and create partitions in the rooms.
You’ll be happy to know that when you do more work to an already completed home, Lottie will pay you for your time.
Lottie frequently asks if you want to take a break
She’ll ask pretty much after every job you do. While she’s more than happy to have you doing the work, she encourages you to take breaks. You basically get to make your own hours, finishing up a house (or more) whenever you get the chance.
Lottie doesn’t micromanage, she lets you go out and do your job
If you’re like me, you’re an indecisive designer who takes quite a bit of time to finish the job. Lottie doesn’t mind. In fact, once she sends you off to do the job she stays in the office. There’s no pressure in getting a job done in a certain amount of time, no manager constantly checking in to make sure you’re “actually working”, all she asks is that you take a picture of the finished product so she can use it to advertise the business.
Niko goes with you, but he stays outside and lets you do your own thing.
You’re even in charge of picking whose home you work on. With the exception of your first client, your list of clientele is yours to create. That can include whoever’s out on the beach or, eventually, your own villagers or whoever you call via using amiibo.
Lottie gives you all the tools you need to do the job, including your uniform (right down to your shoes)
While your clients will have a handful of items they must have in their homes (which they themselves will provide), the rest of the space is up to you to create. The best part? Everything you need is already there.
This isn’t one of those jobs where you’re required to bring in your own material, it’s all there waiting for you at work – and there’s quite a bit of furniture, plants, and fencing waiting in your work storage space. You have a uniform waiting for you in your work locker and, over time, you’re given more options with how the uniform looks. If you wanna dress it up with sunglasses, beach hats, and sandals, you can.
Honestly, all you have to do is show up to work, Lottie takes care of everything so you can focus on doing your job.
Lottie refunds your Nook miles from your Pro Decorating License because you’re using it to work for her
The Pro Decorating License is required to give your home more details like light features and accent walls (bless the accent walls). I was more than willing to drop the 2500 Nook Miles to get the license so I could go about redecorating my entire house, but I didn’t expect to have those miles refunded once I started working for Lottie.
I suppose I am using those skills at work, aren’t I?
Imagine your boss refunding you the money you spent to learn how to do something because you’re using it for their business.
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Lottie is probably one of the best bosses you can have in the work industry. In a year full of horror stories about companies underpaying employees and overworking them, Lottie is a breath of fresh air that I didn’t realize I needed to see. She makes work a lot of fun, more important, she understands the amount of work we’re doing and pays us for our time.
(Image: Nintendo)
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