Crossovers are so back with the forthcoming Animal Crossing: New Horizons 3.0 update, which rolls out in January 2026 and will include new collaborations with the Legend of Zelda series. Though I, like many fans, have been caught up in the excitement over the fact Tulin and Mineru can now visit and inhabit player islands, I also have a few questions and concerns.
First let’s compare the line-up of the New Leaf amiibo update with New Horizons: The roster has been halved, going from four Legend of Zelda characters to two. The former arguably had a stronger batch of characters, with Wolf Link, Ganon, Medli, and Epona being added. Though I will miss Wolf Link with all my heart, at the same time I do think that Nintendo simply repeating the same four would be a bit boring.
When it comes to characters from recent Legend of Zelda games, Mineru and Tulin are arguably two of the coolest that could’ve been chosen to be Animal Crossing-ified. As evidenced by their dialogue in the trailer, Tulin is a jock villager, while Mineru is a snooty one who may finally replace Diana as my resident stuck-up deer.
Some fans have expressed concerns over the specifics of the amiibo needed to access the crossover. You can currently purchase an amiibo for Tulin, but not one fort Mineru — a Mineru’s Construct figurine was announced this April, but as of this writing, there’s no set release date.
Historically, however, players haven’t necessarily needed specific amiibo in order to access special features. In New Leaf, for example, Wolf Link could be summoned with a Zelda, Link, or Wolf Link amiibo, and Epona, who doesn’t have a figurine, was summoned with Sheik’s amiibo. It’s very possible that any of the Legend of Zelda amiibo will be viable ways to invite Mineru and Tulin to New Horizons.
This notion is further evidenced by an article regarding the Animal Crossing update on the official Nintendo Japan website. When translated through Google Chrome’s automatic translation, the section describing the crossover reads says either Tuli or Mineru will visit a player’s island if they use an amiibo from The Legend of Zelda series.
On another Nintendo Japan promotional page, I translated an image of the duo with Google Translate. While the names Mineru and Tulin clearly put a wrench in the translation system, it still echoes the same message: “Depending on the amiibo you touch, [Mineru or Tulin] will come to visit your island.”
If these descriptions indeed pan out, I think islanders everywhere can relax — it seems like so long as you have any sort of Legend of Zelda amiibo, these two characters will be available. The only caveat to that is how the visitor will be determined when they’re summoned. My best guess is that it would relate to the gender of the amiibo scanned, but there’s also a chance it takes into account certain narrative factors — like which character the amiibo character is closer to — as well.
These two coming to the game have understandably garnered a lot of attention — Tulin is perhaps the best-looking bird villager design New Horizons has seen yet, and I can tell just by looking at Mineru that her house decor is going to absolutely slay. However, let’s not neglect how sick the new item set is.
We seem to be getting at least five pieces of clothing, new accessories and shoes, and the iconic Majora’s Mask has finally returned to the series. There’s also a ton of impressive furniture that will let players recreating Legend of Zelda areas soar to new heights of creativity. Some are items we’ve seen in past crossovers, like rupees and a Triforce, but also many new pieces inspired by more recent games in the Zelda series, like a Goddess Statue and Decayed Guardian.
There are so many things to be excited about with the Animal Crossing: New Horizons 3.0 update (I’m still freaking out about batch crafting coming to the game), and Mineru and Tulin becoming villagers is definitely a big part of that. Thankfully, it seems that they’ll be pretty easy to summon — the hard part will be waiting until January.
