The Magic Puzzle Company is one of my favorite jigsaw puzzle brands on the market right now. Each puzzle is made up of 1,000 unique pieces and filled with fun little easter eggs throughout. Best of all, when you finally complete the puzzle you are treated to a secret ending that is different for each one. I personally love these puzzles because every image has some serious ‘Where’s Waldo’ vibes and utilizes different artwork from popular artists I would have otherwise never known about.
If you aren’t already familiar with the earlier Magic Puzzle Company Puzzles, I’d recommend checking out Series One to get started. However, if you’re a seasoned veteran you’ll be happy to know that Amazon has just released two new Series Five puzzles for 2026 and they look quite delightful.
New Series Five Magic Puzzle Company Puzzles
Series Five is the latest series in the Magic Puzzle Company lineup, and these two new puzzles are likely the last entries we’ll see until Series Six. Each series has been comprised of three total puzzles, and the first puzzle in this series was actually released back in August 2025. The first option is called The Drippy Trip and features artwork from one of the original Adventure Time artists. I own this puzzle and can confirm that it is an absolute delight to put together—especially as a big Adventure Time fan
As for the two new puzzles, the Golden Goose has sort of an early civilization vibe. The artwork is by Anine Bösenberg, who cultivates a wonderful illustration style that does a great job of feeling cozy and alive without too much heavy detail. This puzzle is already available on Amazon, but in limited quantities. If stock runs out, however, you can purchase the Series Five bundle to get the full set later in February.
The second new puzzle is called The Coveted Comet and looks to feature a colony of aliens inhabiting some sort of moon. The overall design is reminiscent of those cross-section books that show you everything going on within a single building, but with a more organic feel. The artwork comes from Samuel Hayward, who appears to have a knack for creating adorable prints. This puzzle isn’t available until February 15, but you can currently preorder it on Amazon ahead of its release date.
More Magic Puzzle Company Puzzles
If you’re looking for more puzzles from this brand, you can check out some of the more popular options from previous releases right here:
Deadhaus Sonata, the indie-developed action-RPG from Legacy of Kain, Eternal Darkness, and Too Human creator Denis Dyack that IGN first revealed in 2018, has “reawakened” with a new trailer and a targeted Early Access release window of early 2026 for PC, with console versions to follow. Watch the trailer above and check out new screenshots in the gallery below.
Now powered by Unreal Engine 5, Deadhaus Sonata promises multiple player classes in the final version, with the first being the Vampire. It also touts a living world, with “enemies, events, and opportunities [changing] as the world progresses, making the realm feel alive and reactive.” It’s also co-op enabled. “Explore a land shattered by divine war and corruption,” the team at Apocalypse Studios says. “Malorum is filled with haunted fortresses, forgotten kingdoms, and ruins shaped by ancient history. Every discovery reveals new layers of lore where nothing is ever as it first appears.”
Progression features a tarot card-based skill system that let you customize your build, whether you prefer a tank or a caster. The team also says, “Loot in Deadhaus Sonata is earned through feats that track your actions, history, and performance, not random drops. Every item is shaped by what you do. Gear, artifacts, legendary items, and tarot cards all tie into Malorum’s supernatural and political history. Playing is crafting, and your past becomes a resource that influences your future.”
Ryan McCaffrey is IGN’s executive editor of previews and host of both IGN’s weekly Xbox show, Podcast Unlocked, as well as our old interview show, IGN Unfiltered. He’s a North Jersey guy, so it’s “Taylor ham,” not “pork roll.” Debate it with him on Twitter at @DMC_Ryan.
As much as I adore the hand-painted Warhammer 40K guys I have sitting just off to the right side of my desk right now, there’s always been one thing they can’t do that an RTS like Dawn of War can: moving and fighting and kicking the crap out of each other realistically. I mean, sure, I can smash them together and make cool sound effects. But that can ruin the paint job, and it wouldn’t really cut it for a new Dawn of War game. It is, after all, a series known for its brutal kill animations and intense battlefield atmosphere. We got a chance to chat with Thomas Derksen, animation director on Dawn of War 4, about how King Art Games is taking the animations for the characters in this universe that we love to the next level.
Like myself, Derksen recalls the original Dawn of War being a gateway into the larger 40K universe. Watch the video below or read on for what Derksen had to say.
“So the first memory that I have from the game was … So I didn’t know anything about this,” Derksen recalled. “I have no idea what Dawn of War is, who Games Workshop was, anything. I just got my hands on the Dawn of War 1 game. The first thing that I saw and that they did different than most other RTS was, I had a squad of guys there. And I could equip them with a range of weapons. I could upgrade them. I could add a sergeant and everything, right? It just felt like I cared so much more about these guys on the battlefield. They’re fighting it out. I didn’t want to have them killed or get them killed. And I think this is what really taught me on the whole idea.
Animations can be created procedurally based on their relative heights, weights, and strengths. So it’s not just the fatal finishers, but every tense exchange of blows.
“And the other thing that I remember from the game was seeing the dreadnought getting hold of one of the ork and then crushing him in his hand, and this is just nothing I ever saw in any game before. And I think it was spectacular to see all of this, the stuff that you … Back then that you only ever imagined in your head, really play out in real time during a game in a spectacular way. This was just awesome.”
Synced kill animations have been around since the beginning of the series. But with Dawn of War 4, King Art wanted to take things even a step further. Any time two units engage in melee, animations can be created procedurally based on their relative heights, weights, and strengths. So it’s not just the fatal finishers, but every tense exchange of blows.
“So I think this is one of the main things that kept us busy around here was what we call the combat director,” Derksen explained. “The combat director does something very unique. Most people know the sync kill system from all the way back from Dawn of War 1, but what we did is we tried to expand on that and instead have synced combat really. So every action that you see in the game really has a counterpart. So you always see guys fighting it out between themselves. I don’t think really any RTS has done anything like this in the past.”
And that’s no simple feat when 40K features everything from tiny, goblin-like gretchens up to towering astartes dreadnoughts. But King Art is aiming for a system that can even generate synced brawls between some very mismatched opponents.
“Regarding the size differences, we call it power levels really. There is a lot of overlap between certain power levels, but not all of them. So a gretchen will never be able to fight the dreadnought for example, the same way that another dreadnought does. So you have to find actions that fit both sizes. I think we have four power levels in total. So really there’s a lot of overlap between certain units, but not all of them. So there’s a range of actions that only dreadnoughts versus other dreadnoughts or in some cases versus terminators. So there’s a range of actions that only a terminator can use against other terminators, for example.
“But some of them will be able to combine with say a dreadnought or a deff dread or something, right? But gretchens then have their own unique action sets where they would then match up against all the smaller ones like Imperial Guardsmen or sometimes the occasional ork, but most of the time they stick to themselves and are more or less only thrown around by the big guys.”
Dreadnoughts and tanks are one thing. But with the storied Dark Angels chapter arriving to reinforce the beleaguered Blood Ravens, we’ll be seeing another RTS first in Dawn of War 4 with the appearance of an actual space marine primarch on the battlefield. Lion El’Jonson, recently awakened from an epic power nap, will make an appearance in the campaign mode. And animating such a living legend is a task King Art is taking seriously.
“Already Space Marines are hard to get right from the perspective of an RTS,” Derksen admitted. “If you don’t think about it, they don’t look much bigger than humans, so you have to convey a whole lot more than you would for normal humans. And now the primarch is on a whole different level again, and also he has his own certain characteristics. He has a very wild fighting style in addition to everything that we have seen so far on the space marine. So I think getting that right, this was just a whole lot of challenges all at the same time really.”
And it’s not just the scale of the units that are creating new challenges this time around. The battles in Dawn of War 4 can get bigger than anything we’ve seen in the series previously. And for the battlefield to stay readable, the animation system needs to adapt.
“We are a bit more zoomed out in our game,” Derksen elaborated. “We want to show more units on the battlefield at the same time. So what we had to do that was a little bit different to what Dawn of War 1 did is we had to introduce a bit more movement throughout all these actions. These combatants, they were dragging one another along and to fight it out on the ground sometimes. As a player, you require a better read on the silhouette to really understand what’s going on from the corner of your eye kind of.”
Despite what you may have heard, though, in the grim darkness of the far future, there is a bit more than just war. I mean, you also need to build stuff that enables you to do more war. And even in constructing an outpost, Dawn of War 4 includes a lot of faction-specific personality. The orks, for example, actually drop most of their buildings from space in the form of a big pile of junk that somehow organizes itself into something functional.
“What we really did, we knew that we wanted to have this look like a bunch of junk really, like junk being dropped from orbit,” Derksen described. “And I think we just went ahead with the physicality behind, okay, how would it look if we dropped a rock from orbit? Like what’s the speed? What’s the weight that we want to convey? And then we just let it go and see where we ended up, tweaked it a little bit here and there. And I was like, yeah, I think this looks scrappy enough now, so let’s use it.
“We were all knowing that we were biting off more than we could chew back then, but it was on a whole different level.”
“I think starting with orks set us up to explore certain areas that we didn’t fully or couldn’t fully commit to with the orks. So for example, for the orks, it needed to feel scrappier. And so weight was kind of a different concern than for space marines, for example. So the ork stuff, it just dropped from the sky. But the space marine stuff, it was dropped there with intention and like with bad intentions. And so we could expand a bit on that idea, right? And for other factions, it was more for the AdMech, for example, wanted to click everything into place a little bit more neatly, for example. The exact opposite from what orks do. So I think orks pretty much provided us with a good enough baseline to expand into certain other areas that interested us.”
Needless to say, bringing the 40K universe to life in an RTS is always going to be a monumental task. But for these devs, seeing intricate and interesting moments emerge through this new animation system has given them something to get excited about.
“So we had an immense task ahead of us back then,” Derksen recalled. “I don’t think anyone really realized in the team how much effort all of this would take. We were all knowing that we were biting off more than we could chew back then, but it was on a whole different level. What I find spectacular and it only hit me recently was I was just watching a scene of Bladeguards fighting it out with a bunch of orks. And you saw the Bladeguard apparently noticing someone approaching from behind and killing them. Other orks are taken from the sides, killing them too. These guys on the battlefield, they start to be aware of their surroundings and you start to see intelligence play out. I hope that players can find these little moments and appreciate them as much as we do here.”
Masahiro Sakurai, the creator of Super Smash Bros., has revealed the reason why the series’ food various items each heal your character by a specific amount.
Writing this week on Twitter/X, Sakurai simply dropped the detail out of nowhere — 25 years on from when food was first introduced to Nintendo’s hit fighting series, back in Super Smash Bros. Melee.
In short, the more calories a piece of food is likely to have, the more it has been programmed to heal. So, while a bunch of healthy grapes might heal your character by 4% in Smash Bros. Ultimate, a pizza or stack of pancakes will heal by 7%.
While some had guessed the logic previously, this is fans’ first official confirmation why Smash Bros.’ foodstuffs act this way. And, peering at the Smash Bros. Wiki page on food, the theory generally stands up to reality.
Super Smash Bros. Melee introduced 28 food types, a total that increased to 36 in Smash Bros. Ultimate — though the actual range has varied over the course of the franchise.
Looking just at Ultimate, then, low healing items include cherries (1% damage healed), kiwis, lemons and tea (all 2%), a lollipop (3%) and cola (3% — guess it’s diet).
Mid-tier healing items include squash soup (4%), cheese, chocolate and dumplings (all 5%), plus a hot dog, corn dog, cherry pie and popcorn (all 6%). Curiously, a salad heals by 5% — though its image shows it is covered in some kind of dressing.
Undo your top button and we’re onto the top-tier foodstuffs by damage healed, such as the hamburger, pancakes and pizza (all 7%), spaghetti (8%), strawberry shortcake (10%), steak (11%) and turkey (12%). Curiously, bread is also in this category (at 10%) — though it is the whole loaf.
So, next time you’re playing Super Smash Bros. and food items spawn on-screen, head for the tastiest-looking, highest calorie option. Wombo combo? Popcorn combo, more like.
Tom Phillips is IGN’s News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social
Games Workshop has confirmed that a recently released Warhammer 40,000 army set a sales record for the company, reinforcing this Space Marine chapter as among the most popular in the setting.
Delivering Games Workshop’s latest financial results, CEO Kevin Rountree confirmed that the Space Wolves secured a new record for army set sales at the company. This relates to the Space Wolves army set that launched in May last year, and which you can see in the image below. It contains 28 brand-new miniatures, a Codex Supplement for the Great Companies of Fenris, a set of datasheet cards, and a new transfer sheet. In terms of minis, the army set includes a Wolf Guard Battle Leader, a Wolf Priest, three Wolf Guard Headtakers, 10 Blood Claws, and 10 Grey Hunters.
Rountree called the army set format one that is “specifically designed for hobbyists who want ‘all the new miniatures’ in a release.” Clearly, it proved popular. This army set benefited from amazing-looking minis, the amount of time since the Space Wolves had seen a refresh, and the enduring popularity of the Space Wolves themselves. The Space Wolves army set is sold out at Games Workshop, leaving fans faced with the prospect of paying a markup from the likes of eBay.
For the uninitiated, the Space Wolves are a long-running and legendary chapter of Space Marines heavily inspired by Norse mythology and Viking culture. They’re a savage, in your face group who like getting up close and ripping their enemies to shreds with the help of actual space wolves. Their primarch (demigod sons of the Emperor who led the original Space Marine legions before the Horus Heresy tore them apart), is Leman Russ, one of the most popular in the setting despite the fact he has never been active in the 41st millennium (there are rumblings he may return, as Ultramarines boss Roboute Guilliman and Dark Angels chief Lion El’Jonson have).
The Space Wolves — as evidenced by their army set sales record — are right up there in terms of Space Marine chapter popularity. Without having hard data to back up this claim, I’d suggest the Ultramarines are there or thereabouts given they’re the poster boys of Warhammer 40,000, and Ultramarines captain Titus, protagonist of the hugely popular Space Marine 2 video game, is leading the tabletop wargame’s next narrative expansion. But I suspect the Blood Angels (glorious space vampires with a dark secret), and the Dark Angels (righteous space crusaders) aren’t far behind.
So! I’ve put together a poll, below, with what I suspect are the likely candidates for most popular Space Marine chapter, so that IGN’s readers can vote for their favorite. For science! For the Emperor!
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
It’s official: “several” new Ecco the Dolphin games are in development.
Last summer, the creator of Ecco the Dolphin pleased many fans by announcing that not only were remakes of the original games underway, but a “third” instalment was also in development. Ed Annunziata — the original creator of the famed and fiendishly difficult action-adventure games — was interviewed about raising awareness of ocean conservation, his life as a developer, and, right at the end, he dropped his bombshell revelation.
California-based developer A&R Atelier, at which Annunziata works, revealed in a press release that it is remastering Ecco the Dolphin and Ecco: The Tides of Time, as well as that all-important third game.
“It has been years in the making, and we’re honored to bring Ecco back,” Annunziata said (thanks, Gematsu). “Ecco has always been more than a game about a dolphin — he’s a bridge between worlds.” Sadly, that’s essentially where the details stop, but the developer said to keep an eye on both its website and the official Discord for more information.
Ecco the Dolphin originally launched in 1992 on the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis, and was followed by a sequel, Ecco: The Tides of Time, in 1994. Ecco Jr. and Ecco Jr. and the Great Ocean Treasure Hunt were released in 1995, although they were “edutainment” games and primarily developed as learning tools.
You play as the titular dolphin, your underwater world now devastated by a swirling gust of air and water. You must help him navigate back through treacherous tropical reefs and freezing polar ice floes to reunite him with his dolphin pod. There have been a few remasters since: we thought the 2000 remake was okay, writing: “Ecco the Dolphin is a classic from SEGA, but sometimes classics should stay in the past,” and of the 2007 remake, we wrote: “For those who have played Ecco before, there’s really no reason to come back to it.”
The last Ecco the Dolphin game — ostensibly the “third” game, although Annunziata wasn’t involved — fared much better, however, getting a 7.6 in IGN’s Ecco the Dolphin: Defender of the Future review. A further sequel, Ecco 2: Sentinels of the Universe, which had been written as a direct sequel to Defender of the Future, was cancelled.
Vikki Blake is a reporter for IGN, as well as a critic, columnist, and consultant with 15+ years experience working with some of the world’s biggest gaming sites and publications. She’s also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.
Cast your mind back to the end of last year, and you may remember we reported that a group of volunteer modders had united to develop an online mode for Rockstar’s Bully (also known as Canis Canem Edit in some parts of the world). Fast-forward just a few short months later, however, and now the Bully online project is “shutting down forever.”
Bully was a humorous action game that put players in the role of high school outcast Jimmy while attending a pretentious private school. Fans have long called for a sequel, which was once in development at Rockstar’s New England studio in the late 2000s, and while Bully 2 was obviously never released, some of its ideas made it into other Rockstar games like Red Dead Redemption 2.
Though the game was developed to be a single-player experience, the mod, which has been in development for years and fully released only last month, allowed players to team up for minigames, roleplay, compete in racing, and face off against NPCs, instantly drawing the attention of fans… and IP owner Rockstar, it seems.
“Coming with sad news today,” wrote one of the Fat Pigeon Development team on the project’s Discord. “The Bully Online project is shutting down forever, which unfortunately means all the following is going to happen in 24 hours.”
The post reported that the Bully Online server would shut down, development of Bully Online scripts would stop, the source code would disappear, and all webpages referencing it would be removed, along with the launcher (which has seemingly already happened). All Bully Online account data will also be “permanently deleted” and even Discord channels related to the mod are getting nuked.
The team held off on detailing why this was happening, only confirming that lead dev SWEGTA hopes to upload an explanatory video to his YouTube channel. “For now, though, know this was not something we wanted,” the statement added.
“I think we all know the reason, it’s got everything to do with Rockstar’s new CFX launch mod site where they make more greedy profit for [publisher] Take-Two Interactive by putting pay-walls on mods,” posited one unhappy player. “I expect more mods to be shut down as the months go on with this new CFX marketplace.”
That said, as this commenter points out, Bully Online was already effectively paywalled to donors of the project, which is widely frowned upon across the modding space. “Not surprising at all,” they said. “Dude was pretty much asking to get shutdown the moment he paywalled early access to this.”
Vikki Blake is a reporter for IGN, as well as a critic, columnist, and consultant with 15+ years experience working with some of the world’s biggest gaming sites and publications. She’s also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.
In an excitable post, Re-Logic’s Loki confirmed that while the team “did have to resubmit a few things, which pushed us back a bit further than expected,” the release date is now locked in and will include “things that got left out of 1.4.4” plus crossover events with Dead Cells and a second collab with Pocketpair’s Palworld, this time for Terraria players.
While we’re on the topic of “cross,” no, unfortunately crossplay will not be a part of this update. The team does hope it’ll be “made available some time after 1.4.5,” but didn’t hint at a timescale for that.
“The ReLogic team has ALWAYS went above and beyond for the Terraria community,” writes one happy player. “For well over a decade, you guys have given us update after update for free. You guys even created a comic book AND a board game for us. On top of that, you’ve held tons of contests for us and have always kept us well-informed and up to date on everything relating to Terraria. What’s crazy is that’s not even close to all the amazing things that you guys do for us. That’s why the Terraria community is the greatest gaming community on Earth.”
To get an idea of just how long ago Terraria released, IGN reviewed it in 2011. Even then, though, we thought it was amazing, scoring it 9/10 and writing: “Though on the surface it looks like just another “me too” indie game seeking to ride the coattails of Minecraft’s success, Terraria expands on the familiar sandbox gameplay with a greater emphasis on combat and adventure that proves very satisfying. That’s rare indeed.”
Here’s the full update. Brace yourself — there’s a lot to read!
Terraria Update 1.4.5 — January 27, 2026
New items
Items from Dead Cells, including:
A vanity outfit of the Beheaded, the protagonist of Dead Cells.
Hanging flasks that can display items in a similar way to Item Frames.
Weapons for all damage types, including:
The Flint, a melee weapon.
The Killing Deck.
The Mushroom Staff, which summons a Mushroom Boi minion and is crafted with some combination of Glowing Mushrooms. The minion’s eyes are visible in the dark.
A Barnacle sentry.
The Swarm.
The Ram Rune.
The Wings of the Crow.
A Health Fountain furniture item that gives the player a buff when interacted with.
A summonable Digtoise from Palworld that can mine through blocks. It is unknown whether or not it is a pet.
Several whips, including:
A whip dropped by the Moon Lord.
A Stardust-themed whip.
A Corruption-themed whip called the Soulscourge.
A Crimson-themed whip called the Vasculash.
A Duke Fishron-themed whip.
A Meteorite-themed whip called the Starcrash.
A Plantera-themed whip that releases homing petal projectiles after hitting an enemy.
A white whip.
An early-game whip called the Slime Whip. It is crafted from Gel and inflicts the Slime debuff.
An early-game spear called the Slime Spear. It is crafted from Gel and inflicts the Slime debuff.
Several furniture sets, including:
A Hallow-themed set inspired by the look of Hallowed armor.
An Aetherium-themed set.
A Fallen Star-themed set.
A Feywood-themed set inspired by Fairies and the Fallen Logs they can spawn at
A Corruption-themed set.
A Crimson-themed set.
A Gothic-themed set.
A Stone-themed set.
A modern-looking set.
A Moon-themed set.
A Snow-themed set.
A Flinx-themed set.
A complete Pine set.
Fallen Star Bricks and Walls.
Music Blocks that play notes.
Several Boulder-related items or features, including:
A type of Boulder that “falls” upwards.
Boulder Rain, where Boulders fall from the sky during a Thunderstorm.
A Rainbow Boulder (initially teased as “🌈🪨”) found in secret seeds combined with Celebrationmk10. When activated it will bounce between ores and chests while passing through blocks and not hurting the player.
A Poo Boulder.
A Shimmer Water Gun that allows the player to transform an NPC into their Shimmered form without submerging them in Shimmer.
A potion or food item whose crafting recipe involves Bottled Water.
Several transformation mounts (similar to the Wolf mount summoned by Lilith’s Necklace), including:
A transformation mount that resembles a velociraptor. The mount can be dyed and displays vanity items equipped in the head slot.When the player is flying, the velociraptor is carried by a pterodactyl. The mount-summoning item is crafted with some combination of Sturdy Fossils.
A transformation mount that resembles a bat
A transformation mount that resembles a Rat.
A transformation mount that resembles a Fairy.
A roller skate mount which allows the player to scoot on surfaces and grind on Minecart Tracks.
Paintings made by several members of the Terraria community, including:
GreyL1me
KirbyTG
Artyrian (previously Timburr471)
Orange Dude
Shadouette
Lady Forestia
JzBoy
BionicBandit
Runic Pixels
Waasephi
A painting of the r/place 2023 art created by the Terraria community.
An axe fairy pet harvesting wood from a tree.
An Axe Fairy pet that looks like Cenx’s avatar and can harvest wood from trees.
A pufferfish pet.
A frog-themed accessory.
An accessory resembling a Tamagotchi on a chain.
A Silly Balloon-themed accessory.
An item resembling a blue ribbon with a heart on it.
A Stress Ball accessory that makes the player automatically attack when not moving and their inventory is closed. It has some type of interaction with the Extractinator.
A Magic String accessory that causes yoyos to fly off the string and deal damage. It can be combined with the Yoyo Bag to make the Magic Yoyo Bag.
Several vanity accessories that change the sound the player makes when hurt. These include:
The “Goat’s Tuft” which makes the player sound like a goat and can be found in Gold Chests. Its tooltip is ‘Quite the gruff tuft’.
An accessory that makes the player sound like a Zombie.
An accessory that makes the player sound like a turkey.
An accessory that makes the player sound like a chicken.
An accessory that makes the player sound like an arcade machine.
A chest piece to complete the set of the Moon Lord Mask and Moon Lord Legs.
An item whose sprite resembles the Cobweb’s with added sparkles.
Cloud platforms.
A variant of the Living Wood Wall that allows placing an unsafe wall (similar to the Forbidden Lihzahrd Brick Wall, Cursed Dungeon Brick Walls, etc.).
An “Axearang” (a combination of axe and boomerang) that is capable of chopping down trees when thrown.
A pink crafted banner.
Throwable mud balls that place a Mud Block when they land. These deal 8 classless damage, inflict “Average” knockback (4–6), and have a “Very fast” use time (9–20).
Placeable versions of background objects, including:
Demon Altar. It only drops “in the most extreme of circumstances and is not going to be easily obtained/readily available”.
Fallen Log.
Life Fruit.
Shadow Orb.
An item that resembles a clay furnace.
A placeable CRT Television that applies a visual filter when turned on like Monoliths.
A developer set for Chicken Bones.
An item called the “Mitey-Titey” that can place stalactite and stalagmite ambient objects in a similar way to the Rubblemaker.
Hoppers that can pick up dropped items and store them in Chests.
A stick-like item that kites can be attached to and flown from.
A Freeze Bomb which turns water in its blast radius into Ice Blocks.
A Bomb that can destroy Hardmode ore.
Beach wear vanity sets.
The Heroicis vanity set.
Upgraded versions of Mining armor and Angler armor.
Another headpiece option for Chlorophyte armor.
Jungle Juice, a recovery potion which restores 180 health upon use. A stack of 3 Jungle Juices is crafted from 3 Greater Healing Potions and 1 Life Fruit.
Infused Fertilizer, an upgraded version of Fertilizer which can be used to grow tall trees. Its tooltip is ‘It’s got what plants crave!’
An “Acorn Slingshot” that shoots Acorns. When the acorn projectile lands on soil it turns into a tree sapling, in a similar way to how the Sandgun places sand.
Rock Candy, a food item that can be crafted from Gem Bunnies or Gem Squirrels.
A pylon.
An RC Car that can be remote-controlled by the player, similar to the Kwad Racer Drone. It can move on both blocks and background walls.
Other new content
Entities, including:
Several slime variants that carry items. The item inside the slime’s body changes its behavior. They are also more common in the new skyblock seed. These slime variants include:
“Cloud Slime”, a slime variant that jumps extra high and carries a Cloud Block.
“Dirt Slime”, a slime variant that carries a Dirt Block.
“Granite Slime”, a slime variant that spawns underground and carries a Granite Block.
“Slush Slime”, a spiked slime variant that glows in the dark, spawns in the Ice biome, and carries a Slush Block.
A slime carrying Moonglow that emits light and plants herbs.
A slime carrying a Dart Trap that can shoot darts at the player.
A pufferfish enemy/critter.
The Orca returning from the Old-gen console version Old-gen console version and Nintendo Nintendo 3DS version version, with updated sprites.
A Seeds Menu that allows players to mix different secret world seeds together. Some seed combinations will trigger additional changes. Some examples include:
The player becoming a vampire, spawning underground, and burning under sunlight. The player can prevent burning under sunlight by holding an Umbrella or wearing a hat.
The water in the Ocean being replaced with Shimmer.
Flooding whenever there is heavy rain.
A functional use for Stink Potions.
Slimes change their color when standing over painted blocks.
A “skyblock” secret world seed, where the player spawns on a customized Floating Island in an empty world with very limited resources available to them.
Meteor showers that cause Meteorite to fall from the sky. This may or may not be exclusive to the new skyblock seed.
Players with bad luck will be pooped on by Birds and attacked by Squirrels.
At least one hairstyle.A minion count underneath the buff icon that displays how many minions the player has summoned.
An ambience effect of small cosmetic insects flying through wild grass plants.
An effect that converts placed Torches to their biome variant.
New boss music for the Eater of Worlds.
New boss music for The Twins.
At least 10 music tracks, including new themes for The Twins, the Eater of Worlds, the Torch God, King Slime, Skeletron, and Skeletron Prime.
Achievements.
A status message in multiplayer that tells how much damage each player did during a boss fight and how long the fight lasted.
Content for the thunderstorm weather event. This includes lightning that strikes enemies and the tops of trees.
A shader inspired by the “film noir” style.
The ability to place critters as a small furniture item with the ⚷ Open / Activate button. The placed critter will stay near the furniture item.
When reforging the best weapon modifiers like Legendary cannot be accidentally skipped. This is accompanied by a rainbow text effect and rainbow particles.
More biome backgrounds.
Modifiers for summon weapons, such as Eager, Focused, Loyal, Worthy, Rabid, Ballistic, and Fabled.
Two Dungeon entrance variations that have a chance to replace the original Dungeon entrance during world generation.
Miscellaneous changes
Localization for Japanese, Korean, and potentially Traditional Chinese.
Possible improvements to localizations.
Pumps in item form no longer burn in lava.
Updated sprites for:
Multiple banners.
Multiple trophies.
Weapon Rack.
Demon Altar.
Slime Staff along with the Baby Slime it summons and buff icon.
Crimson Heart light pet.
Shadow Orb light pet along with its buff icon.
Shadow Orb background object.
Imp Staff along with the Imp it summons and buff icon.
Moon Lord.
Bewitching Table.
Alchemy Table.
Bar.
Bar Stool.
Banquet Table.
Jim’s set.
Lihzahrd Brick.
Lihzahrd.
Dungeon, Lihzahrd and Tundra Pots.
Mini Minotaur pet.
Pine Door, Pine Table, Pine Chair, and Pine Tree Block.
More inclusive and customizable character creation that allows players to mix and match different character styles and voices. A third new voice type and the ability to change the voice’s pitch are also being added.
Improvements to the Smart Cursor to relieve frustration when placing platforms.
New graphical effects for the sun and clouds.
Characters and worlds in the main menu are sorted by when they were last played, with the most recently played ones at the top. Additionally, all worlds that the selected character has visited before are marked with a small flag icon.
A glitch was fixed which allowed creating almost any item. It involved the de-syncing of door tiles in multiplayer and placement of a Bast Statue.
Liquid being stored inside Bubbles.
Liquids can be stored inside Bubbles.
The Rubblemaker and Echo Coating are available in pre-Hardmode.
The different types of Planter Boxes are no longer unlocked by defeating specific bosses.
Wormhole Potions and Potions of Return are easier to obtain.
Moon Lord Boulders are in For the worthy.
Flairon can be swung like thrown flails. It can still be used as a launched flail as well.
Phaseblades can be thrown and stick to the ground where they land, dealing damage to any enemies that walk into them. They can be called back by the player.
Zombie Arm creates Zombie gore when swung.
Changes to the Harpoon.
Several changes to town NPCs and their houses:
The Classy Cane can hit NPCs, which causes them to drop coins.
NPC houses no longer require a solid block for the NPC to stand on.
NPCs no longer require a house in order to appear. However, NPCs without a house will leave temporarily during the night.
The dialogue window of NPCs has a “Housing” option which includes hints on how a house can be built.
It is more transparent how a house is scanned.
Slimes have a chance to drop Grass Seeds, Jungle Grass Seeds, and Acorns.
Dungeon Bricks can be crafted with Hardmode ore.
Stackable weapons, tools, and Clothier Voodoo Dolls.
Multiple items cannot be reforged at once, however.
Increased Rainbow Slime spawn rate.
Changes to yoyos.
Changes to the Paladin’s Hammer.
Fish will appear in the water while fishing.
In multiplayer, players can spectate other players while waiting to respawn after dying.
The style of Party Presents and Presents can be manually set before placing, instead of being determined randomly when placed.
Cannons and Snowball Launchers can deal damage when activated by Wires.
Cannons also no longer require Cannonballs to be fired.
Cannonballs can be placed as tiles. They can also be hammered to different shapes.
Conveyor Belts can move enemies. They also can move items vertically.
Earned banners no longer drop from their respective enemies. Instead, they can be claimed via a new menu in the inventory.
Jungle Grass can be planted on Lihzahrd Brick.
Improved Control Banners (the areas showing button mappings) for controllers on Console version Console and Mobile version Mobile, which display related buttons near their respective UI elements instead of displaying all buttons at the bottom of the screen.
New graphical effect for when the Paladin’s Shield activates.
New visual effect for pop-up texts when obtaining new items.
New visual effect for pop-up text when crafting weapons and armor.
Improvements to the Mobile version Mobile touch control editor:
Instead of placing buttons with a fixed size then editing their function, the user now places a type of button on the screen, then edits its function and size.
Control configurations can now be copied and pasted across loadouts.
New default presets.
New optional control scheme which removes the right virtual joystick.
New option of toggling “multi-touch” for a button, which has the following effects when turned on:
The button will remain pressed if the player drags their finger away from it, and will only be released when their finger leaves the screen.
If the player drags their finger onto another button that also has multi-touch enabled, that button is also pressed down. Dragging the finger away from this button will stop pressing it.
Armor pieces now display their set bonus in gray text when not active.
Hooks now mention their keybind in their tooltips.
Mannequins (and Womannequins) can have their posture changed (e.g. sit down), hold items, and ride on mounts.
The Slime debuff increases the damage of fire related debuffs, such as On Fire!.
The defense icon shows how much damage is reduced by the player’s defense stat when hovered on, and has different sprites in Expert and Master Mode.
Updated crafting features:
New UI screen for the Guide’s “Crafting” option and regular crafting, similar to the duplication menu in Journey Mode: listing all craftable items while having category tabs to show items by types, and a search bar to search for individual items.
Pressing ⚷ Open / Activate on a crafting station also opens the crafting UI.
Items in all nearby storage items can be used in crafting, instead of only a single opened one.
New animation for the Barrel when a player interacts with it, indicating if it is open or closed, similar to Chests.
Vikki Blake is a reporter for IGN, as well as a critic, columnist, and consultant with 15+ years experience working with some of the world’s biggest gaming sites and publications. She’s also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.
After the mildly disappointing Spider-Man set, though, we’re hoping the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles collab will be a little more tubular.
And, if you’re already sold on meeting up with cardboard versions of the Heroes in a Half Shell, their friends, and their foes, then good news – Amazon is once again discounting boxes of Play Boosters, now down to their lowest ever price.
In December, the price dropped to $159.99, bringing the Universes Beyond box of Play Boosters to around the standard price of a Universes Within box, but this now drops even further to $148.20 – the lowest we’ve seen at Amazon.
With 30 packs, that’s less than five bucks per one ($4.94, to be precise), which is a couple of bucks off what you’d usually pay when buying them individually.
We saw similar drops for Spider-Man, which would be a little worrisome if Avatar hadn’t got the same treatment – and that set was great.
For more on Magic: The Gathering, check out the wild ride that is the game’s 2026 set lineup, as well as our guide to preordering the first set of the year, Lorwyn Eclipsed.
Lloyd Coombes is an experienced freelancer in tech, gaming and fitness seen at Polygon, Eurogamer, Macworld, TechRadar and many more. He’s a big fan of Magic: The Gathering and other collectible card games, much to his wife’s dismay.
Attention Everyone: Animal Crossing: New Horizons has a jump button now!
You can also walk backwards, and sideways!!!
Why am I freaking out over this? Look. This is almost as exciting as when we all learned New Horizons would give us the ability to sit down on the ground.
This comes as a part of Animal Crossing: New Horizon’s 3.0 update, which dropped a day early today, giving access to a new Hotel area, loads of new decorative items, some quality of life features like bulk crafting, and Dream Islands you can build alongside friends. But as players have discovered since, it’s also added a subtle new feature to aid in construction and placement: essentially, a controlled way to step in the cardinal directions in very precise ways.
This feature is now tutorialed as part of obtaining the Construction App, though it’s possible it may be available prior to that, and it’s very easy to activate. You can use it any time by pressing the L button. Pressing it once will snap your character into place with a tiny little hop. Holding it down and moving the stick in a direction will let you take exactly one step in that direction, effectively the size of one “square” of space. This is ideal for activities such as precise furniture placement, or lining yourself up perfectly to hit rocks or even catch bugs.
So, sure, it’s not actually a huge deal – just a fun quality of life feature. It’s not like a REAL jump (and you can already jump small gaps automatically anyway). But Animal Crossing’s audience has historically gotten very excited about little touches like this, such as the wave of excitement when sitting on the ground was confirmed to be in the game, or the love for any number of other tiny details players have found over the years.
Anyway, if they ever add jump attacks it’s over for you people.
We’ve got a comprehensive guide to the 3.0 update, including how to unlock everything and what’s included, as a part of our Animal Crossing: New Horizons Wiki guide. If you’re just getting back to New Horizons today after a long hiatus, we also have a number of tips for people getting back into the swing of things.
Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. Got a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.
