➤ Guides Guide to flying gifts in balloons - Animal Crossing: New Horizons 🕹

Hunting for (flying) gifts hanging from balloons is a great classic of Animal Crossing and also appears in New Horizons. On your island, some of these objects will appear periodically at certain times, which can contain stars, clothes, materials and many other objects. If you are curious to find out what these elusive balloons contain, how to take them down and how to collect the rewards, keep reading this guide.

Also check out all of our guides to learn more about the game.

How to take down a balloon
When and from what direction they appear
How they differ
The balloons on the islands of friends
Meaning of their color
Influence of luck and decor
The goals that can be reached by breaking them
The seasonal balloons

How to take down a balloon with a gift?

To bring down the balloon you will have to position yourself exactly below and pull a slingshot shot. To build this instrument, you will need to obtain the blueprint by buying it at the Nook Shop. 5 pieces of hardwood will be needed to complete the project.

The slingshot will always hit upwards and towards the horizon. Be sure to position the camera so that you can aim well to hit the target and receive your gift.

Keep the sling in a fixed place of the inventory, perhaps place it in a corner of the pockets or in one of the four cardinal points of the quick inventory, to be able to pull it out immediately.

To make sure you don't run out of sling, as it will break after 20 uses, always keep a spare in your pockets, and place workbenches near the beaches so you can build one very quickly.

Finally beware of do not hit the balloons over objects, flowers, rocks or a body of water. In fact, if the gift falls on one of these objects it will disappear, leaving your inhabitant with evident dismay.

However, to unlock the Nook + Lost Treasure miles card, you will have to lose a gift, making it disappear as explained above.

General information on balloons

When and from what direction do they appear?

The balloons appear cyclicallyand approximately every 5 minutes, and every 12 hours they will change direction. If in the morning they appear from the west heading towards the east, in the afternoon they will go the opposite way ..

His appearance will always be heralded by the hiss of a gust of air. If you have forgotten which direction they should appear from, you can help yourself with two simple tricks, physical factors that will indicate the direction of origin of the long-awaited gift.

You can put on headphones to better understand the direction of the sound effects: if you hear the sound coming from the left, you will know it will appear from there.

Furthermore, look at the smoke coming out of the chimneys of the houses of the other inhabitants of the island. If the smoke will fly to the left, it means that the wind is pushing towards the west, and the balloon will then appear from the eastern side of the island.

Once you have ascertained the direction from which the balloon will appear, immediately go to the beach on the right side of the island to be able to stumble upon your gift.

If for some reason it seems to you that they have stopped appearing, enter and exit any building. But be careful not to enter any house when you feel the breeze that signals its appearance, because it will disappear without leaving you the gift.

Are all balloons the same?

During the Easter event there will be many more balloons. However only those linked to the event will be faster, so if you have collected enough eggs, forget about the latter and focus on the slower ones.

This will inevitably also result in the minor appearance of gifts not related to the event, but you can overcome this problem by changing the date on your console to avoid the event.

Can balloons be found on friends' islands?

Small clarification not to forget is that the palloncini will not appear while visiting friends' islands, nor when they come to visit you. So be careful not to have left the gate of the Dodo Air Line open for online communication if you are looking for them.

What does the color of the balloons represent?

Often depending on the color of the balloon, there will be a different object inside the gift box. Not always this will indissolubly determine the gift inside it, but it will increase the possibility of finding that category of objects.

Here is a brief review of what the various colors will correspond to:

Red: DIY patterns, will often be seasonal patterns.
Blue: DIY patterns and materials, such as clay, iron or gold ore.
Green: Furniture and clothing.
Yellow: Little stars.
Gold: this gift will contain the DIY pattern of golden sling, a more resistant slingshot than normal.

Does luck and decor affect the generation of balloons?

In past games in the series, elements of luck and Feng Shui affected the generation of balloons. In this chapter however, you won't need to go around with a certain hairstyle or beautify your home to increase the chance of spawning them.

What are the goals of popping balloons?

In addition to the Nook + miles that you can collect with the daily challenges, after having popped a certain number of balloons you will get different milestones, some miles and their related titles under the tab Rain of treasures:

5 balloons: 300 Nook Miles
20 balloons: 500 Nook Miles
50 balloons: 1000 Nook Miles
100 balloons: 2000 Nook Miles
300 balloons: 3000 Nook Miles

The day after having burst balloon number 300, a golden balloon will appear that will contain the exclusive DIY scheme for the Golden Slingshot, a more resistant slingshot capable of firing 60 shots worth 10.300 Stars, which will unlock the milestone related to the slingshot in the Golden Tools tab.

What are the seasonal patterns available in gifts?

During some events, such as the Christmas holidays, some patterns will be available exclusively obtainable by knocking down the balloons. Here is a pattern based on the Northern Hemisphere.

For more information on the game, you can consult some of our guides: