How to unlock Wardell's catalog - Animal Crossing: New Horizons

Published , by Bill Lavoy

For the Animal Crossing: New Horizons player that loves stuff, Wardell’s catalog is an absolute must. This catalog will give you a chance to buy items that are not available in Wardell’s shop on any given day and offers a huge bump in selection. In this guide, we’ll help you unlock Wardell’s catalog.

How to unlock Wardell’s catalog

To unlock Wardell’s catalog, you must first have purchased and installed the Happy Home Paradise expansion for Animal Crossing: New Horizons. The catalog is locked behind that content, and anyone who doesn’t own it won’t be able to access it. Once you have the DLC installed you’ll need to head to your island’s airport and take a flight. Talk to Orville of Dodo Airlines and say, "I want to go to work." 

Once you land, you’ll need to get started with the DLC, which will involve talking to Niko, Lottie, and Wardell. You will be walked through the process of designing vacation homes for Animal Crossing characters. Then, you need to start designing homes. You’ll need to design a lot of homes.

The actual unlock conditions for Wardell’s catalog are foggy. There’s information out there that you must design a certain number of homes or unlock Soundscapes. However, I was able to unlock Wardell’s catalog before Soundscapes. It seems that unlocking Wardell’s catalog is tied to buying furniture in the store where he and Lottie can most often be found. There are reports on Reddit that you’re required to spend 150,000 Poki. There are also rumblings that you’re required to buy furniture several days in a row. Both should be on your radar, because Wardell comments that you are one of his best customers when he unlocks the catalog. This is the strongest evidence that the key to unlock Wardell’s catalog is buying furniture from the store. So, the fastest way to unlock Wardell’s catalog is to buy everything in the store every day until it unlocks.

To see if you have the catalog, just speak to Wardell in the Paradise Planning office. If you've unlocked it, there will be a dialog option for, "...can I order a thing?" Wardell's catalog isn't on your phone like the Nook Shopping app. You must speak to Wardell in order to buy things from this so-called catalog. Also, these items will cost Poki, not Bells, so don't go buying something you can grab from the Nook Shopping app on your phone.

Unfortunately, the internet is still guessing about how exactly to unlock Wardell’s catalog, but we know it’s tied to buying items in the Happy Home Paradise store. Head out and design some vacation homes, buy some stuff, and Wardell’s catalog will be yours in no time. While you’re waiting, check out some of our other Animal Crossing: New Horizons guides.