Soothe your dark lonely soul by having a party in 'Animal Crossing'

Though many of us have chosen to use Animal Crossing: New Horizons as our own personal escape from reality during these hellish times, there's no reason we can't be social within the confines of our own islands. In fact, this friendly game is really all about sharing your creations and humble abode with those close to you.

Here's how you can start spending time with your friends and avoid become a reclusive shut-in. At least in Animal Crossing.

How to spend time with your friends in Animal Crossing: New Horizons

Ready to travel to another island or invite your friends to yours? You'll have to make sure you've played your game for at least two days. On the second day, you can head over to the airport in the middle of your island and check out the Dodo Airlines. Here, the bird named Orville can help you link up with friends.

You can approach this in two ways. First, select the "I want visitors." option. Then, Orville will ask you whether you want to invite visitors to your island for local or online play. You'll want to choose online play for the purposes of this particular method of play. If you're already friends with someone playing the game, you can set up your gate to accept friends on your friends list so that your acquaintances can just hop on over. This is the "All my friends!" Option, so choose that if it works for you.

Otherwise, you can invite people who aren't on your friends list with the "Invite via Dodo Code" option. To do this, you'll need a special Dodo Code from the friend you want to invite specifically over to your island. Choose "The more the merrier" if you want to open your island gates and share a Dodo Code with everyone on your social media feed or even your group chat. Whatever your choice, you'll get a special Dodo Code to share with others.

You can have people over in a variety of ways with these options. Dodo Codes can be given to friends so they can hop over whenever is convenient for them. To make this an even simpler process, you can add them to your Best Friends List on your Nook Phone, allowing you to speak with folks you invite to your island at any time when they're online.

From there, your friends can come and go as they please and spend time on your island and vice versa, once everything is set up correctly. But just know that once you've done this process and allow friends over without manually opening your gates each time, anyone you've deemed worthy can come over and buy things from your shop, pick your fruits, and get handsy with your stuff.