Animal Crossing: New Horizons' most recent update brought fireworks shows, dream islands and an island backup restoration service to the game, but it also brought back a smaller feature from previous games: tripping. New Horizons players have discovered that, after updating the game, their villagers will occasionally trip and fall while running, a mechanic that has been before, but was previously absent in the Nintendo Switch title. While tripping may seen entirely random, it actually has a deeper meaning within the game; it indicates that a player has bad luck.
Luck is a hidden mechanic that was present in previous Animal Crossing games. Though there were ways to influence it, the luck of the day was usually random. If a player was experiencing good luck, nearly everything the player did would bring good fortune: money rocks would spawn more Bells, building friendships with other villagers would be easier and special items would appear more frequently. However, players experiencing bad luck would experience the exact opposite, with less money, increased difficulty when building friendships and tripping while running. The return of tripping could mean that the luck system could be making a return in New Horizons, and with the luck system could come the return of Katrina.
Making her debut in the original Animal Crossing, Katrina is a blue panther who specializes in fortune telling. She would travel to the player's island at random and set up her tent in different locations, though in later games she was given her own shop. For the small price of 100 Bells, Katrina would give the player their fortune, indicating if the player would have good luck or bad luck that day. Katrina has appeared in every main game in the series (with the exception of New Horizons), and each installment features a slight alteration to her familiar fortune telling.
If the luck system really has returned, this likely means Katrina will as well. New Horizons features plenty of returning characters traveling to player's islands as merchants, so Katrina could set up her tent in the plaza in front of Resident Services like Leif or Label do. However, given that some villagers have commented that she may be working illegally and her shop in City Folk is hidden in ivy, she could also use the secret beach like Redd. When Katrina might return is unknown, though Nintendo did confirm that a fall update is coming. This announcement teased Halloween content, and the month of all things spooky and mystical would be the perfect time to bring a fortune teller back into the game.