More freedom to build

Maintenance and compensation

The official Steam notice schedules downtime for September 23, 2026, 15:00–18:00 UTC−5 (20:00–23:00 UTC). Login is unavailable during maintenance; delays will be announced separately.

After completion, Heartopia plans to mail 8,000 Gold and 10 Wishing Stars. Claim them before September 26 at 17:00 UTC−5 (22:00 UTC). These fixed-offset times apply to the maintenance notice; they are separate from the selected-server event schedules below.

Building controls and the unlock requirement

Ignore Overlap and Floating Placement in Building Settings require a Home Evaluation score above 1,500. The notice says higher than 1,500, rather than at least 1,500.

With those settings enabled, furniture can overlap and snap to the 3D spatial grid. Precision mode also gains Free Placement and Free Rotation. The maintenance notice now supplies the unlock requirement missing from the earlier preview.

Display furniture and elevator research

Mannequin, Umbrella Rack and Kitty Costume Rack are announced for displaying clothing, handheld items, umbrellas and pet costumes at home. They can be researched in the Self-Service Lab; some styles are also sold by Bob’s Special Decor Store.

The Self-Service Lab also gains Scheduled Master Panel and Elevator research, with multiple styles for some items. Completing research is the announced acquisition path; exact recipes and unlock conditions are not listed.

Clothing and a new record store

Morin’s clothing store gains workwear outfits and handheld Curling Irons and Hair Dryers, including color variants. Inventory refreshes differ between players, so every addition may not appear in your first refresh.

A record store is planned for Residential Street in the Central Area. It will sell music-label records and take over sales of records published by D.G. Member Music & Entertainment.

Order Machine additions on September 24

Starting September 24 at 06:00 Server Time, the Order Machine adds Fashion items associated with the eight themes below, including furniture, building materials and outfits. The notice does not enumerate every item or establish individual order requirements.

• Beach Utopia Season; Grimkin Season; Spring Festival; New Animal Neighbors.
• Springfield Camping; Youthful Kingdom; Under the Galaxy; Ode to Golden Ridge.

Town news and hot air balloons

After Resident Requests are unlocked, a Bulletin Board in front of Town Hall will show the event schedule, Town News, Fashion Reports and Resident Daily Life.

Hot air balloons gain a Viewing Mode that shows the whole balloon and hides chat after takeoff. Two balloons can take off simultaneously, and the airborne interface buttons are being adjusted.

PC building controls

Build Mode and Advanced Build Mode gain hotkeys. In Advanced Build Mode, WASD pans the camera, while holding any mouse button and dragging anywhere on the screen rotates the camera through 360 degrees. The previous left/right split for panning and rotation is removed.

Friendship, hobbies and everyday improvements

The friendship cap rises from 10 to 15, with ten new two-person actions. Snow and sand sculpture certification is also being added.

• A Graphics setting can collapse the upper-right controls into one menu, while Watch, Backpack and Build Mode stay separate.
• Blank books can be refreshed. Locked map content, Resident Requests, Bob’s Furniture Store, Pet’s Home’s second floor and some interaction descriptions receive display or layout improvements.
• Premium Hobby Upgrade Ticket text is corrected. The Simple Clay Stove gets an animation adjustment and a small cooking-time reduction.

Fixes worth knowing about

• Applying a Blueprint should no longer cause the reported occasional freeze or timeout. The Bird Digital Clock’s displayed time and the Oasis Arched Flower Walkway’s interaction effects are being fixed.
• Opening the camera should no longer stop food sharing; entering Selfie mode still does. Fixes also cover the Friend Gift receiving-limit refresh, Friends Link region recording and mismatched action or selfie-expression visibility between players.
• Visual fixes cover Yearning Umbrella Decoration materials, other players’ umbrella states, overlapping shop pets and insect-catching effects on certain exchange interfaces. Violet-Backed Starling translations are updated in some languages.
• Interface fixes cover first-time Collection unlocks, an unnecessary Favorite option on the Selfie emote/action interface, Rory’s icon during Head to the Whalefall Area and Collection icons on Puzzle Boxes in Ka Ching’s General Store.

The events have separate opening dates

Fallen Leaves and the Order Machine additions start September 24. Mid-Autumn opens September 25; Starspell Voyager opens September 26 at 07:00; double Moonlight Crystal Guild sign-ins begin September 28; and White Snake opens September 30. These event times use the selected game server, and the events do not all open during maintenance.

Official sources

• Official September 23 maintenance and patch notes
• Earlier September update preview

This article summarizes announcements reviewed on September 23, 2026.