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How to get a 5-star island rating in Animal Crossing: New Horizons

Once you hit five stars, you’ll get the recipe for a Golden Watering Can

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Once you unlock terraforming and start improving your Animal Crossing: New Horizons island, the next natural step is getting a 5-star island ranking.

Hitting 3 stars rewards you with the Island Designer terraforming app and K.K. Slider performances . Earning 5 stars will give you the recipe to craft a Golden Watering Can . When your island is perfect, a Lily of the Valley flower will grow along your cliffsides occasionally.

Isabelle in the Resident Services building will give your island a rating and some tips to improve your island. She may tell you that you need more decorations around your town or that you need less weeds or trees. While we haven’t completely pinpointed the exact numbers you need to achieve a perfect island, we have an estimation.

Here’s a list of what we had when we scored a 5-star rating. The requirements may vary if certain furnishings (like the Lighthouse) count for more points than smaller ones, so it’s a good idea to have a nice mix of large and small objects.

• Around 20 Nook Miles furnishings (purchased with Nook Miles from the Nook Stop)
• Around 50 DIY furnishings (crafted yourself or by friends)
• Around 40 store-bought furnishings (from Nook’s Cranny or Nook Shopping)
• Around 50 fence segments
• Around 110 trees and 10 bamboo thickets
• Around 250 flowers must be bloomed, not sprouting or budding

These numbers are approximations and shouldn’t be taken purely at face value. Instead, use these as numbers as goals to reach. It’s important to keep talking to Isabelle as well, to make sure you’re on the right track. For example, if she stops telling you about needing more furnishings, you can move on to the next goal she mentions. Your rating will update the instant it meets the next requirement, so you won’t have to wait until the next day.

To avoid waiting for flowers to bloom or trees to grow, we recommend heading on some Mystery Island Tours and bringing some fully-grown plants back with you. If you fill your inventory, you should be able to bring back a few dozen flowers in one trip.

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ACNH | 5 Star Island Rating Guide - How To Get | Animal Crossing

Read this Animal Crossing New Horizons Switch (ACNH) - how to get 5 (five) star island rating! Get island ideas, furniture, placement, improvement tips, & island rating rewards!!!

Table of Contents

• How To Get 5 Star Rating

Island Rating Criteria

Recommended items to place.

• Rewards For Getting 5

How To Get 5 Star Island Rating

This guide assumes you've already gotten your island rating to ★3!

Main Points

• Place furniture all over your island
• Set up fences, DIY furniture, and store-bought furniture (you need all 3!)
• How you place the furniture doesn't matter
• Keep checking in with Isabelle and make adjustments

Place Furniture Everywhere

⬆ The furniture layout setup we used to get 5 stars!!!

In order to get your rating past 4 stars you'll have to really pay attention to the amount of furniture you place. However, keeping a good balance in terms of *where* you put the furniture is also very important, so don't pile it up on one part of the island.

Items We Placed To Get A 5 Star Rating

Number of trees isn't that important.

⬆ In order to make room for furniture, we cleared out all trees in a 30x13 grid!!!

It's not necessary to entirely deforest your island. As long as you don't cut too many trees, there won't be any impact on your island's rating. The important thing is to have enough room to place furniture! For this reason, setting up areas dedicated to furniture is a good idea.

Place Fences, DIY and Vendor Furniture

⬆ "If you use materials you personally gathered and place them all over the island, it will give off a good impression to visitors and be good for the environment!"!!!

According to Isabelle 's advice, placing fences & furniture, both pieces you've bought and made yourself, will reflect well on your island's evaluation. Make sure to place a good mix of the above 3 varieties!

The Furniture (And Its Placement) Doesn't Matter

⬆We set down 50 Hay Beds, which can easily be made with Weeds. All of these count toward your island evaluation!!!

What's important in the evaluation is not how furniture is placed, but rather just that furniture IS placed. If it doesn't bother you, it's perfectly okay to place 50+ of the same item in one location, as it will still increase your rating.

Keep Checking In With Isabelle

⬆ "Well, compared to last time, more and more people are saying this island's scenery has gotten even better!"!!!

After you place some furniture, head to Isabelle straight away to hear her evaluation. If you've done a good job with the placement, she'll tell you that the island looks better than before! If she doesn't say anything, that particular area has probably already reached its maximum level.

How To Improve Your Island's Rating

⬆ "Your current island rating is ★5 Stars!"!!!

• Get the max number of Villagers
• Increase the number of Shops and upgrade them
• Plant a certain amount of Flowers
• Plant a certain amount of Trees (including fruit trees)
• Add plenty of fences
• Distribute furniture evenly across your entire island
• Focus on aesthetics (no trash or weeds!)

In order to improve your Island's rank, you'll need to design your island with the above points in mind. If you keep to those guidelines, you should easily be able to reach 3 or 4 stars! 5 will be a bit more of a challenge.

Furniture Is Key!

The most important point here is that placement of furniture needs to be well-balanced! This means you can't just place it all in the center of your island near your main facilities like you can to get a 4 star rating!

Use Easy To Make Items

Making furniture that requires rare or expensive materials will not have any positive influence on your rating . This means that if you just want to get to 5 stars, you can fill your island with weed- or rock-based furniture. Collect weeds and rocks in masses to have the easiest time.

Easy-To-Make DIY Furniture

These are some of the items that we used to do this. The DIY recipes you find on your island may be slightly different from ours, so just focus on using as few materials as possible!

5 Star Island Rating Rewards

Get the golden watering can recipe.

By raising your rating to 5 stars, you'll get the recipe for a Golden Watering Can from Isabelle!

Lilies Of The Valley Bloom

One additional effect of getting a 5 star rating is that Lillies of the Valley, a very rare flower, will finally bloom.

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How To Organize and Maintain Your 5-Star Island in Animal Crossing: New Horizons

Imagine this: You go to see Isabelle in Resident Services and ask her to evaluate your island. Her little thought bubble pops up, and she says you currently have a… 4-star rating! What?? How?? You think, “I’ve done everything you’ve asked!” Or maybe, “I JUST had a 5-star rating!”

If this is you, and you just feel like you can’t possibly do any more to improve your island, then you’ve definitely come to the right post. Fear not, as I will help you check off all the required characteristics of a 5-star island in Animal Crossing: New Horizons   and show you how to maintain that rating.  

What You Need for a 5-Star Island in Animal Crossing: New Horizons 

Animal Crossing: New Horizons technically uses a point scale for island and scenery development. Your grade depends on how much of a certain item category you’ve included, but the grading involves way too much thinking (and math) for my liking, and possibly yours. So, here’s a simpler version with easy estimations:

• At least 100 trees and bamboo trees
• 50 pieces of fencing (doesn’t have to all be connected)
• Roughly 200 flowers
• 5 to 7 ramps
• 6 to 8 bridges
• About 50 DIY furniture items (exterior)
• About 50 store-bought furniture items (exterior)
• A well-balanced island

At a glance, this list can seem overwhelming. But fret not! It’s much easier than it looks, and you can still achieve this without losing your organized island. Here’s how.

Step 1: A Tree Is Known by Its Fruit

Some people’s first instinct when seeing how many trees they’ll need to reach the 5-star rating is to go around their island and plant trees anywhere and everywhere in all the empty spaces. But this just leads to more work later on when you want to maintain your island and make it more cohesive. So how do you stay organized when planting all the trees you need?

Make an orchard! This requires so little planning aside from choosing what kind of trees you want in your orchard. Depending on how much space you want it to take up, your orchard can be as big or as small as you’d like.  

Personally, I chose to do a plot with one row each of every fruit and 10 columns of every fruit (5×10 plot). So I’ve got a plentiful supply of non-native fruit that I can pick in mass every three days and rack up a lot of bells. And, I’ve made 50 fruit trees look really nice by keeping them in a neat dirt pattern plot that’s equally cohesive and separate from the rest of the island.  

Of course, you can also utilize the other kinds of trees available to you, such as pine trees and bamboo, to make different ecosystems on your island, like a zen garden or forest. This can greatly help add to your total count.

Step 2: On the Fence About Fences?

So, 50 pieces of fencing is actually really easy to go through when you start building. But it’s common to get tunnel vision on how to utilize your fencing on the island, with the first idea being to surround a large area with a single fence.  

Don’t fall prey to this clunky and space-eating idea! Use different kinds of fencing around your island to give varying areas personality. You can do this by creating yards around your villagers’ houses, making small gardening areas, or by sprucing up spaces you’ve already made.

Be sure to use a variety of fences to keep the aesthetics looking fresh!

Step 3: Nip That Flower Problem in the Bud

While your island is already equipped with one type of flower, it’s beneficial to obtain all the species for both your rating and your Nook Miles achievement.  

You can gain more flower types in Animal Crossing: New Horizons in one of five ways:

• Buying seedlings at Nook’s Cranny
• Buying seedlings from Leif when he visits, or at Harv’s Island
• Visiting mystery islands with Nook Miles tickets
• Going on island tours with Kapp’n
• Having a friend visit with flowers you don’t have and planting them on your island

If you’re like me, you want at least one of every flower in every color. But this is SUCH a hassle to make look pretty and keep tamed when trying to organize and maintain. I’ve tried a few different ways of ordering my flowers around the island, but my favorite has been creating a rainbow garden.  

This has allowed me to create a small enough section to keep it from over-running my entire island and still have a pretty area that shows all of the different flowers.

Personally, my island theme is nature- and cottagecore -based, so I have a section or two where flowers are completely covering the cliffs to encapsulate what you’d find in the wild. Once I got my 5-star rating, I let my Lily of the Valley flowers grow randomly to capture that feeling. 

Step 4: Ramp Up Those… Ramps

One of the absolute hardest things for me to complete on my 5-star journey was placing my ramps. At the time, it was costing me so many bells and the pressure of placing it in the perfect spot was at an all-time high.  

But I’m here to tell you, the most important aspect of placing the ramps (at least for me) is how you’re going to utilize them. Are your ramps going to be specifically designed for getting up or down to the next level? Are they just a fun feature that adds character to the area? How easily can you maneuver them to get from point A to point B?

After you figure that out, don’t be afraid to place ramps near one another! You can do this by placing ramps between three cliffs and using them to make a fun path to run up and down on. Here’s an example from my island where my ramps double as an easy path from my campsite to my hidden beach and a fun path.  

And don’t forget to use different types of ramps throughout your island!  

Step 5: We’ll Cross That Bridge When We Make It

Similar to ramps, bridges can be just as overwhelming to find the perfect spot to place on your island. However, there’s also a restrictive factor when placing these, as you have to have some kind of water source to place it over.

Try to have fun with your bridges in both design and placement when thinking about how to use them. You can make a small pond and place a diagonal bridge to make a small water feature in a park or garden. Or, you can do a bridge that’s lost in a forested area.

Here’s my take on a few different designs. Like I said before, I loved my cottagecore vibe, so my personal style definitely is more “wilderness explorer” than “city dweller.”

Step 6: DIY Furniture for Four, DIY 5-Star Effort

Depending on how far along you are in the game, this one can be a challenge. But assuming you have plenty of materials and DIY cards, here are a few different ways you can keep your island from feeling cluttered but still use lots of furniture to decorate.  

Make a Sitting Area (or Two!)  

This is such a great way to put a lot of things in a small space without it being too much. And there are so many designs you can choose from: cafes, parks, camps, beaches, gardens, etc.

Make a Functioning Garden With All the Tools You’d Actually Need  

ACNH is really great about giving you plenty of outside equipment to choose from to decorate your island. Though I didn’t originally plan on it, I made a huge garden and pumpkin patch area that’s complete with a water faucet, gardening storage, a wheelbarrow, and some other things. This is also a great way to farm for fruit or veggies when you need lots of bells fast.  

Make a Recreational Area for Your Villagers

I fought myself planning this for weeks, but after redesigning countless times, I finally came up with a small area where my villagers could lounge by the pool. Right next to this, I also have a volleyball sand court to complete the aesthetic of a summer camp with plenty of activities.  

A Penny Saved Is a Penny Earned… and Then Immediately Spent at Nook’s Cranny

As unfortunate as the prices are for items in ACNH , it’s essential that you buy a variety of large and small items to decorate your island. This doesn’t mean you have to necessarily buy everything you see though. Have in mind the kind of areas you want to create on your island and keep a lookout for them at Nook’s Cranny or at the Nook Stop at Resident Services.

Similar to the above, you’ll want to have an idea of what to do with said furniture once you finally get it. A really great idea to pursue is making your villagers’ yards match their personalities. You can do this by adding a few trees or shrubs, a bench, and a small table with a coffee cup or other small item atop it.

Don’t Forget To Decorate the Outside of Your Own House!

Whether or not you have a theme for your island or even just your house, adding furniture items around your home can really make it feel so much more complete. Personally, I wasn’t sure what to do with my home, so I just added a few things here and there until it looked like a real home to me.

Step 7: Maintain a Well-Balanced Island

A lesser-known trait of keeping or achieving your 5-star island is making sure all of your furniture, trees, and flowers aren’t all together. The game rates your island by looking at 8×8 sections (so 64 squares total), and if you have more than 45 items in that space then it will likely knock down your rating.  

So be sure you spread out the different areas on your island and create small spaces from big open sections. If you still feel like a certain spot is missing something, ask yourself what you’d add in the real world to make it seem friendlier or more complete.  

Do you have tricks or tips for creating and maintaining your 5-star islands in  Animal Crossing: New Horizons?  Let me know in the comments. If you need inspiration for your island, check out my recent guide for how to reignite your passion for Animal Crossing: New Horizons . Happy designing!

Sabrina enjoys games of all kinds, with her first loves being Nintendogs and The Sims 2. When she’s not busy chasing her toddler for the controller, she can be found playing RPGs, Animal Crossing: New Horizons, or any of the Mario and Legend of Zelda games.Aside from games, she enjoys screaming at the Houston Astros from her living room and blasting Panic at the Disco. Sabrina has a B.S. of Journalism and Mass Communication and is currently a freelance professional photographer, journalist, and substitute teacher.

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Animal Crossing: New Horizons: 15 Tips For A 5-Star Island

If you've been trying to figure out how to get your Animal Crossing: New Horizons island to become a 5-star one, we've put together some helpful tips!

Building the perfect island paradise in  Animal Crossing: New Horizons  is a ton of fun and something that so many people have been doing since the game was released. There are a ton of ways to customize and decorate the island in the game and part of the game involves getting your island's star rating up in order to unlock certain milestones , like having K.K. Slider perform a concert.

Related:  Animal Crossing: 10 Special Missions & Tasks to Keep An Eye Out For

The highest rating that an island can have is five stars. Getting there is a ton of work and although there are a lot of people around the Internet that have managed to completely decorate and perfect their islands to the five-star level, not everyone has been so lucky with completing their island yet. Luckily, there are some tips and tricks to follow that can help to improve the island and get that rating up.

Updated December 13th, 2020 by Meg Pelliccio: While players are flocking back to their Animal Crossing islands to take part in the winter festivities and build their own snowman, it's the perfect opportunity to finally earn that five-star rating, if they haven't done so already.

If you've been struggling to get that coveted rating, and in doing so earn yourself the coveted gold watering can item and the Lily-of-the-Valley flower, check out our top tips to securing that perfect rating.

15 Talk To Isabelle Often

An island's rating can change at any point, depending on what changes the player has been making. Talking to Isabelle regularly to ask about the island's evaluations can keep the player up to date on their island's status.

Along with that, Isabelle gives recommendations about how people can improve their island's rating whenever they ask her about it, so it can help players to know what on their island can be improved!

14 Fill Those Houses

You can have a maximum of ten animal villagers living on your island with you, but you'll need to build enough housing plots to accommodate them all. A lot of players are picky about the animals that move in, hunting down their favorites on mystery islands to avoid getting someone they don't want.

However, the amount of animal neighbors you have affects your star rating. You need to have at least eight residents to earn above a two-star rating. If you normally have ten villagers, that gives you a little wiggle room for any that leave.

13 Pick Weeds

Anyone who has played the Animal Crossing games in the past is already likely familiar with how problematic weeds can be to your town. Although they may look nice and give areas of the island a more natural, overgrown look, too many weeds can be a problem.

RELATED:  Animal Crossing: New Horizons – 15 Creative Simple Panel Designs

Luckily, the fact that they can be used in different DIY recipes or sold at Nook's Cranny (which occasionally nets a Nook Miles+ reward!) makes picking them totally worth it.

12 Construct Public Buildings

As you progress through the storyline of New Horizons, you'll be tasked with gathering crafting ingredients for public buildings and placing plots for them to be built upon. Each of these public buildings contributes to your star rating.

Everything that affects your star rating is worked out on a points system , not that this is made clear by Isabelle, but it is detailed in the official guidebook. Building the museum, Nook's Cranny, and the Able Sisters shop will earn you 15 points for each one.

11 Keep Your Island Clean

We're all guilty of dropping items onto the floor of our island, especially when we're in the middle of sorting stuff out or saving recipes for a friend. However, you should think twice about doing this if you want to get that five-star rating.

If you have fifteen or more items that have been dropped on your floor, it will go against your star rating. Fortunately, items that naturally appear on the ground such as shells, branches, stones, or star fragments do not count towards this.

10 Plant Trees

A major part of island development involves building houses and having shops constructed around the island, but keeping nature beautiful is also the key to having a 5-star island.

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Planting trees, both cedar, and fruit can help to beautify the island and is one of the things that Isabelle looks for when giving an island rating.

9 ...But Not Too Many

Planting trees can be a good way to landscape the island and, if they're fruit trees, can even help to make some extra cash to finance furniture and infrastructure purchases for the island. But, it's important to be careful when planting those trees around the island.

If a player ends up with too many trees, Isabelle might tell them during their island evaluation that there are simply too many and to get rid of some. Luckily, it takes a lot of trees to have this evaluation and players will likely be too busy filling their island with other decorations to wind up with too many trees anyway.

8 Care For Your Flowers

One of the most important tips for achieving a 5-star island is keeping the island looking beautiful. And what better way to do that than with flowers?

Flowers can be purchased from Timmy and Tommy or dug up from other islands that can be visited on Mystery Island Tours. There are a lot of different flowers that can be used to decorate the player's island. And regularly watering these flowers can even cause special color variations to grow.

7 Don't Run Through Your Flowers

On your quest to achieving a five-star rating, you'll need to be super careful about not running through your flowers. While New Horizons at least stopped flowers from being completely destroyed when someone runs through, it does deflower them and put them back to a bud state.

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However, the number of points you get from your flowers depending on how fully grown they are. A flower sprout earns the least amount of points, it goes up a little when the sprout becomes a bud, but it won't earn the full number of points until it is a fully developed flower.

6 Infrastructure Is Important

After reaching a certain point, fairly early in the game, the player will be able to talk to Tom Nook in Resident Services about infrastructure. This means building inclines and bridges in order to help improve the look of the island and make it easier to get around.

Not only does this make the island look better and stop players from constantly having to pull out their vaulting pole and ladder, but it also helps to improve the island's rating, so get building!

5 Place Expensive Outdoor Furnishings

Earning points towards your star rating can be made a lot easier when you realize that the more expensive the furnishing you place, then the more points you can earn. This is only applicable to furnishings placed outdoors.

If an item you place is specialized for outdoors then you earn points towards your score. If the item cost you between 2000 and 20,000 bells, this score increases again, and if the item costs over 20,000 bells, then the score goes up again.

4 Use Fences

When asking Isabelle about the island's evaluation, one suggestion that she's likely to give the player is to use fencing. And this isn't just a casual suggestion of things that could help the island to look better, it's a real recommendation and something that Isabelle has her eyes out for.

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Fences can be placed in a ton of creative places, but some of the easiest places to lay pieces of fence out are around villager homes. Not only does giving villagers a fenced in yard or garden look adorable, but it also helps the island's rating.

3 Keep It Varied

Although it may be tempting to just craft the same simple items over and over and leave them all over the island, that definitely won't be any help as far as the long-term progress of the island goes.

The better option is to place a variety of different items around the island as decoration. This will look better, inspire Isabelle to give out a higher rating, and you won't find yourself wasting materials that could've been used on things that you actually wanted to craft.

2 Place Thoughtfully

Moving decorations, building infrastructure, and moving buildings can be an expensive and time-consuming process. It's definitely worth it in the end when the island looks perfect, but it's definitely better to place them in their permanent home in the first place.

Have a vision in mind and plan out the island as much as possible prior to placing things down. Even having just a vague, general idea of what different areas of the island will be dedicated to later will save a ton of time and bells in the long run and help to reach that 5-star level faster.

1 Take Your Time

It can definitely be frustrating to see people already showing off their 5-star islands across the Internet when we don't feel like ours are perfect yet .

But, getting a 5-star island is a process and Animal Crossing is a game that is designed to be played over a long period of time. Even if it takes a while to perfect everything, it's more important to just have fun.

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Mystery Island Tours (List of Island Templates)

Animal Crossing: New Horizons features special Mystery Island Tours that allow you to travel to uncharted islands separate from your own island or a friends. These randomly generated islands can contain a multitude of resources and fauna that may prove useful in your island's development.

How to Go On Island Tours

Once you've paid off your initial Deserted Island Getaway Package with Nook Miles , you can then use the Nook Miles you earn to buy a Nook Miles Ticket (and one will be given to you free of charge). This ticket can be used to go on a mystery island tour. You never know what kind of island you're going to or what to expect!

Once you have a Nook Miles Ticket, head to Dodo Airlines and present it when asking to take a flight. You'll then be taken on a flight to a random island.

Island Tour Benefits

These small deserted islands are full of trees , flowers , and other items. You can take all these items and creatures back home with you. There is even the chance you may find a random villager also on the island, and talking to them can mean inviting them to come to your island as a permanent resident.

Since your island can only produce so many resources per day, Mystery Islands are a great way to get more wood, iron , and stone if your own trees and rocks have been tapped out. However, don't expect to always find something new or not native to your own island each time you visit a Mystery Island - but you might get lucky!

List of Mystery Island Templates

Each island you travel to will be slightly different in a number of ways. This can mean some islands will have rivers, cliffs, or be completely flat. Because of this, you'll want to be sure to progress things by getting Blathers into your town so you'll have the Shovel and Vaulting Pole , and keep taking on tasks for Tom Nook until you get the Ladder as well - otherwise you stand to lose out on materials out of reach.

Almost every island you visit will include the following:

• Beach areas on all sides, with dark rocks on the top left and right
• Flowers native to your own island
• Fruit trees native to your own island
• Coconut trees
• Several rocks
• Fish (river and sea, and possibly ponds)

Mystery Islands can also have a random visiting Villager you can invite to your town - but only during certain circumstances: They will almost always appear on islands early on in your town's development until after you've upgraded the Resident Services tent to a building. After this, they will only appear once there is an available plot of land for sale on your island. If your island is full, or you have no plots of land for a villager to claim, they will not appear.

Below is a list of all known Mystery Island Tour Templates:

Basic Island with Pond

• Island Type: Starter Island (Common)
• Trees : Hardwood Trees, Native Fruit Trees, Coconut Trees
• Bugs : Normal Variety
• Fish : Normal River, Pond, and Sea Variety

This island is likely one of the first you'll visit, with a river flowing from a cliff and flowing at a right angle east into the sea.

Basic Island without Pond

• Fish : Normal River and Sea Variety

Another island that you're likely to visit on your first time, it's almost identical to the other island - including a river flowing from an upper elevation off to the right - but lacks a pond.

Spiral River Island

• Trees: Hardwood Trees, Native Fruit Trees, Coconut Trees

This is another island you're likely to find on your first few visits to Mystery Islands . It includes a long spiraling river where a villager might camp near the center, along with a rock.

Large Pond Island

• Fish : Normal Pond and Sea Variety

The last of the islands that will always appear in your first few visits, this island has no river (though it does have a small cliff area), and instead has a large triangular pond along with the usual resources.

Bamboo Island

• Island Type: Common
• Trees: Bamboo Trees, Coconut Trees
• Fish : Normal Sea Variety

The bamboo island is a highly sought after location - as its the only place to find fully grown bamboo and dig up bamboo shoots to grow more in your town. It's also completely flat and devoid of rivers or ponds, making it an ideal place to attract certain types of bugs like Tarantulas or Scorpions to make bells fast.

Mountain Island

• Bugs : Pill bugs, Centipedes, and Wharf Roaches

This island requires a Ladder to get any real use out of, as it features a high peak, with normal trees at the base, fruit trees on the second level, and 5 rocks to gather lots of resources from at the top level. Note that regular bugs do not spawn on this island, and there are no rivers or ponds to speak of.

Big River Island

• Island Type: Uncommon
• Bugs: Dragonflies, Water Beetles, Pondskaters

This special island is comprised of a fairly large curving river that begins on a cliff in the top right before making a "c" shape down and out to the sea on the right side. The island is special in that only water-specific insects and dragonflies will spawn on this island.

Waterfall Island

• Bugs: Normal Variety
• Fish: Normal Variety

An island with normal resources, it is comprised of a high river dumping down into a lower elevation with several diverging paths - two waterfalls ending in small pools, and a third leading to the sea on the right. While it doesn't offer any special draws, and is difficult to navigate without constantly using a Ladder and Vaulting Pole , it can be useful for getting cliff-specific fish or Sturgeons.

Alternate Fruit Island

• Trees: Non-Native Fruit Trees, Coconut Trees
• Fish: Normal River and Sea Variety

A valued island - especially for those lacking friends, this island produces dozens of fruit not native to your island - but it will only ever produce one non-native type, which means you cannot visit this island again to find a different type of fruit from the last visit.

Trash Island

• Trees: Hardwood Trees, Native Fruit Trees
• Fish: Trash Only

This deceptive island looks normal with a small curving river in the center backed by cliffs above it, as it flows to the left out to sea. However, you'll only find trash in these waters, and only water-specific insects will spawn in the meantime.

Rare Flower Island

• Island Type: Rare
• Trees: Hardwood Trees, Coconut Trees
• Bugs: Butterflies, Moths, Bees
• Fish: Normal Pond and Sea Variety

This island is also highly prized, as it will contain rare variants of some of your native flower types in a ring around a central pond, and can be transplanted with a shovel to bring back to your island. This island is also full of flying bugs which can sometimes be profitable if rare butterflies or moths appear.

Forest Island

• Bugs: Moths, Beetles, Walking Sticks
• Fish: Normal Sea Variety

Another rare island - this one is devoid of rivers or ponds, and instead has a very dense interior with hardwood trees everywhere, and many more coconut trees on the beach. It's most noted for the surplus of bugs that can be found on trees - making it very valuable in months when rare beetles can be found.

Forest Island 2

• Bugs: Moths, Walking Sticks, Beetles

Another forested island, it also includes many types of insects only found on trees - but lacks elevation, and instead has a layout much the same as the Bamboo island, only its bamboo has been replaced by regular hardwood trees.

Giant Fish Island

• Bugs: Mantis, Flower Bugs,
• Fish: Large and Huge Shadowed River, Pond, and Sea Fish

This lucrative island is comprised of a large central river dumping down into a series of ponds via waterfalls onto the base of the island - though it does not empty out into the sea. The waters are all home to only the biggest fish, including many rare types. You'll also find rare hybrid colors of your native flowers on this island, which will spawn bugs that prefer to sit atop flowers.

Giant Fish Island 2

• Fish: Large and Huge Shadowed River and Sea Fish

Similar to the previously mentioned Giant Fish Island, this one will also spawn only the biggest fish - but its river spawns from a cliff in the top right that diverges to the left and below around a small island before merging together on the left and flowing out to sea. There's also an absence of rare flowers or bugs on this island as well.

Shark Island

• Fish: Sharks, Ocean Sunfish, and Suckerfish

This island is configured with a large rectangular inner island with a river moat - but the big draw is out at sea, where only finned fish will spawn that can include massive and lucrative sharks!

Spider Island

• Bugs: Tarantulas, Scorpions

The famous "Spider Island" isn't just something you can create by tearing down insect spawning points - this island is identified by a small circular river ring around an interior that's likely swarming with aggressive critters. Luckily, the river is thin enough to jump across at points.

Money Rock Island

• Trees: Native Fruit Trees, Coconut Trees
• Bugs: Pill Bugs, Centipedes, Wharf Roaches

An incredibly lucrative island if you can get to it, this island is easily identified by a large lake with a small island comprised of 5 rocks - all of which hold Bells . The only way to reach it is by eating a fruit and striking the rock at the top of the lake to extend a path for you to use a Vaulting Pole to reach the island in the center. Be sure to back yourself against dug pits to maximize your income to get up to 82,000 Bells per visit!

Money Rock Cliff Island

Much like the other Money Rock island, this can be a very lucrative find, with several rocks full of Bells in the center of the island, backed by 4 cliffs in each of the four corners. It's also reported that this island is full of aggressive insects - so be on guard when trying to whack those rocks.

Gold Nugget Island

• Island Type: Very Rare
• Trees: Coconut Trees

Another extremely rare and lucrative find, this simple island is devoid of most trees, and instead has a small inner island surrounded by a large lake. A single rock stands on this island, and when hit, will produce up to 8 golden nuggets!

Looking for even more? Why not check out some of our other handy Animal Crossing: New Horizons guides.

• Complete List of All ACNH Events
• Money Making Guide - How to Get Bells Fast
• Complete Happy Home Paradise Guide

Up Next: NookPhone Apps

Top guide sections.

• Beginner's Guide and Tips
• Bug Guide: Bugs List, Sell Price, and Bug Catching Tips
• Fish Guide: Fish List, Sell Price, and Fishing Tips
• Sea Creatures Guide: Sea Creature List, Sell Price

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In this guide.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons' Successor Should Finally Settle the Debate on One Character

The next game in the Animal Crossing franchise needs to finally set the record straight about one character's sinister nature.

• Animal Crossing's charming exterior hides potential darkness, with fans questioning Tom Nook's moral alignment.
• Tom Nook's obsession with profits creates roadblocks for players, causing frustration and resentment.
• As the franchise expands, Tom Nook's insatiable appetite for power and money raises concerns about his true intentions.

The world of Animal Crossing is one of the most delightful ways to spend time playing a game. That said, there can sometimes be darker undertones to Animal Crossing that the next game in the series should finally address. In Animal Crossing , players come in contact with a variety of adorable characters, but one in particular may actually be quite sinister under all the cuteness.

Animal Crossing is one of the quintessential cute and cozy titles that bring a lot of comfort to players. The adorable villagers in Animal Crossing are just one of the many draws to the game, but when it comes to Tom Nook, an ongoing debate about the character's true nature needs to be brought to light, even in a purely playful way.

69-Year-Old Grandpa Shows Off Amazing Bell Count in Animal Crossing: New Horizons

The long-running animal crossing tom nook debate.

On the surface, Tom Nook just seems like another adorable villager that players encounter on their islands. However, as the franchise has gone on, many fans have started to question Tom Nook's moral alignment . Animal Crossing is known as a lighthearted experience, but Tom Nook and his nefarious ways can give the games a darker edge.

Tom Nook's Notorious Greed

As the real estate mogul of the island, Tom Nook has a tight-knit relationship with money . Maximizing his profits is the character's ultimate goal, and it can make the game's progression system more difficult than one might think. For such a cozy game, the Animal Crossing games make sure that Tom Nook sets up plenty of roadblocks that keep the player from getting what they want easily.

Being in debt to Tom can make for some frustrating experiences that begin to cause some players to harbor a deep-seated resentment toward the business-savvy raccoon.

An Insatiable Appetite For More

Tom Nook simply cannot be stopped. As the franchise has grown, so has Tom Nook's business ventures, and there is no sign of slowing down. At the beginning of the series, Tom was the humble manager of the town shop. But things took a turn in New Leaf when Tom expanded his interest in real estate.

Opening Nook's Homes, Tom dug his claws deeper into the economy of the island. In New Horizons , Tom took an even greater step with the creation of Nook Incorporated, where he worked as the head of the company. As time goes by, it seems as though Tom Nook is on the path to creating a monopoly on the island where he alone holds most of the community's financial power.

Settling The Tom Nook Debate Once And For All

With recent rumors of a new Animal Crossing game potentially in development, the next installment in the franchise should put the Tom Nook debate to rest once and for all. To some, he is simply a misunderstood raccoon trying to provide for his family. To others, a menace. Whatever the next game ends up being should address Tom's apparent lust for power and money.

The Tom Nook debate has been a long-running discussion among players on the internet, and it's birthed some amazing memes. Although Tom's true intentions remain a mystery, it's a guarantee that the villager will once again be an important player in the next Animal Crossing game , and only then may it be revealed how much further his power has reached.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons

The Nintendo Switch Lite Is Down to Its All-Time Lowest Price on Walmart

The Timmy & Tommy’s Aloha Edition of the portable home console is on sale for the cheapest price we've ever seen.

By Rudie Obias

Rudie Obias

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The Nintendo Switch has become one of the most popular consoles. In fact, the gaming company sold more than 139 million units since release in 2017. It’s so popular that Nintendo released the Switch Lite, a smaller and lighter handheld-only version of the console, a few years later in 2019.

Walmart has the Nintendo Switch Lite (in turquoise) on sale for $179, or 10% off its list price. While this doesn’t seem like the deepest of discounts, it’s actually the console’s all-time lowest price ever. And since Nintendo rarely puts their consoles on sale (especially when it’s not the holiday season), this is a very good deal.

Popular on Variety

After purchasing a flight and land from Tom Nook, the CEO of Nook Incorporated, players travel to a deserted island where they build and develop the land by gathering and crafting, completing tasks and quest, customizing the island and home, pay for supplies from Tom Nook and develop a community with the anthropomorphic animals on the island and other gamers.

Unlike the regular Switch, the Nintendo Switch Lite doesn’t include detachable Joy-Con controllers, while it doesn’t connect to a TV and its display is smaller at 5.5 inches instead of 7 inches. But, one of its biggest draws is that it includes an actual D-Pad controller instead of a four action buttons that mimics a D-Pad, like on the regular Switch.

Aside from that, it’s pretty much the same console as the larger Nintendo Switch. It can also play nearly all of the same games, including “ Mario Kart 8 Deluxe ,” “ The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom ,” “ Super Mario Bros. Wonder ,” “ Princess Peach Showtime! ,” “ WarioWare: Move It! ” and others.

On sale for $179 (reg. $199.99), Nintendo Switch Lite: Timmy & Tommy’s Aloha Edition with “Animal Crossing: New Horizons” is available at Walmart. In the meantime, watch an overview video for “ Animal Crossing: New Horizons ” below:

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The Animal Crossing: New Horizons and Hakkejima Sea Paradise collaboration event will run from April 17 to July 9, 2024. This event will take place in the real Hakkejima Sea Paradise aquarium in Japan. [Thanks, Famitsu !]

There will be several events at the Hakkejima Sea Paradise for fans of both Animal Crossing: New Horizons and people who just really like marine life. You’ll be able to see over a hundred fish and other sealife from the game in person. Each exhibit will have Blathers’s description, as well as comments and trivia from the actual aquarium staff.

During the collaboration event, you can also go on a stamp rally, participate in a fishing competition, go hunting for scallops, and watch animals perform to the music from the game. Most of these events do require an extra fee. For example, you need to pay 200 JPY ($1.30) to look for scallops and 1800 JPY ($11.90) to participate in the fishing competition. There will also be a collaboration menu, such as coffee with Brewster’s face on the cup or a seafood barbecue consisting of animals that you can donate to Blathers.

The first time this event took place was back in 2021 . It’s unclear why the organizers chose not to run the event again until now. Considering the scale, however, it might have been rather expensive. The Hakkejima Sea Paradise is an aquarium and amusement park in Yokohama, Japan. You can get a day pass for 5900 JPY ($38.90) which covers everything from your entry fee to the fee you pay for the activities.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons is readily available on the Nintendo Switch.

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