In this guide we will discuss how you would be able to get a 5-star rating for your island in Animal Crossing New Horizons and in case you have a lower rating, you can learn how to improve and if you already have 5-star rating this guide will help you learn how to maintain it.
How to Get 5-Star Island Rating in Animal Crossing New Horizons
Getting a perfect 5-star rating for your island in ACNH can be quite tricky as the game doesn’t properly explain all the requirements for it.
Thankfully, our guide here will help you attain and maintain that 5-star for your ACNH island.
Island Evaluation
In Animal Crossing, you can customize your Island however you want and make it look good in order to get a 5-Star rating, but it is not that easy. Island Rating depends on several factors like cleanliness and eye-pleasing designs.
After you have completed the campsite with 6 houses on the deserted island and the first campsite visitor has been accommodated in the campsite, Isabelle will offer you a new service known as Island Evaluation.
In the start, it is not possible to evaluate your island as your tools are locked behind the progression gates.
Island Rating is divided into two further categories i.e. Development and Scenery.
Development Points
Infrastructure and buildings like bridges, shops, inclines, fences and furniture in your island will determine the Development Points that you will get.
Scenery Points
The way you have arranged the crafted furniture and natural flora will determine the Scenery points that you will get.
Island Rating bands
- For 1 Star, Development Score <80 and Scenery Score <200
- For 2 Star, Development Score = 80-159 and Scenery Score = 200-269
- For 3 Star, Development Score = 160-399 and Scenery Score = 270-349
- For 4 Star, Development Score = 400-664 and Scenery Score = 350-459
- For 5 Star, Development Score >665 and Scenery Score >450
You can check your island rating and evaluation by vising resident services and asking Isabel about it. She will also give you some tips to improve the rating of your island.
Island Rating varies from 1 to 5 stars with 5 stars being the highest and by increasing Island’s Rating, you will be able to unlock rewards and new milestones.
If you achieve the 5-Star rating for the first time, you will get DIY Recipe for the golden watering can. Moreover, as long as your rating is intact, 1 lily-of-the-valley will spawn every week.
These are very rare flowers and will only bloom if your island has a 5-star rating. Having lily of the valley shows how good a villager you are, and you can also store lily of the valley after digging it.
How to get 5-Star Rating
Following are the main points that determine or improve the rating of your Island:
- Have the maximum number of villagers.
- Add more shops to your island and upgrade the existing ones.
- Increase the number of flowers and decorations such as fences to a certain number
- Increase the amount of dioramas, displays and flower beds across your island without any overlapping.
- Trees should also be within a certain amount.
- Improve furniture placement but don’t stuff too much in the same place as it will be penalized as cluttered.
- Clear out weeds
So, in order to get a five-star rating, all you have to do is follow the above-written steps and design your island in the manner.
Furniture
How you place your furniture is very important when we talk about your island rating. Isabelle will give you tips on how to evenly distribute your furniture to improve its placement. The best numbers we would suggest is to have around
- 60-65 DIY furniture
- 200+ fences
- A combination of furniture purchased from Miles and Bells at Nook’s Cranny. You will have to figure out the best number for these after some testing
Your personally gathered furniture gives an overall good impression of your island to your visitors and if you place fences strategically, the placement will look neat. A balanced ratio of fences, DIY and vendor furniture would the root cause of your rating.
Trees
Trees are not the most important thing when shooting for a 5 star, but you still need some of them in there.
If you cut down too many trees, your rating will fall, but planting too many trees won’t help it either. Figure out the right balance of vegetation on your island to help secure that rating.
Easy Items
Your rating will not increase if you only keep using expensive and rare materials for furniture on your island. So even if you use weed or rock-based furniture, your rating will still increase.
So, the more ‘expensive’ isn’t necessarily better. Since a lot of the rating stuff will require some testing, it is a good idea to invest in some cheap furniture you can build with throwaway items like weeds on your island.
Below are some easy to craft furniture items you can craft and place around your island to improve your rating without big investments
- Hay Bed
- Drying Rack
- Rustic Stone
- Log Stakes
- Classic Pitcher
- Iron Garden Chair
- Bamboo Car Stop
The required items or recipes could be different for each of your islands, so keep on finding new materials and placing them.
Shops
To ensure a successful and 5-star island paradise, you need to make sure its residents have enough facilities.
For that reason, make sure you build all the shops and upgrade them whenever possible. If you see a visiting merchant, make sure you talk to them and trade with them till eventually, they like the island so much that they will want to open up a shop there.
Keep doing this and expanding the economy of your island to improve its rating and try to reach that 5-star.
