Animal Crossing: New Horizons Player Accidentally Gets A 5 Star Island Rating, Shows The Rating System "Just Feel Random"

Published Dec 29, 2024

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Many Animal Crossing: New Horizons players spend months or even years working to get a five-star rating for their island, and one player accidentally managed it in 30 days in the most ridiculous way. The star-rating system in Nintendo's beloved cozy island game is something many players strive for, partially for the rewards (a DIY recipe and a weekly special flower spawn) and partially for the bragging rights.

Players can speak to Isabelle, the island's resident secretary and Jane of all trades, to check their star rating and get insight into what their island is missing. Many players put in hard work to get that coveted five-star rating, but Reddit Dismal-Item-2103 managed to get it completely by accident in the most ridiculous way possible on their "30th day after a 6th restart in 4 years."

The player shares two images, with the first showing the dialogue line from Isabelle granting them the five-star rating, and the second revealing how they managed to get the rating. The second screenshot shows an island sparsely decorated with a handful of flowers and some statues. Among these decor pieces, spaced out at exact grid intervals and covering practically the entire island, are mannequins with custom image neon green shirts that read "brat."

Animal Crossing: New Horizons Player's Accidental 5-Star Rating Makes Rating System Feel Random

The Animal Crossing Player Was Working On A Rock Garden

To anyone unfamiliar with the tricks and methods of the Animal Crossing: New Horizons island designs, the image of Dismal-Item-2103's island may look completely nonsensical. The simple explanation is that they were working on building a rock garden on their island. The method was popularized by YouTuber Mayor Mori and consists of placing mannequins at predetermined intervals across the entire island. This method prevents rocks from spawning anywhere except in the player's desired location, forcing the rocks to show up at a specific spot and creating the rock garden.

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The fact that this method led to a five-star island rating, though, makes players feel the system is arbitrary. The reason this bewildering layout achieved a high score in the island evaluation is likely due to the outdoor furniture requirements. The mannequins count as furniture and earn points toward the rating system, but they're spaced out so they aren't overcrowding the island and causing a "traffic hazard." The original poster and owner of the brat-covered island notes that "the ranking system makes sense when you read on the wiki how the ranking is evaluated but in practice it just feels random."

Our Take: Animal Crossing Is Best Enjoyed Without Caring Too Much About Ratings

The Game Is All About Making The Island Your Own

I'm a perfectionist, but I never bothered to aim for a five-star island rating. An island rating of three stars unlocks regular concerts by the popular in-game crooner, KK Slider, while a five-star rating grants the player a golden watering can DIY recipe and one lily-of-the-valley spawn per week as long as the rating remains at a five. I personally only ever bother to get as far as a three-star rating, which is relatively easy (in fact, I usually achieve it naturally while just decorating my island as I normally would). A five-star rating, on the other hand, is just not as appealing to me.

Aside from bragging rights and a pretty flower, the rating simply doesn't give me enough for me to bother aiming for it. Instead, I would much rather enjoy deg and decorating my island just for the sake of it, instead of trying to meet a beauty standard set by the game's algorithm. As Redditor Dismal-Item-2103 has shown, the island rating system is often flawed, and players may be better off simply enjoying themselves and placing down as many flowers, furniture, decorations, and "brat" shirts as they want on their Animal Crossing: New Horizons island.

Source: Dismal-Item-2103/Reddit, Mayor Mori/YouTube