Summary

• Although rarities of villager spawns have been debated online, there is one way to determine rarity.
• One type of villager is the rarest in New Horizons, with a slim chance of spawning naturally due to their diverse range.
• Octopus villagers are the rarest in the series, but their limited number makes them easier to spawn in the game.

When Animal Crossing: New Horizons first launched, it started a massive trend of trading villagers. Veteran Animal Crossing players typically have a specific set of villagers they like, referred to by the community as "dreamies." However, getting these villagers by random selection could take years. When a villager is moving out of someone else's town, players can go to their town and convince the villager to move to their town, ensuring the character's presence in their game.

This process takes the random chance out of it. Players just have to find another player who doesn't care for that villager and is willing to allow them to visit their town to "collect" them. Some villagers aren't as common as others, making them more valuable on the trading market. Players may ask for bells, items, or another villager to trade valuable villagers, even if they don't want them personally.

The Rarest Villagers In Animal Crossing: New Horizons Are Cat Villagers

A Statistical Rarity

Villagers in Animal Crossing: New Horizons have a statistical spawn rate of (1/total number of species in the game) × (1/total number of villagers of a specific species). There are 35 species of villagers, and the number of villagers within a specific species varies from five to 26. So, the rarest individual villagers are cats, who have a (1/35) × (1/26) chance of spawning, or approximately a 0.12% chance of an individual cat villager spawning. That means players only have a 0.12% chance of the beloved villager Raymond spawning naturally.

Villagers in Animal Crossing current roster includes 413 villagers. The game launched with 391 villagers, and the team has since added 8 new villagers and brought in villagers from previous games.

Using the spawn rate as the basis for whom the rarest villagers are, cats are the rarest as they have the widest variety of villagers. Since there are so many different cats that can spawn, if players roll to spawn a cat, they have the lowest chance to spawn the specific cat they want. Thus, cat characters like Raymond, AnimalCrossingPortal's number 1 villager by vote, are extremely valuable in trades as they don't spawn often.

The Rarest Villagers In The Whole Series Are Octopus Villagers

The Rarest Across The Series Isn't The Rarest To Spawn

To date, there have only been five octopus villagers in the history of Animal Crossing. That means there are less than 1/5 the number of octopus villagers compared with cat villagers, the most popular species. The five octopus Animal Crossing villagers are Marina, Octavian, Zucker, Cephalobot, and Inkwell.

However, it's worth noting that octopus villagers, being the rarest in design, actually makes them easier to spawn. As mentioned above, all species of villagers have a 1/35 chance of rolling when players spawn a new one, which is then multiplied by the number of possible villagers of that species. Since there are only five octopus villagers, they have a 0.57% chance of getting a specific octopus villager in Animal Crossing.