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

Achieving a 5-star island rating in Animal Crossing: New Horizons is a prestigious goal, but it requires effort and strategy. Here are essential tips to attain that coveted five-star rating for your island.

In the Animal Crossing series, the ‘Perfect’ rating has been a long-standing aspiration. For instance, maintaining this status in the GameCube version rewarded players with the Golden Axe, while in Wild World and City Folk, it was the Golden Watering Can, and in New Leaf, the Flower Clock was the prize.

New Horizons replaces the perfect town status with an island evaluation in which you must earn a star rating, but it’s pretty much the same sort of deal. Isabelle will reward you with the Golden Watering Can DIY once you’ve reached it, so it’s definitely worth trying to achieve in the game.

How to get five-star rating in New Horizons

To improve your island rating, you need to make sure your town is as immaculate and as appealing to visitors as possible. A good base point is to ensure you remove all weeds, garbage, and dropped items from the ground as this can affect your score greatly. You also need to make sure you have at least nine villagers moved in.

The museum and the Able Sisters shop also need to have been built, and you’ll need to upgrade your island’s infrastructure – AKA building inclines and bridges to make it easier for residents and visitors to get around.

Trees will also need to be added by planting saplings bought from Nook’s Cranny and by burying fruit – though you can’t have over 220 in your town otherwise it’ll affect the rating negatively, so be strategic if you’re planning on making a forest. Planting lots and lots of flowers will also help.

Lastly, decorating your town is the thing that will have the most impact on your score, and can mean the difference between a four and a five star rating. Not only will you need to place bought furniture, but also stuff you’ve crafted with DIY recipes as well.

Do all of this and Isabelle should award you with that coveted 5-star achievement, which also nets you with the Golden Watering Can DIY and Lily of the Valley flowers will start popping up randomly around your island.

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