Getting your Animal Crossing island to the max rating of five stars is no easy task. It requires diligent cleaning, building furniture, attracting residents, and much more. There are a good number of requirements that will have you running around like crazy trying to make everything just perfect in order to receive that beautiful rating from Isabelle.
However, it’s all too often that you think you’ve met every box on the checklist, but Isabelle keeps giving you the bad news that your island is only four stars. Many have pulled out their hair trying to find exactly what the problem is. Here are a few things to look for when trying to clinch that last star.
10 Weeds
Having a few too many weeds growing around your island can make it look a bit too shabby, it seems. Despite the fact that the weeds can even sometimes look nice and add that rustic touch, they’ll drag down your rating.
Make sure you’ve picked them all up and either put them in storage, sold them, or used them for crafting. Check behind trees and objects, as there might be a few stragglers hiding here and there, bringing down your rating.
9 Too Many Trees
Trees come in a few different varieties in Animal Crossing, from the beautiful fruit trees to the darker cedar trees, and even bamboo. You’ll need quite a few to bring that rating up, but having too many in each tile can also cause you to be penalized.
You’ll want to strike the perfect balance between tree variety and the number of each. Make sure you have hardwood, cedar, bamboo, and fruit trees in a good quantity. Isabelle will most likely tell you if you have too many.
8 10 Villagers
In order to reach the maximum rating, you’re going to need to have 10 plots for villagers put down, not including you or other real-life humans with a file on your Switch.
If you’re not quite at 10 residents yet, it won’t be possible to hit five stars. Take a trip to some Nook Miles Islands to grab a new friend, or trade someone for that perfect dream villager you’ve always wanted. Isabelle will keep you at four stars if you have an empty spot.
7 Leaving DIY Recipes Out
You’ll get a DIY recipe every day from a bottle on the beach, and a handful from villagers crafting around your island. Plus, you’ll also get some from balloons, off of Nook Miles Islands, and a few other places. It’s very likely that most of them will be duplicates of recipes you already know.
It’s tedious and annoying to get rid of these recipes because they can’t be placed in storage or given to villagers, so many people throw them on the ground for other players to pick up. However, this brings down your rating! Sell them or throw them in the trash if you don’t want them.
6 Fences
Not everyone likes fences, with some people opting to use shrubs, trees, or furniture to block off certain areas or create certain visual effects. Unfortunately for them, fences are required for a five-star rating.
You’ll need about 250 fence segments around your island to hit the required amount for a five-star rating. If you really hate all the fence options—why no white picket fence, Nintendo?—consider hiding them behind things where you won’t see them.
5 Mix of Furniture
Wondering why you keep hearing Isabelle tell you that you need more furniture when your entire island is covered with it? It might be that you don’t have enough variety, both in terms of type of furniture and furniture placement.
You’ll need to have a good mix of furniture purchased from vendors—Nook’s Cranny and elsewhere—crafted pieces from DIY recipes, and items purchased with Nook Miles. Ensuring you have a good number of each is vital. This “scenery” is one of the biggest ways to contribute points to your score.
4 Wasp Nests and Other Debris
If you’ve picked up all the DIY recipes and weeds you had laying around, and Isabelle is still saying you have too many items laying about, it might be tree branches and wasp nests.
Trees drop a branch most days, and you might spend time running from wasps without returning to pick up the fallen nest. These things both contribute to your island rating coming down, so have a look around behind and in between all your trees. There might be some branches or wasp nests you missed.
3 Bridges and Inclines
Bridges and inclines are not explicitly necessary, it seems, to earn a five-star rating, but they do contribute points toward your total.
If you have a ton of furniture and flowers, fences, and trees but still don’t have the total number of points you need, consider building more bridges or ramps. They contribute positively to your rating. Plus, they help you navigate your island with ease. They might just push you over that last bump to five stars.
2 Flowers
The flowers in Animal Crossing are beautiful, and they come in plenty of different colors and species! They’re also a great way to spruce up the attractiveness of your island. It’s a good thing, too, because you’re going to need a lot of them to get that perfecting rating.
Flowers can, of course, be bought as seeds from Nook’s Cranny. You’ll also have a naturally-occurring native flower. But, you can crossbreed between colors to get new ones in an extensive and difficult crossbreeding process. But, you don’t need all of the different colors for a five-star rating. Just place a ton of whatever colors you have!
1 Placement Locations
If you have everything on this list and more and Isabelle still isn’t giving you that perfect score, it might be your placement. Many island dreams have been dashed by a lack of placement variety.
You’ll have to make sure that each area of your island has a good number of furniture pieces, trees, flowers, et cetera. Piling everything in one spot will not be good enough. Oft-missed spots include on top of cliffs, behind houses, and at the back of the island.
NEXT: The 10 Most Frustrating Things in Animal Crossing: New Horizons
