Animal Crossing: New Horizons isn't just a game about picking weeds and paying off a mortgage to a tanuki in a Hawaiian shirt. It's basically a glorified roommate simulator. Since the game launched in 2020, the obsession over finding the perfect list of acnh villagers has turned a relaxing island getaway into a high-stakes scouting mission. You spend 2,000 Nook Miles for a ticket, fly to a deserted island, and pray it isn't another hippo. We’ve all been there.
Honestly, the sheer volume of characters is overwhelming. There are 413 villagers in the game right now, including the additions from the 2.0 update and the Sanrio collaboration. That’s a lot of personalities to cram into ten tiny houses. If you're looking for a specific vibe—maybe a spooky island or an all-cat tropical paradise—you have to be ruthless.
The Math Behind the List of ACNH Villagers
Most people think finding a specific villager is a flat 1 in 413 chance. It’s actually more complicated than that. The game’s RNG (random number generation) doesn’t just roll a die for every single character. Instead, the game first picks a species from the 35 available types, and then it picks a specific villager within that species.
This is why finding a specific cat like Raymond or Rosie is statistically harder than finding a specific octopus. There are 23 cats but only 4 octopuses (Marina, Zucker, Octavian, and Cephalobot). If the game decides you're getting an octopus, you have a 25% chance of getting the one you want. If it decides you're getting a cat, your odds of getting Raymond specifically are less than 5%. It’s brutal. You can burn through 400 Nook Miles Tickets and still see the same three chickens twice.
Why Personality Types Matter More Than Aesthetics
While we all want the "aesthetic" villagers, the game mechanics actually force you to diversify. There are eight personality types: Lazy, Jock, Cranky, and Smug for the boys; Normal, Peppy, Snooty, and Big Sister (Sisterly) for the girls.
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If you build a list of acnh villagers that only includes "Cool Smug Guys" and "Cute Normal Girls," you're going to miss out on half the game's DIY recipes and reactions. Certain items, like the Iron Garden Bench or the Western-style Stone (the gravestone), are locked behind specific personalities. A Big Sister villager is the only one who will give you the recipe for a Street Piano. If you don't have a Cranky villager, good luck getting those "dark" or "industrial" DIYs.
The Unspoken Hierarchy of Villager Popularity
Let's be real. Not all villagers are created equal in the eyes of the community. For years, the "Big Three" were Raymond, Marshal, and Shino. Raymond became a literal meme because he was a new addition in New Horizons and didn't have an Amiibo card for a long time. People were "trading" him on sites like Nookazon for millions of Bells or thousands of Nook Miles Tickets. It was digital madness.
Then there are the "Uglies." It’s a mean term, but the ACNH community uses it constantly. Villagers like Barold, Rodney, or Al the gorilla often end up on the "must-evict" list. But here's the thing: some of these villagers have the coolest interiors. Smug villagers like Julian have an entire celestial-themed house with star fragments and zodiac furniture. If you only look at the exterior of the villager, you miss the actual content of their home.
The 2.0 Update Newcomers
When Nintendo dropped the massive 2.0 update, they gave us 16 new villagers. This shifted the entire market. Suddenly, everyone wanted Sasha (the first male villager with the "Fashion" hobby and a seafoam green aesthetic) or Shino, the deer with the noh-mask vibes.
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I think the most interesting addition was Cephalobot. He’s a robot octopus. In a game about nature and island living, having a literal mechanical creature living in a house that looks like a space station adds a weird, sci-fi layer that most people don't expect. If your personal list of acnh villagers feels a bit too "cutesy," adding a robot or a food-themed villager like Merengue (the rhino with a strawberry horn) or Frita (the sheep that looks like a hamburger and fries) breaks up the monotony.
How to Actually Get the Villagers You Want
There are four main ways to curate your island's population. None of them are particularly fast unless you have a deep wallet or a lot of patience.
- The Nook Miles Ticket (NMT) Grind: This is the most "authentic" way. You buy a ticket, fly to an island, and see who's at the campfire. Pro tip: The game will never spawn a villager who is currently living on your island.
- The Campsite Method: Every few days, a random villager will visit your campsite. If you have a full island of 10 villagers, you can still invite them, but they will pick a random resident to "negotiate" with (meaning kick out). If they pick someone you want to keep, you have to close the game immediately without saving and try again. It's tedious. It can take hours.
- Amiibo Cards: This is the "pay to win" version. If you have the physical Amiibo card, you scan it at the Nook Stop, invite them to the campsite three days in a row, craft them some furniture, and they move in. It also lets you pick exactly who gets kicked out.
- The "In Boxes" Trade: This involves visiting another player's island when one of their villagers is moving out. This is where the community gets intense. You'll see "Raymond in boxes! Looking for 200 NMT" posts all over social media.
Dealing with the "Void"
There is a mechanic called "the void." If a villager moves out of your island and nobody adopts them, they go into a digital limbo. If you visit a friend's island or they visit yours, that "voided" villager might randomly move into your empty plot. It’s like getting a hand-me-down roommate. Sometimes it’s a blessing; usually, it’s a disaster because you were saving that plot for someone else. Always fill your empty plots within 24 hours if you don't want a random move-in.
Creating a Balanced Island Ecosystem
If you want a truly functional island, your list of acnh villagers should look something like this:
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- One of each personality (8 total).
- Two "flex" spots for your absolute favorites.
- A variety of hobbies (Music, Play, Nature, Fitness, Fashion, Education).
Villagers with the "Music" hobby, like Skye or Cherry, will sing in the plaza more often. "Fitness" hobby villagers (mostly Jocks like Dom or Genji) will do yoga or lift weights. If you have ten villagers who all have the "Education" hobby, your island will just be a bunch of people standing around reading books with glasses on. Kinda boring, honestly.
The Misconception About "Gifted" Villagers
When you're looking at a list of acnh villagers for trade, you'll see people specify if a villager is "Ungifted" or "Original." This means the player hasn't given them any clothes or furniture. Purists want ungifted villagers so their houses stay looking like the default interior.
Personally? I think gifted villagers are more fun. Getting a villager who occasionally wears a ridiculous "Tube Top" you gave them three years ago adds character. However, if you're worried about resale value in the Nookazon market, keep them original.
Real World Constraints and Final Thoughts
You have to remember that Nintendo stopped doing major content updates for New Horizons a while ago. The list of villagers we have now is likely what we're stuck with until the next console's version of Animal Crossing. This means the "hunt" has slowed down, but the desire for a curated island hasn't.
Don't stress about having the "top tier" villagers. Some of my best memories in the game are with "mid-tier" characters like Papi the horse or Vesta the sheep. They might not be the most popular on Instagram, but their dialogue is exactly the same as the "elite" ones. The game is supposed to be a slow burn. If you spend all your time grinding for the perfect list of acnh villagers, you might forget to actually play the game.
Your Next Steps for Island Planning
If you're ready to overhaul your roster, start by auditing your current personalities. Open your map, look at your ten neighbors, and identify which personality types are missing. Use a tracking app like ACNH.Guide or an online database to see which DIY recipes you're still missing—this will tell you exactly which personality you need to hunt for next. Once you have a vacancy, don't just fly to three islands and settle. Set a budget of 20 or 30 tickets and see who the RNG gods throw at you. You might find a new favorite you never even considered.