How to Quickly Raise Your Island Star Rating to 3 Stars & 5 Stars | ACNH - Animal Crossing: New Horizons (Switch)

Increase your island's Star Rating by increasing the amount of your villagers, improving the scenery, and by talking to Isabelle in Animal Crossing: New Horizons (ACNH). Learn how you can quickly and easily get 3-Star and 5-Star ratings for your island with our guide!

How to Raise Your Island's Star Rating

Methods to Increase the Island Ranking and Priority

Our team found that 3-Star and 5-Star Rankings could be achieved with each of the given numbers of improvements listed in the table above.

Let us know how you managed to raise your Island to a 3-Star or 5-Star Ranking in the comments below!

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How to Host K.K. Slider's Event

After you've raised the Island Star Rating to 3 Stars, the K.K. Slider event will occur. Learn how to progress the story up to this point with our complete guide to developing your island!

Island Upgrades Walkthrough

Ask Isabelle What to Improve

Learn what the island's current Star Rating is by asking Isabelle. She will also tell you how to improve your island. Continue doing this loop until the island's appearance has been improved enough to receive a 3-Star Rating.

What to do when there are "too many items lying around"

Dropping items outside, instead of choosing to place items, will be considered as clutter. When this happens, Isabelle will tell you that there are "too many items lying around."

Items that can only be "dropped" and that don't have the "place" option include DIY recipes, turnips, and trash items.

Dropping trash, however, can attract flies. Learn more about what to do with trash with our guide below!

What Can You Do With Trash? | Trash (Garbage) DIY Recipes

1. Place Furniture Outdoors

Gather Furniture Gradually Every Day

Collect Furniture over time to reach the coveted 5-Star Rating. Use the Nook Stop in Resident Services to purchase Furniture with Bells and Miles to achieve the required numbers faster.

DIY Furniture has High Value

Crafted Furniture made in a DIY Workbench will get a higher ranking for both your scenery and natural beauty scores.

List of DIY Recipes | How to Get DIY Crafting Recipes

Best DIY Furniture to Craft

DIY Item	Required Materials
Wooden-Block Toy	・Softwood (×3)
Stone Stool	・Stone (×3)
Hay Bed	・Clump of Weeds (×20)
Wooden Mini Table	・Wood (×6)
Log Bench	・Hardwood (×5)
Iron Garden Table	・Iron Nugget (×5)

2. Upgrade the Facilities

In order to raise the ranking of the island, it's absolutely necessary to have all of the Facilities built. Resident Services and Nook's Cranny must be fully upgraded for the island to reach the maximum 5-Star Rating.

3. Add Bridges and Slopes

Further develop your island with bridges or slopes and stairs. Talk to Tom Nook at Resident Services to construct these!

How to Get Bells (Money) Fast

4. Add More Villagers

To add additional Villagers after the first three, you'll need to talk to Tom Nook and select Let's talk about infrastructure. -> Sell land.

Housing Kits can be set up anywhere on the island for 10,000 Bells. In exchange, you'll get 1,000 Miles as a reward when a new Villager moves in!

Max Villagers and How to Get New Villagers to Move In

5. Plant More Trees

Use Fruit Trees for Efficiency

Use the Shovel to plant Fruits in the ground to grow new Fruit Trees. Since this method requires 3 days for the trees to finish growing, if you're in a rush to increase your Rating, consider bringing a Tree from another island instead.

How to Get All Fruits

Pick up a Tree With Your Shovel

After eating Fruit, you'll gain Stamina, which allows you to pull up a fully-grown Tree and place it in your Inventory. We recommend visiting Mystery Islands and using this method if you don't want to wait 3 days.

How to Chop Wood and Pull Up Trees

6. Plant More Flowers

Buy Flower Seeds

Flowers also take 3 days to bloom. Luckily, there's no limit for how many you can buy at Nook's Cranny, so feel free to buy as many flower starts as you want!

Leif also offers flower seeds of different types for purchase!

How to Unlock Leif's Garden Shop

Pull Up Flowers on a Mystery Island Tour

Similarly to Trees, Flowers can be imported to your Island directly from a Mystery Island Tour. If you've got the Miles to spend, you can fill up your Inventory with Flowers and take them home to avoid having to wait 3 days.

7. Place Fencing

Start off by placing the 50 pieces of Simple Wooden Fence you get for free from Tom Nook around your island. These 50 pieces is enough to reach the 3-Star Rating needed to unlock Island Designer.

Island Designer and Terraforming Unlock Walkthrough

Corral Fence is the Best

The most efficient choice for Fencing is the Corral Fence which is available for 1,000 Nook Miles from Nook Stop in Resident Services. At a crafting cost of only 6 Wood for 10 pieces of fencing, it gives the most fences for the lowest cost.

8. Pluck Weeds and Pick Up Garbage

Remember to clean up Weeds in your island whenever you spot them! Although these points are less significant than the others, you'll want to give your Island a thorough cleaning after you've finished all the other requirements to increase your rating.

Rewards for Increasing your Island Rating

3-Star Rating: Island Designer

A 3-Star Rating for your Island will unlock the Island Designer app, which allows you to build paths around your Island. Learn more about the Island Designer App through our guide below!

How to Use the Island Designer App

5-Star Rating: Golden Watering Can

Once you've reached a 5-Star Rating for your Island, Isabelle will give you the DIY Recipe for the Golden Watering Can as a reward.

The Golden Watering Can has improvements over the original, like the ability to water 9 flowers at once, and to grow Golden Roses, so it's definitely worth aiming for a 5-Star Rating.

How to Get the Golden Watering Can

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