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

Once you unlock terraforming and start improving your Animal Crossing: New Horizons island, the next natural step is getting a 5-star island ranking.

Hitting 3 stars rewards you with the Island Designer terraforming app and K.K. Slider performances. Earning 5 stars will give you the recipe to craft a Golden Watering Can. When your island is perfect, a Lily of the Valley flower will grow along your cliffsides occasionally.

Isabelle in the Resident Services building will give your island a rating and some tips to improve your island. She may tell you that you need more decorations around your town or that you need less weeds or trees. While we haven’t completely pinpointed the exact numbers you need to achieve a perfect island, we have an estimation.

Here’s a list of what we had when we scored a 5-star rating. The requirements may vary if certain furnishings (like the Lighthouse) count for more points than smaller ones, so it’s a good idea to have a nice mix of large and small objects.

These numbers are approximations and shouldn’t be taken purely at face value. Instead, use these as numbers as goals to reach. It’s important to keep talking to Isabelle as well, to make sure you’re on the right track. For example, if she stops telling you about needing more furnishings, you can move on to the next goal she mentions. Your rating will update the instant it meets the next requirement, so you won’t have to wait until the next day.

To avoid waiting for flowers to bloom or trees to grow, we recommend heading on some Mystery Island Tours and bringing some fully-grown plants back with you. If you fill your inventory, you should be able to bring back a few dozen flowers in one trip.

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