How to find the perfect map in Animal Crossing: New Horizons
Picking a map layout in Animal Crossing: New Horizons can be one of the most frustrating things you do when you decide to start designing islands.
You boot up the game and get four maps presented to you, but when you look at them, they all seem to look the same. You may have taken a look at your favourite Animal Crossing creators and they seem to know exactly what they are after and make stunning islands first time.
What happens if you pick the wrong island layout and you suddenly hate everything you are working on? Is there even such a thing as the perfect map and will you ever find it?
Today, I’m going to run you through everything you need to look for when you go hunting for the best ACNH island layout for your theme.
How do maps work in ACNH?
When you get into Animal Crossing: New Horizons for the first time, you will be greeted by Timmy & Tommy who introduce you to the Deserted Island Getaway Package. Here is where you get shown four maps on the screen which you can pick from.
Timmy & Tommy will remind you that all maps are roughly the same size so you don’t need to worry about not having as much space as anyone else you see making islands. What matters is that you pick the right layout for what you have in mind.
There’s no official data mines on map layouts, but there is a reddit post where a user did extensive testing in trying to find as many ACNH map layouts as possible. Gamingchibix found there were 95 possible river templates which set the position of your river, initial terraforming and Resident Services. Every other feature of your map is random to an extent.
So, all that you really need to focus on when you are looking for an Animal Crossing map is the river, cliffs and terraforming.
What are the river layouts in Animal Crossing: New Horizons?
The biggest feature you are going to want to look at is the river layout. There are three types:
East to South
West to South
Double South
There’s no difference in terms of the space on the island, but when it comes to checking which maps are the right options for you, you may have a preference of one to the other which you like.
Credit: gamingchibix on Reddit
Most Animal Crossers don’t like double South rivers, and I’m inclined to agree with them after going hunting for a map for my industrial style island!
Double South rivers can be worked with, but what I found frustrating about them is that you don’t get access to the East and West beaches so you can’t see what some of the other unchangeable features on the beaches are like, nor can you get a sense of just how much space you have from the edge of the island to Resident Services if you pick a map layout where Resident Services is closer to the beach.
If you want an easier time with decorating an island, I would personally recommend going with an East or West river template as you will be able to tell a lot quicker and easier if a map layout is or isn’t going to work for you.
Airport vs Resident Services
Once you know what river template is going to be right for you, then you want to think about how your airport sits alongside Resident Services.
As we know from the reddit post, your Resident Services’ location is set from your river template, but what does change is your airport location.
Although the post cannot confirm this for definite, it seems like they found the airport can be in any location along the South beach from the inner part of the river mouth to the edge of the island. If you have double South rivers, your airport will always spawn between two river mouths. From experience playing New Horizons for years, I can attest to the same thing.
What most Animal Crossing island designers look for when it comes to the perfect map is for Resident Services to be in line with the airport so that you can have a straight line up to the plaza. But, this may not always be right for you. If you want to have lots of space for meandering walkways, then you may want your airport to be close to the edge of your island. Otherwise, you may want to have the airport slightly off-centre so that you can create a road which leads straight up to Resident Services.
What can really help you out here is to think about what your entrance is going to look like. Very often, this is the first build that island designers will make, and if you have an idea of how dream address visitors are going to walk from your airport and around your island, it can make it easier for you to find the right location for the airport when you are map hunting.
Peninsula
You may not have even realised this, but there are other variations which exist in your map. If you’ve never restarted your island, you may never have realised it, but you can actually have different sized peninsulas.
The peninsula is a small outcropping of land which will be on either your East or West beach. There’s not a lot of space on here so most Animal Crossing designers don’t pay a huge amount of attention to this any more, but if you ever plan on decorating this and making a feature out if it, you probably want to look for a wide peninsula.
Kapp’n’s Dock
The other thing to keep an eye on is your island’s pier. Now, you may not have a lot of plans for decorating this, but some island designers do make a big deal out of it so if it is important for your island design plans, then you will want to take a look into this one.
There are two different sizes: long or short. If you want more space to decorate, you may want a longer dock, but if you don’t mind either way or if you aren’t planning to decorate it, then a shorter dock can also work.
What happens if you don’t like your map?
Whilst there is a lot to consider, what is important to remember is that you don’t have to keep an island layout if you don’t like it.
Not every island layout works for every theme and island plan. What you should focus on are the things which you cannot change on your island. Those being your river template and the location of your Resident Services and airport.
Because those three things cannot be changed and the location of your airport is fairly random, it’s better to put your time and effort into finding a map which has what you need, but is also flexible with your plans.
It’s all well and good going into a new island with the biggest and best laid plans for making the perfect entrance, but what happens when your airport is on the other side of the map? What happens if your Resident Services is that little bit too close to the airport?
At that point, you have two options: you can either reroll for a new map if you really can’t make it work, or you can modify your plans slightly to make your map work for you.
No matter which option you go for, you will always be able to find the perfect island for you. If you don’t believe me, you should watch the video below I did for my channel where I went looking for the perfect map for my industrial island and I’ll see you in the next one.
