Best ACNH Island Layouts Guide & Top 10 Best Island Layouts In Animal Crossing New Horizons
If you are new to Animal Crossing: New Horizons and starting to build your own town. The first problem you meet would be the map layout options. In this Animal Crossing New Horizons Map Layout guide, we are going to cover the tips to choosing and planning a map on ACNH Island Planner, also list the Best ACNH Layout Ideas for your reference.
How to Choose the Best Animal Crossing New Horizons Island Layout?
When we start Animal Crossing New Horizons on Switch, we will get to choose the layout of our
island. Timmy and Tommy offer up four unique and randomized island maps to choose from. Which map you should choose to start building my Island in Animal Crossing New Horizons? Actually to choose your ideal island maps, the below elements you should take into consideration from primary to secondary:
Resident Services Location
Rocks Location
Airport Location
Cliff Slopes Location
Rivers Location
Number of Ponds
Starting Fruit
Starting Villagers
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Top 10 Best ACNH Island Layouts - The Most Used Layouts In Animal Crossing New Horizons
Although we can say there is no ‘best’ island layout, among the many ACNH island layout options, the following 10 are the most popular for some reasons:
Top 10 Best ACNH Layout - Resident Services in the center of the map, easy to live
Top 9 Best ACNH Layout - Simple tributary of the river, wide space in the east
Top 8 Best ACNH Layout - Wide space in the west side, easy to live
Top 7 Best ACNH Layout - Three areas divided by the river are very wide
Top 6 Best ACNH Layout - The wide northwest area occupies half of the map
Top 5 Best ACNH Layout - With heart shape lack, equal areas divided by rivers
Top 4 Best ACNH Layout - River occupies the least land, wide space in the east
Top 3 Best ACNH Layout - Wide & spacious area around Resident Services
Top 2 Best ACNH Layout - Resident Services in the center of the map with wide space around
Top 1 Best ACNH Layout - With star shape lack, wide & spacious space around Resident Services
Animal Crossing New Horizons Island Map Choosing Guide: Which Layout To Choose?
It doesn't really matter which map we choose at the beginning of the game, even if you pick out an island and later down the line decide you no longer like it, because now we have the option and ability to terraform our island and completely redesign the lad whenever we like. However, there are a few things you should know before choosing a map despite being able to terraform most of your buildings later.
1. River Exits
It turns out that the mouths of rivers, or where the rivers exit the land and enter the sea cannot be moved or terraformed. These are typically surrounded by a few rocks as the beach widens and the river water exits, unfortunately, these are in fact permanent fixtures and is worth remembering this when choosing your island map because you'll have to live with the locations of these exits unless of course you delay your Island and start over. The good news is there are a few options surrounding these features. The map will always have two River exits and one of those exits will always be to the south which also happens to be on the opposite side of the map to the airport. The second exit will then be on either the east south or west sides of the map. So although the position of these exits some will be high towards the back, others will be lower towards the front, it's important to remember you'll need to decide whether you want a map with East and South River mouth.
Animal Crossing New Horizons Island Map - East River Layouts
Animal Crossing New Horizons Island Map - West River Layouts
Animal Crossing New Horizons Island Map - South River Layouts
2. Resident Services & Airport
As soon as we land on a new island, we will have an introduction at the Residence Services Center and Airport, which will become an important part of our island life. These areas will eventually become the Town Hall to where Tom Nook and Isabel reside, and somewhere events like bug offs and fishing Tony's are held. We can choose where to place buildings (any home or shop) such as the Museum or Able Sisters anywhere we like, and even relocate them later down the line if we want to. Unfortunately, Resident Services and Airport cannot be moved in Animal Crossing: New Horizons. At the beginning of ACNH you can choose where to place Resident Services and Airport, but, after that, it can’t be moved again. Neither its starting nor upgraded iterations can be relocated, so here’s hoping that your initial placement isn’t too terrible.
So when it comes to selecting your island map you need to think a little about where you want things to go such as your house future, villager houses, other buildings, and even roughly where you're going to want paths. Because when you start developing your island and linking things up with paths or designing the outside features like rivers and cliffs, the residence services area could be in the way.
3. Land Outlets
Based on the maps, we know the majority of maps have a little outlet of land or land extension that extends the grass from the ground level out across the beach and right out to sea. Now although probably a very tiny detail is something to remember when selecting our maps because it will always look like that no matter how we change our part layers over time. Of course, the upside is there are a few options surrounding this piece of land. It will appear on either the east or west side of the islands, and it's positioned along the coastline can vary, on some maps, it can be towards the rocks at the back of the island, and on others, it can be more central or towards the bottom beach.
4. Forth Cliffs
As you know multi-layered towns are returning to new horizons, which is a huge fan favorite. We can now have up to four layers which consist of the ground level - the first cliff, second cliff,
third cliff, and forth cliff. In fact, at the beginning of the game’s release, the fourth cliff was forbidden to enter which says is too dangerous to climb up there. However, the methods of glitching to the 4th cliff tier were discovered by players, so you can explore the forbidden lands of that highest 4th level peak on your Animal Crossing: New Horizons island, even decorate there with ACNH furniture items, trees, bushes, and flowers. So if you choose your map based on the position of rocks or even a pond and waterfall you like, it could be useful to know if you want to add this additional layer you'll need space to do so. What’s more, it is vital that the slopes are in an easy to access area.
5. The Dock
Just like a few other features on the new horizons island map, there are a few more including the dock, some large rocks, and a private beach. Although these three features are somewhat unrelated, they are all permanent fixtures and cannot be terraformed or move later. The dock will either be located on the east or west side of the island, and always position towards the south. The location of this could have an impact on the development of your island, if you were planning on having a lot of villagers living by the beach for example. Furthermore, the private beach cannot be moved, but its location will vary, sometimes it's more sensual, other times it appears closer to the shores on the edges of the island map. So if you have some grand ideas for terraforming cliffs or if you're planning on having lots of pathways at the back of the island the location of the private beach could be important when choosing your map.
