A set of cute Animal Crossing amiibo characters as well as Animal Crossing amiibo cards can be found around the house. Each character or card can bring specific villagers into the game for photos or other activities, and they can be invited to become permanent residents. Considering that there are over 400 villagers, amiibo is very helpful to invite specific villagers to your island instead of letting the game choose them randomly.
If you’ve been playing for a while and still haven’t found out how to use amiibo, it’s because you can only use them once you’ve unlocked the amiibo feature in the game. On this page, it will explain how to unlock the amiibo feature, what amiibo do in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, and how to use them.
1. amiibo characters vs. amiibo cards
If you count 18 NFC data and hundreds of Animal Crossing amiibo cards, you can technically use more than 400 Animal Crossing amiibo . Both the figure and the card have NFC chips and can be scanned in the same way using Nintendo Switch. In New Horizons, amiibo cards are even more useful because they allow you to invite new villagers to your island. amiibo characters are fun to use when you are on Harvey’s Island, and can only be used to invite special characters they depict for filming.
To invite specific villagers to your island, search for specific Animal Crossing amiibo cards on eBay, as many sellers will let you purchase them individually.
A full list of Animal Crossing amiibo cards can be found on Animal Crossing’s official website.
2. How to unlock the amiibo function
There are two different ways to use amiibo in Animal Crossing: New Horizons. Harvey’s Island allows you to use amiibo to take pictures, while the campground allows you to scan amiibo and invite new villagers to your island. Read on to learn more about how to unlock these two features.
Harvey Island Villager Photography
Anyone who has played Animal Crossing: New Leaf may recall a hippie dog named Harvey, who is one of the special villagers. After a few days of playing the game, this dog will randomly appear on your island. Make sure to talk to him and he will invite you to visit his island. The airport allows you to fly to him for free. No ACNH Nook Miles ticket is required.
- Harvey’s island requires no foraging materials, bugs or fish and only allows you to walk into Harvey’s house. After entering the house, you can set the scene in one of his rooms and take a picture with your favorite villager. That is, just have the appropriate amiibo to invite them. You can place different furniture, change the lighting of the room, and then place your favorite animals across the villagers in different locations before taking pictures with them.
Not every amiibo can be used with New Horizons. So far, the game has warned me that I can’t invite the Reese, Cyrus and Rover statues to Photopia, and I’m not sure if that means these characters will never appear in New Horizons, or if it means you have to wait for them to be unlocked. I’ll update as I learn more.
- If an amiibo graphic or card of a character is scanned into the game on Harvey’s Island, a poster depicting the character can be purchased on the resident service’s NookStop. This feature applies even for characters I can’t invite to Photopia. All that needs to be done is to go to the kiosk, select ” Nook Shopping” and press R to see all the available posters. Use these awesome images to add interest to the rooms in your home.
5. Camp invites more villagers to your island
Camps allow random villagers to appear on your island, which in turn gives you the option to invite those villagers to live on your island. If you have amiibo cards, you can use them to ask specific villagers about the camp. More specifically, the character depicted on the card will be invited to your island. Please note that Animal Crossing amiibo cards can actually only be used here. Any character that has turned into an amiibo figurine cannot be invited to the camp.
You will need to complete a few steps to set up the camp. You will need to do the following：
- To unlock the camp and use amiibo to invite villagers to your island.
- Upgrade resident services to buildings
- Create a camp
- Invite visiting villagers to live on your island
- Build more houses on your island
- Wait for villagers to move in
- Use the NookStop kiosk at the resident service
- View invited campers
