As a game franchise, Animal Crossing has always been about exploring, farming, and collecting. Animal Crossing: New Horizons is no different, with countless rare fish, bugs, fossils, and items to catch and collect. There are a number of different furniture sets available in the game, as well as items that spawn in the Nook's Cranny and Able Sisters' shops.

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But what items are the hardest to find? The world of Animal Crossing: New Horizons follows the tenet of supply and demand, so the rarest items are also the most expensive. With some items available only via Amiibo cards and others available only on holidays, players may be surprised by what has the highest selling points.

Updated July 10, 2023, by Stephen LaGioia: There are few titles that can be considered more "evergreen" than Animal Crossing New Horizons. Even after years away, players can return and find just as many new goodies and just as much time to enjoy their virtual island paradise as in early 2020. With various updates over time, along with the full DLC Happy Home Paradise, it offers more things to do than ever. One of the many things Animal Crossing: New Horizons' players can do is catalog all the vanity items, creatures, and home decor in the game, of which there are thousands. Some of these items are far more elusive and/or valuable than others and require time, patience, and even millions of bells to get. Here are a few more rare items in Animal Crossing: New Horizons.

20 Lily Of The Valley

Animal Crossing: New Horizons, Lily of the Valley

The Lily of the Valley is one of the rarest flowers in all of Animal Crossing: New Horizons, but these beautiful blooms have some slight prerequisites to fulfill before they can spawn. They only naturally spawn on islands that Isabelle deems a dreamy 5-star-worthy vacation island, with one appearing every week while the illustrious five-star status is maintained.

Players can improve their island with an ample amount of staircases and bridges, a variety of outdoor furniture, and plenty of natural flora to decorate. Don't forget to clear up weeds and clutter! Once players have done their spring cleaning and decorating, they can chat with Isabelle to check their rating. Once they've hit five stars, all that's left to do is sit back and relax, and wait for these unique flowers to begin blooming!

19 The Crown

Animal Crossing: New Horizons, the Crown

Feel like a true lord or lady of the island with the Crown! Bejeweled with the finest crystals, this dainty golden crown can be equipped by the player or gifted to their villagers as a lavish gift to show off their extravagant wealth. However, beauty and luxury do come at a price.

The Crown can sometimes be available in the Able Sisters' apparel shop for a whopping one million bells. If players have paid off their seemingly-endless debts to the business-savvy tycoon Tom Nook, they can set their sights on this treasure as their next financial stepping stone before the Royal Crown.

18 Arcade Machines

Animal Crossing: New Horizons, Arcade Machines

Unleash the inner child by decking out an island in Arcade Machines galore! Purchasable from the upgraded Nook's Cranny for 64,000 a piece, these are a great addition to any home, adding some colorful ambiance and some retro-arcade-style music.

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These Arcade Machines come in several variations, including the Arcade Fighting Game which seems to closely resemble Street Fighter, with a similar title, logo, and characters on the small screen — perfect for a gaming room!

17 Gulliver's Items

animal crossing new horizons gulliver laying on the sand beach

When will that Gulliver learn to hold on to the railings of his boat? Hopefully not soon, as players are still desperate for his exotic and rare statues. This clumsy sailor has the potential to offer players a variety of world wonders he has discovered on his travels, from the Geisha Wigs to the literal Statue of Liberty.

Most everything offered by Gulliver is rare to some degree, though the monuments — Statue of Liberty, Tower of Pisa, Stonehenge, etc, are the most coveted and scarce of all. They are valued at millions of bells.

However, these can be hard to come by, as players need to go through the tedium of digging up Gulliver's missing Communicator Parts, giving them to him, and then waiting a day or so to see what exciting treasure Gulliver bestows the player with. It may take players a while to collect all of Gulliver's unique wares, but it is well worth the wait!

16 Permanent Ladders

Animal Crossing New Horizons Mario white mask in the rain

Added in the 2.0 update, along with a myriad of new and recolored items, were permanent ladders. There are a few designs available to choose from. For example, one is made of separate metal rungs, another is solid gold, and there's a rickety ladder made of vines.

However, the DIYs for these items are proving hard to find. Among all the new culinary recipes and vine-themed furniture, the spawn rates for these particular crafts are quite low. Players are finding it difficult to create anything other than the basic permanent ladder.

Players will need to first invest in the Ladder Set-Up Kit recipe via Nook's Cranny (2,000 bells). This is followed up by crafting a Wooden Ladder Set-Up Kit.

15 Bug Models

animal crossing new horizons flick cj relationship

Players absolutely love Flick, the bright red, bug-obsessed Chameleon that was introduced with New Horizons and his fishing-fanatic counterpart, CJ. One of his quirks is that he will create models of any bugs the player gives him — provided they have three of them.

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But this is hard to do unless the player is after a Yellow Butterfly. Coupled with anxiously awaiting his random visits, and trying to actually locate him on their island, players have been having a hard time collecting some of these bug models. The rarer the bug, the rarer the model item!

14 Snowman Recipes

animal crossing snowboy and villager

Trying to build a perfect snowman in Animal Crossing: New Horizons is easily the most tedious part of the entire game. They’re never happy. The proportions are always somehow off. This means that the snow and ice-themed winter DIY cards are very rare to get, and hard to find.

The holiday-themed items are specifically hard to get as they can only be collected from December 15 until January 6, regardless of the island's hemisphere. The spawn rates for the DIY recipes are low and can be shot down from balloons using a slingshot. On top of the snowmen being frustrating to build, collecting all these recipes will take a long time!

13 Desktop Computer

Buying computer at Nook's Cranny Animal Crossing New Horizons

The Desktop Computer is a rare item that spawns for sale in the Nook's Cranny shop. It can appear in black, silver, white, or pink. The screen can be customized to display a view of the desktop, a search engine, calculations, web browsing, or programming. It costs 100,000 bells and appears to be running the Windows operating system.

Unfortunately, the only thing players can do with the computer is turn its monitor on and off, but it still adds a very nice touch to any home office.

12 Computer Server

Girl with blue hair sighing in server room Animal Crossing New Horizons

The Server is a computer server that spawns for sale in the Nook's Cranny shop very occasionally. It costs 100,000 bells. With it, players can pretend they're mining cryptocurrency or launching a more stable server for Apex Legends.

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Some players have purchased servers to create an urban city feel for their island's outdoors. Others have turned their basements into server-filled rooms. Somewhat annoyingly, this item is not customizable and only comes in one color variation. It adds a nice ambient light to add an extra flair to a home office.

11 Coelacanth

animal crossing new horizons coelacanth donated in museum

Fish can be fairly easy to come by in New Horizons, but that only applies to certain varieties of fish. The rare, elusive Coelacanth, for instance, is far trickier to secure. Not only is the fish of the highest value in the game at 15,000 bells (along with just a handful of other fish), but it's particularly tough to catch. To use as a comparative point of reference, the Sea Bass is worth just 400 bells.

The Coelacanth only makes its appearance when it's raining, and its massive size can make it tough to get. Despite being available at all times of the year and at any time of day, it can be quite the task to try and land this fish given the relative rarity and sporadic, unpredictable nature of rain in New Horizons.

Furthermore, players can score a Coelacanth Statue, which is extremely highly valued and sought after among AC fans online looking to trade. Players can obtain this statue after collecting three Coelacanth and handing them to C.J.

10 Great White Shark

A Great White Shark in Animal Crossing: New Horizons

Almost undeniably, the rarest fish in the game outside of the rain-loving Coelacanth is the ominous Great White Shark. For one, it can only be caught from June to September, from 4 pm to 9 am. In the Southern Hemisphere, it appears from December to March.

It's the second-longest fish in the game (clocking in at roughly 17 feet long), and is among the most valuable at 15,000 bells. Not only does this shark make a particularly cool display in the museum, but it's one of the ultimate prizes when it comes to fishing in the game.

9 Grand Piano

Grand Piano in a living room in Animal Crossing New Horizons

The Grand Piano is a rare item that costs 260,000 bells at Nook's Cranny. Its color cannot be changed, but it does spawn in white, black, cherry, and walnut color variations to help match it to the player's surroundings.

This piano is one of the most interactive items on this list, as players can play the piano and it makes realistic sounds. It takes up a fair amount of space, so be sure to make room and put things in storage if a Grand Piano appears in the shop.

8 Elaborate Kimono Stand

Animal Crossing New Horizons Elaborate Kimono multicolored in eastern themed room

The Elaborate Kimono stand is a rare item that costs 220,000 bells. It comes in five variations, each with a different color scheme and design to match the theme of one's house. From left to right, the Cranes variation depicts two cranes flying over a red and orange sunset sky. The Balls variation shows a festive pink Sakura design. This pink screen would be a perfect gift for Marina, the pink octopus.

The Wisteria variation is primarily purple and shows a winding path with lots of flowers. The Tree Peonies variation has plenty of peonies on a bright teal background and would be a great gift for Lolly, the blue cat villager. Last but not least, the Hawk variation shows a hawk flying over a wooded landscape and a river.

7 Gold Rose Wreath

Gold crown, gold wreath in Animal Crossing New Horizons

The Gold Rose Wreath is a rare item in Animal Crossing: New Horizons because it must be crafted and requires ten gold roses and its DIY recipe. The recipe can be obtained from any villager, but it's quite rare to get. Once crafted and displayed, the Gold Rose Wreath has the lucky trait, so its presence adds 777 points to the Happy Home Academy score when placed inside.

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This wreath can be displayed inside the home or outside on a player's front door. If a player wants to sell their Gold Rose Wreath, it can fetch 20,000 bells from the Nook's Cranny shop.

6 Zodiac Items

Two rooms with completed Zodiac sets Animal Crossing New Horizons

The Zodiac items are very rare because they must be crafted and can only be made during the time of year that matches the corresponding Zodiac sign. For example, the Aries Rocking Chair DIY recipe can only be acquired from March 21 until April 19. And among its other ingredients, it requires the Aries fragment, which can only wash up on beaches during the Aries season.

So the entire Zodiac set is quite time-sensitive. It requires players to wish upon stars at night when Celeste is in town and the skies are mostly clear. They should be able to hear a twinkling sound prompt before the shooting stars appear. Because these items require gold nuggets and special star fragments, crafted Zodiac furniture pieces have a high retail price at Nook's Cranny.

5 Space Items

Full space set Animal Crossing New Horizons, Crewed Spaceship

The Space items must be crafted and can only be obtained via Celeste, one per visit. All of these items require Star Fragments and lots of them, so if one wants to craft any Space set items, it's time to start stargazing! A number of these items require iron nuggets as well, so be sure to farm those off rocks with a shovel once a day, and collect all the resources on Nook Miles Ticket Mystery Islands!

Out of all the Space set items, the Crewed Spaceship is the most sought-after. It requires ten-star fragments and 20 iron nuggets and sells for 20,000 bells at Nook's Cranny. To beat Elon Musk in the race to Mars, the Crewed Spaceship is the best bet.

4 Wedding Pipe Organ

Wedding set organ Animal Crossing New Horizons

The Wedding Pipe Organ is only available during the Wedding Season event, which is from June 1st to June 30th. It comes in three different color variations: White, dark brown, and natural. It costs 40 Heart Crystals and can be purchased from Cyrus, the teal alpaca. It resells for 25,000 bells each at the Nook's Cranny shop.

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A good thing to note is that Cyrus, once available on Harv's Island, will now customize the color scheme for a few Bells.

3 Throne

Animal Crossing New Horizons throne with villager dressed in royal garb in red room

This coveted, luxurious chair is easily in the top tier of rare goodies by default, simply by being the most expensive houseware/furniture item currently in the game by a vast amount. Specifically, players will need to shell out a whopping 800,000 bells at Nook's Cranny, or 720,000 via Poki at the Paradise Planning office. Basically, players will need to obtain a king's ransom to get this chair of royalty.

The item is so rare that players will notice not a single villager will ever have this in their home. Players can customize the color scheme (gold, silver, white, black, copper), as well as the pattern (red, blue, green, purple, white, black, gold) to better match it with the decor of their home. Though most will agree that this gorgeous item likely won't need it.

2 Gold Armor Set

Golden Armor set helmet, body and shoes Animal Crossing New Horizons

The Gold Armor clothing set is very rare. All three of the items in this set require a DIY recipe that can be obtained from an island resident with the "Smug" personality type, like Julian. The recipe can also spawn in the once-daily message in a bottle that washes up on island shores. The Gold Helmet requires the recipe and five gold nuggets. The Gold Armor bodysuit requires the recipe and eight gold nuggets.

Arguably the rarest shoes in the game, the Gold Armor shoes require the DIY recipe and four gold nuggets. While these shoes really do just look like overpriced yellow rain boots, they are indeed special. All the items in this set have a high resale value at Nook's Cranny because they are made of pure gold.

1 Royal Crown

Royal Crown Animal Crossing New Horizons in shop, in closet and on character

The rarest and most expensive item in the game is the Royal Crown. Purchasable from the Able Sisters shop, the Royal Crown costs 1,200,000 bells. Not to be confused with the smaller Crown which costs a million bells, the Royal Crown is the ultimate bourgeois flex in the Animal Crossing: New Horizons world.

If players want to complete their royal look, the Royal Shirt can be purchased for 6,720 bells. But don't forget to wear pants — the Noble Pants come in a number of different color variations and cost a mere 4,300 bells to add an extra bit of spice to the players' wardrobe.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons is available exclusively on the Nintendo Switch.

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