Best Animal Crossing Terraforming ideas & island layouts

Animal Crossing New Horizons’ terraforming feature lets you sculpt your island into your dream haven. Here are some creative terraforming design ideas to help you achieve your ideal island layout in the game.

Terraforming, a fresh addition to the Animal Crossing series in New Horizons, grants substantial creative liberty, allowing you to mold your island as you wish. It represents a significant advancement in series customization as you get to plan your island layout.

The feature can be a bit overwhelming at first however, particularly if you’re struggling for inspiration in the game but don’t worry because we’ve got a list of some of the best Terraforming ideas right here.

Here are 10 great Terraforming ideas you can use on your Animal Crossing New Horizons island!

Contents

• Best island terraforming ideas in Animal Crossing
• Clifftop Museum
• Valley
• Marketplace
• Neighborhood
• Zoo
• Garden
• Park
• Island entrance
• Lighthouse
• Natural ramp

Nintendo

New Horizons features lots of methods to put your island at a cut above the rest, whether it’s a simple river or something more elaborate.

Best island terraforming ideas in Animal Crossing

Before you get started on trying to recreate the below methods, it’s worth mentioning that terraforming isn’t unlocked until after K.K. Slider visits your island.

Make sure to complete that step first before you attempt to go ahead and transform your town and island.

Clifftop museum

Nintendo (via Twitter: @triforcemeg)

Take your museum to new heights.

Collecting bugs and catching fish is one of the main elements of the Animal Crossing series, so why not make a spectacle of your museum to make it stand out above the rest? 

Using your Waterscaping tool to carve out the land and surround the building with water really adds to the effect of making visitors know that it’s a place that’s worth visiting – especially if it’s swarming with critters.

Adding in waterfalls also makes it a sight to behold, and once done, you can fill out the landscape with trees, flowers, and outdoor furniture to make the area look even more beautiful.

Valley

If this isn’t one of the most creative terraforming ideas you’ve ever seen, we don’t know what is. While players will obviously want to make their own houses one of the best on the entire island, having an entire valley filled with waterfalls and different-sized cliffs leading up to it truly does take the cake.

With even the walkway surrounded by its own body of water, the stroll up to your house will make you feel majestic – after all, you are the town’s Resident Representative, so why not reflect that in your design?

For added effect, you could even place flowers and items on the cliffs themselves to really jazz up the space and make it your own.

Marketplace

Nintendo (via Animal Crossing: New Horizons group, Facebook)

You could add some City Folk marketplace vibes to your island.

City Folk for the Nintendo Wii added the Marketplace, which was only accessible by bus, and took players to a plaza with a plethora of shops. Now, you can have something similar on your Switch, if you so desire.

Using the Cliffscaping tool to flesh out some hills and adding in a waterfall and river makes for a beautiful divider between your Nook’s Cranny and Able Sisters shops. Go one step further by connecting the two with a gorgeous bridge – or even a stepping stone.

Add in some scenery like street lamps and other outdoor furniture and you’ll have yourself a fully-fledged Marketplace where you can shop until you drop, in style.

Neighborhood

While making your own house look dazzling is a top priority for many players, ensuring everyone else’s abode is also stylish will also pull the design of your town together perfectly.

New Horizons finally introduced the ability to move villagers’ houses wherever you want them, so grouping them together in a neighborhood is a great way of sectioning off your island and leaving the rest of it house-free for endless creations.

You can also spruce up your residential area with fences and furniture, and can go that one step further by customizing the outside of their houses to give everyone their own personalized front yards.

Zoo

Reddit: Lanky_Bank

Turn your town into the ultimate attraction by creating a zoo.

If you’re on an island getaway, you’d half expect there to be some kind of attraction for tourists to go to.

Using the various furniture items in the game can be used to replicate animals, such as baby and mama pandas, Mr. and Mrs. Flamingo, papa bears, and more.

If you’ve fished up a Snapping Turtle or two, you can also place them on the ground for a more ‘real’ vibe to your menagerie. Don’t forget to fence them in!

Garden

Reddit: alibby

Decorate your island with gardens you and your villagers can escape to.

One of the most relaxing ideas on this list is adding a garden to your Animal Crossing island! Everybody needs somewhere they can escape to when they need a little respite – even on an island getaway. Provide a space for villagers and visitors to unwind in by creating a relaxing garden.

Using many types of plants, such as trees, bushes, and flowers will create a peaceful area that people can escape to for some tranquility.

Outdoor furniture can jazz the space up, too. Especially if you add benches for visitors to sit and wind down in, and a record player with some calming music. You could use the terraforming tool to make some cliffs to close the area in for that ‘secret’ vibe.

Park

Reddit: Owen-Gaynondorf

A cute park provides somewhere for villagers to chill out in.

Along the same vein of relaxing spaces, making a park is another way of creating a place for everyone to unwind at. Placing down some benches for people to sit on and decorating beautifully with trees, flowers, and bushes is a must.

You could even make a playground by using outdoor furniture like a slide, climbing frame, and colorful springy rides!

Don’t forget the park clock – after all, you need to be able to tell the time wherever you are.

Island entrance

Nintendo / Reddit: SailorKelsey_

Make visitors jealous by creating an epic entry into your town.

Having friends visit your island is a staple for many when playing Animal Crossing, whether it’s to trade or catalog items, pick fruits, or simply hang out together. So why not make a legendary entryway and wow them as soon as they step out of your airport?

Reddit user ‘SailorKelsey_‘ did just this, and it’s something that people can take some serious inspiration from. They opened their town with an epic set of waterfalls and a fountain plaza to really make a great first impression on guests.

You could also add in a bridge instead of a pathway across the water, and even craft an archway for an extra special effect.

Lighthouse

Reddit: u/screelord

Building a platform for your lighthouse looks really cute.

We’ve all got a lighthouse on our Animal Crossing island, right? Something needs to help guide the ships (unless you’re Gulliver, there’s no helping him), and in any case, it just looks neat.

Redditor ‘screelord‘ took their lighthouse game to the next level with their genius terraforming idea. Instead of just plonking it on the beach, they opted to create a seaside cliff just for the building. It’s one of those simple but unique island ideas that will add some extra flair to your Animal Crossing island.

Surrounding it with pretty flowers and bushes adds a Studio Ghibli-esque feel to it, and makes an already-cool feature look even better.

Natural ramp

Reddit: u/ajdude9

This makes ramps look like a part of the cliff.

This is a simple one, but it looks really cute – especially if your town has a forest or Cottagecore theme. Stairs do look nice, but they don’t fit in with every type of layout or island design.

User ‘ajdude9‘ shared their tip for making ramps part of the actual cliffside rather than having them stick out. Simply terraform enough space into the side of the cliff to place a ramp there, and it’ll look like it’s part of the rock.

The outcome is reminiscent of the GameCube days with Population Growing where ramps would be built into the cliff naturally.