Amiibos
Amiibos are Nintendo-produced collectibles that come in the form of cards or figurines and allow players to unlock special features when scanned into games. You can buy them from some online retailers or secondhand. In Animal Crossing: New Horizons, Amiibos allow you to invite villagers onto your island or unlock posters, an in-game item. There are 504 Animal Crossing Amiibo cards, including non-villager NPCs, villagers, and special villagers (such as the Sanrio x Animal Crossing villagers).
Who has an Amiibo?
All villagers have Amiibo cards. The NPCs Lloid and Gullivarrr do not have Amiibos.
Amiibo villagers are in no way different from NMT island villagers. They are the exact same.
Where can I purchase Amiibo figures/cards?
Amiibos can be purchased at authorized Nintendo retailers in your local area. You may also be able to find them secondhand on websites like eBay or Amazon.
What about Amiibo chips/NFC cards/unofficial Amiibos?
Unofficial Amiibos can be made using a method called “spoofing”. These Amiibos are not official nor guaranteed to work. We do not condone spoofing, but it is an option if you cannot find official Amiibos near you.
How do I invite a villager to live on my island using their Amiibo?
Once you unlock the campsite (see here on how to unlock it), visit Resident Services and interact with the Nook Stop. On the initial menu, the option to “Invite [Amiibo] Camper” should appear. Select it and touch your Amiibo card to your right joystick. The villager will appear in your campsite as soon as you close out of the Nook Stop.
After you speak to them in the campsite, the villager will ask you to craft an item for them, occasionally teaching you a new DIY in the process. Repeating this process 3 times (invite camper, craft requested item) will allow you to ask them to move in on their third visit! The 3 days don’t need to be consecutive. You can also juggle up to 8 in-progress Amiibo scan-ins at a time; that is, if you scan in a 9th amiibo villager without completing the previous quests, the game will begin to delete its memory of the earlier camper visits.
Are there villagers that can only be obtained via Amiibo?
Yes. The six Sanrio villagers (Marty, Rilla, Chelsea, Toby, Etoile, and Chai) can only be obtained by scanning their Amiibo into your campsite. They cannot be adopted legitimately, and upon their move-out they do not go into the move-out queue.
How do I unlock posters ingame with Amiibo?
Visit Harvey’s Island and scan the card in Photopia. Once scanned, you will have access to the poster of NPC or villager of the Amiibo via the NookStop when you arrive home.