Raymond tops our ranking of the most popular ACNH villagers, and for most of his history actually getting him meant real money changing hands. In 2026 it doesn’t have to. This guide covers his smug personality, best gifts, house themes, and an honest cost-versus-time breakdown of buying his official amiibo card against hunting him for free — plus the real history behind why he got so expensive in the first place.
Quick Start: How to Get Raymond
Verified on version 3.0 (January 2026). Nothing about how Raymond moves in has changed since his amiibo card launched in 2021 — the 3.0 update added new amiibo support for Zelda and Splatoon characters, not Animal Crossing villagers.
- Decide between a guaranteed pickup (amiibo card) or a free but random one (campsite/island hopping) — see the breakdown below.
- Guaranteed route: buy the official Raymond amiibo card (Series 5, #431) and scan it at the Town Hall kiosk once you’ve built a campsite.
- Free route: build a campsite through Tom Nook, then either wait for a random daily visitor or spend Nook Miles Tickets on Mystery Island Tours until Raymond turns up.
- When Raymond appears at your campsite, talk to him repeatedly and win the card-matching minigame to convince him to move in.
- Make sure you have an open plot first — if your island is full, ask an existing villager to move out, or he’ll leave without settling in.
Two Paths to Raymond: Amiibo Card or Free Hunting
Every method for getting Raymond collapses into one of two real strategies, and picking the right one comes down to what you’d rather spend: a few dollars, or your own time.
| Path | Real-money cost | Time | Guaranteed? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Amiibo card scan | ~$9–15 (2026 resale range) | Minutes | Yes |
| Campsite RNG visit | $0 | Days to weeks of daily logins | No — pure chance each day |
| Nook Miles Ticket island hopping | $0 (costs 2,000 Miles per ticket) | 30 minutes to several hours per session | No per trip, but odds improve the more tickets you burn |
The amiibo card is the only method with a guaranteed outcome, because it directly summons Raymond to your campsite the moment you scan it — no RNG involved. The free methods work off the same pool of random villagers every other player is pulling from, so persistence is the only lever you control. For the underlying mechanics behind any villager move-in — campsite slots, amenity requirements, and island population caps — see our full guide to getting your dream villager.
Why Raymond Used to Cost Real Money
At New Horizons’ March 2020 launch, there was no Raymond amiibo at all — the only way to get him was a random encounter. That scarcity collided with three things working in his favor: smug is one of the rarest personality types in the game, he’s the only smug villager who’s a cat, and his heterochromia (one green eye, one brown eye) made him instantly recognizable in fan art and screenshots. Demand on player-run trading hubs got so lopsided that the operators of nook.market said roughly half of all buyer inquiries on the entire site were about Raymond specifically. Because Nook Miles Tickets and Bells can’t be bought directly from Nintendo, some buyers turned to eBay instead — one widely documented listing sold for $1,000, an outlier, but a real one.
That black market disappeared when Nintendo released Series 5 amiibo cards on November 5, 2021, with Raymond as card #431. Anyone could suddenly buy a guaranteed pickup for the price of a pack of cards instead of gambling on a stranger’s trade. If you’ve seen guides claiming Raymond has no amiibo card, they’re repeating outdated 2020 information — that gap has been closed for years.
Raymond’s Smug Personality, Explained
Smug villagers open conversations bragging about their own polish and accomplishments, and Raymond leans into it harder than most — his catchphrase is “crisp,” and he’ll compliment your fashion sense in a way that reads as backhanded until your friendship level climbs. He also flirts regardless of your character’s gender, which is part of why he built such a broad fanbase beyond the usual Animal Crossing audience. Compared to jock or cranky types, smug dialogue rewards patience: the sarcasm fades and the compliments toward you get more genuine the more you talk to him and give him gifts, rather than staying static throughout the game.
Best Gifts for Raymond
Raymond’s preferred style is Cool/Elegant, and his preferred colors are black and gray. Because he’s smug, matching that aesthetic matters more than it would for a cuter, less image-conscious personality type — community consensus is that gag gifts or overly bright items tend to land worse with smug villagers than with normal or peppy ones. Items worth prioritizing:
- Formal menswear pieces — suitcoats, blazers, or anything reading as business-casual
- Black-framed furniture, echoing the office and den sets already in his own house
- Gray or black accessories, like angular glasses or a plain wristwatch
His birthday is October 1. Arrive before noon carrying a wrapped gift that matches his style or colors — if you show up empty-handed, he’ll ask you for one directly.
Raymond’s House and Tailor-Shop Alter Ego
On your island, his home runs a modern office theme: an office desk, a blocky black desktop computer, a whiteboard, a safe, a water cooler, and a fax machine, like he’s running a small business out of his living room. Hand him a vacation home in Happy Home Paradise and he flips the concept entirely — his HHP request theme is “A Home Tailored for Me,” built around an old sewing machine, clothing racks, and an antique console table, with his own wardrobe swapping to a business suitcoat and fedora. The contrast is the point: office Raymond wants control and productivity, tailor Raymond wants control over how he’s perceived, which lines up with the same vanity his dialogue signals in conversation.
The Maid Outfit Meme: How Raymond Became the Internet’s “Smug Cat”
Raymond’s viral fame predates most of his in-game content. A Twitter user leaked his design four days before launch, and the reveal picked up roughly 2,900 likes within days — unusually high for a villager nobody had actually played with yet. The moment that turned him into a phenomenon came five days after release, when a clip of players dressing Raymond in a maid outfit and having him wear it without complaint spread to over 72,000 likes. That single wardrobe interaction — any villager will technically wear whatever clothing you hand them, but Raymond’s reaction read as more into it than most — became shorthand for how customizable and, to fans, how game he was compared to other villagers. It’s the direct root of both his LGBTQ+ fanbase and the resale demand covered above: the meme created the demand, and the amiibo gap is what turned that demand into a black market.
Which Path Should You Take? A Player-Type Verdict
The right method genuinely depends on what kind of player you are, not just what’s “best” in the abstract.
| Player type | Recommended path | Why |
|---|---|---|
| New player | Free campsite RNG | No pressure to spend anything while you’re still learning the game’s basics, and you save the amiibo cash for a villager you actually can’t get any other way |
| Casual player | Nook Miles Ticket hopping in one dedicated session | A controllable time cost — an afternoon of island tours beats weeks of hoping the campsite RNG lands on him |
| Hardcore / optimizer | Buy the amiibo card | A few dollars is trivial against the hours saved, and it puts Raymond on your island exactly when you want him |
| Completionist | Buy the amiibo card, and keep an eye out for extra copies | Series 5 packs contain multiple cards per box, so duplicate Raymonds or other wanted characters can drop alongside him — useful for trading with friends later |
FAQ
Is Raymond worth buying an amiibo card for, or should I just farm for free?
If you already have an open plot and don’t mind losing whichever random villager currently fills it, the amiibo route is worth it — a session of Nook Miles Ticket hopping has no guaranteed payoff, while the card guarantees Raymond in minutes. If you’re not in a rush, free hunting saves the cash with no real downside besides time.
Is Raymond better than other popular villagers like Zucker?
Not objectively — it comes down to whether you want his cool, elegant black-and-gray look or a completely different aesthetic. Zucker is a different kind of fan favorite built around a bright, playful duck-and-octopus theme rather than Raymond’s businesslike polish. See our Zucker villager guide for his full personality and gift breakdown if Raymond’s style isn’t the fit you’re after.
Can I still get scammed trying to get Raymond?
Yes, on player-to-player trading sites — far less so buying an official amiibo card from a known retailer. The scam risk that made headlines (fake “viewing only” listings, trades that never shipped) belonged to the pre-2021 black market, when an amiibo card didn’t exist yet. Scanning a real Series 5 card, whether bought new or borrowed from a friend, removes that risk entirely.
Does getting Raymond work differently than getting any other villager?
No — campsite RNG, Nook Miles Ticket hopping, and amiibo scanning are the same three mechanics behind every recruitable villager in the game. Raymond isn’t mechanically special; he’s just the villager the most people are pointing those mechanics at. For the full system explanation, see our dream villager guide.
Key Takeaways
Raymond doesn’t require real money in 2026. His Series 5 amiibo card gives you a cheap, guaranteed pickup, and campsite or Nook Miles Ticket hunting gets him for free if you have the patience. Match your gifts to his cool, elegant black-and-gray taste, expect a slow-warming smug personality, and don’t judge his current price by his 2020 reputation — that was a scarcity problem Nintendo already fixed.
Sources
- Wikipedia — Raymond (Animal Crossing)
- Nintendo Official Store — Animal Crossing amiibo Cards Series 5
- Nintendo Official News — amiibo compatibility update
- Nintendo Life — Free 3.0 Update (2026) & Switch 2 Edition guide
- Dexerto — How to get Raymond in Animal Crossing New Horizons
- Game8 — Raymond Birthday and Personality
- Know Your Meme — Raymond
- Screen Rant — All Animal Crossing Series 5 Amiibo Cards
I've been playing video games for over 20 years, spanning everything from early PC titles to modern open-world games. I started Switchblade Gaming to publish the kind of accurate, well-researched guides I always wanted to find — built on primary sources, tested in-game, and kept up to date after patches. I currently focus on Minecraft and Pokémon GO.