# Mystery Island 1.2.0. Spawn Rates



## Bioness

Because the other thread about the removed islands was full of misinformation. Here is the spreadsheet for the spawn rates of mystery islands.






						AC:NH Mystery Islands % - Google Drive
					






					docs.google.com
				




Both Nookipedia and the AC Wiki have been updated with this information (I know because I spent half of Sunday adding it).

Yes, both hybrid islands were removed. Yes, it is a horrible thing that Nintendo did this without letting people know. Worse still other islands that were good for making bells or catching rare fish/bugs had their spawn rates nerfed.

It is obvious that Nintendo will keep making hidden changes to this game. So we can either deal with it or get loud on social media (because Nintendo has no feedback website).

Here is the full list of changes, as that document doesn't show a comparison.

Removed

Big Fish/Hybrid Island
Hybrid Flower Island
Increased:

Short River 9.68% from 9%
Short River and Pond 9.68% from 9%
Spiral River 9.68% from 9%
Fidget Spinner 9.68% from 9%
Sister Fruit 10% from 9%
Curly River 8% from 5%
Falls 10% from 5%
Decreased:

Mountain 8% from 9%
Scorpion/Money Rock 1% from 2%
Rugged Tree 1.5% from 2%
Big Fish (formally Big Fish 2) 2% from 3%
Trash 1% from 5%
Finned Fish 0.5% from 1%
Gold Rock/Scorpion 0.3% from 1%


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## aesbea

Out of all the islands, I felt that the hybrid island was the most exciting to me...I have no idea why they removed it...maybe to push online more? But it sucks cause some of the 'genes' of those flowers (particularly the blue hyacinths) were ideal for making purple hyacinths!


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## 5cm/s

thank you for this!! i'm really sad they got rid of the hybrid islands but i guess all we can do from here is adjust to and accept these new spawn rates :'//


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## Bioness

aesbea said:


> Out of all the islands, I felt that the hybrid island was the most exciting to me...I have no idea why they removed it...maybe to push online more? But it sucks cause some of the 'genes' of those flowers (particularly the blue hyacinths) were ideal for making purple hyacinths!



I think the genes were the exact reason. It made it "too easy" to get rare flower colors. So, yes like most of the changes or settings in this game, it is made for people to feel forced to use their online service.


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## Astro0

Ah thats so sad! I feel very lucky I was able to go to one hybrid island but I was definitely looking forward to seeing another


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## Queen Greene

Well that's disappointing. Not surprising, but disappointing nonetheless.


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## marea

Wow so it is true! I dont even know what to say! I am so disappointed and confused. Why add something only to take it out, and so soon too. I had nmt island flowers on my old island before restarting it. I did not keep any of them and now i regret it. I even deleted the pics and vid i took when i found them. Now island hopping wont be as fun to me since i know that they took these out.


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## dizzy bone

Bioness said:


> I think the genes were the exact reason. It made it "too easy" to get rare flower colors. So, yes like most of the changes or settings in this game, it is made for people to feel forced to use their online service.



I keep thinking that these little changes in the game are because of this reason as well, which is a shame. I was lucky enough to find a hybrid island before they were removed although I only came across it twice so to me it was already rare. There are so many "benefits" from playing online with others that you might not get from playing solo so it really makes it seem like they are locking more and more things behind online play. I just wish everything was available for players, online or not.


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## Sefyre

Because of the early (and continued?) duping issues amongst other things and because I'm new, I stayed away from online play except for a small group of friends and family.

Besides turnips, Mystery Islands gave me an additional income from catching the big bugs and fish along with the hope of finding hybrids.

I love this game and I can play online just fine, but this is disappointing.


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## Hay

Nintendo: These kids will no longer get tons of hybrid flowers, thus making them play more and consider online sub for the perfect town!

Also Nintendo: Dupe glitch? Eh to busy I'll fix it next month

Very sad they took this out :/ I wish they weren't quiet about it. Patch notes is the least they can do...


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## cloudmask

i never even got to see one...

what pisses me off most about this is the lack of transparency. not even a passing mention in patch notes. if you're going to remove a feature entirely, you should let your playerbase know...that feels like public relations 101 to me...this is all very scummy. as others have said, i'm not surprised but i'm disappointed.


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## tobi!

"these kids are having fun!!....too much fun..."

Looks like i'll only be goin island hopping for new villagers...


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## Bioness

cloudmask said:


> i never even got to see one...
> 
> what pisses me off most about this is the lack of transparency. not even a passing mention in patch notes. if you're going to remove a feature entirely, you should let your playerbase know...that feels like public relations 101 to me...this is all very scummy. as others have said, i'm not surprised but i'm disappointed.



They don't announce these changes because that would make more people angry. Nintendo is well aware the average user won't notice the bug nerfs or the island changes.

If Nintendo doesn't mention it, then they have nothing to explain, because their customers are undeserving of an explanation.

If a small developer pulled this, they would lose massive sales and players. This is why companies like Digital Extremes, Grinding Gear Games, or Paradox explain and are open with every little change, but not Nintendo.


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## Sheando

Why would they do this? It’s not like anyone was using it as an exploit. Did they.....not realize that hybrid islands would make it easier to get hybrids when they first programmed them into the game? They literally created a feature and then later removed it for serving its intended purpose.


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## cloudmask

Bioness said:


> They don't announce these changes because that would make more people angry. Nintendo is well aware the average user won't notice the bug nerfs or the island changes.
> 
> If Nintendo doesn't mention it, then they have nothing to explain, because their customers are undeserving of an explanation.
> 
> If a small developer pulled this, they would lose massive sales and players, bit not Nintendo. This is why companies like Digital Extremes, Grinding Gear Games, or Paradox explain and are open with every little change.



this explanation makes a lot of sense (unfortunately). i think i've been spoiled by overwatch's patch notes. every little change is detailed. blizzard is still **** but at least the overwatch team is transparent about changes. i get that it's different with a competitive game where players need to be made aware of even a fraction of a second of difference in reload time, but man does it feel good to at least have the illusion that the developers want to be transparent.


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## The Pennifer

I am really disappointed about this too ... I wondered why I kept getting the same lame islands! I loved the hybrid island!! I was lucky enough to hit it a couple of times and got loads of blue pansies! I also loved making my own tarantula/scorpion island out of the bamboo island but the last time or two it was not really worth it since the spawn rate was so pathetic 
I seem to hit the sister fruit island quite often though ( I have cherries and my sister fruit is oranges)


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## alpacac

Bioness said:


> I think the genes were the exact reason. It made it "too easy" to get rare flower colors. So, yes like most of the changes or settings in this game, it is made for people to feel forced to use their online service.


If this was the case I wish they had just changed the islands to only have cosmos or whatever was more common instead of completely removing it?? This increasing pressure to use online subscription is really turning me off ACNH given I played NL entirely offline.. sigh


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## Underneath The Stars

so yeah it's official now huh? well that sucks, i encountered ONE and wasn't even able to pick up more as i was new to the game & wasn't aware how rare it is (didn't even know that you pick up differently compared to acnl lol)


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## starlightsong

alpacac said:


> If this was the case I wish they had just changed the islands to only have cosmos or whatever was more common instead of completely removing it?? This increasing pressure to use online subscription is really turning me off ACNH given I played NL entirely offline.. sigh


What’s even worse about the way they’re pressuring people to use online is that if you wanted to play NL online you could’ve done so for free. Now it costs a NSO subscription and sure, you can argue that it’s cheap compared to an xbox or ps4 online sub, but that still doesn’t mean everyone can pay it (especially right now lol...) or wants to and this sort of thing is exactly what I feared when I first heard years ago that NSO would be a thing.


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## Blood Eclipse

And I never got the chance to see hybrid island for myself. 

Last time I went island hopping the most rarest I saw were bamboo island and sister fruit island. I was wondering when I'd drop by hybrid island, since I heard wonders about it. I had no idea Nintendo removed it and why the heck they decided upon it.


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## Alolan_Apples

Did anyone mention how you can’t catch tarantulas and scorpions on the Bamboo island anymore? Everything used to be big moneymakers. Now they’re rendered useless.


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## Underneath The Stars

Alolan_Apples said:


> Did anyone mention how you can’t catch tarantulas and scorpions on the Bamboo island anymore? Everything used to be big moneymakers. Now they’re rendered useless.



this + the campsite method to get dreamies?
nmts are truly going down.....


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## Cadbberry

I loved hybrid island, I don't mind a nerf to rates but I just hate they were removed! I found a single one and was banking on finding more in my next island getaway, maybe more mums for my island! It really just burns me up actually, I don't understand why that, of anything, was removed.


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## Bioness

Alolan_Apples said:


> Did anyone mention how you can’t catch tarantulas and scorpions on the Bamboo island anymore? Everything used to be big moneymakers. Now they’re rendered useless.



In July and August there are rare beetles. If you do something similar to the tarantula and scorpion island method, you can get a lot of nice beetles. The giant stag and rainbow stag spawn often enough to make decent. You can also find some of the really rare beetles worth even more, but are harder to catch.

Though I never did the tarantula/scorpion island so have nothing to compare it to.


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## Saaga

Underneath The Stars said:


> this + the campsite method to get dreamies?
> nmts are truly going down.....


What?! Nintendo did something to the campsite method too? Is there a full datamine list released where it tells what the recent update did?


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## Alolan_Apples

Bioness said:


> In July and August there are rare beetles. If you do something similar to the Tarantula and scorpion island method, you can get a lot of nice beetles. The Giant Stag and Rainbow Stag spawn enough to make decent. You can also find some of the really rare beetles worth even more, but are harder to catch.
> 
> Though I never did the tarantula/scorpion island so have nothing to compare it to.



What about those palm beetles? Since I turned my town into a desert, palm trees have became the dominant trees. I have a whole bunch of them. I can farm beetles easily, with no cost.


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## Lattecakes

Thank you for sharing all of this information with us. I can't believe Nintendo decided to do this without announcing it. If I didn't know about this, I would have wasted even more nook mile tickets trying to get to hybrid island  Also, I have only went to the spider island once out of like close to 100 island hops and now they have nerfed the chances of going? Nintendo, why?? Are they trying to make Animal Crossing New Horizons less fun? I think if we all band together and share our opinions with Nintendo on their social media platforms or something, we can make a difference...kinda like what happened with Bunny Day. I am kind of worried of what else they will do behind our backs at this point.


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## Neechan

Maybe they were “removed from rotation’ because they are seasonal islands? Kinda like how tarantula island isn’t in rotation anymore due to it being scorpion season for north hemisphere? And finned fish don’t appear until Summer?


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## Insulaire

I really like checking in with this forum, but there are just only so many anti-Nintendo posts I can read. It’s always the worst, least-charitable explanation that the most vocal naysayers insist on. It seems plausible that the devs felt existing spawns were making certain longterm goals too quickly achieved, so they adjusted to maintain the slow daily progression and pacing the game is built upon. I apologize for not defaulting to bashing the company that released this game and for not thinking extremely minor adjustments have ruined everything 4ever.


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## Underneath The Stars

Saaga said:


> What?! Nintendo did something to the campsite method too? Is there a full datamine list released where it tells what the recent update did?



no they didn't, i just mean that that method doesn't need nmt's... so when people discovered that, it has became a more efficient method to meet a certain villager


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## Sami

Insulaire said:


> I really like checking in with this forum, but there are just only so many anti-Nintendo posts I can read. It’s always the worst, least-charitable explanation that the most vocal naysayers insist on. It seems plausible that the devs felt existing spawns were making certain longterm goals too quickly achieved, so they adjusted to maintain the slow daily progression and pacing the game is built upon. I apologize for not defaulting to bashing the company that released this game and for not thinking extremely minor adjustments have ruined everything 4ever.



The issue that many people,  myself included,  have isn't the change itself,  but the lack of transparency with players about the change. Nintendo knows how people sometimes feel about things like this, so it's not the best idea to implement adjustments without letting anyone know. Many games that are updated regularly will outline changes after a patch drops, and some even do so before the patch is released. Even if players get upset about the changes, they can at least feel at ease about trusting that things won't be removed without being notified in some way.


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## Flodorf

Quoting myself from the other thread, as I intended it for this one:

Quite frankly this is a direct consequence of the insane amount of NMTs going around.

Nintendo must have wanted X amount of rewards from mystery islands. Seeing as by normal play you can might be able to visit 2 to 5 NMTs a day and the spawn rates of those islands, Nintendo wanted amount X to be low.

Currently, its not a matter of how many NMTs you can acquire per day, as people have hundreds, but how many islands you can visit each day. This greatly increases X and thus upsetting the balance Nintendo intended.

Removing these islands is meant to stop the bleeding until they can figure out how to fix the much larger issue of duplication and unlimited NMTs.

Sure, it sucks for normal players, but, I found the hybrid flower island twice before (on 1.1.x), so it is a small sacrifice as chances are very low already. I am sure they will reintroduce the islands once people do not have unlimited NMTS to farm these islands. A normal player might not even notice they were removed if they come back later.


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## Insulaire

Sami said:


> The issue that many people,  myself included,  have isn't the change itself,  but the lack of transparency with players about the change. Nintendo knows how people sometimes feel about things like this, so it's not the best idea to implement adjustments without letting anyone know. Many games that are updated regularly will outline changes after a patch drops, and some even do so before the patch is released. Even if players get upset about the changes, they can at least feel at ease about trusting that things won't be removed without being notified in some way.


I can understand that. But did Nintendo ever share with the public the older spawn rates of mystery islands? I thought those were datamined as well. It would seem to be consistent if so.


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## Manon_Despoina

I hope they will get reintroduced soon... The only reason I wanted to use NMTs is because of the chance of finding the flower island. Well, now my NMTs will stack up and I have more to trade with, I suppose


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## Saaga

Underneath The Stars said:


> no they didn't, i just mean that that method doesn't need nmt's... so when people discovered that, it has became a more efficient method to meet a certain villager


Oh, that’s a relief. Thanks for clearification.


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## Mu~

What Twitter account should we complain to? I'm in.


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## Rave

Huh. I was hoping to get one of those to try and breed hybrids.... Wondering why they'd remove one of the very few unique/interesting islands, when 90% of the islands were already fully identical to your own anyway.


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## peachmilke

It feels greedy to me they're trying to push online.. I mean switches and ACNH are already excessively popular due to quarantine as is so you know they made a lot of money from that alone


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## Chea

Thank you for the spreadsheet! 

I may be the only one happy with the nerfs, I feel like hybrids are a thing that you have to earn, going to an island and taking back 39 hybrids wasn't so much fun... Sure, nobody forces you to take the hybrids, but you got to have a strong will power to just leave them there.


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## Barney

I've been using my NMTs to search for my first hybrid island for the past few weeks, not realising that they've been removed!

Is there any reason to visit mystery islands any more if you're not looking for new villagers?

Beyond the money rock island which at least gives some bells, they don't offer much incentive, do they?


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## Altarium

Ouch... well I'm just grateful I managed to get enough blue hyacinths from hybrid islands to last me a lifetime before this patch hit, purple hyacinths are probably my favorite flower so they'd be a pain to get without blues or island oranges


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## LeonCabrio

Barney said:


> I've been using my NMTs to search for my first hybrid island for the past few weeks, not realising that they've been removed!
> 
> Is there any reason to visit mystery islands any more if you're not looking for new villagers?
> 
> Beyond the money rock island which at least gives some bells, they don't offer much incentive, do they?


I'd say go there to get infinite supply of weeds and stuff you can get from rocks, plus maybe a furniture on a tree or a DIY bottle. I only go to islands if I need materials. So, since I don't have any expectations, any rare island is more than welcome haha


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## Bioness

Alolan_Apples said:


> What about those palm beetles? Since I turned my town into a desert, palm trees have became the dominant trees. I have a whole bunch of them. I can farm beetles easily, with no cost.



The palm beetles ARE the expensive ones I was talking about (besides Scarabs that spawn on both). You want to do this on a mystery island because of the small size you can control the spawns of bugs better.

What I did:
Ideally Bamboo, flat woodland, or the secondary fruit island.

Pluck all flowers
Cut down all none bamboo trees
Dig up all stumps
Plant about 4-6 extra full size palm trees

It takes less than a minute to clear bug spawns and you are guaranteed to get 3-6 beetles each rotation. You can't do that on your main island even if you made it a desert.


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## DJStarstryker

I personally am not complaining about trash island's rates getting reduced. I felt like it came up too much before. 

It's too bad the rates on a lot of the good islands got reduced though.


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## Gazer297

Thanks for the info.  Now I know why I never see these rare islands.


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## chainosaur

Nintendo's got some nerve removing content instead of adding content at this stage of the game. I love NH but let's be real, it's a really lackluster experience compared to New Leaf. Everyday I feel like I discover some new inconvenience or little thing I find frustrating.

We need MORE.

I'm lucky to have found a few hybrid islands before this patch and I feel bad for those who never got to experience them. They were always so cool and exciting.


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## cainhurst

I was ready to get all up in arms like everyone else, but honestly it's probably just a seasonal change. It makes a lot of sense when you think about it that way - some kinds of islands being rotated in, and others out. I really don't think the bigwigs at Nintendo were like "Oh no, our players are enjoying too many pretty flowers, we must PUNISH THEM."

...fingers crossed that we do get new island types in the summer.


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## Dewasa

Island hopped a bunch last night and out of 60 or so islands, encountered bamboo island 4x, money rock 4x and a new scorpion island 1x. Really am missing the hybrid flower island. I never even got to see the big fish island so that's a bummer.


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## Reineke

After doing about ~150 nook mile islands the other day, I can't say I'm surprised by these new rates. It pretty much lines up with what I had encountered before :/ 
Only 2x scorpion islands the whole day (unlucky because one was during the day before they could even spawn!)
Zero hybrid islands, which, if you don't have roses or mums as your starting flower aren't very useful anyway ...
A bunch of money rock islands and bamboo islands...
And as was pointed out before, the way the villager spawn works on those islands makes campsite hunting the better choice for most villagers.
Needless to say, I'm just _so done_ with nmts, nook mile islands... the whole shebang.


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## stiney

Alolan_Apples said:


> Did anyone mention how you can’t catch tarantulas and scorpions on the Bamboo island anymore? Everything used to be big moneymakers. Now they’re rendered useless.


That is definitely not true. I got bamboo island the other night and got three scorpions without even trying (it was raining so the stinkbugs weren't spawning which helped). The spawn rate was lessened, not removed entirely.

	Post automatically merged: May 21, 2020



Lattecakes said:


> Thank you for sharing all of this information with us. I can't believe Nintendo decided to do this without announcing it. If I didn't know about this, I would have wasted even more nook mile tickets trying to get to hybrid island  Also, I have only went to the spider island once out of like close to 100 island hops and now they have nerfed the chances of going? Nintendo, why?? Are they trying to make Animal Crossing New Horizons less fun? I think if we all band together and share our opinions with Nintendo on their social media platforms or something, we can make a difference...kinda like what happened with Bunny Day. I am kind of worried of what else they will do behind our backs at this point.


You can't get tarantula island in the Northern Hemisphere right now unless you're time traveling. Tarantulas are out of season in May. (You might be able to get scorpion island though, which is the same thing basically but scorpions.)


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## Bioness

Dewasa said:


> Island hopped a bunch last night and out of 60 or so islands, encountered bamboo island 4x, money rock 4x and a new scorpion island 1x. Really am missing the hybrid flower island. I never even got to see the big fish island so that's a bummer.



There were two Big Fish islands, you can still get one of them. It just won't have hybrid flowers.

	Post automatically merged: May 21, 2020



stiney said:


> That is definitely not true. I got bamboo island the other night and got three scorpions without even trying (it was raining so the stinkbugs weren't spawning which helped). The spawn rate was lessened, not removed entirely.
> 
> Post automatically merged: May 21, 2020
> 
> 
> You can't get tarantula island in the Northern Hemisphere right now unless you're time traveling. Tarantulas are out of season in May. (You might be able to get scorpion island though, which is the same thing basically but scorpions.)



Scorpion island has a money rock on. Also there is an even rarer island with Scorpions and a unique rock that gives you 8 gold nuggets.


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## N a t

Thank you so much for posting a very clear post in regards to this, nothing against the other threads but it felt like it was primarily rumors and speculation and people had to piece the puzzle together but this is easier for me to understand. I am very disappointed. I've only encountered one hybrid island before and guess i never will again. I never even took photos... I'm very sad about this. Even though they nerfed the better islands, I have found the money island in my game twice now in less than a month. I just got it again today. Did the odds for that one not change or actually maybe increase? Or was I just lucky? Your post makes sense but the document has information that I normally wouldn't understand is all. Thanks!


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## xara

this is disappointing. i don’t really understand why they would remove hybrid island but i suppose they can do whatever they want ;/


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## Bioness

N a t said:


> Thank you so much for posting a very clear post in regards to this, nothing against the other threads but it felt like it was primarily rumors and speculation and people had to piece the puzzle together but this is easier for me to understand. I am very disappointed. I've only encountered one hybrid island before and guess i never will again. I never even took photos... I'm very sad about this. Even though they nerfed the better islands, I have found the money island in my game twice now in less than a month. I just got it again today. Did the odds for that one not change or actually maybe increase? Or was I just lucky? Your post makes sense but the document has information that I normally wouldn't understand is all. Thanks!



Money Rock Island has a spawn rate of 5%. So on average 1 out of 20 islands will have it. 

On average does not mean "always", you could go 500 islands and not find Money Rock Island or find it 5 times in a row. It means that over a large sample 5% of islands will be Money Rock Islands.


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## N a t

Bioness said:


> Money Rock Island has a spawn rate of 5%. So on average 1 out of 20 islands will have it.
> 
> On average does not mean "always", you could go 500 islands and not find Money Rock Island or find it 5 times in a row. It means that over a large sample 5% of islands will be Money Rock Islands.


Thank you for replying! Makes sense!


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## R. Planet

Its not about being "forced" to subscribe to the online (you can find a buck 80 a month in your sofa cushions). It's more about being forced to find someone to trade flowers with, set up a time, go through the whole ordeal and then hope they don't screw you over.

I don't need extra headaches Nintendo.


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## EquinoxIsland

Wait, which one is bamboo island on here?


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## Rize

Aww i wonder why they got rid of the hybrid island


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## starlightsong

EquinoxIsland said:


> Wait, which one is bamboo island on here?


This comment had me worried for a second but it’s #8 on the list! 



I’m on mobile so I can’t get a better screenshot than that but it seems to still have a 10% chance of showing up, it wasn’t removed.


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## maaango

Honestly I’m really confused about it too. Out of all the islands I wonder why they decided to take the hybrid island! It was one of the islands I actually looked forward to getting. I was lucky enough to find it twice, the first time I didn’t really care much for it lol. But after I found out they were rare I was just fortunate enough to be able to find it a second time. Kinda sad that they would take it though. But oh well.


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## swifterly

Insulaire said:


> I can understand that. But did Nintendo ever share with the public the older spawn rates of mystery islands? I thought those were datamined as well. It would seem to be consistent if so.



Yeah, but this isn't just adjusting spawn rates. They removed 2 islands entirely


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## AccfSally

Aww, I didn't realize they removed the hybrid islands. 
That stinks...


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## moo_nieu

Hybrid Island is gone D: Nintendo why


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