An Amiibo is a video game feature allowing you to use physical items such as action figures or cards to interact within the game. With Animal Crossing, the most common Amiibo items are cards due to their availability and lower price.
Amiibo cards allow players to quickly get special items and characters, either as a camper or resident. Having the Amiibo for a character will also allow players to summon that character for several in-game features.
Game Features that Utilize Amiibos
Several in-game features allow you to summon a character with Amiibo cards, chips, and action figures. These features are the following:
Island Campsite Visitor
Once you have unlocked your island’s campsite, a random animal will visit for a short vacation. You can also invite a specific animal to the campsite using Amiibos.
You have to go to Resident Services and access the Nook Stop machine to do this.
From the listed services, select “Invite a Camper.” Doing this will prompt you with a question asking if you want to use an Amiibo to invite an animal to the campsite.
Select “Yes” and prepare your Amiibo item.
You will be presented with an instruction to hold your Amiibo card to the NFC Touchpoint, which is the analog stick of your right Joy-Con.
The system will verify if the item you used is a valid Amiibo, and when successful, it will ask you to confirm if it is the correct Amiibo.
Inviting an animal to your island’s campsite is one way to get them to be an island resident.
It is also a way to get crafting recipes because they will ask you to create something to bring home as a souvenir. If you do not know how to craft their requested item, they will give you a recipe.
Please note you can only invite one camper each day.
Photopia on Harv’s Island
Photopia is the studio inside Harv’s home on his island. You can use Amiibo to summon characters that are not island residents so you can do photoshoots with them.
To use Amiibo in Photopia, you have to be inside Harv’s home.
When inside, press the down arrow button to enter decoration mode.
While in this mode, you can add and remove pieces of furniture and residents into the studio room.
You can also hold your Amiibo card to the NFC touchpoint to summon an animal into the room.
You will then have the option to set that animal’s poses and expressions for your photoshoot.
Inviting or summoning characters in Photopia will have their portraits available in the Nook Shop through the Nook Stop.
The Roost
The café inside your island’s museum will also allow you to use Amiibos to invite animals for a coffee date.
To do this, all you have to do is connect to the Amiibo Call Center by accessing the phone inside the café.
You will be asked if you would like to use a character’s Amiibo to invite them to the Roost.
You will then be prompted to hold the Amiibo card to the NFC touchpoint.
A confirmation asking if it is the correct character will be displayed, and once verified, the contacted character will arrive at the café shortly after.
You can invite any character as a customer of the Roost regardless of whether they are a resident of the island or not.
However, you can only invite one character at a time. If you access the Amiibo Call Center again, you will be asked if you would like to ask the currently invited character to leave the Roost so that you can invite another.
Sometimes, characters can not accept your invitation for reasons like they are not feeling well that day.
Also, when you leave the café, the invited character will leave.
Special Amiibo cards include exclusive items that you can unlock when you scan the cards. These items will be available for purchase in the Nook Shop via the Nook Stop terminal. You can gift such items to other players, but they will not be listed in their item catalog.
