Mystery Island Tour

The Mystery Island Tour is a leisure activity in operated by Dodo Airlines. The tour can be embarked on in exchange for a Nook Miles Ticket by speaking to Orville at the airport. Each tour brings the participant to a random deserted island, known as a Mystery Island, where they can harvest materials for crafting and catch rare bugs and fish.

The player will be transported to the island in a seaplane piloted by Wilbur, who will remain stationed on the dock for the duration of the tour. Once the player leaves to go home the island can never be revisited as, according to Wilbur, the map with the island's coordinates is destroyed for security reasons. In actuality, the islands are randomly generated from templates each time they are visited and deleted once the player leaves, so care must be taken to ensure no wanted items are left behind as they will be permanently lost. The player is free to do as they wish on the island as any changes will not affect future island visits.

Various tools are necessary in order to fully explore the islands and harvest their resources, though each island contains a workbench in case the player needs to make their own while on tour. If the player cannot obtain the resources needed to make tools, they can purchase tools from Wilbur in exchange for Nook Miles. A vaulting pole and a ladder are the most crucial tools to have, as much of the islands are entirely inaccessible without these tools.

There are 19 archetypes in all for the Mystery Islands, some of which are much rarer to experience than others. Every island always contains a dock, a simple workbench for crafting, rocks, and beaches on the left and right sides containing palm trees and shells. Many of the islands will contain flowers, which is usually the same native flower as the player's town. A Note-in-a-bottle may be found washed ashore in the sand, and there is a chance for fossils to be buried. Each island that features regular non-fruit-bearing trees will have a least one that contains a Wasp nest and one with a Furniture leaf. The fruit-bearing trees most often bear the same fruit as the player's town.

Tourists
Potential villagers can appear when visiting the tour islands and can be asked to move to the player's own island as a resident. Initially these villagers will always be either lazy, normal or peppy. Should a tourist be invited to become a resident, they will not move to the island until 3 new housing plots are prepared for Tom Nook. Tourists will stop appearing on the islands from this point until Resident Services is upgraded into a building and the campsite is built. The player will then be able to purchase housing plots to place around town, and villagers of every personality will begin appearing again on the islands.

Pond
A small island with a pond in the center, and a raised cliff area in the upper left corner. Fruit trees usually only bear the same native fruit as the player's own island, though there is a rare chance for a different fruit to spawn. Four rocks can be found in each corner. This archetype has the highest probability to appear on the tour.

River
An island bisected by winding rivers.

Plateau
An island containing three levels of elevation. A ring of fruit trees surrounds the top-most cliffs, atop which many flowers and five rocks can be found. These rocks have a higher than normal chance to generate ore when hit, and may also spawn a Centipede. The island may or may not spawn with a waterfall.

Waterfalls
A three-tier island with a river and several waterfalls, which may empty into the sea or a holding pond. Flowers cover the entire island.

Orchard
A somewhat wide island covered entirely in fruit trees bearing non-native fruit, all of which can be harvested and sold for a large profit in the player's town.

Bamboo
A small square island covered entirely in Bamboo. Bamboo Shoots can be found buried next to the stalks.

Rare Flowers
An island containing many flowers, some of which are hybrids. A raised cliff area contains a pond.

Floral Paradise
An island containing a very large pond surrounded entirely by hybrid flowers. Valuable Emperor Butterflies spawn in abundance amongst the flowers, and Koi and Goldfish can be fished from the pond.

Predator
This island can only be visited at night. A small square island with a ring of water in the center. Tarantulas or Scorpions will generate en masse, making for a difficult but potentially very lucrative bug catching opportunity. If the player is bitten they will respawn back on the dock. The water in the center is narrow enough for the player to jump across without the need for a vaulting pole.

Money Rock
A island containing a large ring-shaped pond, forming an islet in the center. Fruit trees and flowers surround the pond. The islet contains 5 rocks, all of which will dispense Bells when struck with a shovel or axe. To only way to pole vault across is on a tiny strip of land at the back of the island that juts out towards it. A money rock blocks the way and must be destroyed to cross. Ideally the rock should be struck normally first to obtain bells before destroying it. The pond has a higher than usual chance to contain trash.

Spiral
The river on this island follows a spiral pattern. The flowers and fruit-bearing trees on this island are usually the same as the ones native to the player's home.

Bass
On this island, the river is a ring with a smaller island in the middle. While Bugs seem to spawn like usual, the Fish in the river have a higher-than-usual chance of being a Black Bass.

Trash
The waters on this island contain no fish, only trash. There is little of value on this island.

Dorsal-fin
An island where all dorsal-finned fish can be found in abundance in the island's waters. These fish include Saw Shark, Whale Shark, Great White Shark, Hammerhead Shark and Ocean Sunfish. The island contains a squared ring of water creating a small islet in the center, which features a formation of cliffs that resemble a dorsal-fin.

Coelacanth
An island where Coelacanths can be found in abundance in the island's waters.