Boat tour

Boat tours are a service provided by Kapp'n in beginning in version. Once per day, the player can pay Nook Miles 1,000 to Kapp'n at the island's pier to travel to a random deserted island, similar to a Mystery Island Tour. Each boat tour island has one buried on it. Uncommonly, islands may have money trees or money rocks on them.

If the player has not been to a Gyroid, Produce, or Glowing Moss type island within the last 7 boat tours and none of the other island types are chosen for that day, the island visited will be of one of those four types that has not been visited. If there are multiple, the type visited the longest time ago is selected.

Certain islands exist in a different season or time of day from the game clock. This can be taken advantage of to catch out-of-season fish, insects, and sea creatures. Time still continues to pass on these islands, which can be observed if the player spends several hours on one.

Probability
The game first determines if the player will visit a normal island (78%) or a rare island (22%). If the player has received a fortune for improved belongings luck that day, this is always guaranteed to be a rare island. Otherwise, the game will calculate this as follows:


 * If a normal island is chosen, the game will select a normal island type from the ones that have not been visited in the longest time within the last 7 days. The counter for not visiting a particular island can increase to a maximum of 20 days.
 * If a rare island is chosen, a rare island type will be chosen at random.
 * If a specific player has not yet personally experienced the date on their own island that the selected island currently experiences, the game will instead select a normal island. This is always guaranteed to be the vine/glowing moss island if the player has received a fortune for improved belongings luck that day.

Common factors
All islands contain a single buried.

Most islands contain fruit trees, which will always bear the player's native fruit, but none of them will ever contain any Bells, items, or Wasps. There is a 5% chance for trees to spawn as money trees, with each bag containing Bells 1000.

Flowers will always be in-season according to the date experienced on the island, but will never be the player's native or sister flowers. The bushes present on the island are always the current bushes in bloom as determined by the game's time.

Bug and fish spawns will always match the date that the island is experiencing (either fixed or real in-game time).

For normal islands, there is a 29.4% chance of one of the rocks being a money rock, and a 2% chance of all rocks being money rocks. Rare islands will always have at least one money rock present.

Types of islands

 * Note that all island names are conjectural unless otherwise stated.

Normal islands
Normal islands all have multiple possible layouts, one of which will be chosen at random when the player visits an island type.

Gyroid islands
These islands are encountered most frequently between all island types. This type of island is always guaranteed to be visited upon the player's first boat tour, when searching for Brewster, and whenever the player has received a bad belongings fortune from Katrina (and has not opted for purification). In this latter scenario, the buried Gyroid Fragment will always be replaced with.

There is an 8% chance that the player may encounter the same island but with precipitation (either rain or snow depending on the time of year). In addition to the usual buried Gyroid Fragment, there will be one fully-formed gyroid buried as well. This can be any gyroid except for a.

Produce islands
These islands contain multiple plants of one random type of produce, with each plant containing a fixed amount of harvestable goods. The message bottle that appears on the beach always contains a random cooking recipe. If the player has not purchased however, the message bottle will instead contain furniture DIY recipes.

Vine/glowing moss islands
These islands contain s and. The message bottle that appears on the beach always contains a random vine or glowing moss recipe. Although the island's date is set to summer, this only affects the appearance; the fish, insects and sea creatures that spawn will be the same as the date on the player's home island. Since version, sand paths will now appear around each.

If the player has received a good belongings fortune from Katrina, the player will be sent to this island if the rare island the game rolls to has a date that the player has not experienced yet in-game.

Rare islands
Rare islands all have a single fixed layout for each island type.

Star Fragment
This island is always set to midnight when the player arrives, with a heavy meteor shower taking place. If the player wishes upon the shooting stars, star fragments will appear on their own island's beaches the following day. The message bottle that appears on the beach always contains a random star fragment recipe. The creatures that spawn are based on the current time, not the apparent night of the island. Vines also appear on this island.

The meteor shower on this island is heavier than what the player can ever experience on their own island, with an 80% chance of a shooting star appearing on any given minute instead of the usual 50%. There is then an equal chance for 5 stars or 8 stars to appear within that single minute.

There are some stars on the beach too, but they will be mostly star fragments.

The island can only be visited if the player has played the game on June 15 in the northern hemisphere, or December 15 in the southern hemisphere.

Rocks on this island will always drop only star fragments with the following distribution:

Cherry Blossom
This island is always experiencing the spring Cherry Blossom season, with all hardwood trees taking on soft pink petals and s floating in the air that can be caught with a Net. The message bottle that appears on the beach always contains a random recipe from the Cherry Blossoms Series.

The island can only be visited if the player has played the game between April 1 and 10 in the northern hemisphere, or October 1 and 10 in the southern hemisphere.

Spring Bamboo
This island is always experiencing spring and contains bamboo, which can drop when struck with an axe. The message bottle that appears on the beach contains a random recipe from the Bamboo Series.

The island can only be visited if the player has played the game between February 25 and May 31 in the northern hemisphere, or August 25 and November 30 in the southern hemisphere.

Summer Shell
This island is always experiencing summer, with s found washed ashore on the beaches. The message bottle that appears on the beach always contains a random recipe for an item crafted using Summer Shells.

The island can only be visited if the player has played the game between June 1 and August 31 in the northern hemisphere, or December 1 and February 28 in the southern hemisphere.

Mushroom
This island is always experiencing fall and is host to various species of mushrooms. The message bottle that appears on the beach always contains a random recipe from the Mush Series. A random assortment of six mushrooms (composed of two s, s, and s) can be found, as well as s and s.

In order, each of the 15 trees will be randomly assigned an item underneath:
 * Three trees will have a.
 * Five trees will have a random mushroom.
 * Up to five Hardwood trees (or less if there are less than five Hardwood Trees) will have an Acorn.
 * Up to five Cedar trees (or less if there are less than five Cedar Trees) will have a Pine Cone.

The island can only be visited if the player has played the game between November 1 and 30 in the northern hemisphere, or May 1 and 31 in the southern hemisphere.

Maple Leaf
This island is always experiencing fall and has floating in the air, which can be caught using a Net. The message bottle that appears on the beach always contains a random recipe from the Tree's Bounty or Leaves Series.

The island can only be visited if the player has played the game between November 16 and 25 in the northern hemisphere, or May 16 and 25 in the southern hemisphere.

Snowflake
This island is always experiencing a snow storm during winter and has snowflakes floating in the air, which can be caught using a Net. The message bottle that appears on the beach contains a random recipe from the Frozen Series.

The island can only be visited if the player has played the game between December 11 and February 24 in the northern hemisphere, or June 11 and August 24 in the southern hemisphere.