Can You Get Sanrio Items & Villagers Without Amiibo Cards In Animal Crossing: New Horizons? Sort Of

3 years ago

Amazing new Sanrio themed villagers and furniture items have arrived in Animal Crossing: New Horizons with the March Update recently, but can you enjoy these additions without owning the Sanrio Collaboration Amiibo Cards?

It’s a common question we’ve been seeing from Animal Crossing players after the release and that’s understandable given not everyone wants to purchase amiibo cards just to enjoy some new content on their island in a ‘free’ update.

Not to mention, actually getting your hands on a copy of the Sanrio Amiibo Cards can be a difficult task on its own even if you have no trouble paying for them due to scattered availability around the world so far.

The official information from Nintendo isn’t super clear on details surrounding accessing the Sanrio content without the cards though, so in this article we’ll break down exactly how the Sanrio Collaboration cards work in Animal Crossing: New Horizons and what it means for players without them.

Getting Sanrio Items (Furniture & Clothing) Without Amiibo Cards

Players who own the Sanrio Amiibo Cards can unlock the Sanrio items in their Nook Shopping’s Promotion tab under Special Goods after scanning in a card for the first time, and order them at any time using Bells. This is the only way to directly get the items in Animal Crossing: New Horizons

So what if you don’t have the Sanrio Amiibo Cards? Well, there’s nothing stopping you from getting the Sanrio items from another player who’s ordered them by trading with them or out of the generosity of their heart.

But there is one important stipulation to be aware of when trading Sanrio items: you cannot ‘catalog’ them if you haven’t scanned the Sanrio Amiibo Cards yourself.

If you’re not familiar, cataloguing is the process used when trading online in Animal Crossing where one player drops an item on the ground for another player to pick up and then immediately drop back on the ground giving it back to the first player.

After having picked up the item, even if it’s dropped later, the receiving player can then go home to their own island and order the item from their Nook Shopping catalog since they technically have owned the item now. This common process will not work for Sanrio items, unless you’ve already scanned the Sanrio Amiibo Cards yourself already.

If you do own the cards yourself, don’t be mislead into thinking cataloging works because you can see them in your own catalog — it only works for yourself because you already scanned the Sanrio Amiibo Cards. Yeah, it’s pretty dumb.

So in conclusion, can players get the Sanrio Furniture & Clothing in Animal Crossing: New Horizons without owning the Sanrio amiibo cards? You definitely can, but you’ll need to utilize friends or the online trading community to do so, and it’s not as simple as cataloguing the items.

Can You Invite Or Adopt Sanrio Villagers Without Amiibo Cards?

The Sanrio Collaboration in Animal Crossing: New Horizons introduces six new inspired villagers called Rilla, Marty, Étoile, Chai, Chelsea, and Toby. Using their matching Sanrio Amiibo Cards, you can invite them to your campsite and eventually have them become full residents of your island with enough wooing.

But you get these villagers without using the Sanrio Amiibo Cards? Frequent Animal Crossing villager traders will already know that it’s not possible to ‘adopt’ a villager from another player’s campsite, so we can rule out that possibility to trade.

Next, you might think that you could simply ‘adopt’ the Sanrio villagers from another player’s island when they are ‘in boxes’ and ready to move, just like any other villager in Animal Crossing: New Horizons.

Unfortunately, it’s not possible to ‘adopt’ the Sanrio villagers from another player’s town even when they are ‘in boxes’ and ready to move as Nintendo has prevented this from happening. It’s likely an intentional choice to encourage Sanrio amiibo card purchases.

What about Sanrio villagers appearing on mystery islands or as random move-ins? Well, technically enough time hasn’t passed to explicitly rule that out, but we highly doubt it. There’s no reason to believe this would be the case given the amount of promotions around the cards, and random move-ins weren’t possible in New Leaf.

So in conclusion, the Sanrio Villagers in Animal Crossing: New Horizons remain entirely exclusive to owners of the Sanrio Amiibo Cards. Fans without access to scanning the cards will have to make do with visiting these cute new villagers on other islands.

Conclusion

Most players will be able to get the Sanrio items in Animal Crossing: New Horizons without owning the Sanrio Amiibo Cards by trading with other players — but not invite the Sanrio villagers to their own island as residents.

So if you want to experience Rilla, Marty, Étoile, Chai, Chelsea, or Toby living on your island, it might be worth hunting down the Sanrio amiibo cards! On the other hand, those who only care about the furniture and clothing can get by without them, though it will take some serious legwork to get everything.

Hopefully, this can help you make a decision on whether to try purchasing the Sanrio Collaboration Pack when they become available in your country. For complete details on how to get your hands on the Sanrio Amiibo Cards, follow our Pre-Order Guide here for updates as we find them.

Stay tuned to Animal Crossing World for everything on Animal Crossing: New Horizons, including our extensive Guides section here. Our most popular pages include March Update, Sanrio Villages & Items, Sanrio Amiibo Cards, Super Mario Items, Spring Season, Young Spring Bamboo Recipes, Redd Art, and Sea Creatures.