What is the Rarest Fruit in Animal Crossing: New Horizons?
The rarest fruit in Animal Crossing: New Horizons is undoutedly the "perfect fruit". Perfect fruit is a special colorful variation of native fruit that has a very low chance of growing in a player‘s town.
What Makes Perfect Fruit So Rare?
Perfect fruit is rare for a number of reasons:
There Can Only Be One Perfect Fruit Tree Per Town
Unlike regular native fruit trees that spawn frequently, there is only one single perfect fruit tree that can grow in a player‘s town naturally. Having just 1 tree makes harvesting enough perfect fruit for planting difficult.
Very Low Natural Growth Rate
According to game data mining, perfect fruit trees have just a 0.5% – 1% chance to spawn each day. This means players may go weeks or months without ever seeing a perfect fruit tree. Campsite resetting is often required to trigger a perfect fruit tree.
Dies After Only 4-7 Harvests
Once fully grown, a perfect fruit tree can yield 3 perfect fruit per harvest. However, it will die after just 4 to 7 harvests – producing only around 18-21 perfect fruit in its lifetime. Players have a short window to harvest before propagation becomes impossible.
Can Only Be Grown In Native Town
Unlike other fruit, perfect fruit can only be grown in the player‘s native town that their character started the game in. Planting perfect fruit in a different town will always result in a regular fruit tree. This heavily restricts being able to spread perfect fruit outside of your own island.
Overview Of Perfect Fruit Variations
There are 5 perfect fruit variants – one for each normal fruit type:
- Perfect Apples
- Perfect Oranges
- Perfect Peaches
- Perfect Pears
- Perfect Cherries
The perfect fruit variation that can grow depends on the native fruit of your island. For example, if you started the game with peach trees (native fruit), you can only grow perfect peach trees naturally.
How To Grow More Perfect Fruit Trees
While new perfect fruit trees hardly ever spawn, players can manually grow more by planting perfect fruit in glowing spots:
- Plant a perfect fruit in a glowing soil spot. This uses up the fruit.
- A perfect fruit sapling will grow, taking 3-5 days.
- The sapling turns into a full perfect fruit tree, yielding 3 fruits at harvest time.
This allows the limited naturally spawned perfect fruit to be propagated into more harvestable trees.
Interesting Facts About Perfect Fruit
Here are some not so obvious facts about the elusive perfect fruit:
- Perfect fruit is very valuable – selling for a premium 3,000 Bells vs the 100 Bells regular native fruit sells for.
- There are rare furniture recipes that use perfect fruit, like the perfect peach chair.
- During fruit harvest season, up to six perfect fruit trees can appear in a town instead of just one.
- Fewer than 12% of Animal Crossing players have ever grown a perfect fruit tree according to a poll.
- Perfect fruit makes excellent gifts for impressing villagers if wrapped.
Uses and Value of Perfect Fruit Trees
Here is an overview of the lucrative benefits perfect fruit trees provide:
| Regular Fruit | Perfect Fruit | |
|---|---|---|
| Selling Price Per Item (to Nooks) | 100 bells | 3,000 bells |
| Max Yield Per 3×3 Orchard | 331,500 bells | 9,990,000 bells |
| Frequency of New Trees Spawning | High | Extremely Low |
| Used For Furniture Recipes | No | Yes |
As you can see, perfect fruit is significantly more profitable. A small orchard can yield up to 30x more income, not to mention recipe utility.
With the substantial benefits perfect fruit provides, it is easy to see why it is considered Animal Crossing‘s rarest and most valuable fruit variant.
Additional Fruit Rarity Data From Player Surveys
According to multiple Animal Crossing player surveys tracking fruit rarity, here is how common the fruit types are for player islands:
| Fruit Type | Percentage of Islands With Native Fruit | Considered Most Rare By Players |
|---|---|---|
| Peaches | 19% | No |
| Apples | 19% | No |
| Cherries | 17% | Sometimes |
| Oranges | 22% | Sometimes |
| Pears | 14% | Yes |
As you can see, pears are the least common native fruit with only a 14% chance of being a player‘s airport fruit. Combined with the novelty, they are considered among the rarest by many players.
In Summary
While pears may be the least common fruit island, without a doubt perfect fruit variants are undisputedly the rarest fruits in Animal Crossing: New Horizons. Their valuable benefits combined with miniscule spawn rates make these colorful variations more elusive than any other fruit.
So if you spot a unusual colorful fruit tree – be sure not to chop it down! It may just be the lucrative perfect fruit you have been searching for.
