Animal Crossing: New Horizons players have hundreds of villagers to choose from when it’s time to start recruiting neighbors for your island. The current cast includes almost 400 old friends from the history of the franchise, but there are eight newcomers to the Animal Crossing world who have become particularly desirable. Here’s what you need to know about the new villagers in New Horizons.

Every New Villager In Animal Crossing New Horizons

Much like Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, the gang’s all here in New Horizons. There are 391 unique characters in the general pool of villagers, most of whom made their debut years or decades ago in earlier Animal Crossing games. There are eight exceptions: Audie, Cyd, Dom, Judy, Megan, Raymond, Reneigh, and Sherb.

The eight newcomers are either brand new for New Horizons, or are making their first appearance on a console entry in the series after debuting in the mobile game Pocket Camp. Since none of them have been around for long enough to get amiibos, you can’t jump the queue on recruiting them as you can with other villagers. You just have to keep cycling through visitors at your Campsite or visiting Mystery Islands until you luck out and find a newbie. As a result, having one of the newcomers as a villager on your island has become a bit of a status symbol among New Horizons players.

Raymond is the new villager who’s getting all the hype right now, because… well, just look at him. Every cat person in the world would be thrilled to get a dapper business cat as a permanent neighbor on their island, even if he is smug.

Related: Animal Crossing: New Horizons Museum Day Stamp Rally Rewards

Audie is also noteworthy as she’s apparently named after “Grandma Audrey,” the star of a viral video from 2019 who had well over 3,500 hours sunk into Animal Crossing: New Leaf. As of last month, though, Audrey’s moved on to New Horizons:

The relative rarity of the new villagers has actually led to a bizarre sort of “villager trafficking” operation online via sites like Nookazon. Typically, a player who’s found a new villager–most typically Raymond–will bring them to their islands, then annoy them until they want to leave. Enter a second player, who will bribe the first with Bells or Nook Miles in exchange for being able to visit the first player’s island and encourage the new villager to move to their own.

It’s a little sketchy, particularly since it’s largely a trust exercise; some villagers like Raymond can command prices in Bells that are well in excess of what a single New Horizons player can actually carry on them at once, so you have to make multiple trips to a seller’s island in order to pay them off. The good news is that if you do luck into a rare or desirable villager, you may have a seven-digit Bell payday waiting on your island. The bad news is that to get that check, you’ll end up interfacing with the true obsessive fringe of the New Horizons community.

Speaking of the obsessive fringe, we’ve put a lot of hours into New Horizons ourselves, and have the massive game hub to match. Check out some of our other tips, tricks, and articles:

• How to get all 40 paintings fast with the help of a little time travel
• Where to find the surprisingly well-hidden DIY Recipe for Log Stakes
• Can you craft in bulk in New Horizons? The answer probably won’t surprise you that much

Animal Crossing: New Horizons players seem to all be on the hunt for Raymond, but if you ask me, they’re sleeping on Cyd. A punk-rock elephant who despises peppy people? It’s like Cyd was made for me. Come talk with me about our mutual musical elephant bro via our official Twitter, @PrimaGames.