Animal Crossing: Fans of new Horizons race in mazes to defeat Raymond

Everyone wants Raymond, so when Animal Crossing duo Crunchy Island happened to get the infamous gray cat to their island, they thought to themselves, what would Nathan Fielder do? Give Raymond away in the most elaborate and absurd way possible, of course.

The duo who spent more than 400 hours in a maze Animal Crossing: New Horizons quotes comedy show Nathan For You as an inspiration for the ploy. In the show, fictional character Nathan Fielder “helps” real people by constructing corrupt business plans, such as only giving a discount after a customer has scaled up a mountain and solved a series of riddles.

The couple decided to make Raymond available to anyone who tried their game, on one condition: They had to complete an island-wide maze. However, simply solving the maze would not be enough. It would also be a competition, meaning labyrinths would have to complete the obstacle course faster than anyone else to claim their prize. In the end, Raymond would wait in his house, in the boxes and ready to go. All players would have to do is talk to him, and he would agree instead to move to their island.

Mazes, it must be said, are not a new concept within the Animal Crossing community – but after the experience of Crunchy Island, many of these players made minigames too easy. Often you could just look at your map to figure out where to go. Their puzzle, they decided, would be different.

Image: Nintendo EPD / Nintendo via YouTube / Crunchy Island

Crunchy Island developed a riding system clad with a number of screens that would construct a maze on two levels: one on the ground, and another raised on a platform. This detail alone was tons of work – in the first iteration of the labyrinth, there were 400 gold panels laying the whole thing. Since you can only order a handful of panels from the catalog, the makers had to enroll some help. Soon, Crunchy Island hired a small crew of Nook Miles to build dozens of panels for the first labyrinth.

The first race was held in early May, with a few streamers all inviting it out to duke for the coveted islander. No items were allowed, but some tools and resources could be purchased during the course of the game. Think of it as a large scale and much harder version of New horizons‘May Day event, where fans were instructed to reach Rover without initial inventory. Reaching Raymond would require both a show and a ladder to reach the final destination. To spread things out, Crunchy Island also buried a number of prizes and random items around the island, so participants would never be sure if they had found the next piece of the puzzle until they checked first hand.

It took participants more than an hour to complete the first maze, although the overall winner was YouTuber AbdallahSmash. Since then, Crunchy Island has held a number of new races for other popular villagers, such as Audie. The whole thing has become a spectacle for livestreamers, who now call the labyrinth “the most exciting thing in Animal Crossing”. “If nothing else, Crunchy Island Labyrinths may be the closest the community has to an esport. To know the Audie race earlier this year was a nail-biting affair where two streamers simultaneously on the final stretch of the race came.

“The most challenging part is always testing these races to make sure they are honest, possible to beat, but otherwise unreasonably difficult to reach the finish line,” Crunchy Island told Polygon in an email. Normally, the test period lasts up to 30 hours per labyrinth. And despite testing for events and minor situations, the duo may not always predict how people will solve the maze when they are there. At one unexpected moment during a previous race, for example, a competitor figured out that they could live in a villager to get away from their own craft table, allowing them to use it sooner than intended. This solution has since been patched, but when it happened, it was a small moment of crisis.

Crunchy Island also can not help that viewers will sometimes try and get involved, either by suggesting solutions when the race is missing, or by watching multiple livestreams to “spy” for their favorite participant. Even the maze still takes a while to complete.

The event has grown to such a scale that now Crunchy Island can rely on a community of viewers to help it raise funds for the next labyrinth. On Tuesday afternoon, the duo will premiere a new version of The Labyrinth, along with a new race for Raymond, where creators of Animal Crossing content will compete to take the cat home. Participants include players who have won previous races, such as AbdallahSmash, Nintentalk, Chase Crossing, and RyanFTW; viewers can tune in to their respective Twitch and YouTube channels to see how they race against the clock. The festivities begin at 2 a.m. EST on Tuesday.

Or, if viewers feel happy, they can also try to win a Raymond. Crunchy Island will debut soon a Dream Suite version of the maze so anyone with a Nintendo Online account can access it. The first person to send Crunchy Island a photo of her character in front of Raymond’s house will win the cat (like 400 Nook Mile Tickets, if they like). A beta version of the Dream Suite maze can now be played directly at DA-0419-8432-4999. Crunchy Island expects thousands of occupants, but only one winner.

Good luck!