I don't pursue anyone in particular but I start getting burnt around 15-20 and this is just go to the island to get the tree item, bottle, fossil, and see who the villager is. The most I've ever done was 30
It differs from one person to another, but for me it would be whatever it takes to find him. I dont have online and i cant use the campsite trick because i dont tt, so i feel like this would be my only way currently. I paused searching for him long time ago, though.
Come ask me this again after i have spent all my hard earned tickest, though. I might have a new perspective then XD
I honestly never counted. When I first hunted for Raymond, I had about 116k unredeemed nook miles and about 20 tickets on me and I ended up using all my tickets and most of my nook miles and didn’t get him. If I had gotten him with my tickets, I’d say he would be worth any amount if tickets since I love cats and I love his design.
It depends though on your preference and if you have any other villager you want to look for.
I have the amiibo cards of all of the villagers I want except for Sherb, whom I only just recently started considering maybe looking for eventually. I’m in no hurry (anymore) to get all the villagers I want right away; Raymond was the only one I really wanted at the time so I felt like it was okay for me to not limit myself.
It's genuinely hard to estimate, in my personal opinion. Objectively, you have the same chance of drawing any animal not already on your island, so it's a mere 0.25%-ish chance each time. But once I went island-hopping with Sylvana as my goal, but I saw Raymond on the 3rd trip I took. I invited him instead just because I thought he was pretty cool--this was way back in March, and I didn't know how popular he was going to get. But I definitely get why he did.
I thought it was random. You never really know who you're gonna get.
But, I have encountered Raymond that last time I went island hopping. I think I was about 30 tickets in. I wasn't looking for him, because I don't like him. (I was looking for Wolfgang).
For me, my limit is 50 tickets.
I also found Judy 4 tickets in, so it's definitely all random and I guess you're just lucky if you come across a good villager.
I also practically gave up on island hopping to find my last dreamie, because it's too tedious. I ended up buying for NMT at a reasonable price instead.
I got him on my 37th ticket the first time and I wasn't actively looking for him. I have 600 nmts that time. Later on, I accumulated another 600 nmts and went island hopping. This time, I never saw him even to the last ticket. That's RNG for you. Anyway, good luck on your quest of finding him.