This research investigates the role of distant neighbor in Elementary Cellular Automaton (ECA). Findings reveal distinct patterns and behaviors across different ECA rules when a CA cell accepts distant neighbours’ interaction. The study employs spacetime diagrams, density plots, and heatmaps to visualize and quantify the interactions, comprehensively analyzing the emergent patterns. Results demonstrate that the distant neighbor interaction can significantly alter the behavior of a CA, leading to new insights into the mechanisms driving complexity and chaos. A classification of the ECAs, based on the robustness of the ECA rules on distant neighbor interaction, is reported. Such classification enables better modeling of economic and biological systems.