Can You Edit Villagers’ Houses in Animal Crossing? A Comprehensive Guide

Yes, absolutely! Animal Crossing: New Horizons offers a delightful feature that allows players to extensively edit the homes of their beloved villagers. This includes both the exterior and, more recently, the interior design. Gone are the days of mismatched furniture and questionable color schemes! You now have the power to curate the perfect living space for each resident of your island paradise.

Customizing Your Villagers’ Abodes: A Detailed Look

Exterior Design Freedom

The ability to influence the exterior design of villager homes was introduced with the Happy Home Paradise DLC. Much like designing vacation homes for villagers in that expansion, you can modify several key elements of their island residences:

• Roof: Choose from a variety of colors and styles to top off their homes.
• Siding: Change the walls to match their personality or your island’s overall aesthetic.
• Shape: Alter the overall shape of the house for a unique look.
• Door: Select a door that perfectly complements the rest of the exterior.
• Wreath: Add a decorative wreath to welcome guests and express their individual style.

Interior Design Power

The 2.0 update brought a game-changing feature: the ability to redecorate the interior of your villagers’ homes! This is especially crucial for players who have starter villagers. These initial residents often have generic, basic interiors that don’t reflect their true potential or personalities.

Here’s how it works:

1. Progress in the Game: You’ll need to have reached a certain point in the game to unlock this feature. This usually involves progressing through the main storyline and completing certain tasks for Tom Nook.
2. Develop a Strong Friendship: The higher your friendship level with a villager, the more likely they are to accept your interior design suggestions.
3. Speak to Tom Nook: Head to Resident Services and talk to Tom Nook.
4. Choose “Let’s talk infrastructure”: This will bring up a menu of options.
5. Select “I want to remodel”: Nook will explain the cost and process of remodeling a villager’s home.
6. Pick the Villager: Choose the lucky villager whose home you want to transform.
7. Get Creative!: You’ll be transported inside the villager’s home, where you can move furniture, change wallpaper and flooring, and add your own personal touch.

Restoring Original Homes of Starter Villagers

One of the most significant benefits of this feature is the ability to restore the original homes of your starter villagers. Many players find the initial, simplistic interiors of their first residents to be underwhelming. By using the remodeling feature, you can give them the homes they should have had, complete with unique furniture and design elements that reflect their personalities.

Moving Villager Homes

Beyond simply redecorating, you can also move villager homes to different locations on your island. This allows you to create neighborhoods, optimize your island layout, and design aesthetically pleasing landscapes.

1. Visit Tom Nook: Once again, Tom Nook at Resident Services is your go-to guy.
2. Choose “Let’s talk infrastructure”: Navigate to this option in the menu.
3. Select “I want layout changes”: This option lets you adjust the placement of structures on your island.
4. Choose the House to Move: Select the villager’s house you wish to relocate.
5. Choose the New Location: Nook will then ask you where you want to move the house. You’ll need to find an open plot of land that’s the right size.
6. Pay the Fee: Moving a villager’s house costs 50,000 Bells.

Important Considerations

• Friendship Levels: As mentioned earlier, higher friendship levels generally make villagers more receptive to your design suggestions. Interact with your villagers daily to build strong bonds.
• Bells: Redecorating and moving houses cost Bells. Make sure you have enough saved up before embarking on these projects.
• Daily Limits: There may be a limit to how many houses you can remodel or move in a single day.
• Resident Services Location: The Resident Services building cannot be moved. This is the only structure that’s permanently fixed in place.
• You can learn more about the impact of games on society at the GamesLearningSociety.org.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

1. Can I change the exterior of all villager houses?

Yes, you can change the exterior of all villager houses once you unlock the feature by progressing in the Happy Home Paradise DLC.

2. Do I need the Happy Home Paradise DLC to change villager interiors?

While the Happy Home Paradise DLC unlocks the ability to change villager exteriors, the ability to remodel villager interiors on your main island is unlocked through game progression and a high friendship level.

3. How do I increase my friendship level with villagers?

Increase your friendship level by talking to them daily, giving them gifts they love, completing their requests, and sending them letters.

4. What happens if a villager doesn’t like my design?

Even if you have high friendship levels, villagers have their own preferences. If they don’t like a particular item or design, they might not use it or display it.

5. Can I move Resident Services?

No, Resident Services is the only building on your island that cannot be moved.

6. How much does it cost to move a villager’s house?

Moving a villager’s house costs 50,000 Bells.

7. How many villagers can live on my island?

The maximum number of villagers you can have living on your island is 10.

8. Can Tom Nook randomly fill empty plots if I don’t invite villagers?

Yes, if you don’t invite villagers to fill empty plots, Tom Nook will eventually fill them with random villagers.

9. What are starter villagers?

Starter villagers are the first two villagers who move to your island at the beginning of the game. They usually have simple, basic interiors.

10. How do I reset a villager’s house to its original design?

If you have starter villagers, you can complain about them to Isabelle. She will then force them to decorate their homes as they normally would if they had moved in later in the game.

11. What happens if I sell my town to Tom Nook?

Selling your town to Tom Nook will delete your town. This is essentially restarting the game from scratch.

12. Is there a limit to how many houses I can move in one day?

Yes, there appears to be a limit to the number of houses you can move in a day. You might have to wait until the next day to move another house.

13. How do I get a shovel?

You can obtain a shovel by donating five fish or bugs to Tom Nook. This will prompt him to invite Blathers to the island and give you the crafting recipe for a shovel.

14. Can villagers move into houses I build on my own?

The mechanics for villager houses are pretty simple. As long as you’ve built a door with some blocks over it, the game counts it as a “house” and villagers can move in and reproduce (as long as it’s within a certain distance of existing houses).

15. Will villagers stay in houses you build?

Villagers will stay in the houses that are designated for them by the game. You cannot build random houses and expect villagers to move into them.