How to (Effectively) Encourage a Villager to Move Out in Animal Crossing: New Horizons
So, you’ve got a villager on your island in Animal Crossing: New Horizons that just isn’t vibing with your carefully curated aesthetic or overall island harmony. Maybe their house clashes with your carefully planned neighborhood, or perhaps their personality grates on your nerves. Whatever the reason, you want them gone. Can you simply tell Isabelle to kick them out? Unfortunately, the answer is a bit more nuanced than a simple conversation.
You cannot directly tell Isabelle you want a specific villager gone and expect immediate results. Complaining to Isabelle about a villager will only reset their catchphrase, clothing, or home decor to the default settings. It does not influence their likelihood of moving out. Think of it as a superficial fix, like giving them a makeover, rather than an eviction notice. The game’s mechanics for villager departures are more complex and involve a degree of randomness. While Isabelle can’t directly boot anyone off your island, understanding the game’s systems for villager turnover is the key to achieving your desired result.
Understanding the Villager Departure Mechanics
The core of villager departures revolves around a few key factors:
- Randomness: The game randomly selects a villager to consider moving out approximately every two weeks.
- Friendship Levels: Contrary to popular belief, negative actions like hitting villagers with a net or ignoring them do not guarantee their departure. In fact, the game seems to favor villagers with lower friendship levels when choosing who might want to leave. However, it’s still largely random.
- Thought Bubbles: Keep an eye out for villagers walking around with a thought bubble above their head. This signifies they’re contemplating something, and it could be moving away. If it’s the villager you want gone, talk to them and encourage them to leave. If it’s a villager you want to stay, don’t talk to them. Ignore them and wait for the bubble to move to someone else the next day.
- The “Last To Move In” Rule: Your most recent villager who moved in is immune from being asked to move out until someone else moves in after them. This is an important factor to consider.
Proven Methods to Encourage a Villager to Leave
While there’s no guaranteed method, these strategies, when combined with patience, significantly increase your chances of success:
- The “Ignoring” Strategy: This involves completely ignoring the villager you want to leave. Don’t talk to them, don’t make eye contact, and generally pretend they don’t exist. This can subtly influence the game’s algorithm, as the game seems to favor moving out villagers with whom the player has lower interactions.
- The “Time Travel” Method (Use at Your Own Risk): Some players opt to time travel in the game to speed up the process. After a villager moves in, they can jump forward a few weeks to see if the villager you want to move out has a thought bubble. If not, they travel one day at a time until the desired villager has the thought bubble. This is considered controversial by some players, as it can disrupt the natural flow of the game.
- The Campsite Villager Overwrite: When a villager visits your campsite and you have a full island (10 villagers), they’ll randomly select a villager to suggest moving out in order to take their place. If they suggest a villager you want to keep, immediately close the game without saving and start again. The campsite villager will suggest a different villager. Repeat this process until they suggest the villager you want to leave.
- The Amiibo Card Method: If you have Amiibo cards for villagers you like, you can invite them to your campsite. After inviting them three times and fulfilling their requests, you can ask them to move to your island. They’ll randomly suggest moving out a villager to make room. As with the campsite method, if they suggest the wrong villager, close the game without saving and try again.
- The Mystery Island Tour Method: Visit Mystery Islands through the airport and invite any villagers you like to move into your island. Once your island is full, then the Campsite Villager Overwrite or the Amiibo Card Method can be utilized to force a villager to move out to make space for one of your Mystery Island recruits.
Why Complaining to Isabelle Doesn’t Work (But What It Does Do)
It’s essential to understand the limitations of the “Isabelle complaint” method:
- Resets, Not Removal: Complaining to Isabelle only resets the villager’s catchphrase, clothing, and interior decorations. It doesn’t affect their move-out probability.
- Cosmetic Changes Only: If a villager has adopted an offensive catchphrase or is wearing something inappropriate, complaining to Isabelle is a quick way to fix the issue.
- Peace of Mind: While it doesn’t influence move-out, some players find it satisfying to “vent” to Isabelle about their unwanted villager.
Patience is Key
No matter which method you choose, remember that patience is paramount. The game’s mechanics are designed to prevent players from easily cycling through villagers. It may take several attempts and weeks of in-game time to get your desired villager to move out. Don’t get discouraged, and keep trying! And remember, there’s a whole community of players out there at websites like Games Learning Society sharing tips and strategies, so you’re not alone in your quest for island perfection.
For more insights into the game mechanics and the importance of engaging games, check out GamesLearningSociety.org.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
1. Will hitting a villager with a net make them leave faster?
No. While it might seem like bullying would encourage a villager to leave, it’s more likely to be seen as attention and will not impact whether or not they will leave. Villager departures are primarily random.
2. How long does it usually take for a villager to ask to leave?
The game randomly selects a villager to consider moving out approximately every two weeks, but this is not a guarantee that they will decide to leave.
3. Is there a way to guarantee a specific villager will move out?
Unfortunately, no. The move-out process involves a significant degree of randomness. However, combining multiple strategies and being patient can increase your chances.
4. Does friendship level affect a villager’s decision to leave?
It appears that the game might favor villagers with lower friendship levels when choosing who might want to leave, but friendship levels are not the only determiner of a villager wanting to leave. It’s still largely random.
5. What happens if I accidentally tell a villager to leave?
If you accidentally tell a villager to leave, there is no going back. That villager will be packing up their home and then will depart in the next couple of days.
6. Can I stop a villager from leaving if they have a thought bubble?
Yes. If a villager you want to keep has a thought bubble indicating they want to move out, do not talk to them. Wait until the thought bubble moves to a different villager.
7. How many villagers can live on my island?
You can have a maximum of 10 villagers living on your island at any one time.
8. What happens when a villager moves out?
When a villager moves out, their house plot becomes empty. You’ll have the opportunity to find a new villager to move in through Mystery Island Tours or by waiting for a random villager to move in on their own.
9. Can I invite a villager from another player’s island?
Yes. If another player has a villager in boxes (packing up to move), you can visit their island and invite that villager to move to your island, provided you have an empty plot.
10. How do Amiibo cards work for inviting villagers?
You can scan Amiibo cards at the Nook Stop in Resident Services to invite villagers to your campsite. After inviting them three times and fulfilling their requests, you can ask them to move to your island. If your island is full, they will randomly suggest moving out a current resident.
11. What are campsite villagers?
Campsite villagers are random villagers who visit your campsite. If you have a full island, you can convince them to move in by asking them multiple times. They’ll then suggest replacing one of your current residents at random.
12. What is “Time Travel” and how does it affect villager departures?
“Time Travel” is the practice of changing the date and time on your Nintendo Switch to advance the in-game time in Animal Crossing: New Horizons. Some players use it to speed up the process of villager departures, but it can also disrupt the game’s intended experience.
13. Is it possible to have the same villager move back to my island after they’ve left?
Yes, it is possible. The game’s villager algorithm can sometimes result in a villager you previously had on your island moving back in.
14. Does complaining to Isabelle affect my friendship with other villagers?
No, complaining to Isabelle about one villager does not affect your friendship with other villagers on your island.
15. What are the rarest villagers in Animal Crossing: New Horizons?
The rarest villager types are based on species and depend on the number of villagers with the same species. Octopi are the rarest, with only a handful of them in the game.