Why aren’t my villagers wanting to leave?

Your villagers may not be wanting to leave due to several reasons, including a lack of empty plots available for new villagers, which can limit the opportunity for existing ones to consider moving out, or possibly because you have been talking to them too much, making them feel comfortable and unwilling to leave, or it could be that you have not ignored the villager you want to leave, which is a key factor in encouraging them to consider moving out. To address this issue, it’s essential to ignore the villager you want to leave, observe them without interacting, and focus on building relationships with other villagers to create an environment where the desired villager feels less connected and more likely to consider leaving.

Understanding Villager Behavior

To better comprehend why your villagers aren’t wanting to leave, it’s crucial to understand their behavior and the factors that influence their decision to stay or move out.

Frequently Asked Questions

General Questions

1. How do you convince a villager to leave? Players will need to ignore the villagers they want gone, observe them, but refuse to speak with them, whilst going out of the way to talk to other villagers nearby, perhaps even send them mail and ignore their reply, or cook without them.
2. How long does it take for a villager to want to leave? Once the maximum of 10 villagers is reached, a villager will approach the player and ask them if they should move out, and if they are not persuaded to stay, they will pack the furniture in boxes five days later and move out two days after that.
3. How often do villagers want to leave? Usually, you can introduce yourself to the villager on day 1, and play at least once each day, and they will request to move in about 7 days, but it is totally random, and they can leave without you knowing, especially if you haven’t played for a while.

Villager Invitation and Movement

4. Why are no villagers moving to my island? You MUST have an unsold, empty plot available to invite a villager from another player’s island, or to find villagers on mystery islands, and you can only invite one villager from a mystery island per day.
5. Can villagers ask to leave twice? A villager may not ask to move out more than once in a five-day period, and the same villager may not return within 15 days.

Villager Behavior and Happiness

6. Does talking to your villagers a lot make them leave? We’ve found that if you talk to a villager more than five times, they’ll get burnt out and won’t want to talk to you for a bit, so it’s essential to restrain yourself and not seem clingy.
7. Why aren’t my villagers willing to breed? Villagers need to be in close proximity and have an inventory full of food before they’ll breed, either 3 loaves of bread, 12 carrots, 12 beetroot, or 12 potatoes, and trading with villagers also increases their happiness level and makes them more willing to breed.

Player Influence on Villager Movement

8. Can you force a villager to leave? The player has the power to force a villager to move if they want to make room for another villager or simply do not like the villager, although it will take time without time traveling.
9. How do you kick out the villagers you want? If the villager you want to move out has a thought bubble, talk to them and agree for them to move away, and if a villager you don’t want to move has a thought bubble, do not speak to them and skip to the next day.

Rare Villagers and Villager Personalities

10. Who are rare villagers in Animal Crossing? Fortunately, the rarest types of villagers in Animal Crossing can be categorized into a list based on species, with Octopus being the rarest, followed by Non-Animal Villagers, Tiger, Cow, Bull, Lion, Rhinoceros, and Alligator.
11. What is the rarest villager to get? Octopus villagers are considered the rarest in the franchise, with only five of them available, making finding any of them challenging, and finding a specific one even harder.

Villager Memory and Isabelle’s Role

12. Do villagers you kicked out remember you? In most situations, villagers do not retain any memory of their time on your island, so if you encounter them at your campsite or on a mystery tour island, they will not speak of any previous time on your island.
13. Can Isabelle get rid of villagers? In repeatedly talking to Isabelle about the same villager, they may get the hint that it’s just not working out, and they could leave for good, although this requires a few days and might not work every time.

Villager Leaving Process

14. How do you know when a villager wants to leave? When a villager wants to move out, a thought bubble appears above their head, and they ask the player if they should move, and if the player lets them move, they will pack up their belongings the next day and move out the day after.
15. Can Animal Crossing villagers leave without asking? In New Horizons, villagers will never leave without the player’s permission, and the move-out system can be used to the player’s advantage to kick out specific villagers, allowing for more control over the island’s population.