Anyone who plays Animal Crossing: New Horizons knows that not all villagers are created equal. Now you can even find several lists of Animal Crossing Villager Rankings, which describe each villager and if they’re popular, unpopular, or meh. Some villagers are adorable while some are annoying or threatening. I’ve had to kick off many villagers for being scary or really obnoxious. And since you can only have ten villagers on your island at a time, you have to be pretty picky with who you choose. Luckily Animal Crossing: New Horizons offers opportunities to swap out villagers a few times a month. Today I’m going to talk about ways you can get desirable villagers on your island, and banish the unwanted villagers!
Tricks To Get Rid Of Bad Villagers!
Everyone has at least one villager at some point in time that drives them crazy and they NEED to get rid of. Unfortunately, you’ve made your island so wonderful and beautiful that your neighbors aren’t all that interested in leaving. Don’t worry though, there are ways you can make them want to leave! My undesirable villager for a while was Bubbles, and after some work I was able to get that annoying little hippo out! Here are some tips for banishing the unwanted villagers:
Fencing Off Houses
No one likes being quarantined and stuck inside all day. I think that is something most people in 2020 regrettably understand. When you’re on quarantine, you can’t talk to people in person or really interact with people in general. Guess what? Isolating unwanted villagers in Animal Crossing is a great way to make them want to leave. “How I do that?” you ask? Build a fence around their house. LITERALLY MAKE IT IMPOSSIBLE FOR THEM TO LEAVE THEIR HOUSE.
This technique works if your villager spawns in their yard or house when you start the game. But if they decide to spawn elsewhere on the island, things become more complicated. Anytime I have a villager I’m trying to fence in, I carry extra fence supplies with me so I can build a makeshift fence around them if they happen to be walking around when the game starts. The reason the fencing strategy works is because your villagers’ happiness is dependent on how social they are with other villagers. So if they never talk to other villagers, they are more likely to ask to leave. Sometimes this strategy takes a while to work. But if you keep at it, it will improve your chances of that villager asking to leave!
Ignoring Villagers
If being persistent with the fencing strategy is too much work for you, another great strategy is to just ignore the villagers you’re trying to kick out. Don’t talk to them, and don’t let them talk to you. Even if you see them running towards you because they want to teach you a new reaction, don’t fall for it! IT’S A TRAP! This method works for the same reason the fencing method works. Your villager gets sad when they don’t get to talk to you. So by making them sad, they are more likely to leave! Being purposefully mean to people in real life is not cool. But hey, Animal Crossing is just a game, so do whatever you want! I will say it’s super rewarding to see your unwanted villager packing up their house in boxes and getting ready to go!
Switching The “Thought Bubble”
Now and then you’ll get a villager walking around with a little thought bubble above their head. They’ll be talking to themselves like they’re trying to make a decision. Most of the time you talk to them, they want to give you something or will ask if you want to buy something off of them. But when it’s not one of those conversations, they’ll be thinking about leaving your island. The good news about Animal Crossing: New Horizons, is villagers can’t leave without your permission. If a villager you already want gone asks to leave, just say yes. They’ll be gone in two days and you can go searching for a new villager! However, let’s say a villager you love asks to leave. You may be tempted to say no to them, but there’s a way to keep them and have your bad villager leave instead. You’re going to get to a point in the conversation where you have to say yes or no to your villager leaving. It should look like this:
Immediately exit out of the game without saving and close the application on your Nintendo Switch. Then, go back into the game. Your villager should still be walking around with the thought bubble they had before you talked to them. Except, the game didn’t save your conversation with that villager. Don’t talk to that villager for the rest of the day. The following day, they won’t be thinking about leaving anymore and the thought bubble will transfer to another villager on your island. Basically you’re going to repeat this cycle until it gets to the villager you want gone. Then, talk to that villager and tell them to leave.
How To Find Good Villagers!
Having higher ranked villagers on your island generally means your villagers are cuter or more interesting. For example, Marshal, Marina, and Zucker love to jam out to some tunes as I’m going about my Animal Crossing day! Because higher ranked villagers are often the best in Animal Crossing, I’ve made it my goal to bring in as many S-Ranked villagers as I can! Humble brag: I have six S-Ranked villagers at the moment!
So now that I’ve talked a bit about getting the bad villagers off of your island, let’s talk a bit about what you can do to get good villagers as neighbors!
Visiting Nook Mile Islands (When You Have An Available Plot)
Now and then, villagers will leave your island and their house plot will become available for another villager to move in. You have two options when this happens. You can either wait and see which random villager decides to move into the plot, or you can go to different Nook Mile Islands to search for a new villager to take the plot. Villagers will be wandering around on Nook Mile Islands when you have an available house plot. This opportunity to search for villagers only happens once every two or three weeks! And your time window to search for a new villager this way only lasts one to two days! So make sure you’re ready when the time comes!
What do you do to give yourself the best chance to find a S-Ranked villager? Save up a BUNCH of Nook Miles during the two to three weeks you’re waiting to go searching for villagers on Nook Mile Islands. Then, buy as many Nook Mile Tickets as you can. I generally find that I can find a good villager within 20 to 30 Nook Mile Island trips. So if you can, buy at least 20 to 30 tickets. But if you can’t get that many tickets, you still have a chance of finding a good villager. I found Marina within 5 Nook Mile Island trips! The reason you want as many Nook Mile tickets as possible, is so you can have more options to look for good villagers if you’re not having any luck.
When I’m searching for a new villager, I’ll run around the island and find who is there with me. I’ll talk to them, find out what their name is, look them up on a ranking list online, and then decide if they’re a good fit for my island. If they are someone I want, I invite them to my island and they are there the next day! If I am not interested in inviting them to my island, I leave and go to another island. I repeat this process until I find a good villager. I can’t guarantee that by doing this method, you are going to be 100 percent successful and find a good villager every time. But you do have a really good chance of finding a good villager! I’ve found Marina, Zucker, Beau, and Sherb all by using this strategy! This strategy works the majority of the time, but it is definitely a strategy based on luck.
Campsite Villagers
A few times a month, campsite villagers will come to your island and visit for a day. This strategy is hit or miss depending on who comes to your campsite. But if a good villager comes to your campsite, you can invite them to move onto your island! I’ve been able to get Marshal, Diana, and Roald (who is A-Rank but so adorable) because they came to my campsite! The nice thing about this strategy is not only does it give you an opportunity to get a great villager on your island, but you can also get rid of someone you don’t like as well!
If all of your house plots are full, when you ask your campsite villager to move in they will ask to replace someone. They’ll pick someone random and ask if it’s okay for them to replace that villager. Remember earlier when we were talking about the thought bubble transfer? You might have to do something similar with having your campsite villager replace someone. I’ve had many campsite visitors ask to replace villagers I wanted to keep. What you do in this situation is get to this point in the conversation:
Since I wanted Bubbles gone, I told Diana to kick her out. But if I had wanted to keep her and kick out another villager, I wouldn’t tell her anything and I would immediately exit the game without saving and close the game application on my Nintendo Switch. Then I would go back into the game immediately and redo the conversation. Next time Diana wants to replace someone, she’ll suggest someone else! This is a great way to get a good villager, and get rid of an unwanted villager! It’s a win-win!
That’s it for this post! Who do you think is the most annoying Animal Crossing character? And which Animal Crossing character do you like the best? Let me know in the comments below!
And for those of you who are interested, I have an Instagram and YouTube! Follow me on Instagram @saber2thtigress and subscribe to my YouTube channel which is Sabertooth Tigress!
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