i’ve seen way too many people either get glitched villagers and have to reset their game or just get scammed out of nook tickets/bells after not receiving their villager so i decided to make a guide with what i’ve learned to help prevent that!!
☆ MOVING OUT VILLAGERS VIA TIME TRAVEL (90% of this information comes from this source, and this is the method i’ve used to move out 10 villagers so far!)
1. time travel 11-12 days. it also works if you time travel 1 month or 20 years. the cycle is typically 11-22 days in my experience, but the advantage of tting 20 years or a month is that the villager that moves out will be more random. the only damage that will be done to your town is a lot of weeds and flowers will appear everywhere!
*
if you don’t know how to time travel, go to your switch home -> settings -> system -> date & time & change it manually there by turning off automatic time zone settings!
2. after you tt 11-12 days, look at all of your villagers. you DON’T have to talk to all of them to save time. if they have a thought bubble over their head, that typically means they want to move out.
* tip: if a villager is inside a building like nook’s/abel’s/museum, that usually means they won’t move out. most villagers that want to move out will be at home or outside.
3. save the game and tt 11-12 more days (or 1 month / 20 years, depending on the type of cycle you’re choosing). check all of your villagers again for the thought bubble.
*pro tip: you can change the date/time while you’re on the “save complete” screen - this will save you a lot of time!
4. if you agree to move out the villager that pings you, then to fully move them out (by this i mean you get to have an empty plot ready and you can island hop with nook tickets to find a new villager) then you will have to tt one day -> get isabelle to announce that they’re leaving -> tt one more day and their house will be completely gone, only the plot will remain
5. most people say to go back to the “base date” (aka the date you started from) to restart the cycle, but honestly i just keep going LOL like if you keep tting 11-12 days at a time villagers will continue to ping you to move out.
* however, if you do go back to the start date, don’t be alarmed when isabelle doesn’t make an announcement. this is SUPPOSED to happen. also, for the next 20 or so days after you go back to the start date and start tting again, sometimes villagers will act like you already talked to them that day. this is normal. just make sure isabelle makes announcements again after you start your cycle again, and you should be fine.
* also: sometimes the same villager WILL ping you to move out twice in a row! it’s definitely frustrating, but the villager move out pings are usually based off of highest friendship level (from my experience)
6. if you are trading villagers with this method, that means you’re safe to trade them! this is how you naturally move out a villager, and they shouldn’t glitch for the other person.
however, you should still take the following precautions:
☆ ADOPTING VILLAGERS FROM OTHERS
whether you’re adopting from a stranger on discord, twitter, or from a trusted friend, or you’re the person offering the villager for trade, there are currently a couple known glitches about villager adoptions that have caused many people to lose their dreamies, even if the villager was seemingly forced out naturally (the above method).
as always, until the glitch is patched, NEVER OFFER A VILLAGER THAT WAS FORCED OUT VIA AMIIBO. THEY WILL GLITCH 100%.
there IS a current method being tested where if you force out a villager with amiibo, another player can pick them up from the void by visiting your town, but i haven’t tested this and i don’t trust it as a sure-fire way to get villagers yet.
anyways, like the amiibo glitch, there’s another glitch that causes the villager to move in, appear at events, and have other villagers talk about them as if they’re there, but their house says “i’ve moved out!” and they cannot be found anywhere. to avoid this, the method i’ve found that works the best is ONLY ASKING THE VILLAGER TO MOVE IN ONCE. talk to them twice, once to introduce yourself and once more to ask them to move in. that’s it. otherwise, there is a high chance that they will glitch out on you.
if you’re receiving the villager from a stranger, here’s my usual protocol:
1. MAKE SURE THEY ARE MOVED OUT NATURALLY, NOT FORCED OUT WITH AMIIBO. make sure that the person sends you a SCREENSHOT of them moving the villager out naturally. if they refuse to provide that to you, do NOT move forward with the trade. it should look something like this:
2. once you have a plot ready and you’re ready to pick up your villager, only give the person HALF of what you promised them. for example, i gave 500 nook miles tickets for judy, and i dropped 250 when i arrived, picked her up, and then dropped the rest after i made sure she was adopted. this is just a precaution to make sure that you don’t get scammed after you drop all of your trade items and then they end connection!
3. once you pick up your villager, tt forward one day. isabelle should announce that the adopted villager will be moving in. they should be doing the usual, with their house set up, their furniture in boxes and them sweeping their place. if the house appears and the villager is doing these things, that means you’re all set!
☆ MOVING IN VILLAGERS WITH AMIIBO
a lot of this is already known, but some basics about amiibos:
1. moving in a villager with amiibo takes time. three days to be exact. you have to invite them on three separate days, bring them the furniture they want crafted on the day that they ask, and then they’ll move in on the third day.
* if you can’t invite them on the 3rd day, if you invite them again, they will remember you and your town and will ask to move in again on the 4th, 5th, etc. days until they can move in. you will not have to craft them any furniture from the 3rd day onwards.
2. with an amiibo, you CAN kick out a current villager OF YOUR CHOOSING. that means if you want a specific villager out, amiibos are the quickest way of doing this. but remember: the kicked out villager CAN’T BE TRADED. however, if you’re currently moving a villager’s house that day via tom nook’s relocation service, then that villager WILL NOT BE A MOVE OUT OPTION. if you want that villager out, you have to wait until their house is completely relocated.
3. amiibos bypass the cycle. a 16 villager cycle existed in acnl, but as far as i know, it doesn’t exist in acnh. i moved out lucky, moved in judy, and then immediately moved in lucky again with no problems. i just don’t think that you can move in the same villager immediately after you move them out, but i haven’t tested this yet so i’ll update as i find more information.
i think that’s about it !! if you need individual help please feel free to reach out :)
