We’ve all come to know and love Animal Crossing: New Horizons. But, undoubtedly, the game has it’s own tricks that you may not know about, even if you are a well-versed player. Here are ACNH villager tricks you probably didn’t know about. Let’s get to it!
1. Getting Rid Of Unwanted Villagers
Whether it is your starter villagers or someone that auto filled in your plot, we’ve all had villagers we were in a rush to get rid of. Luckily, if you are willing to “time travel”, there’s an easy solution!
A common misconception in this game is people thinking bullying (hitting them with nets, refusing favors) or ignoring their villagers will get them to ask to leave. At one point, I thought the same thing. In reality, a villager is more likely to ask to leave if you have a higher friendship level with them.
Therefore, if you really want a specific villager to leave, you’ll have to treat them with kindness for a few days. Talking to them 5-6 times a day, giving them wrapped gifts each day and doing favors for them are all good ways to increase your friendship level.
Once you’re on a good basis with the villager, follow this chart below. It has always worked for me as long as my friendship level was good with the villager.
If you do not prefer to “time travel”, you can still get rid of your villager! As long as you do not tell any villager not to move away in the meantime, they usually start having thought bubbles to move away about every 2 weeks. Just work on improving your friendship level with the villager you want to get rid of.
2. Campsite Visitors
Have you ever had an adorable campsite villager you wanted to move in, but they picked your favorite villager to move out? There’s a solution to that as well! This requires no “time travel”, just closing and opening your game a few times.
- If the campsite villager picks a villager you don’t want to move out, close your game quickly without saving and do not allow it to auto save.
- Open your game again and go talk to the campsite villager again. This time, they should pick a different villager to move out.
If they still have not picked a villager you want to move out, repeat this process until the campsite villager picks someone you want to leave. Don’t get discouraged, the campsite villager may pick the same villager twice.
Photo courtesy of u/svenku
3. Villager Photos
The treasured item in ACNH: villager photos. A challenging item to get and truly rewarding. A villager giving you their photo means you have the highest friendship level possible with them! But how do we get them? Yep, we have a solution for that too!
First, let’s go through the concept of friendship levels. Each villager starts with 25 friendship points once they land on your island. Each level has it’s own indicator of how far along you are in your progress.
- Level 1: 0-29 points. If you chat with them a few times, you’ll easily be able to get into level 2. At level 1, your villagers can give you gifts.
- Level 2: 30-59 points. This is where you start being able to give them daily gifts.
- Level 3: 60-99 points. During this level, your villagers will be able to give you a nickname or sell you items.
- Level 4: 100-149 points. This is a good friendship tier. You’ll be able to change your villagers catchphrase.
- Level 5: 150-199 points. You’ll be able to change your villagers greeting and possibly obtain their photo.
- Level 6: 200 points. This is the best area where you’ll be able to obtain a villager photo. This is the highest tier in friendship. Your villagers will also be able to ask to buy items from you.
What if I’m not close to level 5 or 6 friendship level yet? There’s tricks to fix that fast! As stated before, the best way to increase your friendship level with your villagers is to talk to them 5-6 times a day, wrapped gifts and doing favors for them.
The best gifts to give them are stacks of non-native fruit, iron wall lamps or assessed fossils. This is due to the gift system. A gift worth 2500 bells and up will get you the max gift points for the day. The wrapping paper adds an extra point. Also, those are the only items you can gift them worth more than 2500 bells that they will not display in their home.
For me, I always dug up fossils and took them to Blathers. He assesses them, then I’d check the value of the fossils. Not all fossils are worth 2500 bells or more. Check each one to make sure they have the correct value and wrap them. Give all wrapped fossils to your desired villagers.
If you run out, go shake 2 non-native fruit trees. 6 pieces of non-native fruit is worth 3000 bells. Wrap the whole stack in wrapping paper. If you don’t wrap the stack, it will only give your villager 1 piece of fruit. If I ran out of fruit and fossils, I would craft iron wall lamps and wrap them.
If you want to gift your villagers clothing, there’s nothing wrong with that! When I wanted to gift Poppy clothing, but still wanted her photo, I would buy her something worth over 2500 bells from Able’s and gift it to her. That worked just as well.
Some villagers are a little more stubborn with their photos than others. Just remember, you may be maxed out on friendship and still not get a photo for a few days. Just be patient.
4. Villager DIYs
You’ve probably went to a villagers house and saw them crafting a DIY. But, did you know different personality types craft different DIYS? I actually recently just discovered this. There are a few DIYS that any villager can craft, but most of them are based on their personalities.
For example, lazy villagers will typically craft the shell fountain, shell arch, western style stone, etc. There is a small chance you can get these DIYs from another personality type, but typically it stays to the personality type format.
