Animal Crossing: New Horizons is a game where you can create your own little town or even world by designing an island of your choice. For the island to be alive, of course, you can invite up to 10 villagers to live with you and complete your dream town.
At the beginning of your journey, you will arrive on the island with two random villagers. Your task in managing the island starts here as you will be the one to choose the spot where these villagers’ houses will be built.
You cannot have more villagers unless you progress through the process until you unlock new tools and features. When you can finally use a ladder, create a bridge, and have a shop (Nook’s Cranny) opened, you will be asked to help Tom Nook sell three plots of land.
Having areas marked for sale means a villager can purchase that and have their house built there. In this case, three more villagers can be added to your island. However, at this point, you still don’t get to choose who the villagers are, and despite the plot of lands marked sold, only one villager can move in each day.
Continue playing until Residential Services gets an upgrade because only then will you have the option to sell more land or, in other words, invite more villagers.
Talk to Tom Nook, and he will offer island Infrastructure options, including selling more plots of land. This time, after choosing the spot to sell, you can either wait for the next plot of land to be sold to a random villager or go hunting for one that you prefer.
Mystery Island Tour
In Animal Crossing, villager hunting is looking for villagers that you want to move to your island. This is done by going on a mystery island tour via Dodo Airlines. Redeem a Nook Miles Ticket from the ABD machine in the Resident Services and bring it to the airport.
You will travel to a random island with a random animal on it. Talk to it and convince it to move to your island. If this animal is not to your liking, you can head back home and go on another mystery island tour to meet a different animal.
The animals you will meet are random, but at least you have a choice to invite them or not. Also, make sure that the plot of land is not yet marked as sold, or you will not encounter any animal on a mystery island.
Campsite Visitor
Another way to choose and invite a villager to your island is through the campsite. But this manner of getting a new villager depends if there is a visitor on your camp. You will have to build a campsite first and then wait for a visitor before asking Tom Nook to sell a plot of land.
You will know when there is a visitor at the campsite because Isabelle will announce when you start the game for that day.
If you like the visitor, you can convince it to move in, but it will first ask you to play a game. Complete three games, and then ask this camper to live on your island. Once it decides to move in and there is no more available spot, this camper will randomly select one of your villagers to ask them to move out. You can only agree or disagree, but you can’t suggest a villager.
Using an Amiibo
If you don’t want to spend hours and hundreds of Nook Miles Tickets, you can get an Amiibo of the villager that you want to have on your island.
All you have to do is to access the ABD kiosk in the Resident Services and select Invite a Camper. Go through the dialogue options and prepare your Amiibo card or Amiibo chip.
After confirming that it is the animal you want to invite as a camper, you have a short conversation. When the call ends, you can go and check the campsite, and that animal will be there.
Talk to the camper until it asks you to craft something that it can bring home as a souvenir. Talk to it several times until you can ask it to stay. This camper will decline but will tell you to invite them again next time.
To convince this camper to move in, you have to invite it three times, and since you can only invite one camper each day, you can time travel to make the process faster. Your preferred animal doesn’t have to be invited in three consecutive days; you will always convince them to stay the third time they visit.
If you do not have any vacant space for a new villager to move into, you choose one of your current villagers, and they will discuss how one will move out as the other moves in.
Villagers from a Friend’s Island invite
If you play in co-op with other players, you can convince a friend’s villager to move to your island. However, this can only be done if that villager has decided to move out of your friend’s island.
When that villager has their things in boxes, go visit their house and convince them to move to your island instead.
