ACNL Guide

Navigation:
Villager Clothes
Money Trees/Dead Trees
Retail Items
Redecorating Villager Houses
Getting Villager Pictures

✿ NO HACKING ✿

Starting A New Town

I recommend doing this process with a new town because it's easier to start with a fresh town. It's difficult when you have a bunch of PWP's and flowers already since you will be limited when it comes to choosing where you want your villager houses to be. With a new town, you can plan everything out and have more options! It depends on the map that YOU choose but I wanted to have all my villagers in a straight line together at the bottom. I am going to be using pictures from my 7th Town: Fallout 4 Town! This town is not very pretty obviously because it's the wasteland of course. For 6th Town, I made sure to move in all my villagers BEFORE any landscaping!!! It's better to get this nightmare over with and then start the fun in your town. If you want to try and move villagers around in a town you have already been working on then I might suggest you to move your precious hybrids and any other flowers to the beach. STRAIGHT LINE IS NOT THE ONLY SET UP! You can have villagers grouped together in neighborhoods, lined up vertically, or however else you'd like! You decide.

cover your town in qr codes

In the new ACNL update, villagers will no longer move on top of your pathways [QR CODES]. The idea is to fill up your whole town with QR's so that you can have them move into specific spots. Use anything you want! A cute QR, brick, or even the generic starter QR's that you are given in the beginning. This is going to be very tedious but you do not have to put a QR in every single spot in town. You can space it out strategically or just scatter them. I did my whole town in one go but it was EXHAUSTING. I did it during my stream so I had good company! Put on some music or a favorite TV show.

Villager houses are 3x3

FLOWERS, TREES, AND WEEDS ARE DECEIVING!

You need a 3x3 area for a villager house! Make sure there are QR's around the spot for your villager of choice. I always leave an extra space open in front of the house.

This is an example of a wrong house placement. I messed up and didn't realize there was enough available space for a villager. They can be tricky so make sure that you place QR's around trees, flowers, and weeds. Villagers WILL move on top of anything that is not a QR code. [Excluding permanent rocks]

Neighbors

If you want two villagers next to each other, you need two spaces between them. This is what the distance between the two houses should look like. In Fallout 4 Town, I needed Ribbot [Codsworth] and Lionel [Preston Garvey] to live next to each other because this is their "Sanctuary Neighborhood"

Specific villagers

In this themed town, I needed my villagers to be in their assigned spots around town. You need to plan this out! Do not leave 10 spots open when covering your town because they will choose any 1 of the 10 spots you have open. If you want a villager in a specific spot then you need to keep other potential house spots COVERED when moving them in. After that villager is moved in, you can then clear up a spot for the next villager. And so on. You have to limit their options.

Placements

Villagers can plot their house 1 space away from the edge of a cliff. DO NOT leave two spaces empty near the cliff.

Villagers can plot their house 1 space away from a rock in your town. Sometimes these pesky rocks can get in the way of your design so be aware of this.

MOVING IN VILLAGERS

WISP Lamp (RECOMMENDED)

Amiibo Cards are required for this step! Find the Wisp lamp in your town and set it up in your house. Scan in the villager card of your choice and ask them to move into your town.
You have to ask Welcome Amiibo villagers to "come play" and then go into their RV at the campground to have the option to ask them to move into town. You do not get that option in your house like regular series 1-4 villagers.

**NEW 3DS OR NFC READER REQUIRED!**

You scan in Series 1-4 + Welcome Amiibo villagers using the Wisp Lamp. If you need help with Wisp, please check my update page for more information! By scanning in villagers, you have the option of asking them to move into your town!

MOVING OUT VILLAGERS

This is where it gets confusing. I hope I can explain it in a way for everyone to understand and avoid the mistakes that I made. I am going to assume that when you start your new town, you are not going to want to keep the starter villagers. Even if you somehow get a villager that you wanted, you are going to want to change where their house is.

THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW:

Villagers will not move out unless you have 9 or more villagers. In a new town, you need to wait for more villagers to move in because you only have 5 starter villagers. Once you have enough villagers, you can start to slowly move them all out one by one and invite in a new villager that you want to keep.
This is a long process, it's going to take time. To be more efficient, you have to be okay with time traveling.
Let's set up a town together for a detailed example!
THIS IS MY METHOD FOR MOVING OUT VILLAGERS! I DO NOT LIKE TO PLOT RESET. It will not be mentioned in this guide.
THIS EXAMPLE IS FOR STARTING A FRESH TOWN! BRAND NEW. I will add in more information at the end about what you need to do if you are already at a certain point in your game. This example only involves scanning in villager cards.

DREAM TOWN:

Let's say I want to make a town with all pink villagers. Figure out what villagers you want. ALL TEN!
Midge, Freckles, Puddles, Paolo, Chrissy, Peanut, Merengue, Marina, Flora, Gala

STarter Villagers:

Here are my starter villagers! Poncho, Robin, Roald, Skye, Goldie

When you start a new WELCOME AMIIBO UPDATE town, you can find wisp in just 2-4 days after starting. After you talk to Isabelle, pick a spot for your house, and plant the town tree save/quit. Next day you can run around and look for him to show up. You don't even have to upgrade your house to use the lamp. When you first place him down in your tent, he will say he is still making preparations. Leave and come back in. You can then summon him and scan in villagers to move in.
Take advantage of your town being empty and be sure to start to placing down QR codes before scanning in a permanent villager. Make sure you cover up all possible 3x3 spots and only leave spots open where you want houses to go. Feel free to leave 10 open if you don't mind which of the 10 spots your villager decides to choose. If you have a specific spot for each individual villager then please leave only that 1 spot open. The spot open will be for that first villager you choose to move in.

UPDATED TOWN:

Poncho, Robin, Roald, Skye, Goldie, Henry, Freckles, Puddles, Paolo, Chrissy

You are going to end up with another villager when you time travel 1 day after starting a new town. You will see a new plot for a villager [you probably won't be keeping them] but let them move in. Scan in one of the villagers that you want! Ask them to move in. Time travel day by day and do this until you have a full town. Make sure you are scanning in a new villager each day to max out your town. Keep an eye out for any moving pings once you hit 9 villagers. Now we have 4/10 of the villagers that we want to keep: Midge, Freckles, Puddles, Paolo. Since you already set up house plots for them with QR codes the 4 villagers you scanned in should be in a good spot. If you messed up, then you will have to wait to kick them out and try again.

FOR REFERENCE WHEN MOVING VILLAGERS:

SAFE ROUTE

Time travel day by day. ONLY 1 DAY. Make sure you put in effort to talk to each villager at least once. If you miss someone one day you will be fine. Try to find them the next day. If you ignore them for too long, they are not going to ping you to let you know they are going to move. Do this until you find someone who pings you! Once they ping you and give you a date, say yes or no. You can then time travel up to 5 days and look for another villager who will ping you. It's completely random. THEY WILL NOT PING YOU IF YOU HAVEN'T TALKED TO THEM IN AWHILE. Make sure you are on good terms with them or else they will move out without telling you.

reckless route

Time travel 10-15 days at a time. Time traveling like this will move out villagers faster. You do not have to talk to your villagers because they will move out on their own. When doing this, make sure you keep track of who is still in your town and who left. There is no need to go around town looking for pings. The only way to find out that a villager moved away is to check the town list. As long as you are keeping track of everyone, you will know who moved out if their name is gone from the list and you have a goodbye letter in your mailbox. (You would use this route if you had a full town with all unwanted villagers)

MOVING OUT THE REST OF THE VILLAGERS:

To move out the other 6 villagers, you have to use the "safe" route. We have 6 villagers that can leave but 4 we need to keep. Time travel day by day until you find a villager who will ping you. If it's any of the 6, say yes. If it's a special villager, say no. Try again. You have to keep time traveling if you keep getting one of the special 4 villagers pinging you saying they want to move. Time travel accordingly until one of the villagers you want OUT ping you. If you move out 1/6 villagers, time travel to the DAY AFTER their move out date that they give you. Their house plot will be gone AND YOU MUST COVER UP THEIR OLD HOUSE SPOT! DO NOT FORGET. Keep in mind, these were the random villagers from the start of your new town so you probably don't want any of your new villagers to plot their house in the same spot. Yes, you can kick out a villager with the Wisp lamp when you have a full town but they usually end up in the same spot as the villager you are kicking out and that's not going to help you put your houses in whatever order you want. After you cover up the empty spot from the villager you just kicked out, you can scan in another villager. Let's say Henry moved out and now we want Chrissy.

THIS IS GOING TO BECOME MORE DIFFICULT WITH THE MORE PERMANENT VILLAGERS YOU HAVE.

This could take a LONG time if you have bad luck like I do. I had to time travel nonstop in 6th Town because my permanent villagers kept asking me to move out. It's going to be such a pain when you only need one more villager to move out but your other 9 villagers are cycling through each other pinging you to move. It's extremely frustrating but stay calm and make sure that you say NO and talk to everyone. I need to emphasize the importance of talking to your villagers during this time. Once you go down the list and move out the villagers you don't want, you have to be careful because you don't want your permanent villagers moving. I recommend using amiibo cards because it's easier when you mess up. You already have the villager card so you can just bring them back no harm done. Scanning in a villager with Wisp OVERRIDES the 16-villager cycle. If I moved in Chrissy and she was in a bad spot, I can let her move out and scan her back in immediately once she's gone. It's going to be hard when you find a dream villager through a campsite or friend's town and mess up and not have a back up.

MYTH:

Welcome Amiibo villagers will not ping you to move as much as regular villagers.
FALSE. It is RANDOM for which villager in town will ping you to move. Welcome Amiibo villagers will ping you just as much as your other villagers. NO ONE IS SAFE.

GOOD LUCK!

Remember, this is my method but that doesn't mean it's the ONLY method. This is how I did it and there maybe some shortcuts or alternative steps that you can use. I'm not sure but this method worked really well for me and I have been time traveling the same way to make villagers move out even before the update came out.

TIPS AND TRICKS

Just some things that I do and strategies I use to help make my life a little easier in game!

Don't like a shirt one of your villagers is wearing? Complaining to Isabelle won't do anything if it's a shirt from the Able's Shop. You can only force a villager to change if it's a QR code since in game clothes can never be "offensive". This happens all the time and sometimes you can't prevent it. A villager in your town could have a conversation with another villager and then the next thing you know they do a back flip and change into a new shirt. It's known as the shirt infection. A villager spreads the shirt they are wearing ALL AROUND town until every villager is wearing it. World domination. Anyways, I'm going to teach you something you can do to fix this problem!

Pick a cute shirt you want your villager to wear. My personal favorites are: Bubble tee, Candy gingham shirt, Daisy tee, and Dreamy tee. So many good options but you choose what will look best on your villager!
Write a letter to the villager with bad fashion sense. Attach the shirt as a present.
Time travel so that the time is 5-10 minutes before 5pm. 2-5 minutes if you don't feel like waiting too long.
Send the letter.
Save and continue.
Wait until time hits 5pm and then go back into town and look for that villager.
If they are wearing the shirt, SUCCESS! If not, they put it up on display in their house. OH THE HORROR. Quit the game without saving. When entering your game, make sure the time is still set for before 5pm. Since you saved after you sent the letter, you won't have to worry about anything.
This is going to be easy if your villager is already inside their house. If not, you might have to time travel a bit to different times during the day to try and find them in town. Sometimes you will get it on the first try but they can be stubborn sometimes. Keep trying! Please do not accidentally save your game if you see that the villager still has not changed.

QR CODES

Did you make a custom QR code? Want your villagers to wear it and represent YOU and YOUR brand!? Start your career in fashion design by displaying your creation in Able's Shop. You can only display your own QR codes that YOU made. You cannot display QR codes that you scanned in.

If you want them to wear the design you have, I suggest you take up every spot in the shop. Yes, display the same shirt in every slot because all your villagers in town at some point will probably change into it! I do this so that all my villagers in town can match. You could totally have 8 different designs but your villagers probably won't pick the same shirt. It's totally up to you on how you want your shop to look. Remember, your visitors can pick up your QR codes on display too!

Villagers will never change into dresses, so if you have 7 slots filled with dresses and one shirt, they are going to choose that shirt. It's the only option for them! It's another way you can get them to wear your design but also have your other QR codes displayed in your shop. My friend/artist made this Tune Squad Jersey for me in Looney Tunes town but only put one up. I used my Lola dress that I made to take up the other spots.

DELIVERY REQUESTS

I know it's hard to say no to your villagers but it's for the best. Turn down any delivery requests that they propose to you because the villager who receives the present will most likely use/change into it. It could be anything! An ugly furniture item that doesn't match anything in their house or a hideous shirt that can later spread to other villagers in town. BE THE FASHION POLICE IN YOUR TOWN.

DEAD TREES

Perfect fruit trees can turn into dead/spooky trees. You have to be patient with these trees. You have to shake and harvest a perfect fruit tree around 10 times for the leaves to fall off. That means you have to shake and wait for the fruit to grow back until you can shake again. Not sure how to get perfect fruit? Whenever you start a new town, you can always find a piece of perfect fruit on one of your trees. Just one. Plant it and then you will have three. Plant those three and so on. Collect perfect fruit to sell for a good profit. You can only plant perfect fruit that is NATIVE to your town.

MONEY TREES

**MUST USE GOLDEN SHOVEL**
Money trees are not a very good source of income. Most people only plant them in their town for decoration. I always plant a 99k bell bag to guarantee that it will grow into a money tree. You can only plant 1 money tree in your town at a time. You cannot plant multiple in one day. You can plant one, time travel or wait until the next day to plant another. One does not have to fully grown for you to plant the next one. Something that I found helpful for town building is using money with your golden shovel to plant normal trees. It can take forever to gather enough regular tree saplings so planting 1k bells will result in normal trees.

I like to fill up my Retail with flowers that match my town! It turns into a really nice flower shop with no random items for sale. The reason for this is because I hate when villagers sell their furniture. If you occupy every spot then you can stop your villagers from constantly selling their furniture. I always set the price as 99k bells for each flower. Finest in town.

There are definitely items in a villager's house sometimes that are very questionable and just don't look good. I like sending them cute furniture and fixing up their decor. You can send them Gracie items, refurbished items, and sanrio/rv items! Best way is to buy something and attach it to a letter to that villager. DO NOT send them multiple letters with presents all at once because they are only going to choose 1 item to put in their house. They will usually end up replacing an item that is the same size. For example, if they have a bed and you send them the same bed except with a refurbished pattern, they should replace that old bed. Sometimes they like to troll you and put it in the worst spot or just not put it out at all. Be careful with sizing! Small items can go on the floor or on tables. It's a guessing game and you can only find out when you are able to go inside their house.

SOMETHING YOU SHOULD KNOW:

Villager's wallpaper and carpet cannot be changed. No use in sending them new ones.

VILLAGER REQUESTS

When you talk to a villager, they might ask you for help on interior design. They will ask you to pick anything you like, give a specific size requirement, or tell you a specific item that they want to replace. Margie asked me to find something for her so she can get rid of her incense burner. Obviously I won't try to give her sofa or something. This happens occasionally so when you get the opportunity, take it! They usually give you the item (incense burner) after you give them the new item.

villager invitations

Villagers love inviting you over to their house to hang out! They can invite themselves over to YOUR house but when they suggest to meet up at their house, always say yes! If you have to set a time, make sure you don't forget! You can even show up to their house like 5 minutes early if you want. You can take cute pictures and have the chance to buy an item in their house. Instead of buying something you like, buy the ugly items you want them to get rid of.

Keep talking to them when you are inside their house and eventually they will give you the option to take something. NOT FOR FREE OF COURSE, they will offer you a very very reasonable price. *sarcasm*

Unfortunately, you are not able to ask for items that are on tables, dressers etc. There are also some items that they will refuse to sell to you. Precious belongings that they will not give up no matter how many times you ask.

A villager picture is the ultimate gift of friendship! I love decorating with them because it's a special way to let everyone know who your favorites are. There are multiple ways you can earn a villager's picture. Some villager pictures have different colored borders and have a personal quote for when you interact with it.

TIME CAPSULE

When you have a high friendship level with a villager they will eventually ask you to bury a time capsule for them. The capsule contains a letter they wrote to their future self and some type of gift attached. From my experience it's almost always some ugly shirt inside. You will not receive this request if your letter slots are FULL. You can bury the time capsule anywhere in town but it will be awhile until they ask you to dig it up again. Try to bury it next to the villager's house or on the beach so you can easily remember when the time comes. BE CAREFUL NOT TO ACCIDENTALLY OPEN THE TIME CAPSULE WHEN BURYING. They will call you out for being nosy and you forfeit the request. Once you read it, it stays open and you will not be able to bury it.

They don't usually ping me for time capsule conversations. They will bring it up and remind me when I go up and talk to them. (She literally has a shovel in her hand I don't know why she can't just do it herself LOL)

Got it! Now it's time to return it to it's owner!

You are not guaranteed their picture after this request. You might have to reset your game multiple times because they can give random furniture items sometimes. Save and quit after you dig up the time capsule. You can try as many times as you want until you can get their picture!

Sometimes you just don't get what you want. Their picture is not guaranteed even after already receiving it. What I have noticed is that after a few random favors here and there you can increase your friendship with them and then eventually get duplicates. It's not a one time thing! You can surely get multiple pictures from the same villager. They will give you trashy items every now and then so try to save before talking to them and reset.

Be careful because you might make the mistake of clicking on "Read" instead of "Bury" when looking at the capsule in your letters. It happens to me ALL the time so just watch out. They super angry at you! Tom yelled at me for opening his and he just took it back. I assume it lowers your friendship with them because you basically failed the request.

PETITION SIGNATURES

This special requests requires a little bit more effort from you since you are required to travel to another town. Ask a friend to help and collect 6 signatures for their petition. I love this request because it's fun seeing all the different types of petitions.

Many successful petitions for Mitzi!

FRUIT REQUESTS

Whenever villagers ask you for a snack try to give them perfect every time because I have gotten multiple pictures from my villagers by doing this! There will be times where they specifically ask you for perfect but when they say they aren't picky give it to them anyway.

i hope this page was helpful to you!

I will be adding more content to this page later on but for now, this is all I have. Have any suggestions for me? Is there something you want to know more about? Let me know during one of my Twitch streams! Come into chat and ask me anything ^_^
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