How To Get Rid Of Villagers You Don’t Like In Animal Crossing New Horizons

The world of Animal Crossing: New Horizons allows players to have adorable neighbors, but there is a way to remove unwanted Villagers if players wish. Every villager in ACNH is a different animal with a different personality, and they all will give players different ideas for how to improve the island, share items, and (usually) maintain a positive attitude. However, much like any other neighborhood, some neighbors make players frown. Whether it be because the animal is not as cute as players wanted or because the villagers’ attitude is frustrating, thankfully, players do have the option to remove villagers from their island.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons has over 400 villagers, but only ten can live on a player’s island simultaneously. New Horizons actually makes removing these tedious neighbors somewhat difficult. Unlike previous games, there is no foolproof way to kick a villager off the island. Removing villagers takes time and dedication on the part of the player. There are a few different ways to help influence the neighbor to leave.

How Moving Works

Permission Needed

For moving villagers in and out, your Animal Crossing: New Horizons island has a few features that past games did not. This includes having more control over who moves onto your island and who gets to leave. Much like in real life, moving can be a tedious prospect, so you may want to be sure of your decisions first.

When moving in, the best way to get villagers you like is to use your visits on Mystery Island tours for recruiting. This is a good way of ensuring you like the villagers you are inviting and ensures that random villagers will not be selected when you have empty houses. Only one villager can move in or out at a time, and both have predetermined time limits.

The day you have an empty plot set and ready to go – either for the first time or after a villager has left – you will need to recruit through a friend, through your campsite, or on a mystery island if you do not want a random villager sneaking in.

Moving out is fairly similar. While you cannot control when a villager wants to move out, you can determine whether they do. A well-liked villager who asks to leave can be denied permission, leading to them staying on your island for a long time. The villagers cannot move out without your permission and will not ask again until a series of conditions have been fulfilled. Like before, you have around a day to fill their spot before a random villager moves in.

Stop Talking To Your Animal Crossing Villager

Pretend They Don’t Exist

One of the sure-fire ways to remove a villager is to completely ignore their existence and not give them any gifts, especially if it’s the Animal Crossing villager’s birthday. Although this can prove tricky, it’s one of the few ways to guarantee a neighbor moves out.

By not speaking with the villagers, the villager starts to feel like they have no friends on the island. Even if the scorned villager chases the player down, keep running away and ignore them.

While not speaking with the villagers, make sure to keep an eye out for them. Eventually, the villager will be seen walking around with a cloud above their head. This is the moment when players should speak with them. This cloud represents the villager contemplating something, and often, it will be whether the villager should leave the island or not. This is the players’ opportunity to encourage the villager to find new prospects elsewhere.

However, not every cloud represents a villager thinking about leaving. Sometimes, the villager will give the player an item in an attempt to garner friendship. This is why you should always make a save before talking to a villager with a cloud, as you can reset and ignore the conversation entirely. Hitting them with a net still shows them attention and will not necessarily get them to move.

This approach also requires players to constantly interact with the other “wanted” ACNH villagers on the island. It may sound mean, but it helps to speak with all the neighbors players enjoy having around while ignoring the villager who needs to move out.

Complain to Isabelle

Report To Residential Services

Another way to encourage a villager to leave your Animal Crossing island is by complaining to Isabelle. Simply enter the Residential Services building, then sit down and speak with Isabelle. Select the option to Discuss a Resident, and pick any reason to complain about the resident. By complaining about villagers’ clothing or how they speak, players can change what the ostracized neighbor wears or their catchphrases.

This approach requires dedication. In order to have Animal Crossing’s Isabelle remove the villagers, players will need to discuss this resident with her multiple times. This could take days before the villager gets the hint. However, getting rid of that unwanted neighbor is worth a shot.

Other users report that this method will not work, or at least works very unreliably. It is worth trying but may have no payoff.

Sending and Ignoring Letters

No Gifts

One way to encourage ACNH villagers to move on is by using letters. The first step is to send mean letters to the villager you want gone. By sending mean letters, the villager constantly gets a hint from the island representative that they need to move away.

In addition to sending mean letters, players need to ignore letters coming in from that villager. This can prove tricky because the unwanted villager sometimes sends the player gifts. It can be hard to ignore these notes, but the payoff will be well worth it in the long run.

Use Animal Crossing Amiibo Villagers

Forced Eviction

For players who collect ACNH Amiibo figures, removing despised neighbors is a little easier once Tom Nook unlocks Amiibo scanning in the Nook Stop. However, this plan only works if the players’ island is full. Once full, players can use the Amiibo figures to invite their favorite villagers to live on the island. Use the figure on the Nook Stop machine, then wait for the next day.

With the island full, the new ACNH villager will ask the player which old villager should be convinced to leave the island. Select the scorned villager to give them the boot from your lovely paradise. It is also worth noting that some players have mentioned a glitch with this process. The scorned villager who has been forced out of another player’s island leaves a plot of land on the island that is meant to be a new home.

These plots can be bugged and will read “ ’s New Home,” with the building supplies simply waiting. The player cannot place more plots for new villagers, and the booted villager will never really move out. This glitch appears uncommon and may have been patched out, but be warned – perhaps it is really that maltreated villager getting one last jab in.

The Time Travel Method

Manipulating Game Mechanics

Players can use ACNH‘s Time Travel method to replace unwanted neighbors; however, the entire process can be tedious due to the number of villagers available in the game. Using this method is also the fastest way to evict villagers and does not cost any money. Here’s how players can replace villagers in Animal Crossing: New Horizons using time travel:

This is the most foolproof method of evicting villagers, but it can be complicated. For a visual explanation, see Kelsey Kate’s video on YouTube. However, with this method, you can get the villager off your island and make room for a new one in Animal Crossing: New Horizons.

Video Credit: Kelsey Kate/YouTube