Worried your favorite villagers have moved on after taking an Animal Crossing break? Don’t worry! Here’s what you need to know about how taking a break from the game impacts villagers moving out.
Animal Crossing: New Horizon villagers moving out if you take a break
For those who played Animal Crossing: New Leaf, the dread of returning to the game after months away and seeing a favorite villager’s plot empty (or inhabited by a completely new villager) was real.
However, those days are long gone in Animal Crossing: New Horizons. Whereas in previous games, your absence had a major impact on the gameplay, ACNH hasn’t followed suit.
You can time travel back and forth, take a short hiatus from playing or have a complete break from the game to cure ACNH burnout – none of your villages will be impacted.
As of 2022, the only impacts you’ll notice after not playing ACNH for a while are pretty manageable.
In short, the answer is no; your Animal Crossing villagers won’t automatically move out if you don’t play the game for a while.
Can villagers leave your island without asking?
You’ll be pleased to hear that in ACNH, villagers won’t leave without your say-so.
When villagers want to leave your island, you’ll see them walking around with a thought bubble above their heads. When you speak to them, they’ll tell you their current predicament and ask your opinion on whether you think they should stay or go.
At this point, it’s up to you whether they stay or go!
You must have six villagers before anyone will contemplate moving though; if you have 7+ villagers then you may see them having second thoughts about their future on the island!
Remember that the cloud emote above a villager’s character doesn’t always mean they’re contemplating moving.
Sometimes you’ll speak to an islander and they’ll tell you they’ve been thinking over an argument they had with another villager, or they’ve decided they’re lonely and want to visit your home.
What makes a villager leave in Animal Crossing?
Before we delve into the details, let’s see what makes a villager want to leave in ACNH.
There are various theories online about why islanders are prompted to leave and how you can get to that point sooner, but there are behind-the-scenes rules at play when it comes to villagers leaving that your actions will have little-to-no effect on.
However, there is a time-travel method to speed up getting the least-liked villagers to request their move:
- Once the villager you’d like to get rid of has arrived and unpacked, time travel two weeks in the future (villagers can’t request to leave before this period)
- Search around your island to see if anyone’s got the thought bubble (villagers will only ever have this outside, so you don’t need to check anyone who’s in their home)
- If no one has, or a villager you don’t want to move out has, time travel forward by fifteen days (there’s a 15-day cooldown period once a character has asked to leave)
- Keep doing this until the villager you least like gets the bubble
- On the off-chance they get the thought bubble but don’t want to move i.e they want your advice on an argument they had with another villager, then skip ahead another two weeks without saving
How long do you have to ignore a villager before they move out?
Unlike in previous Animal Crossing games, ignoring villagers will reduce their friendship level with you but it won’t directly impact their likelihood of moving out; the same goes for hitting characters over the head with your net or giving them bad gifts like spoiled turnips.
ACNH villagers moving out if you don’t play
The jury’s out; none of your villagers will inadvertently move away from your island without your say-so. Although you might be desperate to get rid of certain islanders, as with all aspects of ACNH island life, patience is key!
In the end though, when villagers are ready to move to pastures, they’ll need to ask your opinion before they start packing. Whether you keep them or choose to let them go is up to you, but ultimately you have the final say.
So if you’ve taken a break and you’re worried about whether your dreamies are long-gone, don’t worry; they’ll all be waiting for you when you return!
Did you know you can get four secret recipes from Daisy Mae, the turnip seller? We’ve got all the details in our guide to getting DIY recipes from Daisy Mae!