The campsite in Animal Crossing: New Horizons is a great place to find new characters and potentially persuade them to move in permanently.
Although characters don’t turn up to the campsite as often as most players would like, you should know as much as possible about their stay so you’re prepared for when your next camper arrives!
How long will a campsite villager stay?
This depends on where you are in the game’s story. If you’ve built your campsite and it’s your island’s first camper, unfortunately, you’ve got that villager for a while.
At this point in the game, Tom Nook will ask you to invite the camper to stay as a permanent resident. Once they’ve moved in, you’ll only be able to get rid of them when they have a speech bubble above their head and ask you whether they can leave. This could be anytime from fifteen days after their first full day as a permanent islander.
However, most players find this process takes a lot longer than two weeks.
Unfortunately, there’s no way around it either. You can’t time travel or prematurely quit the game to get a different character; you’ll always get the same first camper which is typically from the ‘smug’ personality.
If you think ignoring them for a few days might work, we’ve got sad, sad news for you on that front too. The camper will stay in the tent for the duration of time you ignore them, and you won’t be able to progress with any of the necessary gameplay until you invite them.
For players who have progressed through the game and have the maximum amount of villagers – or close to it -, you can expect campers to stay for one day.
In this case, campers will arrive at 5am on one day and leave at 5am the next.
How do you get campers to stay in ACNH?
If you’re desperate for a camper to move in permanently, keep talking to them! Initially, they may decline your invitation to move in, but persistence is vital my friend.
Keep talking to the camper until they change their mind and, by the next day, they’ll be a permanent fixture on your island!
Don’t worry if you accidentally tell them no one is ready to leave the island. So long as you keep talking to them, you should get to a stage where you can invite the character to move in.
Do you still get campers after 10 villagers?
Yes, you do! For players who want to move a villager out, campers are a great way to do this!
If you have the maximum amount of villagers (not including human players), you can ask a camper to move in and replace a current resident.
If you do have someone in mind, though, don’t select the randomize option when the camper asks who they should replace!
If you accidentally pick the wrong character, quit the game by pressing the ‘Home’ button on your Switch and restart the game.
Equally, you can use Amiibo cards to scan villagers into your campsite and ask them to move in. This process is also a great way to increase your learned DIYs!
Campers visiting your island
If your camper is the first one since your campsite was built, you have to move them in to progress the game’s story.
If it’s not your first camper, they’ll only stay for one day unless you talk to them enough to invite them to stay permanently.