Rebuild the town

Rebuilding (or restarting) is an option that the player has the choice to initiate in nearly every Animal Crossing game. Rebuilding is, as the name implies, deleting an existing town (or island in ) to create a new one in the process. The player cannot undo this process to reclaim their deleted town, however dream towns/islands are still capable of hosting a town even after it is deleted.

When selecting the option to delete the save data, the character that the player sees when booting up the game will be shocked and beg the player to keep their save data. In, if the player happens to be the resident representative, Tom Nook will refuse to delete any data for the island, requiring the player to scroll though Nintendo Switch options and select Data Management to properly restart an island.

Any progress that was made in the previous town will have to be redone as of result. This includes any of the player's catalogs, critter records, and their bells. However in, Tom Nook will offer to buy the player's town, as long as the Town Tree has reached Level 3, that is 50 days and 50 hours. He gives a price based on how much progress has been done, and the player has the option to sell their catalog for extra Bells. Tom Nook also offers the player to have all of their Bells transported instantly to the new town's ABD or have a number of Bells be deposited every 30 days with a slight increase in the amount received. Once the player commits to the sale, the town is restarted, albeit the player will still have access to their bells, their catalog (if not sold), and any public works project learned in the old town.