Time travel

Time travel, sometimes called time traveling, is the act of the player manually changing the time of their game to advance to a future event or go back to a past event without having to wait in real time.

Changing the time of date does not affect villagers, weeds, flowers, hair, trees, dump/recycling, mail, bell bank, turnips, police station/lost and found, or construction. It will, however, affect sun/moonlight season, weather, and the time until a holiday or event.

In
In, there are two options to adjust time and date - the Nintendo GameCube clock or the in-game clock access through the in-game options. The ideal option is to change the GameCube's internal clock, because the in-game clock affects the growth of trees, the way letters are sent, and how the Police Station and Dump restock with items. However, the highest the game clock can go is December 31st, 2030, after which time will be stuck within 2030 and cannot progress further.

In
When changing the time in, players can select between two options. The first is the in-game method where players at the character select can click the phone and follow the option that goes to the Date and Time settings. The other is changing DS time. Depending on the DS model, the menu that allows you to adjust time and date will differ. The highest the players can time travel to is December 31st, 2099, after which time will reset back to January 1st, 2000.

In
As in, there are two options to change the date and time settings for. The easier option is to change the Wii date and time instead of the in-game date and time settings. This is again due to the in-game settings' affecting the bank interest, plants and trees.

In
Changing the time and date setting in will require the player to tell Isabelle during the start-up screen "I need help first...". The highest the player can go for time travel is December 31st, 2050, after which time will loop back to January 1st, 2012.

In
is the first game in the series that does not have an in-game option to change the time. However, it is still possible to time travel by changing the Switch system time by disabling "Synchronize Clock via Internet" in order to adjust the time. The highest the Switch time and date options will go towards is December 31st, 2060, although it appears the game will continue onward into 2061.

The effects of time travel are significantly lessened in this game, possibly due to content and events being rolled out in updates over time, and said events occasionally being time-locked such as Bunny Day, Nature Day, May Day, International Museum Day, Wedding Season, Turkey Day, and Toy Day, a first in the series.

Effects of time traveling
There are advantages and disadvantages to time traveling. Below are the positive and negative effects on the game:

Positive

 * Allows the player to attend out-of-season events.
 * Allows the player to receive mail sooner.
 * Allows the player to receive bank interest.
 * New villagers move in sooner.
 * Fruit grow on trees sooner.
 * Different items available at all stores.
 * Ability to catch out-of-season fish and bugs.
 * Ability to obtain out-of-season DIY recipes.
 * Ability to gain facilities sooner (e.g., sewing machine, Shampoodle)
 * Speeding up the cooldown process after a villager requests to move out.
 * Infrastructure is built/demolished quicker (e.g., bridges, inclines, buildings).

Negative

 * Villagers move away (unless done properly).
 * In, villager will think of moving out, but no villager can leave without the player's permission.
 * Weed spawns more rapidly (using Wisp by finding his lamp in and  can solve this; can be prevented in  by the Beautiful Town ordinance).
 * If too much weed is spawned in, this could create a Rafflesia, dampening the Environment rating unless the weed is cleared up. This is not present in.
 * Flowers are shrivelled or missing (can be prevented in by the Beautiful Town ordinance; does not happen in ).
 * The player misses sales in GracieGrace, Able Sisters, Tom Nook's Store, Re-Tail, and Nook's Cranny.
 * The player's mailbox may fill, which disallows incoming mail until it is emptied (except in ).
 * The player gets bed head. In, this is merely temporarily and will allow the player to use bedhead as their hairstyle option.
 * Turnips rot.
 * Turnip prices will reset if time traveling backwards in.
 * Phineas is gone for a while.

Other Effects

 * Flowers may end up overpopulating the island by either duplicating or breeding in if nothing is done to prevent flowers from spawning in grass/dirt tiles.
 * NPC visitors will take up seven slots within a week after the day moves from Sunday and Monday, and moving between each specific day will initiate that specific visitor (e.g., Leif will always be present on Tuesday unless the day moves to another Monday)
 * Villagers start referring to the player as a 'time traveler'