Moving

Moving is a process villagers undertake in all games in the.

In Animal Crossing
Each town starts with six villagers. Over time, more move in until the maximum of 15 is reached. Once this occurs the game will cycle out the 14th or 15th villager every ten days or so while keeping the initial 13 villagers intact. A villager may mention moving in a random conversation and ask the player for an opinion, but the player's response does not affect villager movement. A moving villager will not pack up prior to leaving; their home will simply be removed from the map upon game load and a goodbye letter is sent to the player's mailbox. Unlike subsequent Animal Crossing titles, once a villager has moved out another usually replaces them immediately.

Movement across memory cards
Players are able to travel to other Animal Crossing towns by speaking to Porter at the Train Station. Each time a player goes to visit another town, one of the traveling player's villagers is chosen at random to move out, and anytime a town is visited by another player, that town will receive the resident from the visiting player's town. This is the only way to cycle out one of the 13 original villagers.

Controlling villager movement
By taking advantage of the way villagers move across memory cards, the player can manipulate which villagers come and go. In order to do this, three memory cards are required: one with the primary town's Animal Crossing data, a second with space for travel data, and a third with a secondary town that will be used as a repository for unwanted villagers.

Removing unwanted villagers
Because villagers are selected at random to move when visiting another town, moving out a specific villager is a matter of trial and error. To begin the process, follow these steps: (the town must have seven or more villagers in order for this to work)
 * 1) Load up the town with the unwanted villager.
 * 2) Talk to Porter and create travel data on a second memory card and then remove it from the slot.
 * 3) Load up the primary town again using a secondary character (not the character used to create the travel data).
 * 4) Check the map to see which villager has moved out. Regardless of which one has moved, save and quit the game. If it was the correct villager, skip to step six. Otherwise continue to step five.
 * 5) Reinsert the memory card with travel data and then load the primary town. The player's character will return along with the villager that had moved out. Repeat steps 2-5 until the desired villager moves out.
 * 6) Once the desired villager has moved out, the player must successfully move them into the secondary town. To begin this process, remove the memory card containing the primary town's data and insert the card containing the secondary town into slot A. Place the memory card with the travel data into slot B and load the town.
 * 7) The visiting player will arrive and the unwanted villager will move into the secondary town. Have the player speak with Porter to save travel data onto the memory card in slot B.
 * 8) Remove the secondary town from slot A and insert the primary town's memory card in slot A and load the game. The traveling player's character will return and the unwanted villager has been successfully removed.

This same process can be used in order to move in a desired villager from one town to another.

The E-Reader features of are expanded upon in  with the addition of 60 new villager cards as well as 18 new islanders. In addition to providing the player with items, scanning these cards will move the character featured on the card into the player's town. This feature is backwards compatible with the E-Reader cards released for, giving the player an additional 273 villagers to choose from.

The game also includes an island for each playable character, however unlike Animal Crossing each island does not come with an islander by default. Instead, the player must scan one of the islander e-cards and the islander will wash up on the island's shore (just like Gulliver) the next day.

In Animal Crossing: Wild World
In, villagers attempt to move by packing their furniture up in boxes. While the villager is packing the player can convince him or her to stay, although it may take several tries. If the villager is not convinced to stay they will move away, leaving a signpost behind and sending a goodbye letter to the player's mailbox. Another villager (usually of the same gender) will move in to replace that villager within a week. The game will attempt move a villager out every two days; this causes the villager to forget their current hobby and switch to a different one if they are convinced to stay.

The move-in process
Due to Animal Crossing: Wild World's small town size, there are only three villagers present at the start of the game. Over time more villagers will move in until the town reaches its maximum of eight villagers.

The ninth slot-in
Within the game's code exists a space used to store incoming villager data received from other Wild World towns via WiFi or DS to DS local connection; this is referred to by players as the 'ninth slot-in'. It can be thought of as a waiting room where a villager received from another town will sit until there is space for them to move in. This villager will remain in the game's saved data indefinitely until it can move in or is replaced by another villager. To override the villager in the ninth slot-in the player must visit or host another player over WiFi or DS to DS local connection that has a villager waiting in their ninth slot-out. The villager in the other player's ninth slot-out will transfer to the player's ninth slot-in.

Note: It is not known how the game handles data when interacting with more than one other player at a time.

Moving in a specific villager
In order to move in a specific villager, three requirements must be met:
 * 1) The villager must not be a current resident.
 * 2) The villager must not be in the player's ninth slot-out.
 * 3) The villager must be in another player's ninth slot-out.

Even if the player does not have room in their town for an additional visitor, they can still receive the villager's data; it will simply override any existing data in their ninth slot-in. To receive the data, they must host or visit a player whose town contains ninth slot-out data for the villager the player wishes to receive.

The move-out process
Once a town reaches its maximum villager limit the game will choose a random latent villager to move out of town. A latent villager is one who is in-between hobbies. The player can use this fact to their advantage and keep the unwanted villager in latency as often as possible (by completing their requests e.g. catching a bug, getting them a specific piece of furniture etc.).

The ninth slot-out
When a villager leaves town, their data is not immediately erased. Instead, it is stored in what is called the 'ninth slot-out', a space in the game's memory used to store villager data beyond the eighth villager. This data can then be exchanged with other players over WiFi or DS to DS local connection. In a case where two villagers move out one after another, the original villager's slot-out data would not be overridden. Some players theorize the second villager's data is deleted, while others believe it is stored in what might be called a 'tenth slot-out'- a backup slot used if the data from the ninth slot-out cannot be transferred to the receiving player. Example: Player A's ninth slot-out is Bob, but Player B already has Bob in their town and so the game gives Player B the data from Player A's tenth slot-out, Olivia.

It's also important to note that when interacting with other players, slot-out data always replaces slot-in data; it is not possible for players to exchange slot-out data for slot-out data or slot-in data for slot-in data. In cases where both players have slot-in and slot-out data, data is not exchanged at the same time, meaning that one player's slot-out data may override the other's slot-in data before a mutual exchange can occur.

Note: It is not known how the game handles data when interacting with more than one other player at a time.

Clearing slot-out data
As previously noted, a player's slot-out data is not overridden when another villager moves out. It can be removed in one of two ways: by being deleted, or by being transferred to another player.

To delete the data, simply enter Tag Mode with no other DS's in range. This is useful when you want to assure that no one else will receive your character data, if for example it contains a glitched villager or a villager with an inapproproiate catchphrase.

Note: It is not known whether data in the tenth move-out slot is deleted via the Tag Mode method (if a tenth slot exists at all).

To transfer data to another player, simply visit or host another player over WiFi or DS to DS local connection. The only time data will not be transferred is if the villager already lives in the other player's town or if the data for that villager is in that player's move-out slot.

In Animal Crossing: City Folk
In, moving works similarly to , but rather than immediately packing their furniture in boxes, moving villagers will approach the player while outside and ask them whether they should move away or not. They can be convinced to stay as before, although it can again take multiple tries. If a week passes and the villager is not convinced to stay, they will pack their belongings. Once this happens, they cannot be convinced to stay; they will move out after two days and will send the player their departure letter.

As in, there are six villagers present at the start of the game, one of each personality. One villager will move in each day for the next three days. The villager maximum is ten and the final villager can take up to a week to move in.

Frozen villagers
The concept of the 'ninth villager slot' from Wild World returns in City Folk, however instead of being described as occupying a hidden extra villager slot, villagers are said to be 'frozen' in the game's data after moving out. While the process for moving villagers in and out is identical to Wild World, it is complicated by the ability of villager data to be sent to other players via WiiConnect24. This feature allowed players to receive villager data from a town they had never visited, similar to the Spotpass feature in New Leaf. In order to maximize the chances of delivering or receiving villager data, it was recommended that the player turn off WiiConnect24 and remove all players from their friend list except the one they intended to WiFi with. WiiConnect24 was discontinued on June 28, 2013 with Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection terminating in May of the following year. As the Wii does not allow for local multiplayer play, players are no longer able to exchange villager data without using a replacement server host such as Wiimmfi.

In Animal Crossing: New Leaf
In, towns no longer feature permanent signposts marking possible villager plots, instead new villagers may move in anywhere there is space. The day before a new villager moves in a roped area of land will appear with a signpost noting the future villager's name. Additionally, villagers will now tell the player the date that they will pack up their furniture and after leaving, may send their picture along with their goodbye letter if the player has befriended them.

The move-in process: A brand new town
Every town starts with just five villagers; their personalities will vary, as the game attempts to maintain a balance between the eight types. The day after a town is created, a new villager will begin the move-in process. An empty plot will appear, roped off with a sign in front. The following day, the villager's house will be constructed and they will be unpacking their boxes. Isabelle will make a note on the startup screen that someone has moved in.

On the fourth day, a new area will be roped off, ready for another villager to move in. This constant move-in process will continue until nine villagers are reached at which time no more villagers will move in without some help from the player.

The tipping point: nine villagers in town
A town with eight villagers or less is considered to be in a ‘moving-in period’. During this time, no villagers will ever move out and the game will move in new residents at a constant pace. Once a town reaches nine villagers, it will naturally want to reduce the count back to eight, but is in no hurry to do it. It will be at least three days if not much longer before an animal moves out. If desired, one last villager can be added to the town to bring the total to ten. This can be done in one of four ways:

Four ways to get a tenth villager
Note that any of these methods can be used to obtain a ninth villager as well, however the tenth can ONLY be obtained via these methods.


 * 1) Invite a camper to stay. If the campsite public works project has been built, villagers will come and camp out from time to time. To get them to stay, the player must win at a game of rock, paper, scissors or charades. The player can keep trying until they win. Note that it is impossible to invite villagers who are camping in other towns into one's own, nor can the player convince a camper to stay if they already have ten villagers in their town.
 * 2) Invite a villager who is moving out of another town. If a villager in someone else's town has packed up their boxes and is about to move out, that villager can be invited to come and stay in the player's own town. Just head over to the friend's town (WiFi or local connection), talk to the villager and they will initiate the move conversation.
 * 3) Pick up a villager from ‘the void’. ‘The void’ is where villagers are said to go if no one comes to adopt them and they leave town with nowhere to go. If the player WiFis with someone who has recently voided a villager of theirs, that villager can end up in the player's town if space is available.
 * 4) Pick up a villager from StreetPass. If the player passes another ACNL player who has StreetPass enabled, it is possible for the player to receive one of their villagers. (It may be a requirement for this villager to have been recently voided by that player.)

Influencing move-ins
Resetting at the source: Players seeking out a specific villager have a few options, the first of which is to delete their town and start anew or acquire a second copy of the game. A randomized selection of five different animal residents will be generated each time a new town is created. This method will probably take the longest, as there are 333 different villagers total for the game to choose from.

If the player has the campsite public works project the player can cycle through villagers there as well by continuously creating a new character the day that a camper comes to visit (this requires foresight/a bit of luck).

Resetting by personality type: The game tries to maintain a balance of personality types, so when a new villager is generated it will be of a type that the town currently lacks or has the least of. This can be used to one's advantage; the player can reset their game until it produces a desired villager of the personality type it is currently generating. (e.g. if the player is looking for a specific uchi villager and the game is currently generating that personality type, there is a 1/21 chance of getting the player's preferred villager... that's way better than 1/333!) Follow these instructions to properly reset the game:

The villager reset trick
This trick will allow the player to cycle through possible move-in scenarios, and to pick the villager or house location that best suits their needs. In order to use this trick, the town must have less than four human characters created.

On a day when a new villager will (or is suspected to) put down a house plot, begin the game by creating a new character- do not load an existing character. After getting off the train, look around town with the new character to see if a new villager has set up a plot. Remember that a villager will only move in during a move-in period (when there are less than nine villagers in town) or if the player has fulfilled one of the conditions listed under the ‘Four ways to get a tenth villager’ heading.

If there is no house plot, quit the game (don't save) and create another new character. After going through this process about three times with no luck, then a villager will most likely not move in that day. To be safe, the player should choose a home location for the newly created human character, then save and quit. The new character can then be deleted (if they are unwanted/unneeded). It's recommended that the player always place a newly created character's home in the same spot, as the area where their home used to be will turn to dirt once the character has been deleted.

If there is a house plot, look and see who it is. If it is a desired villager, and/or if the villager's home is properly placed, choose a home location for the new human character, save and quit. Otherwise, do not save, and keep creating a new character until a suitable villager and/or location is found. Take note of the personality of the villagers the town is generating, this will let the player know whether it is in their best interest to continue resetting, or if it's not worth the time. It's important to note that if a villager of a given personality type just left town, the next villager the town generates will never be of the same type. (e.g. If a smug villager just moved out, a new smug villager will never move in right after them unless they are invited in/they are received from the void or SpotPass)

Note: The reason it is so important to create a new character when using this trick, rather than loading an existing character, is because of the nature in which the game chooses to save town data. When an existing character is selected, the game loads the town data and then it saves the game without any notification. That means that any villager plot seen while walking around town with a pre-existing character is permanently placed. Even if one were to quit without saving it will remain and that villager will move in the next day. There is no way to move a villager plot once this happens.

On the contrary, when a new character is created, the game loads the town, but does not save it until that new character has established a home and has finished registering with Isabelle. This allows the player to keep reloading the town data until an agreeable villager plot is generated.

Villager home placement
New villagers seem to want to move in close to where other villager and human character homes are placed. If there is an area the player wants villagers to move into, they should try placing all human homes in that area. In addition to this, new villagers like to set up their homes near the spot where the most recent (and sometimes second most recent) move-out was living. It should also be noted that they can and will move in on top of trees, bushes, flowers, and even dropped items. If the town has a police station these items will show up in the lost & found, otherwise they are gone for good.

Note: With the new Welcome Amiibo update, villagers will no longer move in on top of placed patterns.

A villager's home will never brush up against another permanent, immoveable object (including the river). They require a buffer of one space to their left, right, and back, and a buffer of two spaces in front. Their home may be placed as close as two spaces away from the ledge separating the town from the beach and as close as one space away from the ledges on the Eastern and Western sides of town. Two homes can be as close as two spaces apart on the left and right sides and as close as three spaces apart on the top and bottom sides. They may be as close as one space apart from rocks, ponds, rivers or public works projects, but will never touch them diagonally. A villager's home will never block access to a ramp or bridge.

The move-out process
Once a town has reached nine or more villagers, it will be in a ‘moving-out period’. During this time, the game will continually try to move villagers out- no villagers will move in unless they are invited them from the campsite/another town or are acquired from WiFi-ing or SpotPass.

Who's moving next? (How does the game decide?)
The mechanics behind how the game chooses the next villager to boot are currently unknown, but there are few observations. The most recent villager to move in will never be the next villager to move out. Additionally, it seems that villagers who have been in town the longest are more likely to leave than those who have recently moved into town, and ignoring villagers is not a surefire way to get them out either; talking to unwanted villagers may work better. The general rule is that it is random, and a player is most likely going to have to deny moving requests from villagers they want to keep before the one they want gone will leave.

How to tell if a villager is going to leave
A villager will ‘decide’ to leave up to five days (ten days in ) before they actually pack up. It is during this time that the player can convince them to stay, or tell them that they may leave. There are two ways to determine who is thinking of moving:


 * 1) The gossip method. If a player talks to a villager enough, they might fill them in on who is thinking of leaving. A good rule of thumb is to keep talking to three villagers until they get fed up and refuse to talk anymore. When this happens they will show a constant ‘thinking’ emotion. If a villager in town is thinking of leaving, one of these three will let the player know who. If they don't mention anyone, then no one has decided on a moving date yet.
 * 2) The self-confessing method. Using this method, the villager will reveal his/herself if and when they are moving. This information cannot be prodded out of them however, they must divulge it willingly. If a villager is thinking of moving, they will ‘ping’ the player (display a surprised emote) and then walk up to them as if they want to say something. Press A to engage them in conversation and they may mention moving. If they talk about anything else (e.g. change my catchphrase etc.) then they are not interested in moving at this time.

However, it's not as simple as this. a villager will only ping if the player is on ‘speaking terms’ with that villager. The player can determine if they are on speaking terms with a villager by walking up to them and speaking to them. If they start off with something like "I haven't talked to you in a while!" then the player was not on speaking terms with them. After getting back onto speaking terms with a villager the player can save/quit and reload the game and walk in front of them to see if they will ping.

The moving out process works like this:
 * Days 1-5: The villager will 'ping' and inform the player that he/she is leaving, and will tell them the date that he/she is leaving on. The player will have the choice of selecting not to leave, or to let the villager leave.
 * Day 6: This is the point of no return when the player loads the save data, the villager is packing up inside his/her house and will leave the next day. Even setting the internal clock back one day will count as going forward one day.
 * Day 7: The villager's house disappears from town, but is still stored in the game's save data for StreetPass or visiting a friend's town through Nintendo Network.

If the gossip method was used to figure out who was leaving, the second method must still be used to convince the villager to stay or go. This is why it is recommend to skip the gossip and cut to the chase.

It is to prevent any villagers that are thinking about moving away from cancelling their move on that day and players will have to wait until the next day in order to get the villager to 'ping' the player.

The move-out date & letting go
Once a villager pings and informs the player they are moving, they will ask whether or not they should stay. If the player tells them to stay, they will not leave. However, this does not mean that they will never decide to move again sometime in the future. If the player says yes, they may either be excited and thank them for understanding, or they may change their mind and stay anyway.

If they change their mind and decide to stay, but the player really wanted them gone, the player can quit their game without saving and the villager will move out on the day they stated they would.

Additionally, if a villager decides to move and the player does not tell them to stay, they can change their mind later on and decide to stay. They might reveal their change of heart sometime during conversation or even without telling anyone. To avoid this, the player can time travel to the villager's move-out date, thus ensuring that they will move out on time.

Note: A villager's ‘moving date’ is the day they will be inside their home with their boxes packed. If a player wants a villager to stay, they have to convince them to do so prior to this date. If the game is loaded on their move-out date and Isabelle announces they are leaving, they cannot be convinced to stay; the player has passed the point of no return. This would be the day where the player could have someone come over and adopt them.

Villager cycling
Villager cycling is a term used to describe a fast and efficient method of generating move-out requests in order to remove a specific villager from town in the shortest amount of time. There are multiple methods used to cycle villagers, all of which involve time travel. Start the process by following these steps:

Note: Before beginning it is recommended that the player set their town to the beautiful town ordinance to prevent flowers from wilting and weeds from spawning. Also note that the town will be overrun with common flowers and gyroids if this method is used often.

Note: If a villager doesn't want to come out of their home it is because they are a) sick or b) it is their birthday. In the case of option B there will be at least one other villager in their home celebrating with them who is also MIA.
 * 1) Make sure the town is in a move-out period. If there are less than nine villagers in town, no one is going anywhere. Also be sure that the villager to be removed wasn't the most recent one to move in- if so, the player must move out someone else first before that villager will consider leaving.
 * 2) Make sure the player is on speaking terms with the villagers. Start off by loading up the game (during a time when all villagers will be awake) and just go up and talk to all of them. If they are not outside or they can't be found, save and quit and then reload; the villagers that are wandering about outside will be cycled. Once the player has talked to all their villagers once, save and quit the game.
 * 1) Walk in front of all the villagers. Reload the game and walk in front of all the villagers wandering about outside. Save & quit and reload to cycle villagers outside until the player has walked in front of everyone once. If none of them ping and ask to leave, then no one is thinking about moving just yet. TT one day ahead using the 3DS system settings and repeat this step (#3) until someone pings requesting to leave.
 * 2) Approve or deny the request to leave. If it is a villager the player wants to keep, deny their request to move, save and quit, then TT forward one month (yes one month). Load the game, then save and quit. TT back to the present date and then and go back to step three. If it is a villager the player wants to move, tell them to leave and go to step five.
 * 3) Time travel to their move-out date. Once an unwanted villager provides their move-out date, TT to that date immediately before they change their mind! (Remember that a villager is told to move but they change their mind the player can quit without saving and TT to their move-out date anyways.) Load the game on their move-out date, save and quit. Then TT one day forward so that their house will disappear, load the game, save & quit.
 * 4) Repeat the process as needed. Now that one villager has been moved out, the player can keep moving out villagers, but remember that the town must be in a move-out period to do so, so a villager may need to be moved in at this point. If the player doesn't care who moves in, TT forward 10 days and someone will likely move in. Remember that the villager reset trick can be used to choose their home's location.
 * 5) Getting back to the present. Once all villager cycling is done, the player will find themselves somewhere far in the future... to get back, repeat step three until someone asks to leave and deny their request. Then, save & quit and TT back to the present.

Getting back a long lost villager
Worst-case scenario... the player just loaded up their game and Isabelle says that one of their dream villagers is leaving town today- what can the player do? They can't be convinced to stay, the only thing that can be done is to have a friend come over, adopt them and hold onto them until the player can get them back. But it's not as simple as inviting them back over- they won't come back until the player has gone through...

The 16-villager cycle
After a villager leaves town (whether they are adopted or sent to the void), their data is still stored in the game's memory to allow them to visit the town to shop on Main Street. The player will be unable to reacquire that villager until this data has been overridden.

Once a dream villager has been sent off to a friend for safe keeping, the player should start keeping track of how many villagers have been cycled out of town. The villager cycling method outlined above can be used to move villagers out as quickly as possible. After 16 more villagers have left town, the player will be able to go and pick their dream villager up again.

In, if the player scans a villager's amiibo card, and then convinces the villager to move in, the 16-villager cycle will not apply. This is the only way that the cycle can be skipped entirely.

Keeping dream villagers in place
The easiest way to make sure everyone stays put is to never allow the date to change. Prior to loading the game, set the system's internal clock back to the last date played. No villagers will ever leave. If a player is going to use this method they have to remember that the game recognizes the start of a new day at 6AM, not midnight, so they need to make sure the game is not powered on and loaded up when 6AM rolls around.

Going on hiatus
To make sure that no villagers will have moved upon returning, follow these steps:

Before going on hiatus If the player knows they are not going to play for a while, the town should be set to the beautiful town ordinance. The process used to return involves a bit of time traveling and enacting this now will save flowers. Second, make a note of the date the player last saved/quit the game; this will be needed later. (If there is no paper/pen handy, go to the 3DS’ home screen and then click the pencil icon at the top to write it in the game notes.)

Coming back from hiatus - The following must be done before loading the game!

Note: If the player time travels often the activity log may not accurately reflect their play history. If the player is unsure of what to do, set the 3DS back to a date that is known to be BEFORE the last date played. It is better to choose an older date than it is to choose a date that is sometime after the last date played.
 * 1) Change “Today's Date” in the 3DS’ system settings so that it matches the last date played. If the player cannot remember the last date played they can look in the activity log and check their software library. When New Leaf is selected it will note the last play date.
 * 1) Make sure the time is set to a time that all the player's villagers will be awake. If not, change it and then load the game.

If the game was loaded on the SAME DAY that the player last played, no villager loss should be experienced. If the game was loaded to anytime BEFORE that day, it is possible for a villager to move if they had already planned on moving.

Getting back to the present

To get back to the present day without having to time travel day by day, follow these steps:


 * 1) Talk to each villager one time to make sure the player is on speaking terms with them. The player and villager are on speaking terms if when spoken to the villager greets the player and then they are given the standard dialog box (which is something like “What's new?” and “Nevermind.”)
 * 2) Once this is done, save and quit the game. Then, reload the game (same day, don't change the time at all yet).
 * 3) Walk in front of the villagers that are strolling outside in town. There are usually 5 of these guys out and about. The player is looking for one of them to ‘ping’. That is, make a surprised emote and then run up to the player.
 * 4) If someone does run up, talk to them and see what they say. If they want to move, deny their request.
 * 5) If none of the five villagers that are outside run up to the player, then save and quit and reload the game to cycle the villagers that are in their homes.
 * 6) If the player has walked in front of all the villagers in town at least once, and none of them ping- save and quit, then time travel ONE DAY FORWARD and repeat the process of walking in front of all the villagers until they ping and one of them asks to move. Once this happens, deny the request.

Once the player has denied a request to move they are free to time travel forward as far as they'd like. So, after saving and quitting the game, go back to system settings and correct the date/time. Then, load the game and the player will be back to the present.

Trivia

 * The moving boxes are marked with a Tom Nook leaf suggesting Tom Nook moves villagers in and out as well as the player.
 * From onwards, villagers may move to another player's town provided there has been some form of contact between the two towns some time previously.
 * In, the player can also move out by going at the Civic Centre and selecting "Moving".
 * From onwards, when an animal is moving in, then they are under "house arrest" until they unpack. The first time the player talks to them, they will introduce themselves and will be very pleased to meet them. The second time they talk to them, they will tell them to come back the following day as they are too busy unpacking. Lazy villagers may whine about needing to unpack their pillow for a place to sleep, snooty villagers complain about how their house is such a mess, cranky villagers get angry and yell at the player to go away, and normal villagers will feel like they need some time to move on in.