How to Remove Villagers From Your Town - Animal Crossing: New Horizons Guide - IGN (2024)

Animal Crossing: New Horizons is full of adorable little villagers that will come live on your island town with you. Unfortunately, you don’t always get to choose who moves in - and maybe you need a change of pace. Luckily, there is a way to get rid of villagers in Animal Crossing.

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This page includes two known methods that may cause villagers to leave your island, as well as debunking unproven methods for affecting a villager's decision.

Looking for the best methods for removing villagers from your town? Click the links below to jump to...

• Methods That Do Not Affect Villagers Leaving
• How to Get Villagers to Leave From Neglect
• How to Remove Villagers Using the Campsite (Amiibo)

Methods That Do Not Affect Villagers Leaving

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See the video above for more info on getting rid of unwanted villagers.

Although Isabelle does have a few options to report villagers for being naughty, none of them actually translate into eviction. Think of these options more as a reset if a friend teaches them a bad catchphrase or makes them wear something ugly.

There’s also a lot of rumors that abusing your villagers - like smacking them with nets or running into them until they get pissed off or depressed - will hasten their departure. Sure, it can be fun to take your aggression out on a villager you really don’t like, but it’s likely that even negative attention is still attention.

Since even these acts force them to talk to you, thereby unlocking Nook Mileage rewards dealing with talking to villagers, it's probably safe to say that you're still giving them too much attention for their own good.

How to Get Villagers to Leave From Neglect

One of the best methods for getting the point across that a villager is no longer welcome is flat out ignoring them. Think social distancing to the extreme.

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Don’t talk to them, don’t fulfill requests or tasks for them, don’t even ask them what they’re building. Pretend like they don’t even exist, while socializing with your other villagers to the extreme. This can help build up neglect, which can help trigger the next phase.

To avoid accidentally interacting with problem villagers, try politely yet firmly enforcing distancing by creating fencing around their home.

After ignoring the villager in question for several days, you’ll still need to observe the resident in question. If you see them wandering about with a thought bubble over their heads, or they run up to you while shouting your name, you’ll actually want to engage here - because this means they have a dilemma. Sometimes they’ll have a task or a request or want to teach you a reaction, sure, but there’s also a chance a villager displaying these signs is thinking about moving, and a player must be present to cement the decision.

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This can easily happen to a villager you like, so be sure to give the appropriate answer depending on who you’re talking to, and either encourage them to leave, or convince them to stay. If it’s not the villager you want off your island, keep checking in every day until they decide to call it quits.

How to Remove Villagers Using the Campsite (Amiibo)

For this trick, you’ll need to have a full occupancy of 10 villagers on your island, which can take a bit of time if you’re still early in the game progressing tasks with Tom Nook. It won’t be until after you build the campground and can start selling plots of land to potential residents that you’ll be able to max out your town’s population.

Once you’ve got a full roster, the next thing you’ll need is an Amiibo Card of a villager you want to swap in. It’s possible that you can also wait for a villager to appear at the campsite, but this method will at least guarantee an appearance.

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Summon a villager to the campsite using the amiibo card, and create whatever DIY project they’re looking for to get them happy, and be sure to do this over 3 days, as they’ll remain unconvinced about moving into the island until you’ve done them enough favors.

On the third day, give them the last present and keep talking until you’ve convinced them to move in - only they’ll come back heartbroken that there’s no room on the island. At this point, they’ll mention they heard someone was thinking about moving out - and this is your big chance.

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They’ll ask you to point out the villager who is willing to “negotiate” moving out, which is basically your chance to let your new villager do the dirty work for you and kick your problem resident out! Once you’ve chosen the villain in question, your new friend will conveniently learn they were thinking about leaving anyway, and will make preparations to move in. In fact, you can even go and rub it in on your soon to be ex-resident, who will already be packing up.

Until recently, an outgoing resident pushed out by this method could cause a devastating bug if another player visits and tries to get them to join another player’s town. Thankfully, as of Patch 1.1.2, this has been fixed, allowing friends of a player to invite an outgoing resident to join their town when using this method!

Don't forget to check out our complete How-To Guides Hub to learn even more about Animal Crossing: New Horizons.