Roommates - Animal Crossing: New Horizons Guide - IGN (2024)

Welcome to IGN's Animal Crossing: New Horizons Wiki guide! This page details everything you need to know about unlocking the ability to recommend that two clients share a vacation home as roommates.

How to Get and Unlock Roommates in Happy Home Paradise

As you progress as a designer, you'll not only unlock new furniture—you'll also be able to make more suggestions and recommendations to your clients. Among the list of new recommendations, you'll be able to suggest that two clients share a vacation home as roommates.

To learn about all the unlockable features, design elements and events in Happy Home Designer, check out our How to Unlock Everything in Happy Home Paradise page.

After designing 15 vacation homes, Lottie will speak with a previous client who wants a roommate. She will invite you and Niko to own the work and find a suitable roommate for the client. For our playthrough, we thought it made sense to pair Vesta with Eloise, because Eloise wanted a Relaxing Reading Room and Vesta had a similar concept. However, it's unclear yet if you can make a "bad" match, since you also really can't fail at decorating a house.

After choosing a roommate you'll be able to remodel the first client's home to make it more suitable for two villagers. You'll want to customize the size of rooms and add additional furniture, if you like. Partition walls also give some privacy and the ability to create bedrooms, living areas, bathrooms, etc.

In addition to these modifications, after designing 18 homes you'll unlock the ability to add a second floor to any of your island homes which will give your pair of villagers significantly more room. If you paired roommates before unlocking the ability to add an additional level you can always go back and speak to the tenants to redesign their home.

After this job, Lottie will inform you that roommate suggestions are now a service you can offer other clients, too. You'll also earn 12,000 Poki for the work.

After finishing the job, open the Happy Home Network app to re-visit and travel to any of your previous clients' vacation homes. When you select a villager, you can chat with them and select, "How's your home?"

You'll then have the option to suggest a roommate and can repeat the above process. Note that you can choose a roommate from the archipelago, such as on the beach or in the cafe, or you can use an amiibo card to call a specific character. You can also ask a previous client hanging on the north side of the archipelago's beach, but remember the incoming roommate will give up their completed home and move into the first client's home you visited.

How to Change Roommate Pairings

When you unlock Happy Home Paradise's roommate feature, a random villager will speak to Lottie to request a roommate and you're forced to accept their request even if you would've preferred they live solo. As you continue your career as a designer you may also pair up roommates and eventually decide that it isn't the best fit. Luckily, villagers aren't locked into any given home or location and they can move into a new, independent home at no charge.

To change a roommate pairing, begin by speaking to Niko at the archipelago pier or by accessing the Happy Home Network App. Select the shared home to visit the roommates. Find the villager that you would like to move out and speak to them.

You MUST speak to the roommate that you want to move out of the shared home. Whichever villager you speak to will leave to build their home elsewhere while the villager you don't speak to will maintain the initial paradise home.

This will prompt four different dialogue choices. Select, "How's your home?". Next, choose the option that says "Let's talk roommates". The villager will express some mild concerns about their shared living situation and you can choose "Want to build your own?" if you want them to leave or choose the second option for them to stay.

If you choose to make the villager move out a small cut scene will play before sitting you across from the selected villager and Lottie for some more home planning. The villager will pitch their theme and you can begin designing their independent home.

It doesn't seem like you'll be able to make villagers move from one roommate situation directly into another but you can always speak to the villager after their independent home is complete to suggest they move in with a different roommate. There is no reason to wait if you pair roommates together and quickly regret the decision. You can speak to the villagers immediately after they decide to move in together and make one of them move out.

Looking for even more on the ACNH paid DLC update? Check out our complete Happy Home Paradise Guide to learn more!