How to kick out neighbors from Animal Crossing: New Horizons

We all have that one character on our Animal Crossing islands that we just can't stand. The typical annoying gorilla who's always going on about exercising and eating protein. Or the flirtatious one who keeps giving us beauty tips as if we asked for help. Sometimes, we'd love to get rid of those animals and make room for new ones that better suit our style, but it's just not possible. Usually, it's your favorite villager who surprises you one random day by saying they want to leave.

Neighborhood management in New Horizons

The villager management mechanics in New Horizons have been substantially improved compared to New Leaf . Whether a villager leaves or not now depends entirely on us . In previous installments, animals would suddenly appear with the house full of boxes, and it was a real ordeal to prevent them from leaving. The same thing would happen if you logged into your game after months of absence: your favorite villager would have left and hadn't even bothered to come up to your house to wake you up from your coma and tell you.

Even so, in New Horizons, it won't matter how well we treat some people or others. The game will continue to surprise us in this regard when our most beloved neighbor suggests we move away. However, we can quickly prevent this by speaking with them.

Similarly, the Switch version of Animal Crossing also has several mechanics that can force one of your neighbors to leave the island . These actions take time and require considerable patience, but they should eventually pay off with the departure of your "target neighbor." And finally, of course, there are the tricks that have been discovered over time, which also achieve the same goal, albeit much more quickly.

We are going to review all the options so that you can apply the one that you like the most.

What to do for a neighbor to move naturally

These are the things you can do to get a neighbor to leave without resorting to tricks or underhanded tactics . However, as we mentioned earlier, it will take hours or even days to get them to leave. If you're looking to do it honestly, these are the classic methods that will make any neighbor fed up with you and want to leave your island for good:

push it: Animal Crossing neighbors are almost always in a good mood. It doesn't matter if it rains on a Saturday or if Juliana's clandestine market goes to waste and more than one ends up ruined. They will almost always greet you with a smile. Of course, do not even think about pushing a neighbor. At first, the animal in question will hold the pull and give you some warnings. But if you do it a few more times, it will catch a funny bounce and start to get mania.
Lock him in while he walks outside: a classic variant of the previous method. If you put furniture or make holes around the neighbor, he will get trapped. The game is capable of detecting him, and the neighbor will know that he is there without being able to move because of you.
Block the door of your house so you can't get out: If you lock a neighbor in his house, he will be wanting to see the light of day so he will want to get off your island. He doesn't miss us.
Avoid it when you want to tell us something: Being nonchalant and avoiding a neighbor is also a good way to ask them to leave.
give him crap: vent. Give him wheels, cans, garbage or anything he has previously told us he hates.
Hit him with a net repeatedly: this method is an Animal Crossing classic. Get behind him and hit him with the net. If you do it once, nothing will happen, but if you repeat it, it will end up getting mad at you.

We repeat: despite all these unpleasant activities, convincing him that your island is not the best place for him to live takes a lot of patience. Therefore, there are other somewhat more effective ways to force the situation without having to invest so much time.

How to kick out a neighbor in Animal Crossing quickly

There's a much faster way to kick a neighbor off your island. However, you'll have to play with the console's internal clock, so be very careful, as you could ruin your turnip investment, miss important events, or delete your NookLink newspaper.

The technique was discovered by YouTuber TagBackTV, an Animal Crossing expert, though YouTuber Cobayasgamer refined it months later. Generally, this trick guarantees you can evict any villager in under 10 minutes , provided it's done correctly. Pay attention, because even though the trick is very easy to perform, there are a few variables that can ruin the process.

Previous requirements

The factors you should consider before starting this trick are the following:

you will not be able to expel by this method to the last neighbor that has entered your island.
You will not be able to kick out any neighbor whose birthday date is in a range of ±7 days compared to the day you are in the game.
The trick it doesn't work on the days that there are special events on your island (Saturdays, fishing tournaments, special holidays…).
will have to pass 15 days in the game from when you kick out a neighbor until you can repeat the process.
You must have had the maximum available neighbors at least once before the cheat works.

How does this trick work?

When a villager is about to leave your island, they will appear looking downcast with a cloud above their head . This process usually occurs approximately every 15 days in the game , something we now know for sure thanks to some users who have datamined the game. Once we interact with that villager, we will decide whether to let them go or if they should stay. After interacting with that villager, the process will not repeat itself for another 15 days.

Step by step

The steps to follow are the following:

Enter your game, check that the neighbor you want to kick out he is not the last one to arrive (If it is the last one to arrive, the last one will also appear in the list that appears to the left of the map of your island). Immediately afterwards, save the game and exit the game.
Go to Settings in the console and up 15 days. If the day falls on a Saturday, go up one more day. Also change the time at 12:00, since it is the moment of the day in which more neighbors will be away from home (the cloud will only appear in animals that are outside).
Load the game and look for any neighbor with cloud. If there is no special event, there should be some character planning to flee your island.
Once you locate the character, you must do the following:
- If it's the character you want to cast: talk to him and tell him to go away.
- If it's not the character you want to kick: do not talk to him. Save the game and add another day to your Nintendo Switch. If the day you tap on the calendar corresponds to a marked date, it adds two days instead.
The process will have been delayed, and now there will be another character with the cloud on his head. Repeat step 4 as many times as you need until you find the neighbor you want to expel from your island.

To make sure the trick works well, also follow these tips :

If a character intercepts you with a question mark while walking around your island, you won't find any animals with the cloud that day, as this type of interaction "breaks" the trick. Save and add another day to your Nintendo Switch.
Do not talk to any neighbors while performing this trick. Remember that the moment you interact with the neighbor who wants to leave, the process will not be repeated for another 15 days.
don't forget the time. The time with the largest number of characters on the street is between 12:00 and 16:00.
Before starting the trick, write down the birthdays of your neighbors. If you get close to the designated date, you will not be able to expel it.

How to kick out the last neighbor who has arrived on your island

As we mentioned before, the little cloud will never appear over the last villager to arrive on your island. However, there are two ways to get rid of them , also very quickly:

Method 1: Amiibo Cards

You can import any villager you want to your island using an Amiibo card , which are collectibles that can be scanned with the Nintendo Switch controller using NFC technology.

If you have one of these cards, go to the town hall and use the Nook Stop to import a camper . The process will explain how to use the Amiibo card, and the villager from your card will appear at the campsite.

The visitor will ask you for a series of requirements, and when you meet them, you will be asked to select a neighbor to evict , which could very well be the last one who arrived on your island.

Method 2: Camping

If you don't have Amiibo cards, don't worry, as there is another way to go through the same process. Approximately, a new neighbor arrives at the campsite every 7 days with a probability of 30%. The process to kick out your last neighbor is as follows:

Add days to your console until there is a neighbor in the camping.
Save the game inside the camp.
convince the character for him to move to your island. If you fail in the games, please keep insisting or restart the console.
Once you have convinced him, he will go to the neighborhood management office and will talk to Cinnamon. On the way back, she will tell you which neighbor wants to leave.
If that neighbor who wants to leave is your last neighbor, talk to him and finish the process. If he isn't, close the game and restart the game as many times as necessary until your last neighbor is the one who wants to leave your island.

How many types of neighbors are there in Animal Crossing New Horizons?

There are a total of 413 villagers in Animal Crossing: New Horizons . This number does not include special characters. Most of the villagers in this game come from previous titles. In fact, all the characters from Animal Crossing: New Leaf and Animal Crossing: Welcome Amiibo are present in this Nintendo Switch game.

New Neighbors of New Horizons

This Switch title features eight new villagers. They were added via an update on November 5, 2021. They are as follows:

Ariel
auri
tiansheng
Yoki
Mario
Petri
octoberto
Alexis

This update also brought back 8 villagers from previous games . They are as follows:

Gabino (Lazy)
Nose (Normal)
Rosswell (Sloth)
Felicia (Normal)
One (Athletic)
River (Lively)
Ulysses (Grumpy

Neighbors personalities

Animal Crossing villagers have different personalities depending on their gender . Generally, two animals with the same personality will behave exactly the same . Criticisms of this mechanic include a lack of variety and the fact that Nintendo continues to categorize villagers by gender. Hopefully, future installments of the game will refine this dynamic to bring more freshness to the game.

Male personalities:

Athletic: "Sign up for the gym, you're a flan. And stop eating fried food. Do you have a T-shirt lying around that highlights these muscles that I have?» Yes, we have suffered too. He is the most common male personality in the game. 76 characters have this profile.
Snob: They are very smug and only talk about their life. There are 35 characters with this personality.
Grumpy: they dress badly, they have bad luck and it is difficult to get them to open up to tell us about their problems. They are quite intelligent, but they are always in their world. There are 35 characters with this psychological profile.
Lazy: the antithesis of athletic. They usually live quietly, eating junk and going out to hunt bugs from time to time. They love watching TV and will always be happy to see you. They are very childish, but very affectionate.

female personalities:

Normal: There are 71 female characters in New Horizons who have this type of personality, being the most common of all. They are pleasant neighbors and do not live in anguish for not following fashion. Of course, they tend to be a bit obsessed with cleanliness. They live in harmony and tend to treat everyone well, although grumpies drive these villagers crazy.
Happy: there are 65 neighbors with this profile. They are usually always singing and making jokes. She is the most childish personality of all.
Sweet: the closest thing to having a guardian angel in this game. If a sweet neighbor sees you sick, she will give you medicine. They tend to care a lot about others, although they tend to clash a lot with the grumpy and the conceited. There are 23 neighbors in total with this profile
Smug: They are selfish and only talk about themselves. The others are always inferior, although they do not do it with bad intentions. There are 65 characters with this personality in the game.

personality and gifts

Each neighbor in Animal Crossing has a personality. If you have been playing this version for Nintendo Switch for hundreds of hours, you will have realized that every day, you can give a gift to a certain number of neighbors.

If you guess correctly, the villager in question will give you a gift in return. However, if what you give isn't to their liking, they'll be a little sad . If you have a close relationship with that villager, nothing will happen. However, knowing this detail will be key to maintaining a friendship with certain neighbors —or destroying the friendship you already have with those villagers you want to get rid of.

How will we do it? Well, ideally, we should go to the Nookplaza website , which has a list of villagers and the items we need to give each one to make them happy. Besides their personality, each animal has a couple of colors and a style assigned to it. Therefore, it's difficult to guess at first glance, even if you know their personality.

Theme islands and neighbor management

You might have come here simply because you wanted to get rid of an ugly or constantly grumbling character from your island. But the truth is, many Animal Crossing players use this method time and again to create an island inhabited only by their favorite animals . As we can see, Nintendo has made these tricks easier so players can achieve their goals without cheating —that is, without needing to edit the game with an external program. The process is quite tedious, but if done correctly, you can have an island where you keep your old neighbors from previous games, like New Leaf or Wild World , or you can have an island inhabited only by cats or frogs.

However, some players lack patience and have discovered another method for managing villagers on their islands. This new system doesn't require modifying the game, but it's not entirely legal either. It involves programming NFC cards, which simulate an Amiibo and bring it directly to your island. This method costs money, as it requires acquiring a blank, compatible NFC card, as well as the technical knowledge to perform the process. In our case, we prefer to expel only the villagers we dislike using the method we just explained, but if you're desperate and absolutely want an island inhabited only by your favorite villagers, you can use the NFC card trick , although you should know beforehand that it's a rather underhanded solution. Of course, we can't guarantee that the YouTuber you follow who has that perfect island achieved it by spending countless hours playing the game.