Animal Crossing: New Horizons fan discovers sweet detail about sick residents

Animal Crossing: New Horizons
(Image credit: Nintendo)

Maybe Tom Nook isn't as cruel as he seems, as one Animal Crossing: New Horizons player discovers the landlord won't make islanders move house when they're feeling under the weather.

As spotted in the Animal Crossing subreddit, one player recently witnessed Nook's nice side after they attempted to relocate one of their residents' homes when they were sick. Usually, if you want to place one of your neighbors' homes elsewhere on the island, it's as simple as asking Tom Nook (plus paying 50,000 Bells) and him checking with the resident that they're happy to be moved - which they almost always are. 

However, as this player has discovered, if you attempt to do this when the islander in question is unwell, Tom Nook will step in and tell the player that they need to wait until their neighbor has recovered, which is very considerate of him. Before your opinion on the Tanuki changes, though, let's not forget that he's totally fine with forcing residents to move their homes in the middle of the night - he just draws the line at disturbing them when they're ill. 

This post has prompted other Animal Crossing players to point out small things they've noticed when their villagers are sick. For example, one player has pointed out that guests (other players) that come to visit your island are unable to visit sick villagers at all - they'll instead be met with a sign on the front of their door that reads: "I don't feel good." 

More surprisingly, another player has pointed out that if you have a resident assigned to work in one of the facilities on the Happy Home Paradise DLC island, and they happen to be sick too, they'll actually call in sick and send someone else to replace them at work for the day. This replacement member of staff will also tell the player that the usual islander is "not feeling their best today." 

Despite releasing well over 3 years ago now, it seems a lot of players didn't know this was a thing - including myself. Don't worry if you ever run into these situations though, it's very easy to get your villagers back to their usual selves by giving them some medicine from Nook's Cranny. Which sounds a little bit like a money-making scheme now that I think about it. 

Now feel like the grass is greener on the other side of your island? Find out how to move your house in Animal Crossing: New Horizons with our guide. 

Hope Bellingham
News Writer

After studying Film Studies and Creative Writing at university, I was lucky enough to land a job as an intern at Player Two PR where I helped to release a number of indie titles. I then got even luckier when I became a Trainee News Writer at GamesRadar+ before being promoted to a fully-fledged News Writer after a year and a half of training.  My expertise lies in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, cozy indies, and The Last of Us, but especially in the Kingdom Hearts series. I'm also known to write about the odd Korean drama for the Entertainment team every now and then.