How to evict a resident in Animal Crossing: New Horizons

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How to get rid of an unwanted resident from your Animal Crossing: New Horizons island

How to evict a resident in Animal Crossing: New Horizons
(Image credit: Nintendo)

There comes a time where you might consider how to evict a resident in Animal Crossing: New Horizons. Sometimes there's just someone who's turned out not to be a great fit for the place, and then comes the time where you might want them to move on. Well, there's good news and there's bad news. The good news is that it is possible, but the bad news is that it takes a while, can't be guaranteed and is actually quite unpleasant to actually pull off. 

That's because you basically have to bully someone off your island to actually get them to leave. So if you're thinking Animal Crossing is just this sweet little life simulator full of adorable critters, welcome to the dark side.

Well, I say it works, but there is some luck involved in successfully getting a character to leave your island for good. But here are some of the things you can do to help push a character to evacuate your sandy shores. 

Stop talking to them 

The easiest way to make someone feel unwanted in your blossoming village is to simply ignore them. Don't talk to them at all, ignore them if they try to call to you, and don't send them any mail. Pretend they don't exist basically. If you keep this up for about a week, keep your eyes peeled for them wandering around with a beige thinking cloud above their head. This will be a signal that they're thinking about skipping town. 

Keep talking to everyone else 

(Image credit: Nintendo)

Often your villagers know more about what's going on across the island than you do, so make sure as you ignore the villager in question, that you keep talking to everyone else. They may well let you know that there's a rumour of the banished one wanting to leave, and it'll only to serve to highlight how alienated the isolated one is becoming. 

Hit them with bug nets

It's not 100% whether this helps make a resident feel unwelcome (even though it absolutely should), but you can hit the offending villager with a bug net three times in a row to make them sad - or really angry. I'll tell you that I've done this every day for 10 days with a single villager. Not only has it made me feel like an absolute monster, but also they haven't left. In fact, someone else left instead. They see me. 

Send them mean letters

(Image credit: Nintendo)

Again, not guaranteed to make a difference, but if all of the above is done as well as sending them letters via the airport containing gross items like tin cans, tires or rotten turnips, then they will clearly get the message. Right?

Complaining about them to Isabelle doesn't work

(Image credit: Nintendo)

It's worth noting that although you can talk to Isabelle about a resident that's bothering you, she doesn't have the power to evict anyone. Talking to her about a villager's language or clothing will simply reset them to default nicknames and clothing, just in case they've made quite the faux pax. 

Otherwise it's a waiting game

Villagers will decide to leave themselves, even if you've been perfectly polite to them. Usually, they'll give you an option to persuade them to stay, but you can also say au revoir and tell them to hop skip it on outta here. It's a way of keeping your population feeling fresh, but also means it's harder to target a single resident for eviction. 

Sam Loveridge
Sam Loveridge
Global Editor-in-Chief, GamesRadar+

Sam Loveridge is the Global Editor-in-Chief of GamesRadar, and joined the team in August 2017. Sam came to GamesRadar after working at TrustedReviews, Digital Spy, and Fandom, following the completion of an MA in Journalism. In her time, she's also had appearances on The Guardian, BBC, and more. Her experience has seen her cover console and PC games, along with gaming hardware, for a decade, and for GamesRadar, she's in charge of the site's overall direction, managing the team, and making sure it's the best it can be. Her gaming passions lie with weird simulation games, big open-world RPGs, and beautifully crafted indies. She plays across all platforms, and specializes in titles like Pokemon, Assassin's Creed, The Sims, and more. Basically, she loves all games that aren't sports or fighting titles! In her spare time, Sam likes to live like Stardew Valley by cooking and baking, growing vegetables, and enjoying life in the countryside.

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