How did you restart?

[jokk]

A while ago I demolished my island, but didn't restart the whole game. I wanted to keep my items/bells/clothes, my museum progress, and milestones, so I ended up just tearing everything down. It was super tedious and took forever because my island was fully developed, but I got rid of every square of terraforming, water, paths, trees, flowers, etc.
Did you restart entirely (with or without getting someone to stash your items and bells) or has anyone else done my method of physically making a clean slate?

 

[Mr_Keroppi]

I have never restarted my island or taken anything down or rebuilt! I love my town and think its cool and the ideas and items (I accidentally clicked the poll and I wanted others to know I NEVER restarted!)

 

[azurill]

For my main island since I didn’t want to restart that one I redid areas one at a time. Took my time with it and really liked how it came out .

After debating with myself for awhile I did restart my second island. Before I restarted my second island I started a new character on my main island this way she could catalog items and start collecting DIY’s. I also had her learn terraforming this way when I moved her over to the new island I could terraform before getting three stars. I restarting the new island with a new character and then brought over the other from my main island.

 

[Croconaw]

I have never restarted my saved file on New Horizons. I used to do it all the time on City Folk, though. I don’t know why. I guess I just liked the fresh start and that game got so stale, so quickly. I had more control when New Horizons released.

 

[Wrathie83]

My option isn't on here but this doughnut *points to herself* forgot to transfer her save over to the new console and wiped her old one after transferring the account lol.

 

[dizzy bone]

I've never restarted my island but I have redone the theme several times. Early on when there weren't many items at my disposal, I used a lot of spikey fencing and made it look like an actual deserted island (or something post-apocalyptic). I made so many huge waterscaping and cliff projects during that time too, and like others, overrun with flowers. Eventually I wanted to modernise it and turn it into a city. Instead of flattening it out, I decided to work on areas piece by piece. Usually I'd flatten a cliff and then work on top of the flattened area, but generally I mapped out on photoshop what I'd eventually want my new roadways to look like. This made it way less overwhelming for me. I also ended up keeping some key features from my earliest layout in my city so that "lore wise" (lol) it felt like a natural progression.

 

[VanitasFan26]

I said this is another thread a while back so I'll say again here. Well I've done a lot of restarting last year ever since I got my 2nd switch and 2nd Copy of the game. Now I have more features to do that I can ever do before. For example I can just move my regular Resident (Not Resident Representative) off any island and they still keep all of their stuff, DIYS learned, and Achievements that they unlocked. Plus I can visit myself using local online play that doesn't require NSO membership (Still need to be online though).

I can still keep my stuff thanks to transferring all the stuff I have to the other island and then give it back again when I have my new island. I've done like 50 times so this year I am just chilling with my 2nd island. There are sometimes I may want to restart, but I have to learn to take my time with this game and not rush through it. Restarting does make things more different and becomes a lot more interesting when you do things differently that you could've never done before.

 

[drowningfairies]

I’ve only restarted once, and had my sister hold my items for me.
Though it was something I regretted, only because of all the DIYs I had to go back and collect. 2 years later, I’ve finally got the mass majority of them.

I’ve started over completely fresh in NL many times. It’s fun to do sometimes, I just feel like it takes much more effort in NH.

 

[Hsn97]

I restarted fairly early on because I didn’t like where I’d placed Nooks and Ables but didn’t at the time realise that we could move them later on. I didn’t get anyone to hold my items or bells purely because I didn’t think at the time, but thankfully I hadn’t got too much progression so I didn’t loose too much.

 

[_confused_piplup_]

I restarted after a while. I went around on the Internet and realised how great some Islands looked, so I understood that I could do a lot more on my Island. So, I mainly demolished everything, changed the location of basically every building and started a new island, but I made a project of it before actually doing it!
I am still not done hehe...

 

[Sharksheep]

I didnt have anyone hold my items cause I had friends who could send me stuff or get it with HHP if I really wanted it. I got overwhelmed with too many choices for decorating early on my first island.

 

[mare stellas]

I'm kind of serial restarter on my side.
I've bought the amiibos of my favorite villagers (i will propably expand m'y collection soon) and i have the sanrio amiibos. Since i'm never running after the villagers pictures, there's nothing i really lost ? I don't mind reganing everything.

So i just reset the file with no regards. For nos i really like my actual setup, so we'll see if last :'D

 

[mouthrat]

I originally bought New Horizons back in December 2020, and then fully restarted my island July 2021. I deleted everything, which honestly, looking back was not such a great idea. However, I've kept the same island since then and I am very happy with my new one, and occasionally visit the dream file of my old one whenever I'm feeling nostalgic. I restarted my island because I was getting tired of the game and wanted something to draw me in again, and for me that was the original startup thrill of the game. I'm not someone who time travels, so it made it a lot more tedious to work back up to where I was on my first save. I feel like I could have gotten that same serotonin rush a different way that didn't involve quite literally losing everything, which leads into my next point.

To anyone who is considering restarting: only do it if you absolutely must. There are so many alternatives to restarting like flattening, demolishing, storage cleanout, etc. You will not realize how tedious it is to work back up to where you were until you actually have to do it all over. There might be a villager you love that you might never find again. There are so many factors that you probably aren't thinking about. So unless it is your heart's burning desire to completely restart, I would instead find an alternative that better gives you what you're looking for.

 

[CylieDanny]

I restarted Rainbow because I had an idea in mind, but also wanted a fresh start.

Ironically I got the exact same layout as Rainbow.

--

But I restarted with my friend holding Raymond for me. Because I dodnt want to loose my doctor cat. It was an adventure getting him.
--

But other then that it was the same. I didnt keep my items because it would be too many trips. But ever since then I haven't restarted. But I've changed my layout countless times.

Second island, Gemella, I restarted because of a theme idea, but I've got two *who are defently cats* but layout wise im still carrying it out the same.

 

[VanitasFan26]

I'll go into more detail on what I did to restart. This was a long and complicated process for me personally but what I had to do was to make a copy clone of my user and then move all the items to them. The thing is you cannot transfer the Resident Representive so I had to make a new user who is just a regular Resident that is able to be transfered. If anyone is confused I have 2 switches and 2 copies of the game to do this. I had to grind the new character by upgrading their home fully, decorate the home like it was, transfer all the items I had in storage (which was a pain), and then I had to do the entire Happy Home Paradise DLC just to unlock the feature to customize villager homes. Not to mention trying to get all the upgrades for the Island Designer app which was also a pain.

When that was done I had to go on my 2nd switch and transfer the user from the main switch (the one I am restarting) and then they get to stay on the 2nd switch. When the transfer is completed I had to go into the save game data on the main switch to delete it. Finally I transfer back the user from the 2nd switch onto the main switch as the new Resident Represenative. Because I have the Island Designer I can start terraforming in the beginning without having to worry about inviting K.K slider just to unlock it. This was a long and painful process but it was worth it.

 

[zissou]

I "flattened" my island by physically, manually, painfully, slowly removing every single path and item, including trees, flowers, bushes, and crops. I was seriously tempted to hard restart, but knowing me, I'd never make it through the tutorial chapter again I didn't actually reset because I didn't want to lose my DIYs, Nook Miles, items, or funds. Also, I really love my versions of Roald and Paula.

It took a LONG time. HOURS. I listened to podcasts and watched TV while doing it. It's actually the second time I've done it. As awful as it is, the freedom afterwards is pretty creatively liberating. And paralyzing in equal measure...

I will say, working back from a clean slate can be super overwhelming--now you're not just making changes, but inventing everything from scratch, including rivers and tree placements! However, it gives me a lot of control, which I need, because I have a lot of inspiration + vision for what I want my island to be. Right now the way I mostly play ACNH is by designing my island, so it works for me.