Time-Traveling FAQ And Tricks

[windfalldodo]

What is timetraveling?
Timetraveling is just the action of changing the date and/or time on your Switch so that you are playing a different day/time in the game.
By doing this, you can play missed time, experience past or new events, progress on lots of things more quickly (collecting items, diys, flowers, creatures etc).
You can do this under System settings - System - Date and Time.

What are the risks of timetraveling?
There are hardly any consequences of timetraveling. There are only five things that might happen:
1 A lot more weeds if you timetravel a long time into the future.
2 If you timetravel past the following saturday, or timetravel backwards at all, any turnips you have will spoil.
3 If you have a lost item in your inventory, and timetravel backwards, it will become unusable and can only be dropped on your island.
4 Your friendship score with your villagers might go down slightly, but you will still be good friends with them. If it has been weeks or more, they will comment how long it`s been, and then act like normal again.
5 If you timetravel more than a month, there will be cockroaches in your house you need to stomp on to get rid of.


I have seen some people write that their island is covered in flowers if they timetravel/don`t play for a long time. This has never happened to me, so I wonder if the last day they were playing, it might have been raining. I have timetraveled many months into the future and never had a single new flower appear.

Are there any boundaries to timetravel?
No. You can travel as far ahead or back as you want to. You can safely travel to a day before you even started your island and experience any event or season you want.
Some events were time-locked for a while, but all of them are now open, so you can travel to Halloween, Christmas, Bunny Day etc.


Will I lose any items or villagers if I timetravel backwards?
No. All your items, placed or stored or dropped, and all your current villagers will remain on your island, no matter how long backwards you timetravel.


Some perks of timetraveling
Every day you play, whether it is a new day started by Isabelle or not, a diy bottle spawns at the beach and you can get new diys from crafting villagers.
The same is true of bell trees, there is a new glowing spot on the ground every day.
Redd will have new art and items if you timetravel between two days. Same is true of Celeste, she will give a new diy each time you see her.
Building ramps and bridges, and moving houses can get done more quickly.


One trick I wish I learned sooner: You can avoid flower-cleanup by timetraveling back on the rainy day you are on - even if flowers have been rained on later in the day, if you timetravel back to clear skies and save, the flowers won`t sparkle and no new flowers will spawn the next day. Timesaver!



This post is not a discussion post about which way to play the game - people can choose if they prefer realtime play or progress more quickly by timetraveling. Please keep any opinions about this to yourself - if you have any questions about timetravel, I might be able to answer them. Thank you.

 

[Croconaw]

You forgot to mention to not time travel backwards for with turnips. You also can’t go past the following Saturday, or they will rot. That makes your fourth point incorrect.

You mentioned that they’ll rot if you go backwards, but you also can’t go past the following Saturday.

 

[windfalldodo]

You forgot to mention to not time travel backwards for with turnips. You also can’t go past the following Saturday, or they will rot. That makes your fourth point incorrect.

You mentioned that they’ll rot if you go backwards, but you also can’t go past the following Saturday.

That turnips rot past the following saturday is something everyone knows, though - but thanks for mentioning it. And I did mention to not timetravel backwards or they will rot. I am not sure if you misunderstood something or I am misunderstanding your comment, but thanks for replying anyway. ^^`

 

[Mairen]

Just wanted to pop in to say thanks for taking the time to write this! I'm not a time traveler myself but I'm sure this will be helpful for people who are interested in learning about it!

 

[VanitasFan26]

I hope this will settle the whole "Time travel debate" and like you said people should be able to play however they feel works for them.

 

[Xara]

That turnips rot past the following saturday is something everyone knows, though

new players or players who are dabbling in the stalk market for the first time may not know, so it’s always good to mention imo!

thank you for taking the time to write this; i’m not really a time traveller myself unless i’m trying to catch up to present time after a hiatus or trying to kick a villager out, but this is quite informative and helpful! i imagine it’ll be quite helpful for anyone who has never time travelled before or is scared to do so.

 

[Bluebellie]

There is no mention of the cockroaches. If you time travel for a whole month, your playable characters’ houses will have cockroaches crawling around. I like them, but most people don’t.

 

[VanitasFan26]

There is no mention of the cockroaches. If you time travel for a whole month, your playable characters’ houses will have cockroaches crawling around. I like them, but most people don’t.

There is a tip for getting rid of the roaches faster. If you have someone else visit your island then its possible to make 2 Roaches spawn inside your home so you can kill them at once. Your friend can also help you destroy the roaches as well. This one I recommend if you have multiple homes and you time traveled too much to point where all the homes are fill with Roaches.

 

[Croconaw]

There is a tip for getting rid of the roaches faster. If you have someone else visit your island then its possible to make 2 Roaches spawn inside your home so you can kill them at once. Your friend can also help you destroy the roaches as well. This one I recommend if you have multiple homes and you time traveled too much to point where all the homes are fill with Roaches.

Yeah, I have a hotel on my island that frequently gets cockroaches because of my time traveling. I don’t want coackroaches in my hotel, so I try to squish them whenever I notice they’re there.

 

[windfalldodo]

There is no mention of the cockroaches. If you time travel for a whole month, your playable characters’ houses will have cockroaches crawling around. I like them, but most people don’t.

I did mention that, actually, but thank you for replying.

 

[marzipanmermaid]

How long do the cockroaches spawn in your home after TTing large leaps? I've never TTed this much at once (1Y 4M) in one go. (I got tired of being in February of last year due to starting a new job and all that.) I've killed at least 4-6 cockroaches on this load in; 4 on my first initial load in after TTing.

 

[angelcat621]

I've jumped forward up to a year at a time. The most roaches I've ever seen spawning is two per room. I just keep going back and forth between each room til I get 'em all.