Villager Hunting Tips

[MiniPocketWorld]

What are the best tips you can give for villager hunting with no Nintendo online and no aid from amiibos?
Also, have there been any recent changes to the RNG I should know about?

 

[VanitasFan26]

I don't think there was any changes to the RNG during the 2.0 update, but I will say that the new villagers can be found on the nook mile island. Make sure you save up enough Nook Mile Tickets in order to start villager hunting, but before you do that you must make sure your villager has a thought bubble over their head and make sure you say "yes" when they are about to move out.

It takes usually two days for the villager to move out but once the plot is empty on your island that is when you can get villager hunt. The one thing you need to watch out for is duplicate villagers. Sometimes when you use your nook mile tickets you have a chance of encountering a villager that you just saw already. I also know that if you have a lot of the same species (cats for example) you have a higher chance of encountering a villager that is part of the species. I know it sounds complicated, but thats how it is.

To get a better understanding you can use this Nook Mile Calculator that way you can see how much a percentage you have of seeing a villager that you want. It may be helpful, but of course the RNG can still mess with you. Hope this helps:

Villager Calculator

Calculate the odds of finding a villager on Mystery Tour.

acnhapi.com

 

[moon_child]

Have lots and lots of nook miles tickets and lots and lots of patience. It’s RNG and sometimes it’s good most of the times it’s reaaaaaalllly bad. So definitely be patient. And have backup plans. It’s really difficult when you’re only looking for ONE specific villager. Your odds are better if you have a few on your list.

 

[MiniPocketWorld]

I don't think there was any changes to the RNG during the 2.0 update, but I will say that the new villagers can be found on the nook mile island. Make sure you save up enough Nook Mile Tickets in order to start villager hunting, but before you do that you must make sure your villager has a thought bubble over their head and make sure you say "yes" when they are about to move out.

It takes usually two days for the villager to move out but once the plot is empty on your island that is when you can get villager hunt. The one thing you need to watch out for is duplicate villagers. Sometimes when you use your nook mile tickets you have a chance of encountering a villager that you just saw already. I also know that if you have a lot of the same species (cats for example) you have a higher chance of encountering a villager that is part of the species. I know it sounds complicated, but thats how it is.

To get a better understanding you can use this Nook Mile Calculator that way you can see how much a percentage you have of seeing a villager that you want. It may be helpful, but of course the RNG can still mess with you. Hope this helps:

Villager Calculator

Calculate the odds of finding a villager on Mystery Tour.

acnhapi.com

If you talk to a villager you see on an island will that decrease the chance of seeing them over and over while hunting?

 

[VanitasFan26]

If you talk to a villager you see on an island will that decrease the chance of seeing them over and over while hunting?

Nope, its only when you ask them if you want to move to your island then the chances of seeing the next villager will be over.

 

[AquaMarie]

I've heard that if you leave your ladder at home it won't spawn islands that force you to climb up to see which villager is there. If that's true that could save you a little time.

 

[PPUAlchemist]

I think another good tip is to hunt multiple villagers at once. Certainly, you can look for exclusively Sasha for example, but if you have multiple end goal villagers you’d be happy with, then it takes a little pressure off.

Also I like to min/max with tickets, especially if you’re not prepped to commit all your Nook Miles. I usually start with 5-10 tickets and then go back to buy another round. Hunting may take a tad longer, but if you get lucky with RNG, then you can save Nook Miles this way vs buying a lot of tickets and finding your goal on ticket 7.
Though I’m definitely not an expert!

 

[skarmoury]

There aren't really "tips" as far as I can remember, villager hunting is purely RNG so make sure to bring lots and lots of patience :] Bring your vaulting pole and ladder at the very least. I'd recommend you watch something while you villager hunt, as it can take as long as hours if you're not lucky. I personally binge watched Modern Family while hunting for Shino so I wouldn't get bored or overly frustrated, haha. ^-^

Just a fun fact if you hadn't already known, but the chances of meeting a villager actually depend on the species; a specific octopi like Cephalobot, for example, would theoretically be easier to find because there are less villagers in the octopus category (1 out of 4). Compare that to cats where, if you have 0 cats on your island, your chances of getting a specific cat is 1 out of 23, and that's if you roll for the cat species among the 30+ species list in the first place. The game basically rolls for species first, and then a villager within the species.

Good luck! ^-^

 

[Splinter]

The only thing I'd reccommend is getting yourself a good distraction, island hopping gets extremely boring very fast. It's so repetative, usually I do it in the background while listening to music and web browsing. Just don't do what I did and forget to look for the villager before leaving the island.