I never thought TT-ing would exhaust me so much. Well, it did. This past weekend, I did the campsite method to get Raymond. I didn't spend as much time as others (less than a day split amongst two days), but it really felt like forever.
However, in spite of that, if you are looking for Raymond (or a non-Amiibo villager in general), this method is sure-proof to get you them. Yes, it's time consuming. Yes, this method may make you frustrated w/ Isabelle every time she says there is no news or only talk about seasonal events. But it's better than having to compete with some of the insane NMT prices and potential scams floating around for these villagers
I also recommend only doing this method for non-Amiibo villagers, btw. Even though this is a guaranteed method, it really gets exhausting and unless your dreamie is an Amiibo villager w/ an insane price, it's just easier to do Amiibo/trading/sales.
I kept track of all my campsite encounters, 51 in total. Out of that 51, I encountered 24 smugs (including Raymond). Luckily, I didn't have to cycle through the entire smug pool before getting to Raymond.
Data in the spoiler below:
Starting Villagers:
2 Uchi/Sisterly
2 Normal
2 Jock
0 Smug
1 Cranky
1 Snooty
1 Lazy
1 Peppy
Villagers Found:
1 Uchi/Sisterly
6 Normal
6 Jock
24 Smug
4 Cranky
3 Snooty
2 Lazy
3 Peppy
2 Uchi/Sisterly
2 Normal
2 Jock
0 Smug
1 Cranky
1 Snooty
1 Lazy
1 Peppy
| Villager | Type |
|---|---|
| Ken | Smug |
| O'Hare | Smug |
| Groucho | Cranky |
| Merengue | Normal |
| Limberg | Cranky |
| Bam | Jock |
| Huck | Smug |
| Katt | Uchi |
| Shep | Smug |
| Eugene | Smug |
| Beardo | Smug |
| Lionel | Smug |
| Dom | Jock |
| Keaton | Smug |
| Chadder | Smug |
| Papi | Lazy |
| Chops | Smug |
| Hans | Smug |
| Diana | Snooty |
| Henry | Smug |
| Axel | Jock |
| Kody | Jock |
| Pierce | Jock |
| Leopold | Smug |
| Margie | Normal |
| Zell | Smug |
| Audie | Peppy |
| Curlos | Smug |
| Melba | Peppy |
| Bea | Normal |
| Marshal | Smug |
| Kabuki | Cranky |
| Barold | Lazy |
| Pietro | Smug |
| Stitches | Lazy |
| Tex | Smug |
| Ellie | Normal |
| Hippeux | Smug |
| Olaf | Smug |
| Julian | Smug |
| Chevre | Normal |
| Soleil | Snooty |
| [Glitched] | N/A |
| Bubbles | Peppy |
| Quillson | Smug |
| Miranda | Snooty |
| Lopez | Smug |
| Lyman | Jock |
| Sydney | Normal |
| Frank | Cranky |
| Raymond | Smug |
Villagers Found:
1 Uchi/Sisterly
6 Normal
6 Jock
24 Smug
4 Cranky
3 Snooty
2 Lazy
3 Peppy
What I liked about this method:
- Guaranteed to get to the villager you want if you don't have their type currently on your island. Not once in my search did I ever get a repeat, especially in the smug department, so it seems the info on how the campsite goes through every single villager in the pool until it begins repeating is true. I definitely got a higher rate of smugs compared to other types. The 27 other villagers I encountered were split amongst the other types.
- I didn't have to spend a crazy amount of NMTs! I was able to use my NMTs towards adopting Marshal, one of the other smugs that I wanted but had to leave behind!
And I still have a ton left over to help me get the other villagers I want, which makes me really happy. - This feels faster compared to Mystery Islands. Like I said, I took about a day, and for others it's probably shorter or longer depending on luck. But it's definitely less time consuming compared to Mystery Island hopping.
- Depending on your luck, you might run into villagers you want but aren't part of the type pool you're targeting for! I ran into Merengue but left her behind because while I love her, she wasn't a high priority dream villager for me. Do note that this will make your hunt longer, but that's okay!
- This taking so much time if your luck isn't great. Like I said, I took about a day, but for others it could be more, especially if your type pool is bigger. Keep going, you WILL get to your desired villager eventually.
- Loading screen hell. I'm not kidding, most of my time was spent on loading screens (which Nintendo should work on, tbh). It's about 1 minute to load, and having to go through that screen multiple times is a big reason as to why I'm exhausted from doing this.
- Dry Spells. I actually ended up TT-ing through a good 4 years (rip me) because there was no campsite villager for a good while, and this is to be expected. Also, if you are TT-ing forward, expect interference from seasonal events (eg. At one point, Isabelle wouldn't stop talking about the seasonal event for a whole month).
- Effects of TT-ing way too far. I got weeds, flowers blooming everywhere, mail overflow, and Message Board cycling almost everything out. I lost messages from friends who visited because of TT-ing, and it was disappointing, but expected. I saw another user do this method by cycling using the same time period in a month instead of TT-ing forward, and I recommend doing that over what I did. The method will still work as I accidentally did this (my brain was fried from constant load screens) and still managed to get a campsite villager. Doing this should also prevent you from getting spoiled on seasonal events and maybe prevent message board cycling and mail overflow. Definitely expect weeds and flowers though, there's really nothing you can do about that unless you fence your flowers in (which I didn't do, but I don't have issues with it since I needed more flowers).
- Campsite occasionally not set up despite a camper supposedly visiting. I suspect this is a minor glitch because it occurred with me once. I tried reloading to salvage that particular visit, but it didn't work. It didn't stop me from getting proper visits when I TT'd forward. So if Isabelle says there's a visitor but the campsite isn't set up, just TT forward or again; it should fix itself.
- Being persistent. I noticed while doing this method that other players who were also attempting the method at the same time were confused when the campsite villager wouldn't move in immediately and then upset thinking that they wouldn't move in. Please expect this and keep talking to them, many games and conversations later they WILL agree to move in. And don't worry about winning or losing the card games, it doesn't matter.
Came across a couple of my villagers who wanted to leave while TTing but because of how the game works now, I just ignored and TT'd more haha.
