Getting Villagers Out of Town (Fastest/Most Efficient Ways & Why)

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I've seen a few people trying to figure out how to get villagers out to trade, sell, etc. So I figured I'd do this.

A little info on the most popular ways to get villagers out

1) Hitting them with bug nets, pushing them in pitfalls, and just plain pushing them; bullying.

Whenever you interact with a villager for the first time, the game puts you in a sort of "ladder". Each time you talk to them, send them letters, complete favors, etc, you go up a tiny bit in that ladder. In the end, you get to the top, they give you a picture, your bffs, yeah.

Whenever you push a villager into a pitfall, hit them with a bug net, or push them around a lot, you actually get put on to that ladder for interacting with them. And yes, while shoving them around the entire town will eventually get them to leave, it's going to be a while before they actually do. Because the ladder is really designed to let you climb up until they finally give you the picture (Not sure if they still do that in New Leaf, because I was never really interested in the pictures...) and become best friends, it assumes that as soon as you begin interacting with them, you're going to take it to some sort of relationship, thus keeping you in the "acquaintance" state.

Each time you hit the villager, push them, or cause them to land on a pitfall, your relationship actually doesn't change as much as you'd think; due to you having been placed on the ladder in the first place, the villager wants to befriend you. So does the game. You'd probably have to hit them with a bug net thousands of times before the moving dialogue popped up, and most people probably don't want to invest 5-6, maybe more, hours just hitting a villager with a bug net. So, while bullying the villagers can be somewhat entertaining, it's the longest way to go about getting them to move out.

2) Talking to them over and over

Believe it or not, this is probably going to be faster than bullying them 24/7. Why? Well, again, with the ladder:

Because the villagers want to be your friend, being nice to them will actually make a significant improvement on your "ladder". So, every day or so, you could probably go up 1 or 2 stages on the ladder. However, in order to actually progress, you'd need to do a lot of favors, and talk to them over and over each day; it'd basically be your number one priority. However, as I said, talking to them, giving them gifts, etc, has a larger improvement on the ladder than being mean.

Some people may now be thinking, "Wait, why are we going to be nice to them? Aren't they supposed to be leaving, rather than wanting to stay?" And yeah, I'll admit, I think this is a little weird too. But despite that...

The game doesn't want you to get that prize at the top of the ladder, which is why, not long before you reach the top and get your prize, the villagers try to move out. Sometimes you can say "Don't go!" or something similiar to that, and there's a 50 or so percent chance they'll listen. But sometimes, even this will make them move out automatically.

However, since we're trying to make them go away, you'd be better off saying the second option, usually something like "Good luck!" or "Ok, thanks." That'll make them say something along the lines of "Oh, thank you for supporting me! Bye!" and then they'll choose a pack-out date (usually 3-5 days later). The neat thing about this is that, if by chance you decide you wanna keep them, they will usually ask one last time 2 days before they leave. At that time, you could cancel, if something had messed up and you still needed them.

Lastly, the fastest way to get them out:

3) Ignoring them

Ignoring villagers is, by far, the fastest way to get them out. Greet them, and then never talk to them again. Why do we greet them? Because, for any reason, the game will not let the villagers move out until you've at least recognized them. However, greeting them will not put you in the friendship ladder. You will only be put in the ladder when you initiate a conversation with them, rather than just saying hi.

Warning

Do not, do not, do NOT talk to villagers after greeting them. This puts you in the friendship ladder. And that takes 2-3 weeks to get out of; then the villager will decide to move. However, if you have accidentally talked to them, there IS a solution!

Simply create a new character. Once again, greet everyone in town, and talk to everybody except the one animal each day. On your main character, do not talk to that animal any more. After a while, the game will see that, although you're still in the friendship ladder, this other player, who doesn't care about that villager, isn't. Thus, it'll get rid of the villager by making it want to move.

The only disadvantage about the ignoring trick is that the moving conversation is initiated just like any other ":O" conversation, so you may talk to them and have to start over because they ask for a favor or something rather than saying "Hey Imma move out."

Anyways, thanks for reading, and I hope this helps a few people!
 
I've been trying to ignore Hamphrey so he leaves my town but I accidently didn't talk to him when he first moved in and now he won't leaveeee :'(
 
I question some of this. If I tell a villager not to go, they've never insisted on still leaving. Villagers leaving is very random and often it is the one I just got out of the campsite or something. I had Carmen ask then Tiffany then Carmen again. I only talked to Carmen a little bit.
 
I question some of this. If I tell a villager not to go, they've never insisted on still leaving. Villagers leaving is very random and often it is the one I just got out of the campsite or something. I had Carmen ask then Tiffany then Carmen again. I only talked to Carmen a little bit.

Yeah isn't a very accurate guide, which is probably why it was never bumped to the top like other guides.
Ignoring villagers really doesn't make a difference either. I've introduced myself to villagers and they've left a short time later, I've never spoken to villagers at all while I've been cycling for Genji and they've been gone within 15 minutes
 
Yes, lots of people say to ignore villagers but I find talking to them now and again is better.
 
Exactly. If we could go ahead and not bump/resurrect old/useless threads... that'd be great. Time better spent bumping good guides like Crash's.
How do you find these old posts, Charlise? STAHP. lol
 
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