Guide: keep all of your villagers even if you haven't played for months

[pocky]

I don't know if this has been posted before. But I came up with an idea on how to keep all villagers even after having gone without playing for months. I figured this out on my own, but it's a pretty generic idea so I'm pretty sure that other people have also figured it out on their own.

NOTES:
- This guide requires the use of time traveling.
- Read everything carefully and follow instructions as close as possible. Failure to properly follow instructions could result in the loss of villagers.
- If this guide seems familiar it is because I have already posted it before on my tumblr
- The dates on the guide are just examples. Don't input those exact dates, input dates that correspond with your situation.
- If anything is still unclear you may post your questions here.

now on to guide...
Try to keep a swapnote/note/whatever with your last play date. example, if you last played on December 31st, 2013 write a swapnote/note/whatever with: 12/31/2013. (If you haven't done this yet that's okay, you can still keep your villagers without knowing the date, it'll just be more difficult and time consuming)
EDIT: As jolokia pointed out, you can still check your 3DS activity to see your last play day even if you haven't written down a note. I still recommend writing it down anyway though, just in case that you're somehow playing on a different 3DS or in case of an accident.

Step 1. Never start the game with your mayor or with any other character after being away from the game for a long time. Always start with a new character. Take a look at the map once you enter the town and try to figure out if any villagers are missing.

If no villagers are missing and you've been gone from the game for over a week: close the game and restart it with your mayor.

Example:

• you start the game on 1/18/2014 with a new character and notice that all of your villagers are still there.
• you quit without saving and then start the game with your mayor. all is good.

If no villagers are missing, but you've only been gone for a week or less: all houses are there, but it might be because one of the villagers is already in boxes. don't close the game, keep playing as a new character. as soon as you leave the station check your villager's houses one by one. if smoke is coming out of the chimney go into their house, if there isn't any smoke move on to the next house. check the houses of every villager that you care about.

if the villagers that are inside of their houses are just chilling:

• you start the game on 1/18/2014 as a new character and notice that all villagers are there. but you wonder if any of them are in boxes so you decide to investigate.
• you run out of the station and check every house. out of the ten villagers in your town only marshal, stitches, and beau are inside of their homes. none of them are in boxes.
• you close the game without saving and start as your mayor.

if one of the villagers is in boxes:

• you start the game on 1/18/2014 as a new character and notice that all villagers are there. but wonder if any of them are in boxes so you decide to investigate.
• you run out of the station and check every house. out of the ten villagers in your town only marshal, stitches, and beau are inside of their homes. beau and marshal are fine, but stitches is all packed.
• you quit the game without saving and change the 3ds clock to a day before (in this case 1/17/2014) you start the game as your mayor, find stitches and convince him to stay.
• you save the game. return to settings and change the 3ds clock back to the original date. start the game as your mayor and all should be good.

If a villager is missing & you remember your last play day: first check your 3ds activity, it'll tell you your last play date. if you find it continue the steps on the section above this one. if your 3ds activity somehow glitched then continue the steps on this section.

close the game and set the clock back to your last play day. Find the villager whose house was missing and talk to them until they agree to stay. Save and quit. Set the date back to the real date and start the game as you normally would.

Example:

• current date is 1/18/2014, but you haven’t played since 12/31/2013. when you started the game on 1/18/2014 with a new characteryou noticed that stitches’ house was missing.
• you quit the game without saving, go on settings and change the 3ds clock back to your last known playday: 12/31/2013.
• you save the settings, start the game as your mayor and search for stitches. he tells you that he wants to move away, you ask him to stay and he agrees.
• you save and quit the game. return to settings and change the 3ds clock back to the real date: 1/18/2014.
• you save the settings and start the game with your mayor, now you can continue on your adventure without losing any of your villagers.

If a villager is missing, but you don’t remember your last play day: close the game and try to remember which month you last played on. go back to the last day of that month and start with a new character, if the villager is still missing quit the game without saving and keep going back a day or two at a time with a new character until you finally see the character’s home in the map. just to make sure, set the clock back another day and with a new character make sure that the house is still there. then quit the game without saving, start it with your mayor and convince the villager to stay. once you do so you may set the clock back to the real date and play as you normally would.

Example:

• current date is 1/18/2014, but you haven’t played since sometime in november, 2013. you start the game on 1/18/2014 with a new character only to find that stitches is missing and quit the game without saving.
• you set the 3ds clock to 11/30/2013, save the settings and quit then start the game with a new character only to find that the villager is still missing.
• you quit without saving and this time change the 3ds clock to 11/29/2013. when you go in the game the character is still missing and so you quit without saving.
• you keep repeating this process until finally on 11/14/2013, the house is still there. but since the house was not there on 11/15/2013, it most likely means that although the villager’s house is there, it is probably in boxes. so you quit without saving.
• you change the 3ds clock another time, this time to 11/13/2014. you start the game with your mayor, find stitches and ask him to stay, he agrees.
• you save the game and quit then set the 3ds clock back to 1/18/2014.
• you save the settings and start the game with your mayor, now you can continue on your adventure without losing any of your villagers.

 

[Kammeh]

Very helpful, thank you!

 

[SuperAwesomeSauce]

Tis a thing of beauty that thee has shared T u T

 

[jolokia]

Or you could just check your 3DS activity stats to find out the date you last played - but yeah, everything else here is good

 

[pocky]

Or you could just check your 3DS activity stats to find out the date you last played - but yeah, everything else here is good

I didn't know that! Thank you, time to edit my post

 

[cheezu]

I also read that if you stop a villager from moving, you can just shut off the game for as long as you want with no one moving out in the meantime. I haven't personally tried it myself but could anyone confirm this?

 

[pocky]

I also read that if you stop a villager from moving, you can just shut off the game for as long as you want with no one moving out in the meantime. I haven't personally tried it myself but could anyone confirm this?

Sorry, you are correct. I misread

 

[mayorseraphina]

I appreciate this and will keep this link on my favourites whenever I go off Animal Crossing for a long time. Thank you!

 

[boorah]

It doesn't work.

Whenever you start the game there is a possibility that a villager will want to move out. If no villager was planning on moving when you last played the game then you could go without playing for years and nobody will move out. As villagers can't set a move date if you're not playing the game.

But if a villager already made up their mind about leaving and you somehow missed the ping then go without playing for a long time their house will be gone next time that you play if it is past their move date.

Right, but what Cheezu is saying is if a villager has just pinged you and asked to move, and you told them to stay, then you could save and quit right then and all your villagers would be perfectly fine even if you don't play again for months. Since only one villager can wish to move at a time, if you've JUST convinced one to stay, then none of you're villagers will be thinking of moving when you save and quit. Safety! This works by the way.

 

[lilylily]

this is very helpful - i'll keep this in my bookmarks. thanks for sharing <3

 

[pocky]

Right, but what Cheezu is saying is if a villager has just pinged you and asked to move, and you told them to stay, then you could save and quit right then and all your villagers would be perfectly fine even if you don't play again for months. Since only one villager can wish to move at a time, if you've JUST convinced one to stay, then none of you're villagers will be thinking of moving when you save and quit. Safety! This works by the way.

Oh! Yes, I misread >__<
She is correct, which is why my method works, once you convince them to stay you could go months, years, centuries without playing and all will be fine (except for weeds, of course.)

 

[VioletsTown]

Very helpful, thanks!

 

[Imstillyourzelda]

This is really informative; I've saved it! Thank you so much for sharing! ^-^

 

[Gizmodo]

This is amazing
i knew about being able to quit after preventing one from moving, and not going on for months, and no-one would have gone but the rest i didnt so thanks!

 

[Oblivion9312]

There is a way to prevent villagers from moving without time travel... I just got back from a long (5 months) trip to Kalos for mayoral business and still had all of my villagers.

All you have to do is get a villager to ping you and ask to move. If you tell them yes they'll go ahead and leave and no one else will try to move until the next time you load the game. However, it works the same if you tell them not to move. After a villager asks to move no one else will try to move until the next time you load the game regardless of whether you let the first villager move or not.

 

[momayo]

This is great! I really like the fact that it's well-written, has proper formatting, and has case scenarios for different situations. I'm doing something already very similar, but I always do keep forgetting to check inside their houses. :T

I'm definitely bookmarking this thread to read again if I get back to heavy TTing D:

edit/add: The No-TT method also works extremely well, but pocky's method is the best for cases when you had to stop playing unexpectedly. (Maybe you got sick; or had to go on holiday without your DS; or just plain forgot).

 

[Zanessa]

This is great.
Too bad it only works if you have an open slot for a new character. (heavy sigh)

 

[pocky]

There is a way to prevent villagers from moving without time travel... I just got back from a long (5 months) trip to Kalos for mayoral business and still had all of my villagers.

All you have to do is get a villager to ping you and ask to move. If you tell them yes they'll go ahead and leave and no one else will try to move until the next time you load the game. However, it works the same if you tell them not to move. After a villager asks to move no one else will try to move until the next time you load the game regardless of whether you let the first villager move or not.

Yes, but this is a method to use when you weren't pinged on your last play day

 

[Gummysaur]

I'm pretty sure once a villager is gone, TTing backwards wont bring them back. When Lionel asked to move I TTed him out then went back to the original date and he was still gone.

Great guide nevertheless!

 

[pocky]

I'm pretty sure once a villager is gone, TTing backwards wont bring them back. When Lionel asked to move I TTed him out then went back to the original date and he was still gone.

Great guide nevertheless!

this guide works by identifying which villager plans on leaving before they move/pack their boxes. since you're starting the game with a new character and quitting without saving the game won't register that the villager has left. then once you travel back in time to a time where the villager is still there you can convince them to stay :3
however, if you enter the town with your mayor/a preexisting character then there is nothing that you can do as the game will register that villager as gone even if you quit without saving.