How to prevent villager from changing clothes or catchphrases?

[SummerHime]

I read in Crash's absolutely wonderful cycling guide that

after five minutes, the game can trigger two villagers to talk to each other and that can lead to them swapping clothes or catchphrases

Since I am working on a themed town but want to keep villagers original, this is obviously a problem. I am also going to cycle out unwanted villagers, and don't want to spend my time patrolling for any suspicious looking shirts. However, I do need to work outside, so I was wondering if there was a way to prevent this.

- Does walking into a building or main street somehow reset the five minutes countdown?
- Can this happen while my gates are open?
- Can this happen while I have company over?

I would appreciate any input on this

 

[SummerHime]

Bump, anyone?

 

[arbra]

I do not know if any of the things listed will affect the outcome.

my only suggestion is to use Isabelle to report anyone before selling so that should force a change for shirts and catch phrases. If they however display something in their house, then I am not aware of anyway to fix that easily.

You could always wait and fix the outside of the town after you get all of the villagers you want; however, that could take some time and would equate to not fun playing, or lengths of not playing.

Or when you sell, just list that they might not be original - while you might not get top dollar for them, you can at least get something for them.

 

[debinoresu]

catchphrases are much easier to change than clothing/house items. if they ask for a new one, just give them back their old one. its pretty easy, so catchphrases never concerned me as much as clothing/furniture.

as for clothing/house items, the only thing you can really do is send them items, give them to them when requested, or sell it to them. i take a photo of their house once i get them and remember what is where, and when an item is replaced i will buy it and hold it in my inventory and wait to see them in re-tail, and then sell it to them and they usually put the furniture back where it belongs, i have never sold something to a villager in re-tail and had them not put it back where its supposed to be in their home. mailing them furniture usually works as well. (the only thing you cant use with the sending method is fish/bugs. with those you just have to hold it in your inventory and wait for them to ask for it.) as for clothing, i dont bother mailing them clothing bc they might display it in their house instead of wearing it. i simply play the waiting game for them to ask for something new to wear, which unfortunately takes a while, but i hold an original set of clothing for each villager in my closet just in case it happens.

one way to avoid them changing their houses at a faster pace is to fill your re-tail with overpriced fruits at like 999,999 bells so no one will be able to put/buy anything in re-tail. they can still exchange furniture, but it prevents it happening as fast.

 

[Corrie]

Change all your designs at the Able Sisters to umbrellas so they cant use then on themselves.

 

[SummerHime]

Thanks a lot for the help guys!

Yeah, it's mostly the shirt/furniture that worry me. I've done all the methods described in the guide, but I can't prevent them from swapping things unless I do nothing in town =/ I didn't even know they could swap furniture -_- Does this happen often?

I guess I'll have to manually check each villager before selling them to make sure they are still original. I'll try opening my gates and see if it changes anything. Has anyone ever seen villagers swap stuff while visiting somebody's town?

 

[Crash]

Thanks a lot for the help guys!

Yeah, it's mostly the shirt/furniture that worry me. I've done all the methods described in the guide, but I can't prevent them from swapping things unless I do nothing in town =/ I didn't even know they could swap furniture -_- Does this happen often?

I guess I'll have to manually check each villager before selling them to make sure they are still original. I'll try opening my gates and see if it changes anything. Has anyone ever seen villagers swap stuff while visiting somebody's town?

i'm almost 100% sure that they can only change/add furniture if it's a gift from someone else that you're delivering, or if they buy it from retail. (or you send it in a letter, obviously.) so as long as you deny their requests to deliver gifts to other villagers and fill up your retail spots, you should be okay in terms of furniture.

i don't think the conversation thing can happen if the gates are open, but i can't guarantee that. all i know is that your mayor/character being idle (or maybe just out of sight?) for five minutes triggers a conversation between two of them, which doesn't always result in one of them changing anything, but there's probably a 50/50 chance of it. i'm also not completely sure of this either, but if you intervene in their conversation i think it'll keep them from changing stuff too. don't hold me to that, as i'll have to investigate it further, but it's worth a shot. i've found that shirts are usually not too difficult to keep original, but catchphrases can be tricky, and if you'll be actively playing this town and not just cycling, it may be hard to keep those original. they're easy to change, though!

and thank you for your kind words about the guide! <3
​

 

[SummerHime]

i'm almost 100% sure that they can only change/add furniture if it's a gift from someone else that you're delivering, or if they buy it from retail. (or you send it in a letter, obviously.) so as long as you deny their requests to deliver gifts to other villagers and fill up your retail spots, you should be okay in terms of furniture.

i don't think the conversation thing can happen if the gates are open, but i can't guarantee that. all i know is that your mayor/character being idle (or maybe just out of sight?) for five minutes triggers a conversation between two of them, which doesn't always result in one of them changing anything, but there's probably a 50/50 chance of it. i'm also not completely sure of this either, but if you intervene in their conversation i think it'll keep them from changing stuff too. don't hold me to that, as i'll have to investigate it further, but it's worth a shot. i've found that shirts are usually not too difficult to keep original, but catchphrases can be tricky, and if you'll be actively playing this town and not just cycling, it may be hard to keep those original. they're easy to change, though!

and thank you for your kind words about the guide! <3
​

Oh my gosh it's Crash

Thank you very much for replying to my thread, of course your guide is amazing and very well written, it contains all the information one might ever need about cycling

I'm going to test with the gates opened, and maybe also during the time creating a new character, since the villagers seem to just wander around in that case. But I'll probably use it mainly for cycling until I've gotten all my villagers. Thanks for the advice!

 

[lunachii]

i hate when they switch shirts one time i realized that like 5 of my villagers all wore the same shirt X_X gah.. but you can change the clothing in able sisters to umbrellas at least, so they don't go buying those shirts..