Inadvertently adopted villagers?

[elphieluvr]

So I had an empty plot two days ago and did a lot of island hopping, but also did my normal daily visiting of lots of islands of TBT members for trades and socializing. I didn’t find Judy (shocking I know), so I left the plot unfilled figuring I’d see who Nook sold it to, and then boot them with amiibo if I hated them.

Yesterday I saw it got sold to O’Hare. Today when I went to introduce myself, he said he was from an island called Harmony! I don’t remember whose island that was, but I most assuredly never talked to anyone’s villagers to recruit them. I didn’t talk to anyone who wasn’t actively crafting lol. So apparently it’s possible to end up with someone’s animal in boxes if you have an empty plot and no one else recruits them? Am I the last to discover this?

on a side note, did I trade with you and you have an island named Harmony and recently lost O’Hare? Just curious where he came from lol. I visit too many islands to keep track of which is whose!

 

[Kyneria]

That O'Hare is a voided villager then! Those are villagers that moved away and weren't adopted while in boxes so yeah, you can't even talk to them since they won't be in the island.

It's like for example if my Merengue moves away and I don't find who to gift her, next time my friends have an open plot she can randomly move there c:

 

[cloudmask]

yep, that happened to me with mira. got her from island named "rosetta" where i must have traded. most definitely did NOT ask her to move in lol. the game must have picked them up from the other player's void.

 

[juneau]

It's really weird - I understand having visited an island and picking up a villager from their void, but I have a friend who adopted a voided villager of mine and we've 100% never been to each other's islands. We were at a mutual friend's and she had an empty plot, and somehow she picked up my voided villager.

 

[elphieluvr]

Oh that’s fascinating that villagers in the void stay there! A little comforting actually, makes me think they’re in some better place lol. Where they don’t owe Tom Nook money and can sing and play airplane all day long.

 

[voltairenism]

If someone void a character, it's possible someone picks them up just by visiting the island! They probably said something like, they got on a plane and didn't know where jt would take them (although I think this is a lazy dialog but maybe there is something like this), that means the poor thing escaped from the void and ended up on your island haha

 

[Heartcore]

Yeah it happens. I had Katt come from someone's island when I was trading...I was...annoyed to say the least. So I try to always make sure my island is at capacity and avoid visiting other's island or having them visit mine when I'm looking for a villager or have a plot free. My one friend who just got the game continually gets my other friend's villagers since she's always cycling and never happy with her town. Thankfully they're all good villagers but it's still annoying to get an unexpected villager when you'd rather go find one for yourself lol

 

[Bioness]

Oh that’s fascinating that villagers in the void stay there! A little comforting actually, makes me think they’re in some better place lol. Where they don’t owe Tom Nook money and can sing and play airplane all day long.

It can also be a problem. Any characters that are in your void queue and set to move into your island cannot be invited via an amiibo. In my case I had to burn through 3 villagers from various towns before I got Erik, who I couldn't invite via an amiibo. There is also seemingly no way to clear your void besides inviting all the villagers from it.

This can also mean that since the villagers were not adopted, it is possible they are weighted towards being the "unpopular" villagers, meaning you may be more likely to get ones you won't like.

 

[elphieluvr]

Yeah it happens. I had Katt come from someone's island when I was trading...I was...annoyed to say the least. So I try to always make sure my island is at capacity and avoid visiting other's island or having them visit mine when I'm looking for a villager or have a plot free. My one friend who just got the game continually gets my other friend's villagers since she's always cycling and never happy with her town. Thankfully they're all good villagers but it's still annoying to get an unexpected villager when you'd rather go find one for yourself lol

yeah that’s super annoying. But I was 99% sure I would kick out whoever showed up anyway, unless it was Judy. I have amiibos for all my other planned villagers, I just left the plot empty for a day for the fun of island hopping.

in other news, this adopted O’Hare will be in boxes tomorrow (basically the second he’s out of boxes lmao), if anyone wants him. Can’t vouch for whether he was gifted anything or has a new catchphrase though, since he is of unknown provenance.

 

[issh0mans]

i forgot this was a thing until my friend asked me if a dog named mac had lived in my town cause he moved to hers. she said he started talking about Hell (my island) and she had to do a double take lmao​

 

[Venn]

This happened to me with Del. He moved in from another island and I remembered this person actually visited my island and not me visiting theirs. So I learned that it can go both ways that day. Luckily I was able to track her down and asked how he moved out since this was the time of the villager glitches. Luckily though, Del and I are both fine

 

[Mattician]

The day I go searching for a villager on mystery islands, I always turn off wifi before I launch the game.

Not sure if it works 100%. But I haven't had anyone move in from someone else's island before I went searching.