Questions for people who have more than one NL town?

[Bizhiins]

Hello, so I?m looking to start a second town and I?m wondering how exactly it all works before I actually buy a second copy!
1. Do you need to have more than one DS for this to work? I?ve heard that indirectly And I only have one 3DS ~
2. Do you need to buy a digital / cartridge copy for it to work? I currently have a cartridge copy and was looking to buy a second one off eBay.
3. Can one SD card hold more than one town, or do I need to buy a second SD card and interchange for my second town to work?

Side note ~ I just purchased a second 3DS, so I possible I would prefer making this all work on my new 3DS XL instead of having to change DS?s constantly - my current one is falling apart, and it won?t charge correctly!

 

[Bluebellie]

I have two towns and just one ds.
I have one SD card, and two cartridges. When I want to play one town I plug in a cartridge. Then when I want to play the other town , I remove the cartridge and play the other town in the other cartridge. I can?t go from one town to the other though since I don?t have two ds. But if you just want two separate towns, then you just need a ds, an sd card and two cartridges, or a cartridge and a digital copy.

 

[LadyDestani]

It's exactly as Bluebellie says. You don't need two DS's to have a second town and you don't need an extra SD card. You just need two copies of the game and they can both be physical cartridges or you can have one physical and one digital.

The benefit to having an extra DS is that you can visit your other town to trade items, villagers, etc.

 

[DubiousDelphine]

i have kinda emulated 3 towns on my laptop... & 1 is on my 3ds..

You can just have 2 cartridges and swap them around.
Like when i play pokemon, if i want to play another pokemon game i swap the cartridge to the pokemon game i want then i put the other pokemon game away

 

[stitchmaker]

You can play a lot of cartridges on one 3DS. Players that have the old original ACNL digital town can buy the Welcome Amiibo digital game. I have an original digital town and bought the WA digital after reading a post. Both work with no problems.

If you update your main town using the dream suite the dream address changes. Three years ago I moved my main town cartridge to a different 3DS. When I visited the showcase all the houses were gone.

2nd or 3rd tag from your other 3DS should get you a free gift when you visit the showcase. Placing the balloons in the houses will let you buy them when you tag your town again. It cost 600 bells and it's a nice gift for those that don't get streetpassed.
You can tag your 3DS every 8 hours. Make sure to open the town to clear the tag. It helps get the badge faster.

 

[Bizhiins]

That all sounds great! Thank you for sharing! I?m glad to know that I?ll be able to have more than one town. I do have my spare DS if I need to be visiting within my two towns.
A brief update - so I ordered and received my new 3DS in the mail today! I have not received the second game cartridge, so I only have one town saved still.
Today I put the NL cartridge into the new 3DS and my SD card. The system was telling me that I needed to update. I did a system update, but then NL said I needed to update. So I tried to allow it (SD card said there was 756 blocks of open space) and it told me there isn?t enough space on the SD card.
So I went under ?Data Management? and there was nothing - nothing at all - to delete for space. I then put the SD card into my old 3DS and there?s update data displayed there - it must be specifically for that 3DS only? It said about 200 blocks for Pok?mon Super Mystery Dungeon, 400 for Pok?mon Alpha Sapphire, and 2,160 for Animal Crossing: New Leaf. So maybe you guys will be able to help me with this... if I delete the system update data on my old 3DS, is it going to delete my current town on my NL game cartridge or affect my save data? Is there a way that I can delete it on the old 3DS, then update it on the new 3DS without affecting my save data? I really don?t want to lose my town.. however I am willing to delete the Pok?mon data and restart those games if it?s really necessary.

 

[Jessy_Azran]

Hello, so I’m looking to start a second town and I’m wondering how exactly it all works before I actually buy a second copy!
1. Do you need to have more than one DS for this to work? I’ve heard that indirectly And I only have one 3DS ~
2. Do you need to buy a digital / cartridge copy for it to work? I currently have a cartridge copy and was looking to buy a second one off eBay.
3. Can one SD card hold more than one town, or do I need to buy a second SD card and interchange for my second town to work?

Side note ~ I just purchased a second 3DS, so I possible I would prefer making this all work on my new 3DS XL instead of having to change DS’s constantly - my current one is falling apart, and it won’t charge correctly!

There is no such thing as two different towns on one game card. That's called hacked towns and it will get corrupted if caught. Putting extra accessories in the game will get corrupted. Says in the manual.


Having said that, this excludes if you need to share the game with siblings. However, my brother has a separate game card so we can visit each other's towns.


I've got two 2DSes and two games. The SD card theory WILL NOT work! Trust me, it would get too confusing and technically, you are taking up way too much space on your console. That way, if you have two consoles, you have more free space for friend codes!

 

[rhinoo]

what if I bought a new sd card? Would it work the same?

 

[Jessy_Azran]

what if I bought a new sd card? Would it work the same?

It would work, but it would be awfully confusing and actually takes up a lot of space. Just because you have an SD card, doesn't mean the actual console takes up blocks, if you know what i mean. Data is created on both console and SD card.

 

[Peg]

Hello, so I?m looking to start a second town and I?m wondering how exactly it all works before I actually buy a second copy!
1. Do you need to have more than one DS for this to work? I?ve heard that indirectly And I only have one 3DS ~
2. Do you need to buy a digital / cartridge copy for it to work? I currently have a cartridge copy and was looking to buy a second one off eBay.
3. Can one SD card hold more than one town, or do I need to buy a second SD card and interchange for my second town to work?

Side note ~ I just purchased a second 3DS, so I possible I would prefer making this all work on my new 3DS XL instead of having to change DS?s constantly - my current one is falling apart, and it won?t charge correctly!

Most of your questions have been answered by the posts above.

Since you want to use your newest 3DS XL for both of your cartridge towns, I'd recommend you perform a 3DS system transfer.

https://en-americas-support.nintend...orming-a-new-nintendo-3ds-or-new-nintendo-3ds

https://en-americas-support.nintend...ntendo-3ds,-nintendo-3ds-xl,-and-nintendo-2ds

That all sounds great! Thank you for sharing! I?m glad to know that I?ll be able to have more than one town. I do have my spare DS if I need to be visiting within my two towns.
A brief update - so I ordered and received my new 3DS in the mail today! I have not received the second game cartridge, so I only have one town saved still.
Today I put the NL cartridge into the new 3DS and my SD card. The system was telling me that I needed to update. I did a system update, but then NL said I needed to update. So I tried to allow it (SD card said there was 756 blocks of open space) and it told me there isn?t enough space on the SD card.
So I went under ?Data Management? and there was nothing - nothing at all - to delete for space. I then put the SD card into my old 3DS and there?s update data displayed there - it must be specifically for that 3DS only? It said about 200 blocks for Pok?mon Super Mystery Dungeon, 400 for Pok?mon Alpha Sapphire, and 2,160 for Animal Crossing: New Leaf. So maybe you guys will be able to help me with this... if I delete the system update data on my old 3DS, is it going to delete my current town on my NL game cartridge or affect my save data? Is there a way that I can delete it on the old 3DS, then update it on the new 3DS without affecting my save data? I really don?t want to lose my town.. however I am willing to delete the Pok?mon data and restart those games if it?s really necessary.

Note: my following comments may not be relevant to the topic if you perform the 3DS system transfer.

The Welcome Amiibo update will need over 2,000 blocks on your SD card. Deleting your Pok?mon update data will not free enough blocks.

Recommend that you DON'T delete the system update data on your old 3DS's SD card--it can make your current game unplayable and may affect your save data. You should be able to WA-update the 3DS again, but I personally wouldn't risk losing my towns. Recommend completing the 3DS system transfer.

Also, recommend leaving the SD cards in their respective 3DS. The only time I move SD cards is when I am completing a 3DS system transfer.

If you don't want to complete a system transfer, there may be a few more issues. Is your unreceived second game cartridge the original AC:NL or is it the AC:NL WA? If it's the basic AC:NL, you'll be able to update to WA on your newest 3DS and its SD card. If the cartridge is AC:NL WA--the update won't be necessary. If you want to play your original town on your newest 3DS, you'll probably want to get the basic AC:NL cartridge for the WA update prompt.

For what it's worth, I play my multiple towns (all cartridges) on dedicated 3DS systems. Main town is on 3DS #1, towns 2-5 on 3DS #2, and towns 6-8 on 3DS #3. When the WA update became available, I updated all three 3DSs once with one of the towns that I assigned to the respective 3DS (e.g, updated 3DS #1 with main town, updated 3DS #2 with town 3, and updated 3DS #3 with town 6). I can play any of my towns on any of my 3DSs, but I prefer not to do that.

As usual, YMMV.

 

[stitchmaker]

Each time I bought another 3DS I got a larger SD card and micro card for the NEW 3DS. The SD card for each system never got moved to a different 3DS.

The SD card or micro card that comes with the systems are too small if you plan on buying or play games like Pokemon Sun/Moon. Sun and Moon take up a lot of blocks.
The Welcome Amiibo ACNL cartridge was made for players that didn't have enough room on their cards. That game comes with update added.

 

[Bizhiins]

Most of your questions have been answered by the posts above.

Since you want to use your newest 3DS XL for both of your cartridge towns, I'd recommend you perform a 3DS system transfer.

https://en-americas-support.nintend...orming-a-new-nintendo-3ds-or-new-nintendo-3ds

https://en-americas-support.nintend...ntendo-3ds,-nintendo-3ds-xl,-and-nintendo-2ds



Note: my following comments may not be relevant to the topic if you perform the 3DS system transfer.

The Welcome Amiibo update will need over 2,000 blocks on your SD card. Deleting your Pok?mon update data will not free enough blocks.

Recommend that you DON'T delete the system update data on your old 3DS's SD card--it can make your current game unplayable and may affect your save data. You should be able to WA-update the 3DS again, but I personally wouldn't risk losing my towns. Recommend completing the 3DS system transfer.

Also, recommend leaving the SD cards in their respective 3DS. The only time I move SD cards is when I am completing a 3DS system transfer.

If you don't want to complete a system transfer, there may be a few more issues. Is your unreceived second game cartridge the original AC:NL or is it the AC:NL WA? If it's the basic AC:NL, you'll be able to update to WA on your newest 3DS and its SD card. If the cartridge is AC:NL WA--the update won't be necessary. If you want to play your original town on your newest 3DS, you'll probably want to get the basic AC:NL cartridge for the WA update prompt.

For what it's worth, I play my multiple towns (all cartridges) on dedicated 3DS systems. Main town is on 3DS #1, towns 2-5 on 3DS #2, and towns 6-8 on 3DS #3. When the WA update became available, I updated all three 3DSs once with one of the towns that I assigned to the respective 3DS (e.g, updated 3DS #1 with main town, updated 3DS #2 with town 3, and updated 3DS #3 with town 6). I can play any of my towns on any of my 3DSs, but I prefer not to do that.

As usual, YMMV.

So I followed your advice and did the system update without deleting the data! It looks like it worked, I played my game and nothing has changed! It didn?t make me do any updates. I will probably save my old DS as a dedicated system like you if I can?t get both games to work.

- - - Post Merge - - -

Each time I bought another 3DS I got a larger SD card and micro card for the NEW 3DS. The SD card for each system never got moved to a different 3DS.

The SD card or micro card that comes with the systems are too small if you plan on buying or play games like Pokemon Sun/Moon. Sun and Moon take up a lot of blocks.
The Welcome Amiibo ACNL cartridge was made for players that didn't have enough room on their cards. That game comes with update added.

Were you able to save your games on the new SD cards, or did you just start over? I was thinking to buy a new SD card but I don?t know how to move the data over. I saw that Pok?mon ultra moon takes up a lot of blocks, and I want to get it but my current SD card definitely doesn?t have enough space for it.

 

[stitchmaker]

When I bought another 3DS I didn't start it up until I put the larger SD card in the system.

Yes you can purchase a larger SD card and move the data over the smaller SD card.
I've done it once with my old 3DS but my husband did it for me. He followed Nintendo instructions https://en-americas-support.nintend...ansfer-data-between-sd-cards-or-microsd-cards.

I paced the floor while he did the transfer and everything worked out. I kept the old SD card just in case anything went wrong. That old 3DS had a digital town on it and I would have been upset if I lost everything.
For Sun/Moon and other Pokemon games buy a larger SD cards because they take a lot of space. The largest you can go to is 32.

Try google for youtube video showing you how to transfer. Also if you are concerned phone Nintendo and they will walk you thru the steps or answer any of your questions.

 

[Bizhiins]

When I bought another 3DS I didn't start it up until I put the larger SD card in the system.

Yes you can purchase a larger SD card and move the data over the smaller SD card.
I've done it once with my old 3DS but my husband did it for me. He followed Nintendo instructions https://en-americas-support.nintend...ansfer-data-between-sd-cards-or-microsd-cards.

I paced the floor while he did the transfer and everything worked out. I kept the old SD card just in case anything went wrong. That old 3DS had a digital town on it and I would have been upset if I lost everything.
For Sun/Moon and other Pokemon games buy a larger SD cards because they take a lot of space. The largest you can go to is 32.

Try google for youtube video showing you how to transfer. Also if you are concerned phone Nintendo and they will walk you thru the steps or answer any of your questions.

That?s really good advice, thank you! I?m going to attempt doing that, and we?ll see how it goes!
Did you just keep your old digital town on your new SD card and didn?t start a new town on it? Wondering if it?s possible to start a new town on the SD card first before performing the transfer.. I?m really glad yours worked out, you never want any of your hard work to go to waste! It?s basically part of your life haha

 

[stitchmaker]

Yes the digital game got moved along with all information from the SD card. All other game data, friend codes and anything on the old SD card got moved to the new SD card.

After the transfer the digital town was all there and didn't lose anything. So it's the old digital town and not a new town.

I kept the old SD card for a little while to make sure everything was working. After that I gave my husband the old SD card to use for another device.

 

[Jessy_Azran]

I'm really annoyed that in New Horizons, we are not allowed to use more than one console on an island, like we can do this SD card on New Leaf. My brother and I were looking forward to sharing the game card, and it seems like we will be sharing the console, which is not fair if we both want to play it at the same time! It's fine with Yoshi, but I'm just bummed. I'll talk it through my bro, I think I'll be allowed the island until my bro will be able to save up money. I can earn an income, but my bro's still in high school.

 

[Bizhiins]

I'm really annoyed that in New Horizons, we are not allowed to use more than one console on an island, like we can do this SD card on New Leaf. My brother and I were looking forward to sharing the game card, and it seems like we will be sharing the console, which is not fair if we both want to play it at the same time! It's fine with Yoshi, but I'm just bummed. I'll talk it through my bro, I think I'll be allowed the island until my bro will be able to save up money. I can earn an income, but my bro's still in high school.

Really? So will you have to buy a second console to be able to play together? And if you each want your own town, you?ll have to buy a second one as well?
That sucks if that?s the case.

 

[Jessy_Azran]

Really? So will you have to buy a second console to be able to play together? And if you each want your own town, you’ll have to buy a second one as well?
That sucks if that’s the case.

Yeah, I heard the news on Animal Crossing World blog, which can be accessed at the top of the forum.