The Ultimate PWP Unlock Guide

DarkDesertFox

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Hey guys, if you're like me you probably are struggling to complete your town due to not having all the PWP unlocked. I've made a guide combining my findings with other people's findings to create one big helpful guide. Just follow these steps and you'll have all the PWP before you know it! I recommend doing this when you can just leave your 3DS out to check on it while doing something else.

Step 1. Is your villager a morning or night animal? Check the Wiki of their personality to see what time they to go to bed. For example, Apollo is a night animal and goes to bed at 4 AM. I could fast forward until 2 AM where hardly any villagers are outside. This is important because you want as little villagers out as possible if you want to trigger the event for a specific animal.

Step 2. Surround your specified villager with holes to trap them so you know where they are. It's also a good idea to trap the other villagers away from your specified villager so they don't get in the way.

Step 3. Empty your bells on hand! This is very important as villagers will ask you to buy something. Dump all your bells into the ABD, on the floor, wherever. Next, fill your inventory with flowers. Villagers will not buy your flowers from you or ask you to bring an item to another villager.

Step 4. Once you have done steps 1-3, you can move on to the most important phase for this to work. Put on a wetsuit and swim to the bottom corner of your map. I swim to the bottom left for my map, but others may vary. You must wait here 4-5 minutes and then swim back to the shore and find your villager. Sometimes it will not always ping for your specified villager so see if someone else has the event triggered. Also, do not keep your 3DS closed while waiting! It will not register as you being away and your villagers will not trigger an event.

Step 5. Your villager will trigger an event when you go up to him. Knocking out the other events, the main ones left are usually asking you for a nickname, catchphrase, random question, or PWP idea. If they ask you for a catchphrase or nickname, say yes! Even if you aren't going to actually change it, make sure to say yes. I haven't 100% proved if it helps, but I've noticed they don't ask again if you say yes, but will ask again if you say no. I read you can only earn one PWP a day, but you can actually earn multiple PWPs a day. It's just rare and better to fast forward a day and start again. Just make sure no one moves out doing so.

Step 6. Just additional information to keep aware. If villagers aren't pinging with an event, you've probably been playing too long and they'll want to tell you to take a break. Just go and talk to one of them and after they've said that you can go back in the water and wait.
 
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Glad to help! I'll add this in the guide, but I should also mention not to close your 3DS while waiting. It won't register as you being gone and your villagers won't get a ping.
 
This looks to be super helpful, and it's very well written! +1 from me!

Any idea why being off-screen that far (or maybe it's being in the water that does it, and not the distance?) does that?
 
This looks to be super helpful, and it's very well written! +1 from me!

Any idea why being off-screen that far (or maybe it's being in the water that does it, and not the distance?) does that?

Thank you! I have a theory it has to do with the border between the beach and your town. You know how Isabelle refuses to go down to the beach during PWP placement? Or how if a villager is on the beach they don't get a ping? I think once you reach the beach, you've crossed the line past where most of the villagers can find you. I just think swimming to the farthest corner ensures extra security. I honestly haven't tried just waiting on the beach.
 
Question, if you aren't "friends" with your villagers, is it true that they won't give you PWP suggestions?
 
Thank you for this guide! Suuuuper helpful d(・∀・○)

You're welcome!

Question, if you aren't "friends" with your villagers, is it true that they won't give you PWP suggestions?

I think that's false. I hardly interacted with some of the villagers I got PWPs from. You need to have at least greeted them in your town to even have them bring it up though. You might also have to regreet them if you've been away for like a week or longer, but I'm not entirely sure.
 
Question, if you aren't "friends" with your villagers, is it true that they won't give you PWP suggestions?

I don't think that's true. I've had cranky villagers that I've only spoken to once ping me about PWP.

EDIT: oops, too late. :P
 
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No I've had villagers ping me when we're on the beach. I don't think for pwps as of yet, but it's not impossible.

Great write up!
 
No I've had villagers ping me when we're on the beach. I don't think for pwps as of yet, but it's not impossible.

Great write up!

Ah, okay. Yeah, I just assumed they didn't. Thinking back though I actually do think Ava asked me about a nickname idea on the beach. I guess heading to the corner is the best possible spot to maximize distance between you and your villagers.
 
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Yeah, Isabelle doesn't let you to onto the beach simply because the games doesn't let you put any projects there.

The essential part is that your villagers don't see you. Diving is suggested because that's a fail-proof way of getting out of their sight. I don't do that and instead hide on the beach behind some palm trees. Sometimes that doesn't work because the villagers can still see me from the edge of the cliff, so then I go to another nook in my town where they can't see me.
 
Yeah, Isabelle doesn't let you to onto the beach simply because the games doesn't let you put any projects there.

The essential part is that your villagers don't see you. Diving is suggested because that's a fail-proof way of getting out of their sight. I don't do that and instead hide on the beach behind some palm trees. Sometimes that doesn't work because the villagers can still see me from the edge of the cliff, so then I go to another nook in my town where they can't see me.

So it's more about whether they can see you or not? I wonder if there's a limit to how many "AI's" the game will load, and by going away from NPC's and near a bunch of fish/ocean creatures/bugs causes the NPC's to reload their AI, causing them to ping you?
 
Yeah! Definitely the condition is that the villagers can't see you and that you need to be outside on your map (and not on Main Street or in a house). I definitely think the game has been programmed for certain conditions, like OP mentioned how your villagers will tell you take a break once your game has been loaded for a certain while (I don't know how long it is? Maybe half an hour?) and you need to talk to them before being able to try and get them to ping again.
 
Hmm it seems like I need to get lots of cranky villagers so I can increase my chance on getting Japanese/Zen PWP cause it seems like you can't get more than 2 pings from the same villager unless you save and reload the game
 
Can you get more than one PWP a day?

Yeah, but I don't recommend doing so. Fast forwarding a day is probably your best bet. It's uncommon getting multiple PWPs in the same day, but it has happened to me. I can't recall if it was the same villager that gave me two ideas or two different villagers.
 
This is great! Just gonna throw in that I don't get rid of my bells before trying for a ping, but fill up my inventory entirely with bells (just grab them in bunches of 100, so all I have is groups of bells and my tools). Villagers never try and sell me stuff because my inventory's full, and it's easier to clear your inventory afterwards because you can just move them all back to your wallet with your stylus, which is less effort than going around replanting flowers.
 
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