I am sure many of you are going after your dream villagers this week,so I wanted to share a little guide on what has been working for me! This is also a great way to make bells ,or to get rare items! Sorry the post got a bit long, but if you are new to villager trading this is the guide for you!
First Villagers will never move out without telling you first. Even if you jump forward a year they will stay. You can time travel as recklessly as you want,so there is no need to worry about that. There are also no real cons to time traveling as far as weeds and such are concerned. This makes selling villagers a lot less risky than it was in new leaf!
1. How to get started:
First you will need to set your town up properly. You want to put your house,nook shop,and able sisters all by the town square. Then you want to build all the villager homes near the town square as well. This way everyone is close together making it easy to spot villagers who want to move out. Villagers can't cross water unless there is a bridge, nor can they go onto cliffs without a ramp,so hold of on building these if you can. You can move everything except the town square later,so you don't need to fret over how it looks.
2. Daily routine:
Each day you want to quickly run around your town to check for villagers with a "thinking cloud" above their heads. This cloud usually means they are considering moving out. If you don't see a villager with this cloud save and exit. I usually move the clock forward 3 days, I find that this method gets them asking to move the fastest.
If you are interested in collecting items as well(I know I am) then I recommend checking the shops for stuff you want,and checking the beach for a DIY recipe. If the bonus nook mile objectives are east to complete I will sometimes do them as well. If you just want to cycle as fast as possible then don't worry about this.
If Isabelle mentions there will be shooting stars close the game,and change the clock to that night. I recommend everyone at least participate in this as both the star fragments and recipes Celeste gives are highly valuable. If you are short on time just grab the recipe. Your star fragments will be on the beach the next day, so only go forward one day after this event.
Sometimes you need to cycle fast like when your town is full and someone is holding a villager you want that is in boxes. To do this I go about my usual 3 day skips,but I don't mess with any of the shops. When doing this and a villager you want to stay instead asks to move that means no one else will want to move for a while. When this happens I load the game, hear Isabelle's announcement, and then immediately close and change the date again. After doing this about 4 times usually villagers will once again consider moving. If Isabelle says there is someone at the campsite check because about 75% of the time that means someone is considering moving that day.
3. How to sell your villagers:
You can use the Nook's Cranny section of this forum, the New Horizons discord, or the villager trading reddit. I don't find too much success using the reddit, but I have sold a few there. The search functions on all 3 sites are great, just type in the villager you have then direct message the people who posted about wanting that villager. There are some other places, but I have not had much luck with them.
If you need bells then bells is the easiest thing to ask for. A high tier villager easily sells for 2 million+. You mostly want nook mile tickets though as these give you the best chance of finding your dream villagers as well as helping you get those valuable ones in your town to use for trading/selling purposes. I asked for 15+ tickets for high tier villagers, and traded some lower tier ones for 5-10.
4. Which villagers to get from the island, and what they are worth.
Your odds of finding the specific villagers you want while on island tour is pretty slim especially if you only want 10 specific villagers. This means your best bet is taking popular villagers to then sell for nook miles or to trade for who you want.
This tier list is fairly accurate despite it being a bit old: https://i.imgur.com/A8WTzcW.png I would move a few things for sure, but this should give you a good idea of who to go for. If you just keep an eye on the trading forums you will find out who is wanted pretty quickly regardless.
This list is also missing the villagers that got added in the welcome amiibo update,and the 8 new villagers we got in new horizons.
Most of the missing villagers belong in the lower tiers. Off the top of my head Vivian,Dobie,and ketchup are often asked for and sold for high amounts,they are definitely tier 2+. The 8 new villagers can all be traded for any other high tier villager easily. Audie and Raymond are extremely valuable and you can ask for pretty much anything you want for them. Judy is also fairly valuable,but a little behind those two. The other 5 are worth about as much as a tier 1 villager, always take them when you see them!
If you only have a few tickets then take the first tier three+ villager you find. If you have 10+ tickets then I would fish for someone Tier 2+. If you get extremely unlucky turn your miles into tickets.
First Villagers will never move out without telling you first. Even if you jump forward a year they will stay. You can time travel as recklessly as you want,so there is no need to worry about that. There are also no real cons to time traveling as far as weeds and such are concerned. This makes selling villagers a lot less risky than it was in new leaf!
1. How to get started:
First you will need to set your town up properly. You want to put your house,nook shop,and able sisters all by the town square. Then you want to build all the villager homes near the town square as well. This way everyone is close together making it easy to spot villagers who want to move out. Villagers can't cross water unless there is a bridge, nor can they go onto cliffs without a ramp,so hold of on building these if you can. You can move everything except the town square later,so you don't need to fret over how it looks.
2. Daily routine:
Each day you want to quickly run around your town to check for villagers with a "thinking cloud" above their heads. This cloud usually means they are considering moving out. If you don't see a villager with this cloud save and exit. I usually move the clock forward 3 days, I find that this method gets them asking to move the fastest.
If you are interested in collecting items as well(I know I am) then I recommend checking the shops for stuff you want,and checking the beach for a DIY recipe. If the bonus nook mile objectives are east to complete I will sometimes do them as well. If you just want to cycle as fast as possible then don't worry about this.
If Isabelle mentions there will be shooting stars close the game,and change the clock to that night. I recommend everyone at least participate in this as both the star fragments and recipes Celeste gives are highly valuable. If you are short on time just grab the recipe. Your star fragments will be on the beach the next day, so only go forward one day after this event.
Sometimes you need to cycle fast like when your town is full and someone is holding a villager you want that is in boxes. To do this I go about my usual 3 day skips,but I don't mess with any of the shops. When doing this and a villager you want to stay instead asks to move that means no one else will want to move for a while. When this happens I load the game, hear Isabelle's announcement, and then immediately close and change the date again. After doing this about 4 times usually villagers will once again consider moving. If Isabelle says there is someone at the campsite check because about 75% of the time that means someone is considering moving that day.
3. How to sell your villagers:
You can use the Nook's Cranny section of this forum, the New Horizons discord, or the villager trading reddit. I don't find too much success using the reddit, but I have sold a few there. The search functions on all 3 sites are great, just type in the villager you have then direct message the people who posted about wanting that villager. There are some other places, but I have not had much luck with them.
If you need bells then bells is the easiest thing to ask for. A high tier villager easily sells for 2 million+. You mostly want nook mile tickets though as these give you the best chance of finding your dream villagers as well as helping you get those valuable ones in your town to use for trading/selling purposes. I asked for 15+ tickets for high tier villagers, and traded some lower tier ones for 5-10.
4. Which villagers to get from the island, and what they are worth.
Your odds of finding the specific villagers you want while on island tour is pretty slim especially if you only want 10 specific villagers. This means your best bet is taking popular villagers to then sell for nook miles or to trade for who you want.
This tier list is fairly accurate despite it being a bit old: https://i.imgur.com/A8WTzcW.png I would move a few things for sure, but this should give you a good idea of who to go for. If you just keep an eye on the trading forums you will find out who is wanted pretty quickly regardless.
This list is also missing the villagers that got added in the welcome amiibo update,and the 8 new villagers we got in new horizons.
Most of the missing villagers belong in the lower tiers. Off the top of my head Vivian,Dobie,and ketchup are often asked for and sold for high amounts,they are definitely tier 2+. The 8 new villagers can all be traded for any other high tier villager easily. Audie and Raymond are extremely valuable and you can ask for pretty much anything you want for them. Judy is also fairly valuable,but a little behind those two. The other 5 are worth about as much as a tier 1 villager, always take them when you see them!
If you only have a few tickets then take the first tier three+ villager you find. If you have 10+ tickets then I would fish for someone Tier 2+. If you get extremely unlucky turn your miles into tickets.
