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[Roobi]

Definitely both. I don't do it very often tbh, but enjoy seeing which villagers will show up when I have a spot, though I never hunt for one specific villager. I also like it for the extra materials, (occasional) foreign fruit, furniture item, type of island etc. I'm always happy when I get a bamboo island, because I like the bamboo diys^^

 

[Croconaw]

Yes, I’ve used a bunch of my tickets for materials. I used to feel bad because people want tickets to find villagers, but now I don’t really care. Animal Crossing is a game meant to be played your way. I have all of my dream villagers so I really don’t have a need for so many tickets. The fact that everyone has tickets now means their value has went down, significantly. I remember when the game first came out, the value of these tickets were different.

 

[VanitasFan26]

Glad I am not the only one that feels this way. If I have to look for villagers after getting empty plot I will try to get materials while I do it, because last year I didn't do much material gathering and I will make sure to get them, before I leave the Nook Mile island to go to the next one.

 

[Xara]

i’ve yet to use my nmt for anything except villager hunting and trading but that’s mainly because i’m honestly too lazy to gather materials, even while villager hunting LOL. despite my laziness, i actually don’t find myself dealing with material shortages very often but i have been thinking about using the mystery islands to stock up on pears (my sister fruit) since i run out of them quickly nowadays.

 

[Halloqueen]

The only residents who I bothered to acquire via the Nook Miles Islands were the initial Lazy, Normal, and Peppy. Because it took me actual weeks to find Tucker despite seeing repeats of the likes of Sherb and Zucker seemingly dozens of times, I swore off engaging with the mechanic for acquiring villagers and turned to scanning in amiibo to get all of my other residents. As such, since basically the first month or so after the game's release, my Nook Miles Island trips have exclusively been to collect materials like wood, stone, iron, etc.

 

[Flicky]

I've used them for villager hunting primarily, but when I first started, I used them for material gathering, too. I also used them to hunt the last insects I needed, because they just didn't seem to spawn on my own island (plus, the trees aren't in a bug-catching-friendly position).

These days, I still use them for both, but more villager hunting with material gathering as a side quest. But the only materials I'm constantly running out of are Hardwood and Gold nuggets...

 

[JemAC]

During the first couple of months of having the game I'd use NMTs for both villager hunting and material gathering but nowadays I solely use them to look for a new villager. I have multiple stacks of each material in the house storage so I generally only collect materials on my own island now when I feel some of the stacks need restocking, also while I really enjoy villager hunting I do find the process of talking to the dodos and going backwards and forwards between my island and a mystery island quite tedious so it makes it easier for me to use the NMTs for villagers only.

 

[_Rainy_]

I used to go to Islands for stuff when I villager cycled for people. I’d charge nook mile tickets and use them to get more materials for cycling. I usually end up taking the first villager I see when Island hopping on the rare occasion that I do go villager hunting recently. But I do get the materials when I do.

 

[Imbri]

I really don't use them anymore, but I should, since I still have to max out my Dodo flight items. I actually took a flight the other day because I'm looking for a few orchid mantis donations for Flick, and it would be easier to pick everything but white flowers on an island.

Of course, I got a rainy island. So, I picked everything, chopped all the trees, and cleared it. At least I made some coin when I got back home.

 

[Imaginetheday]

I use them for both, but I don't have the patience to island hop for more than 10 when I'm villager searching. I do love to use them for materials, however. I'll actually cut down the trees rather than just hitting them, which is strangely satisfying. LOL I will also take whole trees back to my island rather than grow them from saplings. That doesn't work for non-native fruit trees, but otherwise it's great.

 

[Equity]

I do both! I think I've only gone villager hunting a couple of times and used about 40-50 NMTs max, and it wasn't too stressful! Although sometimes I'd get villagers I'd rather not have, I always look forward to seeing which villager I'd find on a mystery island!

I also like to go on mystery islands to collect materials since I find it fun to see which island I'd end up on! I've never been to a hybrid flower island before (the island I'm looking forward to the most), so whenever I do use my NMTs, I always hope that I'll stumble upon it!

 

[Corrie]

I've technically used them for both but I have the Animal Crossing cards so I've just scanned in my favourites. Now I just use them to get materials if I've exhausted my island of them.

 

[Moritz]

I've never been to a hybrid flower island before (the island I'm looking forward to the most),

Sadly that island got removed a long time ago now.

 

[Equity]

Sadly that island got removed a long time ago now.

Oh wow, really? I haven't gone island hopping since November, but it's good to be up to date with the news, so that I don't hope in vain! Tysm for the information!

 

[WaileaNoRei]

I now have a hundred or so amiibo cards, but vastly prefer island hopping (have only used an amiibo once), which I really enjoy. I really like to go to at least 30-40 islands, but since realizing how many villagers i like, and how easy it is to move villagers in and out I can rarely make it to more than 10 islands without inviting someone (I was lucky enough to find Tabby, my favorite villager after only 9 tickets, before I even set about purposely hunting for her). It is definitely my favorite and most common use for NMT.

as others have mentioned, mystery islands are also great for fishing and catching bugs. The spawn rate seems much more favorable there, and it has been a relatively stress free way to catch fish that I have not been having luck catching on my island, like the string fish and some of the beetles in the summer (even on the non- specialized beetle island, though the hardwood island are the best for this.)

early in the game I liked being able to get materials like iron from mystery island, made it much easier to build up my stock. These days I rarely need to stockpile materials though.

 

[RollingAntony]

Both, and also for grinding color variations of furniture and to reach the 300 flights for the Dodo rewards.

Looking to visit a lot of them now that scorpions are back, to see if I can reach Gold Nugget Island as I'm lacking gold.

 

[Nefarious]

I use to island hop for materials, but after I started regularly time traveling, I've saved all my NMTs purely for villager hunting. Still haven't found Cyd yet haha.

 

[Violet Witch]

I haven't used NMT a lot until recently when I went looking for the bamboo island as I'd run out of them on my island, instead I found a DIY message bottle on one of the mystery islands. I then started using more NMT to hunt out more DIY message bottles even though your not guaranteed to find one every single time. However I did manage to find three bottles in a row with DIY's I didn't have and will do so every now and then for the foreseeable as a way to collect more outside of my own island.

 

[KittenNoir]

I mostly use my tickets to gather materials which I haven’t done in a while so thanks for reminding me hahaha but I want to start using the tickets for islander exploring

 

[Dunquixote]

I used to just use my tickets for villager hunting but now that I’m pretty short on tbt, I started to use them to go farm for some materials. I haven’t been playing much lately so will need to earn more miles first before I can do that again.