[Guide] Cycling & Cycling Towns ➝ (UPDATED 12/6/16)

[SlipStitch626]

If I have 3 (maybe more) anchored villagers, would you recommend reseting a cycling town?

 

[SilkSpectre]

I suggest having a section on getting a second cartridge or downloading a digital copy as your second. I'm going to buy my second copy now but I'm so paranoid it's going to save over my original town or something. If I have 2 physical copies, they just both save to their own cartridges right? Edit: I just found my question in the FAQ so it's there at least so maybe not as necessary.

 

[Crash]

If I have 3 (maybe more) anchored villagers, would you recommend reseting a cycling town?

yeah, that may be the best idea unfortunately :c it is possible to get them all to move eventually, but it's a pain to do and it has a tendency to take awhile.

I suggest having a section on getting a second cartridge or downloading a digital copy as your second. I'm going to buy my second copy now but I'm so paranoid it's going to save over my original town or something. If I have 2 physical copies, they just both save to their own cartridges right? Edit: I just found my question in the FAQ so it's there at least so maybe not as necessary.

that's a good idea, I'll have to get started on that! yes, each physical game saves to the cartridge, so you have nothing to worry about. only the digital copy saves to the 3ds/sd card, and that can only ever be lost if the save corrupts or if you reset your ds or something.

 

[SlipStitch626]

yeah, that may be the best idea unfortunately :c it is possible to get them all to move eventually, but it's a pain to do and it has a tendency to take awhile.

Okay. Thank you. I lost an anchored Marina last time I tried to unanchor that many.

 

[SilkSpectre]

that's a good idea, I'll have to get started on that! yes, each physical game saves to the cartridge, so you have nothing to worry about. only the digital copy saves to the 3ds/sd card, and that can only ever be lost if the save corrupts or if you reset your ds or something.

Awesome ok got my second physical copy/cartridge so I think I'm good to go to start learning TT and cycling. Good to know I have nothing to worry about. TY!

 

[Crash]

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[Crash]

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[moonbunny]

Thank you for writing this guide. I've been using it for my cycling and it's been a huge help

 

[Crash]

Thank you for writing this guide. I've been using it for my cycling and it's been a huge help

glad i could help :')

 

[SilkSpectre]

Bump

 

[SilkSpectre]

Bump

 

[SilkSpectre]

So my 2nd cartridge had someone's old game in it so I thought I'd practice on it before making my own town. I was doing too many days at a time I believe. She had 8 villagers so I skipped ahead by 5. One villager moved out. Then I'm going day by day and have had a move in to get 9- do I just keep going day by day now? Idk how she managed 8 when my main town is always full at 10.

Also will villagers ping you if you've never met them/talked to them even? I see cycling thread owners say they never talk to their villagers so they guarantee they're all original. If you start a town from the beginning, how can you avoid talking to villagers? In this town, I talked to Coco only a couple times and she changed her shirt.

Edit: I just noticed Coco's shirt was one from Able sisters. So ofc one of the first things I need to do would be change manicans in their store. I'm learning! lol

 

[moonbunny]

So my 2nd cartridge had someone's old game in it so I thought I'd practice on it before making my own town. I was doing too many days at a time I believe. She had 8 villagers so I skipped ahead by 5. One villager moved out. Then I'm going day by day and have had a move in to get 9- do I just keep going day by day now? Idk how she managed 8 when my main town is always full at 10.

Also will villagers ping you if you've never met them/talked to them even? I see cycling thread owners say they never talk to their villagers so they guarantee they're all original. If you start a town from the beginning, how can you avoid talking to villagers? In this town, I talked to Coco only a couple times and she changed her shirt.

Edit: I just noticed Coco's shirt was one from Able sisters. So ofc one of the first things I need to do would be change manicans in their store. I'm learning! lol

Go day by day until Isabelle tells you that one of your villagers is moving. Then you can start cycling the way the guide describes.

Also, 8/9 villagers is the "normal" set amount. At 8 villagers, a 9th will eventually move in on their own; at 9 villagers, one will eventually ask to move out. The 10th villager spot is saved for campsite invitees or villagers you get from other people, either through trades or streetpassing or whatever.

A villager probably won't ping you if you've never talked to them.

When I started my cycling town, I think I only talked to my starting villagers one time each. I just ignored them after Isabelle's tutorial was over.

 

[SilkSpectre]

Go day by day until Isabelle tells you that one of your villagers is moving. Then you can start cycling the way the guide describes.

Also, 8/9 villagers is the "normal" set amount. At 8 villagers, a 9th will eventually move in on their own; at 9 villagers, one will eventually ask to move out. The 10th villager spot is saved for campsite invitees or villagers you get from other people, either through trades or streetpassing or whatever.

A villager probably won't ping you if you've never talked to them.

When I started my cycling town, I think I only talked to my starting villagers one time each. I just ignored them after Isabelle's tutorial was over.

Bless you, Moon! I've been struggling to learn this for a few hours now lol but think I'm getting it. Okay so that explains how Ankha is my 10 and yeah I got her from the villager trading plaza. Ok,so I just have to make sure to talk to villagers once (and have the able sister patterns swapped out lol). Ok so I'll always have 9 in my town unless I invite a camp villager in my cycle town or someone comes over with a villager in their void.

So go day by day til I get to a boxes day. I want to practice a bit before I delete this town. I thought about selling any that come up but I can't be sure of the originality of any of their houses and now Ankha and Coco have changed shirts so I think I'll wait to sell/trade to my own town when I restart this one.

 

[lizasaur]

I have a question about the 16 Villager Cycle.

Avery just moved out. I am devastated and confused... we had a very high friendship, he didn't ping me, no one I talked to warned me, I send him (and all my dreamies) letters with perfect fruit atleast once a week, and talk to everyone so many times a day they're like "wow i'm seeing you alot" or whatever .-. Meanwhile Erik and Paula are still here and I literally don't talk to them at all or send them anything... since I joined here, I think .-.

16 villagers from now... will he move back in? Will it be "him", will he remember me and the town, or will it be like, from ground zero?

The same question also applies to Boone. I haven't seen him in any cycling threads and I'm thinking the only way I'll get him back is if he moves back in somehow

But also, what about adopted villagers? Some of them have moved into less than ideal locations, and I'm toying with the idea of letting them leave just to get them back... after 16 villagers. Would they be in the "void" or whatever and pop up on Main Street, then move back in on their own?

If so, how do you plot reset like that? >_>

 

[moonbunny]

Bless you, Moon! I've been struggling to learn this for a few hours now lol but think I'm getting it. Okay so that explains how Ankha is my 10 and yeah I got her from the villager trading plaza. Ok,so I just have to make sure to talk to villagers once (and have the able sister patterns swapped out lol). Ok so I'll always have 9 in my town unless I invite a camp villager in my cycle town or someone comes over with a villager in their void.

So go day by day til I get to a boxes day. I want to practice a bit before I delete this town. I thought about selling any that come up but I can't be sure of the originality of any of their houses and now Ankha and Coco have changed shirts so I think I'll wait to sell/trade to my own town when I restart this one.

It takes a while to get the hang of it, so no worries Also, when you do start cycling properly, you don't have to talk to any villagers at all. When I cycle, I pretty much just open the game, run to the campsite, save+quit, and change the date. Rinse and repeat.

 

[SilkSpectre]

It takes a while to get the hang of it, so no worries Also, when you do start cycling properly, you don't have to talk to any villagers at all. When I cycle, I pretty much just open the game, run to the campsite, save+quit, and change the date. Rinse and repeat.

Awesome! ok ty for clarifying that. Now that you've talked to Coco and claimed her it's okay for me to keep cycling right? She's like loaded onto your game now to show up tomorrow, correct?

Also I did the cycle again and now I just have a new villager so 9. Peggy pinged to move then changed her mind so I guess I just return to day by day until someone is in boxes?
Edit; Actually I think I should've kept doing the cycle because 5 days from then I would have had someone else in boxes? I'll have to try that next time

 

[Crash]

I have a question about the 16 Villager Cycle.

Avery just moved out. I am devastated and confused... we had a very high friendship, he didn't ping me, no one I talked to warned me, I send him (and all my dreamies) letters with perfect fruit atleast once a week, and talk to everyone so many times a day they're like "wow i'm seeing you alot" or whatever .-. Meanwhile Erik and Paula are still here and I literally don't talk to them at all or send them anything... since I joined here, I think .-.

16 villagers from now... will he move back in? Will it be "him", will he remember me and the town, or will it be like, from ground zero?

The same question also applies to Boone. I haven't seen him in any cycling threads and I'm thinking the only way I'll get him back is if he moves back in somehow

But also, what about adopted villagers? Some of them have moved into less than ideal locations, and I'm toying with the idea of letting them leave just to get them back... after 16 villagers. Would they be in the "void" or whatever and pop up on Main Street, then move back in on their own?

If so, how do you plot reset like that? >_>

first off, I'm sorry you lost Avery :c unfortunately I had the same thing happen to me with Mira not long ago, and I still don't know how I managed to miss five days worth of opportunities for a ping or another villager rumor.

to answer your question, no, it will not be the same Avery when you adopt him after the sixteen villager cycle. your Avery will be long gone, voided and eventually erased from your game's memory (or he may end up in another town if someone has visited you recently/you visited them). when you've finished cycling out sixteen villagers, you'll need to adopt a different Avery from someone else.

and if you lost boone in the same way, the same rule applies. after sixteen other villagers have moved out, you can adopt him from either the campsite or someone else and he will be able to move back in. and then you plot reset the same way you always would, as you'll be fully aware of when he moves in. sadly, the only way to get YOUR original Avery/Boone would be if someone adopted that specific one from you, held them in their town until you were finished with the sixteen villager cycle, and then you readopted from them. and since it seems like you voided them unintentionally, that's not a possibility unless they ended up in someone's town via your void. :c

and letting go of your recently adopted villagers that moved into bad locations is also doable -- after they leave (whether you void them or let someone adopt them) they will show up on Main Street, but that doesn't really mean anything other than you used to have them, and they're in your game's memory. you can't move anyone back in from Main Street, you can only adopt villagers from the campsite or another town. the game stores (I think?) three villagers at a time in your void, and those are the ones that can be picked up by anyone that comes to your town/you go to their town. but the game stores sixteen villagers at a time in its memory, and that's why you need to do the sixteen villager cycle before you can readopt them -- you're kind of tricking the game into thinking you hadn't had that villager before. there's a link at the end of this guide (I would link you myself, but I'm on mobile and it's hard enough just to post, lol!) that'll give you even more info about how the void works if you need it!

best of luck! <3 although it's tedious, if you love the villagers enough, the sixteen villager cycle is worth it in the end.

Awesome! ok ty for clarifying that. Now that you've talked to Coco and claimed her it's okay for me to keep cycling right? She's like loaded onto your game now to show up tomorrow, correct?

Also I did the cycle again and now I just have a new villager so 9. Peggy pinged to move then changed her mind so I guess I just return to day by day until someone is in boxes?
Edit; Actually I think I should've kept doing the cycle because 5 days from then I would have had someone else in boxes? I'll have to try that next time

sorry I missed your first question! but yes, as soon as someone comes to adopt a villager from you and gets the confirmation that said villager is moving in, you're free to continue cycling. (once someone has adopted a villager, you can always double check by trying to go into that villager's house; if their door says "moved out", that means they're gone and you're good to go!)

for future reference, if you accidentally TT too far and drop to eight villagers, the safest thing to do is just go day by day until Isabelle notifies you of a new move-in. from there you can continue TT'ing day by day until she again notifies you, but this time of a mover. after that, you can resume cycling again. annoying and slow, but fixable. :> if you'd rather play each day instead of immediately save & quit, and find a ping first so you can just skip to their move out day, that works too and can sometimes be a little faster. next time, if the mover changes their mind and decides not to move, just quit without saving & when you load the game, TT right to the date they were due to move out. that way you don't have to repeat that whole process looking for a new mover.

as for the amount of villagers in your town, when you use this cycling method, the game will always even itself out to 9 villagers each time someone is in boxes, even if you adopt from the campsite. if you're using an old town and start at 10 villagers, everything will still run smoothly, you just won't get a new move in the first time!

** also, in regards to talking to villagers: you can essentially play the town as you normally would until you've finished the tutorials/gotten your permit/get your first mover. it's only when you fully begin cycling that you no longer need to talk to villagers, even the new move ins, as it just isn't necessary. if you're using an old town and turning it into a cycling town, I'd recommend talking to each villager maybe once before you begin cycling, just to be safe, although I doubt it makes a difference. if you've already begun cycling, you can literally just cycle and never talk to the villagers or even move around in the town until you're ready to adopt out a villager -- you don't need to talk to them, look for pings, or anything else you might normally do if you're trying to move a villager out. when you do the complete cycle, every time you TT back to your boxes day Isabelle will tell you who's in boxes. you don't need to do anything other than TT the way the guide describes.

 

[Crash]

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[SilkSpectre]

Oh wow ty for that last post. Lots of good info! Cleared up a lot. Now I understand. And when I reset this town, good to know I don't have to stress so hard during tutorial/permit phase. x-)