resetting
Note: i do not condone hacking to solve these problems, and will not guide you in the ways to solve them through hacking.
hello there! i've had this game for 2 to 3 years now, and in that time i have reset a lot,
and because of this and because of the need for a reset thread, i decided it'd be a
good plan to make an advice/guide thread for everyone to use and help with!
this guide also contains advice for starting up the game quickly, and getting to
a good, solid position to continue playing as normal as if you didn't reset.
i hope i don't sound like a prejudiced ass, as i'm just trying to help people who are
thinking of resetting have another look at what they have before they destroy it.
do remember that if you are not having fun in your game any more by following
my advice, then please do what will make you happy, as i'm just some kid on
the internet trying to help, and i'm not always full of perfect answers. if you have
any questions or queries, do pm/vm me or post here and i'll try and reply asap.
hope this guide helps you with your worries c:
if you find this helpful, show your appreciation through a bump up!
what is resetting?
resetting is when a player decides that, for whatever reason, their town is not what they want any
more, and so decides to 'reset' said town by erasing their save file and starting a new one.
how do i reset?
to reset your town, after reading below, you will firstly save and quit your game,
then, press a, select a character and go through isabelle's dialogue. when she asks
if you want to get started, tap 'i need help first...', then, tap 're-create the town'.
WARNING: this will delete your save file with no way of getting it again
isabelle will be a bit flustered, explain what resetting means and then ask if
this is what you really want. to reset, tap the second option 'this is what i want'
a bubble will pop up, saying not to touch the power button. if you do press the power button
it will not cancel the reset. isabelle will then say goodbye, "character name" and
the game will load onto the 'press a' screen. select 'new save file' for a new town.
as you can see, it's v. easy to reset, but of course with such an easy way to reset the game,
you might be wondering whether or not to reset: here is where this guide comes in. i'll think
up scenarios which you may fit into, and so can follow my advice (if you want) on whether or
not to reset your file, and if there are any other options for you to follow instead.
should i reset?
for the most part, i'd recommend not resetting. if you're still on your first town,
the bond you make with the layout, name and characters of that town are very hard to recreate,
but let me run through some situations you may be in:
"i don't like my town's layout / map!"
first of all, if this is the only reason you want to reset, i'd recommend not resetting, but
if you fit into more than one of these, i would reset if you have reasoned with my suggestions and
thought it over. if you don't like your town's map, think about why you don't like it. if it's
something like "i can't get to retail easily", then that's quite easily fixable through a bridge.
if it's the "positioning of a public works project", then all (except the caf?, police station and campsite)
can be removed and repositioned, but if it is the caf?, police station or campsite, think again
about the reasoning surrounding that building in particular. if that is "my paths can't get there"
or "it's in the way", then think about using more natural paths that wind and bend around
objects, such as 1 wide paths or clover paths, or move your paths through a different route -
build a bridge in a different place or even have no path near said building at all, and surround
it with a little forest, which is very rustic and natural, and a great plan for hard to reach areas. if
the reason you don't like your map is "the river is hard to work with / annoying!", then you
have a pretty genuine excuse to reset if something else is annoying you, but the use of natural
paths can help with towns that have less than an acre on one side of a river. a few times, i've seen
towns with the "mayor's house in a bad position!", with it blocking several parts of the town.
however, they managed to work around this through a stepping stone path design, which was lovely
and many qr codes for stepping stones can be found on tumblr if you also wish to do the same. if
"rocks / lakes are in the way!", and you have many of them, i'd recommend a winding path
or going for a less blunt path scheme, such as clovers + shells. if your problem is that "x villager
won't move out / their house is in a bad place!", then you can get them out through this guide. i'd also
recommend using plot resetting if you wished in the future. learn about plot resetting through
this guide.
"all my villagers suck / won't move out!"
if this is your problem, refer to this guide for help in getting villagers out quickly.
WARNING: time travelling can cause good villagers to move out, weeds to grow and flowers to die.
"i don't like my town's fruit!"
if you can use connect to the internet with your 3ds, you can travel to other people's towns
and ask if they can give you some fruit that is native to their town! villagers will also occasionally
give you fruit as a reward for completing a task for them, and isabelle gives you a basket of three
fruit for completing her advice on life tasks. if all else fails, you can always buy fruit on the
retail thread on this forum here. If your problem is with the perfect fruit in
your town not being the type you want, then there's not much you can do about that as perfect fruit
from other towns will simply grow as normal fruit when buried in your town if not your native fruit,
and so you have a legitimate reason for resetting (although v. small).
"i don't like my mayor's eyes / face!"
before using this as a reason to reset, try out different face masks, helmets, accessories,
the contacts at the hair dressers and maybe even use a second character (with a good face) as your
main character, and only go onto the mayor character for mayoral duties. be sure to use a face
guide in the future. one can be found here.
"i want my mayor to be a boy / girl!"
firstly, make a second character that is the gender you want your mayor to be, and dress
them how you would dress your mayor if they were that gender. use this character as your main
character and use the mayor character for mayoral duties only. remember in the future that
'cool' means male, and 'cute' means female.
"i don't like my town name / character name!"
if you don't like your character's name, use a second character. however, if it is
your town's name, you're quite stuck. you can, of course, try reinventing the name in your head for
yourself, for instance, imagining a town name of "rosewood" as pink trees, rather than the bland
thoughts you may have in your head. if you can't reinvent it for yourself, post below or pm/vm me
and i'll try and help you out.
"i don't like my town's theme!"]
change it.. what more can i say? get some friends in, and maybe a town landscaper to
help you re-imagine your town. one piece of constructive criticism is better than a million pieces of
praise.
"my town is full of non-hybrids / weeds!"
if it's full of weeds, there are always people looking for towns to pull weeds in for the
badges that you get on your town pass card. if your town is full of non-hybrids, then make a thread
about a non-hybrid giveaway, and let people run around your town picking them up. run over the few
remainders.
"my town's grass has worn away!"
if your grass has worn away, and if it has, tell me your secrets o-e. grass restores super
quickly in this game, so leave your town for a few days or weeks with flowers on the dirt patch that
isn't restoring quickly (remember, there are some patches of dirt that will never fully restore back into
grass).
"i've time-travelled and the log of events is messed up!"
by 'log of events', i mean when you sit down on the big plaza tree (unlocked at day 50 of
play), and the little calendar that appears of people moving in, shops being built, public works
projects being built, all that sort of malarkey. if just public work projects and villagers are in
unrealistic times, destroy the public works project or get the villager to move out and it will
be removed from the 'log'. if it's a building (expansion of nooklings too early, caf? before the
second floor of museum), then you'll just have to either live with that as it isn't as bad and
revered as it was when the game was new, but it is a pretty legitimate reason to reset.
"my dreamie moved out!"
cycle through 16 villagers, then find a thread with them on offer. for a cycling guide, go
to this thread.
WARNING: time travelling can cause good villagers to move out, weeds to grow and flowers to die.
"i / my town was robbed!"
firstly, if you were legitimately robbed of items by someone on this forum, you
should inform a staff member immediately. anyway, this excuse really depends on how
much time it took you to get said items and whether they're reorder-able from the catalogue.
if the stolen items were flowers, then they can be quite easily cross-bred again to make more,
unless the amount is very high (over three inventories worth). if the items are furniture, bells,
clothing then these are very easily obtainable via reordering, or a few hours on the island
catching beetles and sharks, but if they were dlc items then you may not be able to reorder
them. in this case, you may have a legitimate reason to reset if that was all you had, if it is
not, then you should continue with your game as it is not a very big loss, even if it was your
rarest item.
i'm still not sure..
if you're not certain whether you want to reset or not, you should post on this resetting
thread for some more advice, which will probably be way better than my own advice. i
hope that, whatever you choose to do with your town, that you have fun with it and don't
ruin other people's enjoyment of the game for your own pleasure. have a nice day, good luck.
starting out
okay, so you're making the plunge into a new town, and you're a bit confused of what
to do as it's been a long, long time since you were last in this position - here's some advice
for that situation.
on the train
first of all, think long and hard about your town. draft it. design it. what do you want
your third character's basement to look like? that's the sort of detail you should go into,
if you're worried you're going to reset again. firstly, the name of your character.
in my experience, towns with my own name last longer than towns with a name like
"bramble". i feel more connected with my own name than some more suited name
to my theme. you may feel differently, but that's my experience. secondly, you'll need
the town name - i'd recommend quite broad names, like goldmere or fayfall, which can
fit around a lot of different themes, and don't constrict you to a theme like the name
"candy" does. remember to pick a great map. if you don't like them, you can
restart the game by clicking the home button after seeing the four maps and opening it
again to have four more. personally, i like maps that have quite straight rivers, with
very little above the river. think about the little details when you find a map you like. where
will you put the caf?? where will your paths go? is there room for the amount of houses
you want? where will you landscape? will that pond get in the way of any paths you have
planned? little thoughts like this will help you find a town map that will last you for many
many years.
the first day
you arrive in the town. now, if all the villagers are bad, do not feel disheartened. you
can always move them out and get new villagers to move in. and, of course, you only have
a small number of villagers, compared to the 9 or 10 you will normally have in a town.
when picking your house position, try and think about scenery around it. leave at least
three squares in front of your door so you can decorate with trees and bushes if you wish.
houses in front of bottle neck land (thin parts of land that are an access point to a larger
piece of land behind) are a bad idea. will your house block anything in the future?
i'd recommend completing the advice on life tasks that isabelle gives you, you can get
the tool that isn't in the shop that day, a free basket of foreign fruit and a watering can
which are all very useful. i'd recommend paying off your 10,000 bell deposit on the
first day so you can unlock the island as soon as possible. also, buy all of
the items which are in the able sisters and nookling junction if you can, so you can get
different upgrades (kicks, shampoodles, convenience store) as early as possible in the
game. this will allow you to get more items and complete your catalogue quicker. i
would introduce yourself to all your villagers on the first day, too. you can make
money easily by selling your fruit and shells on the beach, then buying a net and fishing
rod for quicker money making. make sure not to sell your perfect fruit!
first week
in the first week, you want to pay off your first mortgage (39,800 bells) to unlock
the island quickly so you can start catching beetles and sharks to get lots of money.
also, you can collect normal flowers from tours on the island for cross-breeding. in the
first week, you should unlock the convenience store (if you buy everything in the shop
all week), the gardening shop and kicks, and be well on your way to unlocking the club,
dream suite and shampoodle's. redd should turn up sometime in the first week.
make sure to only buy the real art, which you can check on this guide.
make sure to donate one bug, fish / deep sea creature, fossil and piece of art
so you'll be on your way to unlocking the museum's second floor when you reach
20 items in the museum. be sure to participate in any events going on that week -
bug tourneys and fishing tourneys are great for early pieces of furniture, and
seasonal event prizes get you a lot of happy home academy points.
in this week, you'll hopefully start breeding flowers in the desired colours for your
town's theme, and planting trees in good places. try making some friends in this
week, or if you have friends already with items you've saved get the items from
them in this week. this will help you speed through the hardships of finding good
furniture and clothing.
in the future..
think of what made you reset this time. if it was something that you caused,
like weeds, non hybrid flowers or bad villagers, then make sure you steer far away
from this in the future. try and keep your town as perfect as possible, and use
your past mistakes as guidance for the future.
what will i have to do again?
[section suggested by red cat, thank you]
if you do decide to reset your town, do mull over that you will have to redo
many, many things. essentially, you will spend a lot of time getting to a stage your
current town is at. you will have to unlock all the public works projects again,
which is a very long process. building upgrades and shop upgrades take a long long
long time, for instance the final upgrade of the nookling's shop. if you care
about your museum, you will have to redo that again, and so that means catching
all the bugs and fish, collecting the artwork from redd's tent and digging
up endless fossils to get to your current stage again. unless you're willing to time
travel a lot, this will be very time consuming and annoying as it will be your
second run through of the same events. also, you'll lose your catalog unless you
transfer every item in it which is very slow and impractical. to collect landscaping
supplies, you will have to spend an age buying them up again, and cannot in the
beginning of the game. finally, if you want emotions, you will have to sit through
endless jokes of shrunks, which are depressingly boring in my opinion. if you
are willing to do all of this, i'd wish you good luck, as it completely passed my mind
and so probably passed yours.
quick fire tips
think about saving items from your previous town with a friend
stay safe: don't keep your items with someone you don't know or trust
try and unlock buildings and public work projects as soon as possible to make it more homely
remember to plan your town out carefully
think before you build the caf?, campsite or police station
consider using thinner paths
leave four spaces in front of your house
don't reset for villagers
acknowledgements
'red cat' forum user
thank you for reading this (if you did), i hope it helped you decide whether or not to reset! if it did help, you could help me out and give this a bump!
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