It really depends. Are you the type of person who enjoys shiny hunting in Pokemon? Because looking for specific villagers is like that. I have to admit that I have started to save up Nook Miles Tickets so I can have a good stockpile in hopefully finding Judy down the line. But, I'm also letting myself go on tours every 11th ticket because I enjoy going on tours. I also like a lot of villagers and I am more willing to let anyone move in.
Honestly, I would be more likely to hunt for a specific villager personality. But, I would stockpile tickets before doing so to try to give myself a decent chance.
In my experience it has not been fruitful, and now I would rather save up these tickets to just trade for villagers I want - if it's going to take me a collective 50+ tickets to find the villager I want, might as well just trade those tickets off for them, imo.
It does have a certain "gacha" feel to it, if you like rolling your odds for someone you might like! This game has just been REALLY cruel to me with the villagers I find. I went on a quick island hopping spree the other day and wrote down all my encounters, this is what I wasted 8 tickets on:
Before I ended up inviting Roald because I think he's pretty cute (and I was running low on tickets), but definitely not a dreamie. Like... it's not even funny how terrible my luck is, considering I already have more male villagers than I want in my town and the game KEEPS THROWING more at me, and ugly ones at that, imo.
its kind of fun but can feel kind of crazy to go island hopping... i am playing the game kind of naturally in that i don't TT (but i participate in the stalk market). the other night i had 50k nook miles and decided to just hop islands to fill my 10th house, i wanted to hop around until i got one of the 8 new villagers or a favorite. my absolute favorite was audie and i actually got her on like the 13th ticket!!! it felt so rewarding. lol.
Is the pool of villagers you like really small? if so, then maybe you are better off trading for them. But if you have a lot of villagers you like, it is fun to go island hopping. I have become addicted to it, espically since you can end up finding other rewards like hybrids, cool DIY or trantula islands.
personal experience? maybe-ish? i've wasted too much tickets already on my quest to get some villagers that i'd like - i ran across some "good" and "bad" ones, but if you have a certain villager in mind, nothing will stop you from going on a hunt for them, and boy. it stops being funny after you've ran into limberg 3 times and didn't adopt someone you liked 20 islands ago.
