Village Hunting Frustration

[Valzed]

I really wanted an original, "I found him all by myself on a villager hunt" Cyd. I've seen so many posts of people who have had a fun time villager hunting and how happy they were when they found who they were looking for. I normally move villagers in with Amiibo cards so I haven't done much villager hunting. I wanted to have that fun villager hunting experience for myself so when Octavian asked to move I let him go and got excited to start my villager hunt for Cyd. I've been hunting for Cyd for 1 week and 3 days. (I normally don't TT so having to keep resetting the date and time on my Switch has frazzled my nerves. Even though I know TTing is totally safe in NH I'm still a big chicken about it since I had a terrible experience in NL.) So far I've spent 560 NMTs and countless hours trying to find Cyd on Mystery Islands. Yesterday I posted about this in a FB group that I'm in and was told by another member about the MIQ, "move in queue". (I know this has been a known thing for some time but I don't move a lot of villagers in and out so I hadn't heard of it.) This morning I did more research on MIQs and found out there's no way to know who is in them without letting the villagers autofill. Well, H**l.

Since I've already invested so much time and effort into hunting for Cyd I started wondering about my actual statistical chances of finding Cyd on a villager hunt if he WASN'T in my MIQ. I did some research on villager rarity while villager hunting and I found a post with a formula to help figure out your chance of coming across a certain villager. For Cyd my chances are 1 in 455 - IF he's not trapped in my MIQ. Now I've spent more than 455 NMTs already but on many islands I've found villagers I had already encountered - some many times. (I've seen Sherb 6 times - 6. Worse yet? I've seen Octavian 4 times) I have no clue if running into some villagers multiple times means I haven't actually hit 455. (If any one knows whether running into villagers more than once effects villager rarity, please let me know.)

I don't know if I should keep villager hunting for Cyd or not. There's a possibility that he's in my MIQ and he'll never show up on a Mystery Island for me during this particular villager hunt. There's also a possibility that even though I've gone on more than 455 hunts that I haven't run into Cyd yet because of encountering other villagers multiple times. I'm wondering if I should keep villager hunting until I reach multiples of 455 (455x2=910, 455x3=1365, etc).

I'm mentally tired from this villager hunt and now I'm really bummed out that to learn that all I've done so far might have been for nothing because Cyd might be in my MIQ. Or is he? Maybe he's still out there on a Mystery Island waiting to be found? I wish Nintendo would just release Amiibo cards of the 8 new villagers and 4 new NPCs - especially now that ACNH has been out for over a year.

What would you do? Would you keep hunting? Would you take the time to let villagers move out hoping Cyd is in the MIQ and will eventually move in? (Who knows how long this option would take.) Would you just try to buy an ungifted Cyd from someone? (This could also take some time as I've checked a couple of different places and haven't been able to snag an ungifted Cyd yet.)

​

Here's a link to info on "move in queues" and "move out queues": Animal Crossing Move-In & Move-Out Queue Guide

Here's a link to the post with the formula to figure out village rarity while villager hunting: Chances Of Finding A Certain Villager While Villager Hunting

UPDATE - Big super duper huge thank you to @Sharksheep for helping me get my Cyd! By letting me adopt Cyd Sharksheep also helped me by letting me end this maddening villager hunt. Not only was it a joy to see Cyd on my island, it was a joy to start a brand new day and really start enjoying ACNH again.

 

[Firesquids]

Oof that sucks, I went in over 400 tickets in my search for Judy before she showed up. I know you can increase your chances of finding a specific villager personality if you don't have anyone with that same personality already in your town, if you have and crankys try kicking them out maybe?

 

[Moritz]

Oof that sucks, I went in over 400 tickets in my search for Judy before she showed up. I know you can increase your chances of finding a specific villager personality if you don't have anyone with that same personality already in your town, if you have and crankys try kicking them out maybe?

This only applies to the campsite
For mystery islands this does not affect who shows up.

However, you can change the odds of mystery islands in your favour by moving in villagers of the same species as the villager you are hunting.

As the way mystery islands work is they select a species, and then a villager from that species.

So in the case of Cyd, If the players island has multiple elephants living on it, after the mystery island selects elephants, it will have a smaller pool of elephants to chose from.

 

[JKDOS]

I know you can increase your chances of finding a specific villager personality if you don't have anyone with that same personality already in your town

This is only true for the campsite, which I think might be better than using NMTs since a villager cannot show up more than once until all the others have shown up once. The pool is always shrinking, whereas NMT islands give the same chance every time. You have to win the roll for species, and then the roll for villager of all in that species.

In the campsite, with Raymond for example, after the campsite is built, and you have all personalities except a smug, there is a 50% chance of the camper being a smug, and a 1/33 chance it's Raymond. The 1/33 chance continues to diminish every time it's a Smug other than Raymond.

Spoiler

Removing Toby, and the forced smug at the start of the game. There are 33 possible smugs who can appear in the campsite from the start.

After every successful 50% roll on Smug personality, your odds of finding Raymond are

# of previous Smugs in Camp/Town	chance for your desired smug
1	3.03%
2	3.13%
3	3.23%
4	3.33%
5	3.45%
6	3.57%
7	3.70%
8	3.85%
9	4.00%
10	4.17%
11	4.35%
12	4.55%
13	4.76%
14	5.00%
15	5.26%
16	5.56%
17	5.88%
18	6.25%
19	6.67%
20	7.14%
21	7.69%
22	8.33%
23	9.09%
24	10.00%
25	11.11%
26	12.50%
27	14.29%
28	16.67%
29	20.00%
30	25.00%
31	33.33%
32	50.00%
33	100.00%

 

[Etown20]

I went through something similar recently looking for a villager. I only did 100 tickets over the course of 2 days, which was enough to burn me out on the process of island hopping. For me personally, when it takes that long, I feel like there are more enjoyable ways to spend my time than to keep looking. I would much rather be spending that time doing other things in the game or playing another game.

I eventually found the villager on Nookazon, albeit quite gifted. I've come around to not minding gifted villagers though, so for me the trade-off was worth it just so I wouldn't have to spend any more time looking.

 

[Disneyfangirl23]

I just save up for lots of nook miles tickets before I do any hunting but hopefully I’ll find my cute dreamies

 

[Serabee]

Ugh, I feel your frustration. Villager hunting can be fun. But, from my experience, if you're hunting for one specific villager (as opposed to, say, "a cute normal" or "a fun cat"), it can also be incredibly frustrating. The longest I hunted was, I think, 3 or 4 days and that was enough for me. I ended up taking my second choice because I was just done and exhausted with it.

If I were you, I'd keep an eye out for Cyd on here and anywhere else you might look for villagers online. If you want to move someone in from your queue, it might not hurt- though it'd be better if you're willing to TT out a villager if/when you find someone online with him. I'd also suggest being more open to gifted Cyds, but I know that's a personal preference.

Anyway, I'll probably be island hopping a bit in the next few days, and I'll let you know if I find him! Don't hold a spot just for me, though

 

[Sharksheep]

I actually have Cyd that hasn't been gifted with any items but I have custom clothing hanging up in my Ables store so he might come with those. I can take a screenshot of the clothing if you want him, they are all gender neutral clothing. I can kick him out with an amiibo anytime so just let me know if you want him.

Yeah if you are looking for one very specific villager it's not really worth it and odds are if they are in your movein queue they are probably going to be gifted so you'll have to kick him out and find him again. Cause you can clear the move in queue after 4 move ins cause I did it when I couldnt find Marshall after burning over 700 tickets. I just had really bad luck.

Campsite method would be better to try to get him, you just have to kick out all of your crankies until Cyd comes to camp.

 

[Valzed]

Thank you all for the advice & commiserating.

If I had known about MIQ's before starting on my hunt for Cyd I might have set a limit on how many NMTs or how many hours I'd have spent looking. It also would have been helpful to know about already having the same species on my island. Instead of letting Static move in from my campground I would have moved in a different elephant with an Amiibo card. I'm upset with myself for not learning about these things until yesterday & by doing research this morning. I had saved up enough Nook Miles for 300 NMTs and naively hoped I'd have enough to find Cyd. I ended up having to buy more on here - which I'm so glad I was able to do. However, I wouldn't have had to do that if I had known any of this beforehand. I feel so dumb.

I went through something similar recently looking for a villager. I only did 100 tickets over the course of 2 days, which was enough to burn me out on the process of island hopping. For me personally, when it takes that long, I feel like there are more enjoyable ways to spend my time than to keep looking. I would much rather be spending that time doing other things in the game or playing another game.

I eventually found the villager on Nookazon, albeit quite gifted. I've come around to not minding gifted villagers though, so for me the trade-off was worth it just so I wouldn't have to spend any more time looking.

I actually wouldn't mind a gifted villager from someone on here. I know most of us on here are more careful about what we gift our villagers knowing there are under 18 members we might trade with. I'm more wary of gifted villagers from other places. Honestly, I'm just more wary of people on other places.

I actually have Cyd that hasn't been gifted with any items but I have custom clothing hanging up in my Ables store so he might come with those. I can take a screenshot of the clothing if you want him, they are all gender neutral clothing. I can kick him out with an amiibo anytime so just let me know if you want him.

Yeah if you are looking for one very specific villager it's not really worth it and odds are if they are in your movein queue they are probably going to be gifted so you'll have to kick him out and find him again. Cause you can clear the move in queue after 4 move ins cause I did it when I couldnt find Marshall after burning over 700 tickets. I just had really bad luck.

Campsite method would be better to try to get him, you just have to kick out all of your crankies until Cyd comes to camp.

OMGosh, Sharksheep! I'd love to have Cyd from you! Are you really, really 1000% sure you want to let him move out though? I would completely understand if you'd like to keep him. If you are willing to let him go I wouldn't mind if he came with a custom design from your Able's. Please think about it and let me know. Also please let me know what you'd like in return - TBT, NMTs, IBGs. Thank you!

 

[Mattician]

All of my villagers I've found on my own too. I'm still looking for Kiki and/or Lolly. I've used over 500 NMTs now. I almost have enough for 200 NMTs, and I'm just waiting for Kevin to get the move out bubble.

It's always exciting despite the disappointment most of the time. Any ticket could be the one. One is all it takes.

 

[VanitasFan26]

I will say as someone who has played this game since last year (March 20, 2020) that villager hunting is....well its interesting. At times it can be fun, but other times when you spend so much time looking for that one villager it really starts to get one your nerves. There are 3 ways of getting villagers:

One is Villager Hunting using Nook Mile Tickets. This is probably the most preferred way to find villagers since they are easy to find and all you do is talk to them and they will always accept your request to your island when you choose to let them move into your island. The one issue I had with this is that the villagers are all RNG and sometimes you keep getting the same ones you've seen over and over again. I know there are websites that tell you a percentage chance of encountering a villager you want, but its complicated. Overall I prefer this method.

Two is random visits from the Campsite. Now unless if you have amiibo cards which you can invite villagers three times and you get to pick whoever you want, the random visits I have to say this its the worst way to get them. Just do yourself a favor any never do this. Basically Isabelle will announce there is a new visitor on the campsite. You go there and you see the villager. It could be the one you want so you talk them they tell you how it would be nice to live on your island. You say you agree but here comes in the issue. They reject you and you have to constantly talk to them over and over until they say "okay but first we will play a game to see if I can move".

Its basically a card game where they will make you guess what card they have it can be the Red or Black card (which is easy) but the hardest one is when they make you pick between a Heart, Diamond, Spade, and Club. (I really hate that one). When you finally win they will want to move in but then there is a big problem. Since you already have villagers the game will randomly pick which villager that wants to be moved out, so it doesn't let you pick.

I found out a trick where if you close your game as soon as you see the villager mention the name of the one you don't want to move out just close your game and reboot it. The bad news is that you have to play that card minigame over again just to convince them to move in and when you win they will pick someone else.

In Conclusion while the Campsite is a good way to kick out villagers I wish it wasn't this long and tedious just to convince a villager to move in. I've played this game for nearly 8 months and I can say that the campsite mini game is the WORST feature ever. This is the reason why I had to buy amiibos because at least you can choose which villager you want to kick out after crafting them a 3rd souvenir on the 3rd day. Just remember this the next time you see a random villager showing up on the campsite and whatever day it is and if its one of the ones you're looking for just beware of what you're going to have to deal with.

Three is trading with others from different islands. If you are getting tired of burning yourself out with Nook Mile Tickets and you don't want to play the card game with the random visits on the Campsite then getting a villager from trading is probably the best solution. I spent 400 nmts to get Raymond last Year, 200 to get Bluebear, and lastly 100 to get Bunnie. I mean you may think its a lot of tickets, but trust me these villagers are really rare to find and they are so annoying to get. My advice make sure you have a trusted seller who is willing to give you the villager you are looking for, just make sure you have an empty plot before you go to their island and make sure the villager on their island is in boxes. This is one I am indifferent on, but if I got to a breaking point with villager hunting I go with this option.

So yeah thats my experience with villager hunting.

 

[Snek]

I feel your pain. I've been playing ACNH since launch and I have yet to get my boi Drago on a mystery island. Its been very very tempting for me to get him from users. I've seen postings about Drago in boxes and it kills me inside that others managed to find him but me. I got a rando Cyd from an island I've never visited when my last villager Merengue moved out. This Cyd still talks about his former ialand. I realized at that moment that I must get original Drago. No exceptions! Thats why I've been hoarding Nook Miles in the event forced Cyd decides to leave. It may be painful but once I see my green dragon boi on an island I know that pain will mean something.

 

[Valzed]

I've played since ACNH launched as well but I mostly used Amiibos to get my villagers up until now. That was one of the reasons I really wanted to do a proper villager hunt. I just never imaged my first one would be so long and grueling. Now that I know about MIQs and know about the formula for seeing my chances I'll be more prepared if I want to give villager hunting another shot. Although after this is might be quite some time before I do.

I updated the original post...

 

[JKDOS]

I got a rando Cyd from an island I've never visited when my last villager Merengue moved out. This Cyd still talks about his former ialand.

Actually, this only apply to the first couple of conversations where he'll say "I moved here from <past town>". (If it was a queue move it) Or if it was a manual invite, maybe something like "Remember me? You invited me from <Past Town>"

I got Agent S from my friend's town. I don't see her ever mentioning her past town since our initial conversation when she moved in.

But more so: I got Poppy from another user, and talk to her everyday, she has not once mentioned her past town in the last 8 months, which is when I got her.

 

[WaileaNoRei]

Ugh, I feel your frustration. Villager hunting can be fun. But, from my experience, if you're hunting for one specific villager (as opposed to, say, "a cute normal" or "a fun cat"), it can also be incredibly frustrating. The longest I hunted was, I think, 3 or 4 days and that was enough for me. I ended up taking my second choice because I was just done and exhausted with it.

If I were you, I'd keep an eye out for Cyd on here and anywhere else you might look for villagers online. If you want to move someone in from your queue, it might not hurt- though it'd be better if you're willing to TT out a villager if/when you find someone online with him. I'd also suggest being more open to gifted Cyds, but I know that's a personal preference.

Anyway, I'll probably be island hopping a bit in the next few days, and I'll let you know if I find him! Don't hold a spot just for me, though

just offering my thoughts, even though it seems like this is more or less resolved.

As someone who loves island hopping to find villagers I think what @Serabee says is right. I am never looking for one specific villager. I generally have a list of like 20 I am specially would like to find and an extended list of many other villagers I am curious about that is much longer. I also am always interested in finding a villager I did not expect to like along the way and inviting them. And as I hunt I also just like seeing the different villagers, whether I want to invite them or not. So it is a very different kind of island hopping I enjoy, and probably people who enjoy island hopping are more likely to be having a very different experience than you.

so I think for your experience villager hunting is really different, and bound to be more stressful rather than fun. Because the randomness that I enjoy is working against you.

I hope it works out for you to get cyd from someone here, but if not, it does not seem like you should keep going with island hopping, as it sounds very not fun. And to me the only reason to do anything in the game is to have fun.

 

[Holla]

Congrats on getting Cyd finally! He's a sweetheart. I randomly came across him on a mystery island early on and ended up taking him in and I'm really glad I did. I can't imagine the pain of having to search for him as long as you did.

 

[CanuckChick]

Congrats on getting Cyd!!!

Just want to say, pls don't feel dumb since you didn't know. Most of us learned things the hard way lol. I knew abt the moving in queue early since friends warned me, but when things get so analytical to me, things stopped being fun. I LOVE villager hunting so I try not to go too crazy w/ it anymore looking for 1 specific villager which for most of us, hardly ends well lol.

As others said, I too had to learn to set a limit so I don't get burnt out.

My longest was 3 days and it was close to 150 nmts iirc trying to get Dom before a friend who knows how to mod her switch kindly held an intervention for me, figured out how to get non-amiibo villagers so I can get Dom from her island & stop the insanity lol. My average hunt last year would take 60-70 nmts each trip and most friends think I'm already crazy w/ that number

So now when I go on a hunt, I remind myself to be open & flexible (after all that's how I found Broccolo who I never knew existed!) and if it doesn't work out, to let it go, let it gooooo....

 

[Snek]

Actually, this only apply to the first couple of conversations where he'll say "I moved here from <past town>". (If it was a queue move it) Or if it was a manual invite, maybe something like "Remember me? You invited me from <Past Town>"

I got Agent S from my friend's town. I don't see her ever mentioning her past town since our initial conversation when she moved in.

But more so: I got Poppy from another user, and talk to her everyday, she has not once mentioned her past town in the last 8 months, which is when I got her.

The fact that they even mention it once though. I like villagers with clean slates so mystery islands are still the best method for me. That is all. Just personal preference.

 

[Flicky]

Is it just me, or is Cyd rarer than the other newcomers? It could be pure coincidence, but whenever I see someone struggle to get one of the non-amiibo villagers, it's always this guy! I've been after him for a while too (but I have no online account anymore, so I can't even trade for him) and out of all the newcomers, there are only two I haven't found: Raymond and Cyd. I've found all the elephants except him, and he can't be in my MIQ because I've gone through it all.

There are only about 5 villagers I want to find at this stage (Cyd included), so mystery islands are becoming more of a slog for me. The campsite keeps showing me villagers I've already seen in other mystery islands, so that's not working out well either.

Huge congrats to you for finally getting him though!

 

[Moritz]

Is it just me, or is Cyd rarer than the other newcomers? It could be pure coincidence, but whenever I see someone struggle to get one of the non-amiibo villagers, it's always this guy! I've been after him for a while too (but I have no online account anymore, so I can't even trade for him) and out of all the newcomers, there are only two I haven't found: Raymond and Cyd. I've found all the elephants except him, and he can't be in my MIQ because I've gone through it all.

There are only about 5 villagers I want to find at this stage (Cyd included), so mystery islands are becoming more of a slog for me. The campsite keeps showing me villagers I've already seen in other mystery islands, so that's not working out well either.

Huge congrats to you for finally getting him though!

I've hunted Cyd twice... well technically just once.

I was going to hunt for him through the campsite method, after I finished hunting a different of the new horizons villagers through it. He showed up on his own randomly.

So count that how you will lol.

I also hunted him through mystery islands. I found him within 250ish tickets I think.

As an elephant, he should be fairly common (comparatively of course, odds are still very low of finding him instead of any other villager in the game)