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Animal Crossing New Horizons: How to Get More Villagers to Live on Your Island

You'll only start with two neighbours in Animal Crossing New Horizons. Here's how to convince more people to come live with you.

Getting other characters to live on your island in Animal Crossing New Horizons can be a complicated and confusing process. This is because there are many ways to do it, though you are often restricted from using every method at once. To help make things a little clearer for you we've put together this guide on inviting new residents to your island.

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How to Get Characters to Live On Your Island

To get more characters to come live on your island in Animal Crossing New Horizons you'll need to consider the following options:

  1. Use Nook Miles Tickets (more on those here) to visit other islands. Speak to anyone you find
  2. Set up plots of land
  3. Set up a campsite for visitors

We'll go into more info on each of these options below. Read on to find out exactly how to invite more characters to your island.

Visit Other Deserted Islands

The best way to get new people to live on your island early on is to buy Nook Miles Tickets and fly to other islands. To do so, head to the Nook Stop terminal located at Resident Services. You can purchase a ticket for 2000 Miles. Take it to the airport and select 'I wanna fly'. Then, select 'Use Nook Miles Ticket'. This will take you to another deserted island where you can find new characters wandering around. Speak to the twice to get the option to invite them.

Use Tickets to visit other islands | Jake Green/USG

Build a Campsite For Visitors

The option to build a campsite for visitors will unlock once you've unlocked the proper Resident Services building (more info on that here). Once you have it, there's a chance that you'll get visitors each day. Just go and speak to them to convince them to join your island community.

You'll have a bunch of neighbours in no time | Jake Green/USG

Selling Land On Your Island

Once you've opened up the full Resident Services building you'll have the option to change Island Infrastructure. This allows you to sell plots of land. From time to time Tom Nook will call you to say one of these plots has sold, and will give you 1000 Miles as a reward. Each plot will set you back 10,000 Bells, and you'll need to set aside a space for the new house.

Invite Characters to the Campsite Using Amiibo

If you have any Animal Crossing Amiibo figurines you can use them to invite characters to the campsite. To do so, head to the Nook Stop Terminal after having built the campsite. Choose the 'invite to campsite' option and press your amiibo to the NFC reader on your Switch. This will bring a new camper to your island.

Head to Nook Stop to invite campers | Jake Green/USG

When Will New Characters Arrive After Being Invited?

At the start of the game, you will need to invite three characters to your island before they start showing up. Once you've invited three, you'll get a call from Tom Nook the following day. He'll make you place construction sites around the island, and will ask you to collect building materials. Once they're built, characters will begin to arrive the next day. When a plot of land is sold, the new islander will arrive the next day. At times, your progress may be blocked by certain projects you'll need to build. Just be sure to keep up with the major projects given to you by Tom Nook and you'll be fine.

That's not all we have on animal Crossing New Horizons. For a look at what Caty thought of the game, read her review. For a look at how cloud saving will work, head here.

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