How to evict a resident in Animal Crossing: New Horizons

Knowing how to evict a resident in Animal Crossing: New Horizons is pretty important, especially for those moments when you get fed up of certain villagers ruining the vibe of your island. Maybe they're just not a great fit for the place anymore and you're keen for them to move on, opening up the opportunity for someone new to come along.

Well, there's good news and there's bad news. The good news is that it is possible, but the bad news is that it takes a while, can't be guaranteed and is actually quite unpleasant to actually pull off. Essentially, you have to be quite unfriendly to someone to make them actually leave. So if you're thinking this game is just a sweet little life simulator full of adorable critters... Welcome to the dark side. Here are some of the things you can do successfully evict a resident in Animal Crossing: New Horizons.

Stop talking to them

The easiest way to make someone feel unwanted in your blossoming village is to simply ignore them. Don't talk to them at all, ignore them if they try to call to you, and don't send them any mail. Pretend they don't exist basically. If you keep this up for about a week, keep your eyes peeled for them wandering around with a beige thinking cloud above their head. This will be a signal that they're thinking about skipping town.

Keep talking to everyone else

Hopper talks to the player in Animal Crossing: New Horizons — (Image credit: Nintendo)

Often your villagers know more about what's going on across the island than you do, so make sure as you ignore the villager in question, that you keep talking to everyone else. They may well let you know that there's a rumour of the banished one wanting to leave, and it'll only to serve to highlight how alienated the isolated one is becoming.

Hit them with bug nets

It's not 100% whether this helps make a resident feel unwelcome (even though it absolutely should), but you can hit the offending villager with a bug net three times in a row to make them sad - or really angry. I'll tell you that I've done this every day for 10 days with a single villager. Not only has it made me feel like an absolute monster, but also they haven't left. In fact, someone else left instead. They see me.

Send them mean letters

Sending a note to a villager in Animal Crossing: New Horizons — (Image credit: Nintendo)

Again, not guaranteed to make a difference, but if all of the above is done as well as sending them letters via the airport containing gross items like tin cans, tires or rotten turnips, then they will clearly get the message. Right?

Complaining about them to Isabelle doesn't work

A player speaks to Isabelle in Animal Crossing: New Horizons — (Image credit: Nintendo)

It's worth noting that although you can talk to Isabelle about a resident that's bothering you, she doesn't have the power to evict anyone. Talking to her about a villager's language or clothing will simply reset them to default nicknames and clothing, just in case they've made quite the faux pax.

Otherwise it's a waiting game

Villagers will decide to leave themselves, even if you've been perfectly polite to them. Usually, they'll give you an option to persuade them to stay, but you can also say au revoir and tell them to hop skip it on outta here. It's a way of keeping your population feeling fresh, but also means it's harder to target a single resident for eviction.

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Sam Loveridge is the Brand Director and former Global Editor-in-Chief of GamesRadar. She joined the team in August 2017. Sam came to GamesRadar after working at TrustedReviews, Digital Spy, and Fandom, following the completion of an MA in Journalism. In her time, she's also had appearances on The Guardian, BBC, and more. Her experience has seen her cover console and PC games, along with gaming hardware, for a decade, and for GamesRadar, she's in charge of the site's overall direction, managing the team, and making sure it's the best it can be. Her gaming passions lie with weird simulation games, big open-world RPGs, and beautifully crafted indies. She plays across all platforms, and specializes in titles like Pokemon, Assassin's Creed, The Sims, and more. Basically, she loves all games that aren't sports or fighting titles! In her spare time, Sam likes to live like Stardew Valley by cooking and baking, growing vegetables, and enjoying life in the countryside.

With contributions from

Grace Dean Freelance Writer