You get new villagers in Animal Crossing New Horizons by opening an empty housing plot and then filling it: invite a villager you meet on a Nook Miles Ticket mystery island, invite the visitor at your campsite, scan a villager’s amiibo at the Nook Stop, or adopt a villager who is moving out of a friend’s island. Leave a plot empty and the game eventually moves someone in for you, up to a maximum of ten villagers per island. Below we cover how to open plots, each recruiting method, and the newer features that do not bring anyone home.
This reflects version 3.0.3 of Animal Crossing New Horizons on Nintendo Switch and the Nintendo Switch 2 Edition; recruiting works the same on both.
Step One: Open a Housing Plot
No method works without a free plot, so start here. Plots arrive in stages:
- Plots 1 and 2 are your two starting villagers.
- Plots 3 to 5 come from Tom Nook’s housing quest after your first bridge (see our guide on how to build a bridge). You place the three kits and furnish the homes yourself, and the quest also hands you the ladder from our ladder guide.
- Plot 6 belongs to your first campsite visitor, after Resident Services is upgraded into a building.
- Plots 7 to 10 are housing kits you buy from Tom Nook at Resident Services for 10,000 Bells each.
Per the community wiki, during the early three-plot stage the villagers you can recruit are limited to the lazy, normal, and peppy personalities. Once Resident Services is a building and the campsite exists, every personality becomes possible.
Method 1: Mystery Islands With Nook Miles Tickets
- Buy a Nook Miles Ticket for 2,000 Nook Miles at the Nook Stop in Resident Services, under “Redeem Nook Miles.”
- Talk to Orville at the airport and use the ticket for a mystery tour.
- Look for a villager wandering the island and talk to them. If you like them, ask them to move in, and their name goes on your empty plot.
Two rules matter. Villagers only appear on mystery islands when you have an open plot, and per the community FAQ you can only invite one villager from a mystery island per day. Per the community wiki, the game picks a species first and then a villager of that species, which is why any one octopus villager is far easier to find than any one cat, since there are only a handful of octopuses and dozens of cats. The same tickets are the backbone of our iron nuggets guide, and in season they can even land you on the islands from our scorpion guide.
Method 2: The Campsite
After Resident Services is upgraded, ask Tom Nook what to do next and he gives you the campground construction kit recipe. Craft it, place it, and the campsite is built the following day. Per the community wiki, the chance of a new camper depends on how long it has been since the last one:
| Days since last camper | Chance of a new camper |
|---|---|
| 1 to 2 | 0 percent |
| 3 | 5 percent |
| 4 | 10 percent |
| 5 | 15 percent |
| 6 or more | 20 percent |
Talk to the camper and ask them to move to your island. With an open plot, they take it. With ten villagers already, a regular camper names a resident they heard is thinking of leaving, and per the community wiki that choice cannot be changed.
Method 3: amiibo Cards and Figures
amiibo let you pick the exact villager, and they are the only method that lets you choose who moves out to make room. Nintendo’s amiibo instructions for New Horizons lay out the scan:
- Go to the Nook Stop in Resident Services and select “Invite a camper,” then “Yes, I do!”
- Touch the amiibo to the NFC touchpoint. That is the right control stick on Joy-Con and Joy-Con 2, and the top center of the Pro Controller on either console.
- Talk to them at the campsite. Per the community FAQ, they ask you to craft an item for them.
- Repeat on three separate days. On the third visit you can ask them to move in. The days do not have to be consecutive.
When your island is full, an amiibo camper lets you choose which resident they replace. Per the community FAQ, the six Sanrio collaboration villagers can only be recruited this way. Version 3.0 added four more collaboration villagers invited by amiibo: Mineru (a snooty deer) and Tulin (a jock bird) from The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, through compatible Zelda series amiibo, and Cece and Viché, who returned from Splatoon with new designs, through Splatoon series amiibo.
Method 4: Adopting From a Friend
When a villager on a friend’s island agrees to move away, they spend the next day packed “in boxes.” Visit during that day with an empty, unsold plot of your own, talk to them, and choose the option to invite them to your island. Per the community FAQ, your plot then shows SOLD with their name, and they arrive the next day.
Random Move-Ins
If you leave a plot empty and invite nobody, the game fills it for you. Per the datamined community FAQ, the game pulls from a small hidden queue of villagers who moved out of islands you have played with online, so the newcomer is effectively out of your hands. If you are holding a plot for someone specific, do not leave it open for long.
What Does Not Bring Villagers Home
- Resort Hotel guests (version 3.0). Tourists who check into Kapp’n’s family hotel roam your island like residents, but they are temporary guests and cannot be asked to move in.
- Happy Home Paradise. Vacation home clients live in the archipelago, not on your island.
- Photopia on Harv’s Island. Scanning amiibo there is for photo shoots only.
- Kapp’n’s boat tours (version 2.0). They are sold as trips for materials, gyroid fragments, and out-of-season critters, and none of the community documentation we checked lists recruitable villagers on them. Use Nook Miles Tickets instead.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many villagers can you have in New Horizons? Ten. Once all ten plots are filled, a new villager can only arrive by replacing someone, through a camper or an amiibo.
Why are there no villagers on mystery islands? You have no open plot. Villagers only appear on mystery tour islands while an empty, unsold plot is waiting on your island.
Can you choose who a new villager replaces? Only with amiibo. Regular campers pick a resident at random, while amiibo campers let you choose.
How long does an amiibo invitation take? Three visits on three separate days, crafting the item the villager requests each time. You can ask them to move in on the third visit.
Can Resort Hotel tourists move to your island? No. Hotel guests from the 3.0 update are temporary visitors. To get a specific villager, find them on a mystery island, meet them at the campsite, or scan their amiibo.
How do you get Mineru and Tulin? Scan compatible The Legend of Zelda series amiibo at the Nook Stop with “Invite a camper,” then complete three campsite visits like any amiibo villager.