April 2, 2020

The Pitfalls of Using Amiibos to Get Your Dream Villagers in New Horizons

Gaston: “Hey! I came as soon as I could! Thanks for invitin’ me to this island. I like campin’ here, mon cou.”
Source: The Burgundy Zine

It cost me $2.75, 120,000 bells, days of time traveling, five clay, some wood, and my emotional wellbeing to get a mustached bunny to move onto my island in “Animal Crossing: New Horizons.”

So, I’m going to reflect on what I did wrong to help you avoid the same pitfalls I fell into.

What Are Animal Crossing Amiibo Cards?

Animal Crossing amiibo Cards in “Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer”
Source: Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer – Gameplay & amiibo Cards! | Nintendo

Originally released in 2015 along with “Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer,” the amiibo cards were designed to let you invite specific villagers to AC:HH to decorate their home.

Later, amiibo functionality was added to “Animal Crossing: New Leaf” to let you move specific villagers into your town – so long as you had a New 3DS or a 3DS NFC Reader.

Now, you can use the Animal Crossing amiibo cards to invite villagers to Harvey’s Island and do a photoshoot with them, which then allows you to buy their poster from the Nook Stop.

Or you can use these cards to get specific villagers to move on to your island.

Nintendo also has a site that allows you to search for Animal Crossing amiibo cards by series, name, or birthday.

How to Get an Amiibo Villager to Move to Your Island

Gaston: “You want me to come to the campsite on your island? Why not? Sounds like fun, mon chou.”
Source: The Burgundy Zine

First, you have to unlock the campsite and invite a random camper to move onto your island. This unlocks the ability to buy plots of land from Tom Nook for 10,000 bells and the ability to invite villagers to the campsite by scanning amiibo cards at the Nook Stop.

In order to get a villager invited via amiibo to move in, you have to invite them to your island three times.

Each time you invite them over, they’ll ask you to craft them a souvenir, then they’ll bait you with how great it would be to live in your town – but they have some “unfinished business” back home and need more visits in order to think about it.

Cheri: “Let me hit you with some real talk. Being on pickle is so much fun it’s legit incredible.”
Cheri: “I was JUST thinking about how fab moving here would be…but I really can’t. Not right now, at least.”
Source: The Burgundy Zine

On the third visit, they’ll finally be ready to move in, so it’s important not to buy a plot of land until their third visit. Buy the plot of land before interacting with them during their third stay and they’ll happily move in.

You can only invite a camper to your town once per day, so you can do this over the course of three real-time days, or time travel ahead to speed up the process (or time travel back in forth if you don’t want the date on your Nintendo Switch to be too far ahead of real-life).

Here’s where everything went sour for me the first time.

What NOT to Do When Using Amiibos to Get Specific Villagers

As soon as I heard Animal Crossing: New Horizons had amiibo compatibility, I knew what I had to do: I had to buy a Gaston amiibo card and convince him to live with me on Pickle Island for all of eternity.

Read: Animal Crossing New Horizons: Bug’s First Day
The Burgundy Zine

Gaston holds a very special place in my heart. I’ve had him in all of my towns since Animal Crossing: Wild World, so I really wanted him to join me in New Horizons a decade and a half later.

I actually used to be a bit frightened by Gaston when I was a kid because he’s a cranky villager. But over time, these cranky types reveal their soft-side to you and it’s pretty endearing.

Anyways, I did what any responsible adult would do and bought a Gaston amiibo card on eBay for $2.75.

Screenshot of the Gaston Animal Crossing amiibo card purchase
Source: The Burgundy Zine

I thought one-day shipping had sucked all of the joy and anticipation out of ever waiting for something to arrive in the mail again, but I was dead wrong. Each day until my order arrived, I ran right to my mailbox in full-blown, childlike wonder to see if my card had arrived yet.

I know, I know. Listen, cut me a break. Most of us haven’t left our houses in two weeks with respect to social distancing. Let me have this moment if nothing else.

Once I had my Gaston amiibo card in hand, I had to unlock the ability to scan in amiibos through the Nook Stop by inviting a random camper to move in.

My first camper was Raymond, and although I found his first-impression kind of obnoxious, he’s grown on me since moving to my island.

Raymond: “Seriously?! You got me a personal red carpet AND my own VIP cabana?”
Source: The Burgundy Zine

Excitedly, I set up a second plot very close to my house and promptly invited Gaston to camp on my island “the next day” (I time traveled).

When I had first attempted to invite him to move in, there weren’t any articles that explained how to move amiibo villagers into your campsite, so I thought you could accomplish this on the first visit.

Gaston: “If that’s a serious offer, it deserves some serious consideration…”
Gaston: “That’s somethin’ to do on my next visit! I’d have enough to go on then, so invite me back, mon chou!”
Source: The Burgundy Zine

You can imagine how my heart sank the first time I read this.

Not only did Gaston reject my invite, but another villager had reserved the spot I designated specifically for Gaston, my favorite villager.

“This spot reserved for Alli’s new home.
– Nook Inc.”
Source: The Burgundy Zine

Peeved and fired up at this innocent character, I kept time traveling until she had unpacked her stuff. Then, I paid Tom Nook 50,000 bells to move Alli’s home and another 10,000 to reserve a new plot in the same spot.

Of course, Gaston rejected my invite on the second try and Knox reserved his plot.

Livid, I took a breather to lay in bed contemplating how I had just spent my day and what that time spent said about me as a person as well as my priorities.

Naturally, I got over my existential crisis, time traveled, paid Tom Nook another 50,000 to move Knox, bought a new plot for 10,000, invited Gaston over for a third time, and finally convinced him to move in.

Tom Nook: “So, Knox, do you want to move where bug thinks you should move?”
Source: The Burgundy Zine

Was it worth it? To me, yes. At this point, it wasn’t just about Gaston – it was about persevering through my mistakes and getting what I wanted.

Now that I have a better handle on how amiibos work at the campsite, I’ve been able to replicate the trick to move Cheri in quickly and with ease.

I already had an amiibo card for Cheri, so I didn’t have to scour eBay this time around, which also had a hand in speeding up the process.

Inviting Cheri to live on Pickle Island
Source: The Burgundy Zine

What have I learned from all of this? Well, for starters, I’m way more of a control freak than I ever imagined. Second, anything is possible so long as you put your mind to it and push through any obstacles that are thrown your way.

Gaston moves to Pickle Island
Source: The Burgundy Zine

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