How to invite new Villagers to your island in Animal Crossing: New Horizons

One of the most common questions we’ve encountered is how to invite new Villagers to your island in Animal Crossing: New Horizons. At the start of the game, you’re given two random Villagers to share your island with. As you progress through the game, you’ll have the opportunity to invite even more. To explain what you need to do, we’ve put together a guide on how to invite new Villagers to your island in Animal Crossing: New Horizons.

How to invite new Villagers to your island in Animal Crossing: New Horizons

• Build the Nook’s Cranny Shop.
• Get your Housing Kits when the Nook’s Cranny Shop opens.
• Place these Housing Kits on your island, then fill them with three interior and three exterior furniture pieces.
• Purchase a Nook Miles Ticket from the Nook Stop for 2,000 Nook Miles.
• Visit a random island and speak with the Villager there.
• Speak to them a second time to invite them to your island.
• You can only invite one Villager per day, it takes three days for them to appear on your island.

• When you upgrade the Resident Services Center and unlock Island Infrastructure, you can invite more Villagers by setting up new homes for them for 10,000 Bells.
• You can also set up a Campsite to have random Villagers visit your island, whom you can also invite to stay permanently if you like.

In Animal Crossing: New Horizons, you can have up to ten Villagers on your island at one time. When you start the game, you’ll have two random Villagers join you on your island. As you progress, you’ll unlock the ability to add eight more Villagers. You won’t be able to invite Villagers to your island right away.

Instead, you’ll need to grind your way through the Shop quest that tasks you with delivering 30 of each Wood type and 30 Iron. Yes, it’s a pain. Once you’ve done that, build the Shop and wait until it opens. After the Nook’s Cranny Shop opens, speak with Tom Nook and he’ll give you three Housing Kits for new Villagers to live in.

Explore your island and find the best spot for these Housing Kits. Next, build and place three pieces of exterior and interior furniture in each of these homes. You can limit it to one home setup, but then you can only invite one Villager. When a home is fully set up, you’re ready to invite your first new Villager to the island.

So, where do you find these Villagers? Well, for the first round of invitations you’ll need to purchase some Nook Miles Tickets from the Nook Stop inside the Resident Services Center. It costs 2,000 Nook Miles to purchase a Nook Miles Ticket. Head to the Airport and exchange your Nook Miles Ticket to be taken to a random island. There, you’ll find a random Villager.

If you like this Villager, you can invite them back to your island. If not, ignore them and try again with another Nook Miles Ticket. If you like the Villager, you’ll need to speak to them and introduce yourself. Then, speak to the Villager a second time to invite them to your island. When you return home, make your way over to Tom Nook and speak to him to coordinate the rest.

Note that you have to stagger your Villager invites, you can’t go on an invitation spree and get three Villagers right away. Instead, you’ll need to invite one per day. Additionally, it will take three days total for your Villager to actually appear on your island. To get the max number of Villagers on your island, you’ll need to upgrade the Resident Services Center and unlock Island Infrastructure for your Nook Phone.

After that, it costs 10,000 Bells per Villager and you won’t have to do any building of furniture. It’s just a straight Bells transaction, then choosing where you want that Villager’s home to be. You’ll also be able to set up a Campsite where random Villagers can come straight to you, no Nook Miles Ticket needed.

Again, if you like that Villager, you can invite them to stay on your island forever. If not, ignore them and wait for another random Villager to show up.

Now that you know how to invite new Villagers to your island in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, we have a few other guides you may find useful including how to help Wisp in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, how to get more Iron from Rocks in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, and how to make Hybrid Flowers in Animal Crossing: New Horizons.

Morgan Shaver

Writer

Morgan is a writer, indie game lover, and socially awkward coffee addict. Need something? Morgan can be reached at morgan.shaver@allgamers.com or if you like, you can say hello using GIFs on Twitter.