Is there a way of moving unwanted villagers out faster?

Is there any way to speed up this process or indirectly 'force a villager to move out'?

I know they move out if it's time for a new one to move in, and I know you can't actually 'force' them persay.

I have a villager who has caused nearly all my other villagers to wear his.. rather hideous 'kiddie shirt'. ((the character's default shirt)) Aside from that his home blocks the perfect spot, very close to my river, for building a convenient bridge...

I've taken to pushing him, hitting him with a net, and I've been trying to find a Toy Hammer... He wanted to leave once and I told him to go, but then he said he wouldn't leave until I, "made an effort to get to know him" or some BS..

Are there any other ways I can get an unwanted, 'pesty', villager to leave town?


There's no real method to "force" a villager to move out.

Unlike previous versions of the game, you can't even persuade them by sending them rubbish/trash and rotten fruit/tyres/cans etc which always worked well.

There is a popular method that people use, myself included, in order to get them to leave promptly though, Unfortunately it's a bit long winded and involves time travelling.

I'll explain it briefly here:

  • Start the game as normal and run around town and talk to all villagers (max of 10)
  • Time travel to tomorrow and repeat step one but ignore the animal you want to move,
  • If someone pings and offers work, do it unless it's the animal you want to leave,
  • Time travel to the next day and keep talking to everyone except the one you want to leave,
  • Repeat this process for 7 days (7 time travels),
  • Now you can do 1 of the next 2 things:

    • On the 7th time travel day, swim in the sea for more than 5 mins (resets pings), then run past the animal and they should ping and say they're thinking of leaving, or...

    • Time travel 7 more days (in one jump, eg. 5th to the 12th of the month) and they should have already moved out.

There is a short guide on time travelling here.

Please note, the above method is not 100% guaranteed to work and you must be careful if you have any dreamies living in your town as there's a small risk that the wrong animal will leave. Having said that, a lot of people have success with this method. Good luck.