Guide To: Managing Your Void
A lot of people are unfamiliar with āthe Voidā, how it varies from what shows up on Main Street, and how to manage it best ā so instead of sleeping Iāve written up this quick guide.
The Void, as so many people lovingly call it, is where villagers who are moving / have moved out of your town, but havenāt been adopted to a new town on their boxing date, go. It is a dark, soulless place, and villagers float there temporarily before being murdered before eventually being cleared from your gameās memory, forgotten. The Void can theoretically hold countless villagers, but you will physically only end up with 1-3 villagers in your Void at a time (usually), due to the gameās mechanics. Villagers that are being held in your Void can still be transferred to a new town if you visit a town with 9 or less villagers. Doing so will ādrop offā one of the villagers in your void in the town you are visiting.
What about the villagers that show up on Main Street? Are they part of the Void?
Actually, no. They are in their own separate section of game memory, banked in a group by themselves. Weāll call it your āStreetlistā from here on out. Your Streetlist only saves 16 villagers ā the last 16 villagers which have most recently moved out of your town, in fact, in order from oldest to most recent. Your Streetlist helps you determine if you can move a previously moved-out villager back into your town, because you have to move 16 different villagers out after a villager leaves for you to be able to invite that villager back to your town. The Streetlist remains unchanged so long as no one new moves out. If a villager moves out, the oldest villager of the 16 stored on the Streetlist will be forgotten, and the villager that just left will be added to the top of the list as newest.
I have heard about āclearingā the Void, is this possible?
Yes, it is possible to clear your Void of any currently held villagers. To do so, you simply need to visit a town that has 10 villagers. They MUST have 10 villagers. This will clear your Void, emptying it out (more on how this works below). You unknowingly clear your Void all the time as you visit others and play online. This has been tested and verified by myself and multiple other sources.
Is it possible to clear my Streelist?
No, your Streetlist will always hold exactly 16 villagers, unless you are a new town that hasnāt yet moved out 16 villagers. It is not possible to empty this list, only to bump off the oldest villagers on the list by moving out new ones.
Can you give me an example of how the Void works?
Certainly. Letās say Iāve voided Julian, Marshal, and Punchy, without visiting any towns / connecting to anyone via Streetpass. All three will currently be floating in my Void, potentially able to be adopted, since I havenāt connected to anyone.
If I visit someone who has 10 villagers in their town, Julian, Marshal, and Punchy will disappear forever. My void will have been cleared.
So, letās say instead that I visited a friend in Town B, who only has 9 villagers. One of my voided villagers will be ādropped offā while the remaining villagers are cleared from the void, forgotten. Weāll say Punchy was dropped off. That means, the following day in Town B when my friend logs in, Punchy will be plotting somewhere in their town. Meanwhile, Julian and Marshal have been forgotten / cleared from my Void (as has Punchy), and can no longer be dropped off in any towns. I go back to having an empty Void, and my friend now has Punchy.
Can I avoid receiving voided villagers from people?
You can if their void is cleared prior to them visiting. You can also request that people clear their voids before visiting your town. If you are adopting your 9th villager out, and someone visits to adopt the villager, and you fear they may have dropped off a voided villager, you can still go to another town and forcibly adopt a villager by inviting them to your town, which will overwrite the dropped off villager in your gameās queue. You must invite a villager before the next day, or else the voided villager will already be plotting in your town.
If you have 10 villagers in your town / you are adopting your 10th villager out, you will never receive a voided villager, because your visitorās void will be cleared as soon as they visit you.
Is it possible to ārescueā someone from my Void if I voided a villager by accident?
Yes. Now that Iāve covered the basics of your Void, I can teach you how to rescue an accidentally voided villager. HOWEVER: please note this does not always work, and can only be guaranteed under certain conditions.
100% success rate scenario: you visited a town with 10 villagers right before you voided the villager in question. Why? Because this means your void was definitely clear before you voided the villager, meaning this guarantees that ONLY the villager you just voided is saved in your void. With this knowledge, you can now visit a trustworthy friend who has 9 villagers or less to successfully ādrop offā the villager in question. The dropped off villager will plot in your friendās town the following day, and then you can make arrangements to get the villager back after cycling another 16 villagers.
Every other scenario: if you visited someone after voiding the villager in question, itās already too late. I am sorry. The villager was either cleared from your void or dropped off in another town when you visited / connected online via streetpass. If you havenāt visited anyone, but you have multiple villagers in your void, it is a complete gamble on which villager will be dropped off when you visit your friend, so thereās no way to know which villager your helper is going to get when you visit. Not only that, dropping off a villager in your friendās town clears the remaining villagers out of your void, so thereās no second chances, either. If the villager you wanted isnāt the one that shows up plotting the next day in your friendās town, then youāre out of luck.
Well, I hope this helps everyone! Good luck!
Happy trading!
xoxo - Delia Song