#reset trick

[townsfolk]

Hi! My crush got me ACNL about a week or so ago and I've been playing every day ever since (it's a really fun game :D) and I was curious is there's any way to get new villagers in fast or get certain ones in my town that I would like? I'm a fan of the super cute villagers so id love to have as many cute ones as possible! Thank you!

Welcome to ACNL! We hope you enjoy the game!

It’s very much a game of chance when it comes to villagers. However, there are ways to exercise some control over the villagers who enter your town. 

First, you could build the Campsite Public Works Project. Occasionally you might find a villager camping, and if you like them (and have room for them), you can invite them to live in your town.

Next, you can invite villagers to live in your town from other players. If you’re able to play ACNL online, you could check out villager trading and adoption tumblr blogs such as villagertrade, acnladopt, ac-trade-adopt etc.. You could also try ACNL community websites such as Animal Crossing Community, the Bell Tree Forums, or the ACNL Adopt My Villager subreddit. 

Finally, you could try your hand at villager/campsite resetting. Here are a few guides which explain it: here, here, and here!

[townsfolk]

What is plot resetting? Is it considered cheating?

Plot resetting is a trick used to exercise some control over where a villager places their plot while moving in. A few might consider it cheating, but the vast majority of players don’t really think it is and only a fraction of the community would look down upon those who do it. (It’s nowhere near as contentious as time travelling or duplicating.)

It involves starting up a new character file on a new day to ‘preview’ the state of your town. If you don’t like what you find (eg. a villager has placed their plot in the middle of your path), you can turn the game off and try again until you find a scenario you like. Once that happens, you can save your game with Isabelle and it will become permanent. 

Here is a great video of the plot reset trick in action! 

[townsfolk]

I'm trying out a new plot resetting method: the opening credits. I set up my main character at 5:58 AM, then I wait 2 minutes and reboot the game, and then I see if there's the actual plot in a placement I like. In that case I'd load my mayor. Do you think it would work?

Unfortunately, it doesn't work. I’ve personally tried this before with no success. What you see on the title screen isn’t indicative of what you find in-game if you haven't already loaded your mayor for that day. If you load your mayor, there’s a very high chance the plot will move. 

[townsfolk]

I'm very sorry if this has been answered before but, does doing the camper reset trick cause the game to get damaged or messed up? I ask because I read this rumor somewhere.

There’s no need to worry! The camper reset trick (or any reset trick, for that matter) will not result in any damage to your game. It’s perfectly safe to try! The only potential issue that could arise from the reset trick would be if you accidentally loaded your mayor before you were ready, but that would not cause irreversible damage to your game. At worst, you might end up with a villager you don't like or a plot in a bad spot, but these can all be rectified.

[townsfolk]

I have a really important question. So, my 3DS is pretty old and messed up, so the clock changes around a lot. Well, it stopped changing for a while, so I set it back to normal time and all my games' clocks got messed up. Marshal is moving in and I want to plot reset him. My ACNL time is set to September 21st, 2013... would time travelling all the way forward to today's date WHILE he was moving in mess anything up? I don't want anyone to move out in the meantime! Please help!

It shouldn’t have any affect on Marshal. If he’s confirmed he’s moving in and his plot hasn’t popped up yet, you can skip ahead as far as you like and you’ll still be able to plot reset him (as long as you don’t load a pre-existing character beforehand).However, you should be careful with such a large leap because it could potentially affect your town/other villagers too. As long as nobody is currently thinking about moving, you can skip ahead and nobody will leave.Just make sure that, when you skip ahead to the future, you immediately start with a new character. That way, you can reset for Marshal as well as inspect your town for anything out of the ordinary. If anybody has moved, you will be free to travel back and stop them. 

**Note: if you wish to plot reset Marshal in today's time, you'd need to change your 3DS clock. Changing the game's internal clock requires you to pick your character and change it with Isabelle, and I'm not sure if it's possible to change it without loading your character afterwards. Given that you're trying to sync your times up, it might just be easier for you to plot reset Marshal in the past. 

[townsfolk]

How do you reset the campsite?

Try this answer, which provides a walkthrough of the process as well as a couple of helpful links for more explanation.

[townsfolk]

How do you do the reset trick to make villagers ping you?

The reset trick doesn’t really work to make villagers ping you. However, you can try the diving trick for pings! If you're seeking PWP requests, try filling your pockets with tools/money/shells/flowers to eliminate any buy/sell/trade offers!If you know that a certain villager is moving and they won’t ping you, you can also save and quit the game and then start it up again. That sort of ‘refreshes’ your villagers and gives you the chance to walk past your mover until they ping.

[townsfolk]

Hello! I recently saw a rumor concerning New Leaf that creating a new player will force a villager in boxes to come outside and thereby stop them from moving. Does anyone know if this has been tested?

Unfortunately I don’t believe that’s true. If you start up a new character when you have eight, nine or ten villagers, not all of them will come outside at the start of the game. It will generally be an even split between villagers who appear outside and those who stay indoors. A villager in boxes will remain indoors.