“Scary” Animal Crossing New Horizons villager glitch is ruining paradise

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Animal Crossing players are calling for Nintendo to fix a “scary” villager glitch which is leaving them with empty plots after adopting unwanted villagers, before the bug completely spoils New Horizons’ paradise.

The highly-anticipated Animal Crossing sequel released on March 20. Considering it’s been almost seven years since the franchise’s last main entry, players have ⁠— very understandably ⁠— been grinding the game pretty hard.

For the most part, everything’s gone swimmingly for the mega-release ⁠— until now. A “scary” villager glitch, sparked by the loving act of adoption, seems to be ruining paradise, and Animal Crossing players are pretty grumpy.

PSA: there’s a pretty bad bug in ACNH that hasn’t been patched yet. If a friend has a villager “in boxes” because they’ve been forced out via campsite visitor, DO NOT adopt them. Could result in a glitched spot.

This reddit post explains it in detail: https://t.co/2CNK2jp5Cf pic.twitter.com/KGG5N1DjSz

— NintendoFanGirl ? (@NintendoFanGirl) March 28, 2020

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The new bug, discovered by Animal Crossing player Barnse and shared by CeciliaCrescent on the Bell Tree Forums, is certainly a worrying one. With only ten plots on your island, one being unuseable can be pretty frustrating.

But how does the glitch happen? Basically, if a villager was forced off another player’s island, and you adopt them, they will bug out the new plot. The now-unusable area will simply read “_‘s New Home.” The evicted villager will never arrive.

It’s worth noting villagers who leave other player’s islands of their own accord aren’t affected by this bug for whatever reason. Make sure you check before trading ⁠— if the new villager is “thinking of leaving,” you’re good to go.

It could be a sad day in New Horizons if you fall foul of this new plot-destroying glitch.

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How to fix Animal Crossing’s missing plot glitch

Luckily, until Nintendo rolls out a server-side fix, there is a workaround for the villager glitch. These require you to follow eight steps to recover the missing island spot, but it’s worth it to recover your glitched plot as soon as possible.

Here’s the process to recover your glitched plot:

  • Make sure you have one plot open, as well as the glitched plot (occupied by Vil.1).
  • Go on an Island Tour and find a villager (Vil.2) to invite to your island.
  • The new villager (Vil.2) will now occupy the bugged plot, but look like the house of the old villager (Vil.1) who was originally in the glitched spot.
  • Make sure a new house, which you cannot enter, has also appeared on your island. This is part of the process to fix the bug.
  • Check your map, and make sure it looks like this.
  • Now make Villager 2 move out. You can force them out via campgrounds, but this is risky, so use ‘time travel quicker’ where possible.
  • Visit Villager 2 and confirm they are moving out. If this has worked, they will have a sad expression on their face, and a “!” above their head.
  • Once Villager 2 moves out, both houses will disappear. This will leave two empty plots on your island, both of which can be accessed again!

    • So there you have it ⁠— the best way to get around the bugged plot until Nintendo responds to the issue. Hopefully, they’ll be preparing a patch to solve the issue as soon as possible, but it never helps to be proactive either!

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    When is Nintendo expected to fix the villager glitch?

    Nintendo are yet to respond to this plot-munching bug, but they are aware it’s been wreaking havoc in Animal Crossing. It did take a little bit for the bug to be flagged ⁠though — according to Kattastic, they were the very first to report it.

    Thankfully, the devs are now working on a fix. Abbreviationz, who spoke to the help team on March 29, revealed “they’re in the process of fixing, but can’t fix the bug without messing up other bugs right now, so this could take… maybe a week.”

    The last big bug which plagued New Horizons ⁠— an item copying exploit ⁠— lasted just a few days before update 1.1.1 “fixed a serious bug affecting game balance.” If that’s anything to go off, this new glitch shouldn’t last long either.

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    Players and villagers alike will celebrate once this annoying Animal Crossing bug is finally squashed!

    Not everything in Animal Crossing’s new release has been copying bugs and vanishing plots either, which is good. Hilariously, New Horizons has even become a place for students who will miss their graduation to run their own instead.

    There’s also plenty of stuff to do while you’re waiting for Nintendo to roll out the missing plot patch. You could undertake some terraforming on your island ⁠— we have four great ideas to do ⁠— or you could learn how to time travel too!

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