How to Trade With Fellow Villagers in 'Animal Crossing: New Horizons

Animal Crossing: New Horizons is an Instant Classic

People have fallen in love with Animal Crossing: New Horizons since its release on March 20, 2020. As with every Animal Crossing, there's plenty to do in the community. Of course, no Animal Crossing game is complete without villagers, the NPC characters that live on your island alongside you.

How to Get Villagers in Animal Crossing

Animal Crossing: New Horizons | animal-crossing.com

You'll start with just the Nooks, yourself, and two random villagers on your island paradise. Progress through the quests that Tom Nook gives you, and eventually, you'll unlock three more villagers! These villagers are a bit pickier, though, and you'll do some crafting for their homes.

You won't be able to bring any more villagers to your island until you build these villagers all of their requests. However, after that? You can share your paradise with up to ten other residents. When you want to invite a new resident, first you build a plot.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons - Island Mystery Tours | animal-crossing.com

Then, you can go on Island Mystery Tours using Nook Mile Tickets and meet tons of different potential villagers. There are 35 species and nearly 400 unique characters waiting, from Dom the tye-dye loving Sheep to Flora, the classic pink Flamingo. Kangaroos, alligators, ducks, frogs, hamsters, dogs, and even cats are just a few of the species you'll encounter!

There are a couple of other ways you can get a new villager after building your plot. You can ask a villager from another player's island to move to your island. They must already be in boxes and ready to move away from their current island. Finally, if you don't fill the plot within a day of building it, you'll get a random villager as your new neighbor. Sometimes it's fun to see who moves in.

Making Friends with Villagers

Villagers have some pretty distinct personality types. It's essential information for befriending your neighbors, which comes with a particular set of benefits. The most important part of being friends with your villagers is that it lets you give them gifts. You won't be able to do this right away, though. Visit a villager's house often when they are home, strike up conversations with them, and send them mail. Doing these tasks every day will open up the option of gift-giving eventually.

Getting to max friendship with a villager will earn you an extraordinary reward

Your villagers will give you a gift in return once you're friends. It can be anything from furniture to clothing, or even old-fashioned bells. Villagers all have hobbies and colors that they love. Giving gifts that match the things they enjoy is a sure-fire way to get exceptional items in return while leveling up your friendship.

This sort of trading is the only way of leveling a villager's friendship level. Getting to max friendship with a villager will earn you an extraordinary reward: a picture of that villager to hang in your home! Furthermore, the frames are fully customizable. It's the ultimate sign that you and your villager are besties for life, and an intense collection to hunt down.

Villager Personality Types

Animal Crossing: New Horizons - Jock | animal-crossing.com

Each villager fits into a personality. It affects how they interact with each other, not just you! For example, my smug koala Eugene really stressed out my peppy villagers Bangle and Bluebear with his constant bragging. If you're still unsure, you can always consult a ton of online resources created by the Animal Crossing community. Here's a brief overview of each personality in New Horizons.

• Jock

Jocks are obsessed with working out. They'll talk about their routine to you constantly, or suggest ways for you to get fit around the island!

• Uchi

They'll be encouraging, and tell you useful pieces of info about island life. Also, hint: Uchi personalities love giving you medicine if a wasp stings you!

• Cranky

They're gruff. They're grumpy. They might be a little rough around the edges, but with time, you'll see why the community loves the cranky personality.

• Normal

Expect your normal villagers to talk about cleaning or cooking like, a lot.

• Lazy

Get ready for some weird conversations about bugs. Lazy villagers talk about their creepy-crawly roommates regularly.

• Peppy

They wanna-- no, they're gonna be famous! Peppy villagers are upbeat, and always seem to be busy.

• Smug

Smug villagers have a lot to be proud of if you ask them. You won't get a chance, though, because they're going to tell you all about it.

• Snooty

These villagers are super into fashion and appearances. They often wear eyeshadow and have expensive tastes.

Villager Trading

Animal Crossing: New Horizons | animal-crossing.com

The Animal Crossing community isn't complete without a user-run market. Remember how I mentioned that you could take a villager that's moving away from another player's island just by talking to them in their boxed up house? This mechanic has created something of a frenzy for popular villagers. There is even an unofficial "Villager Popularity" website that regularly updates six tiers of the most popular villagers in Animal Crossing: New Horizons.

What do people trade for villagers - You might wonder.

A surprising currency has popped up for villager trading. Nook Mile Tickets, commonly called NMTs, is the most accepted way of paying for a villager that you want right now. Plenty of other communities work out other rare items, though. Often used for villager trading are: star fragments, Zodiac fragments, gold ore, and even more common resources like iron ore and wood.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons | animal-crossing.com

Plenty of players also accept pure bells, although the prices can be a little outrageous for Tier One villagers like Marshall or Judy. Need to make more money? Here is how you can earn more bells fast!

The most popular villagers are pretty expensive, usually running anywhere upwards of a thousand NMT or 20 million bells. They range in their personality types, with Marshall, the current Number 1, being smug. However, Sherb and Zucker, Numbers 3 & 4 respectively, are both lazy. There are normal, peppy, and jock villagers in the top tier as well.

Some people have even started buying villagers for real-life money. As much as I love the game, I'm not sure I'll spend any cold cash on picking up Ankha if I find her available. Furthermore, Nintendo seems to take massive issue with this sort of trading. There are rumors that they plan on cracking down on these types of transactions.

Many players have started making lists of their dream villagers. It's a fun way to create an island experience that is truly your own. People are even creating islands that have nothing but villagers of a particular species. There are alligator islands, squirrel islands, and even cat islands.

The More the Merrier

Animal Crossing: New Horizons | animal-crossing.com

There's certainly no shortage of exciting and unique villagers to befriend in Animal Crossing: New Horizons. Level up your friendship by trading with them daily and earn the individual portraits of each one. Or, use the villagers themselves and trade for valuable items or even other villagers on your wishlist. Nintendo has kept the options genuinely open for a community that is nothing if not creative.