Animal Crossing Move-In & Move-Out Queue Guide - How Does The Queue Work In New Horizons

The move-in queue. One of the most fun, yet painful mechanics in New Horizons, especially if villager hunting is on your list of fun activities to do in the game. It can be a damper if the dreamie you're hunting for turns out to be in a queue of villagers that the game has decided to hide from you. What exactly is the move-in queue? How does it work and is there any way to control it? Those are very good questions. 

How does move-in queue & move-out queue work?

The move-in queue works a bit differently than it did in New Leaf. So, if you have any prior knowledge from voids of the past, throw it out. The move-in and move-out queues have been changed up. For the sake of clarity and to limit confusion, we’re going to use the terms move-in queue and move-out queue rather than void. Everything we're about to tell you is true after you have let your first campsite villager move in. After you allow the first campsite villager to move in, the other plots you place will follow the rules of the move-in and move-out queues. With that out of the way, let's start with the move-out queue. 

*the move-out queue

This is a list of up to 10 villagers that have moved off your island. Which villagers get thrown in, how long they stay, or if anyone replaces them is unknown. A villager you let leave your island can still be found on a mystery island tour when villager hunting. So, it seems like even if they find their way to your move-out queue, you can still find another version of them. The one you find on the island will not remember you. If you let Raymond leave your island and find another Raymond chilling on a mystery island during your next hunt, consider him a completely different Raymond. The only time a villager that moves off your island will remember you is if they move from your island to a friend's island. Villagers in your move-out queue can be picked up by your friends. They can only be acquired by those who visit your island. We'll probably never know what exactly happens in the confusion that is the move-out queue. Knowing the basics is the most important part. 

*the move-in queue

The move-in queue is a slightly different beast. This one we know a little bit more about. Your move-in queue can hold up to 4 villagers. These potential neighbors are ones you pick up from other people's islands that are in their move-out queue. You won't know if you take or leave a villager. It's an invisible process that can only be found out through some trial and error and extensive research by you in your game. So good luck. The move-in queue was created for the game to have a way to fill in empty villager plots. If you decide to not go villager hunting or steal one of your friend's "inboxes" villagers, then the game will throw a house down for you. It's also a fun way to get some of your friends' neighbors to bounce around and enjoy that random bug or glasses that someone had previously gifted them and seem to be stuck in their house forever. Any animals that are chilling in your move-in queue cannot be found on a mysterious island when villagers hunting. They are stuck in your queue until you let them in by auto-filling or scanning their amiibo. In the past, scanning their amiibo would present you with an away message making said villager unable to move in unless by auto-filling. Nintendo has patched this out and now allows you to invite any neighbor, well ones available in the game of course. You can't scan a KK amiibo and get KK to move in. It was nice of them to let us invite the villagers we paid money for. 

How do you find out who is in your move-in queue? 

This part isn't easy. You can either let all four villagers move in automatically or go villager hunting and find every other villager in the game except those four. There is a quick math equation you can do to figure out the chances of finding a specific villager on a mystery island. You must get them to move in for that villager to disappear from the queue. Originally, all the villagers in your move-in queue were from friends' islands. It turns out, some of them are fresh villagers not from any other island. The game just throws a random villager in there at some point. So, if you don't have it online then your move-in queue is not safe and empty. You're still cursed with having a potential neighbor waiting patiently in the black space for you to autofill a plot. Your queue can be empty. When a villager asks you to leave, the following day, their furniture will be in boxes in preparation for their departure. The day after that, you'll have an empty plot. This one day is your chance to find the specific villager you want by hunting. If you have a villager in your move-in queue, the very next day that plot will have a sold sign on it. Every time. No ifs, and, or buts about it, it will autofill by 5 am. If that plot does not autofill and it is still empty the next day, congratulations, your move-in queue is empty, and you should be able to find every villager during mystery island tours. Each day, the plot has a higher and higher chance to fill with a random villager that the game decides. By the fourth or fifth day, your chances are so high that a villager will most likely move in.

The move-in and out queues are confusing. We'll never know exactly how they work but understanding the basics and knowing that your dreamie could be hiding in your move-in queue when villager hunting is the most important information to pull from this. Just because you spend hundreds or even over a thousand Nook Mile tickets looking for a villager, doesn't mean they're automatically in your move-in queue. RNG is extremely rude 99% of the time. Its sole purpose is to make your life hard, so keep at it and you might have a small chance of finding your dreamie.