So the RNG gods have blessed you with insane turnip prices or you just have incredibly rare DIY Recipes to share via your villagers, and you want to spread the wealth. Hosting other players on your island in Animal Crossing: New Horizons might seem like the simplest thing on Earth: give players the Dodo code, then call it a day while you AFK in your house as people go about their business.
You’d be wrong. Managing a queue of visitors to your island is harder than it sounds, and if you just give the Dodo code out to everyone, every single visitor will be plagued by annoying connection issues, interruptions every couple of seconds as they’re trying to get to a specific place, and it’s very easy for communication errors to pop up if this keeps happening.
With that in mind, we’ve prepared a list of tips for you if you’re looking to host multiple players on your island in Animal Crossing: New Horizons.
Give the Dodo Code to Just a Few People Each Time
Like we mentioned before, giving the Dodo code to everyone will just cause lag and potential communication issues. What you want to do is divide people up into groups of three or four, then give the code to one group at a time.
While it is much more tedious, it makes the process far smoother for everyone involved. Plus, once everyone has finished selling their turnips, or visited shops or villagers for DIY Recipes, the host can press the – button to end the session and kick everyone out at the same time. After that, change your Dodo code and give it to the next group, and so on and so forth.
A good way to manage a queue is to set up a Google sign-up form and have people fill it out with their contact information (Discord username, Twitter handle, etc), then transfer that info over to a Google Sheet and share it so that everyone can see their place in the queue. It also makes for much easier organization on the host’s end.
Give Clear Instructions on What to Do
You can be as strict or as lenient as you want with the visitors on your island, but make sure to set up at least a few ground rules to protect your island from getting ravaged.
For instance, you might want to mention that certain special NPCs are on your island, such as Leif, Kicks, or Redd, and that visitors are allowed to purchase items from them before leaving. For those of you that don’t want that, make sure to specify that before letting people in, and you might want to create a fenced path from the airport to the shop so that people can’t wander.
If you do let people wander, you’ll also want to set clear rules like, no running on your flowers, or no talking to villagers in boxes who might’ve already been promised to a friend or another player.
If you’re working with groups, make sure to let everyone know that they need to leave via the airport to prevent communication hiccups, or ask them to stick around until the group’s done so you can kick them all out at once with the – button.
Show Where Your Shops or Villagers Are
Whether your visitors are there to check out your shops or talk to a villager about getting a DIY Recipe, you’ll want to guide them there properly so there’s no wasted time on anyone’s end.
As mentioned before, you can create a fenced path to lead people where you want them to, but if it’s a smaller queue of people, you can take the time to lead them there yourself.
Your island might be familiar to you, but it’s a completely strange and different land to your visitors, so do your best to guide them to where they want to go, or give directions like, “west island, blue roof,” or something like that.
Leave Spare DIY Recipes or Furniture for Your Visitors
During your adventure in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, you’re bound to pick up furniture and clothing you don’t want, or DIY Recipes that you already have. Instead of throwing these away, consider leaving them as free pickups for your visitors instead.
It’s always nice to visit an island and see that the host has left complimentary items for you outside the airport. As always, be sure to mention beforehand that these items are complimentary and they can take or leave them as they wish. It’s good to be overly polite or welcoming to your visitors, as this will encourage them to extend you the same courtesy if you ever need something from their island, and may also encourage them to leave you tips.
Speaking of tips…
Don’t Demand Tips or Set Entry Fees
Look, you don’t have to open up your island to visitors. You don’t have to share your wealth of rare DIY Recipes or high turnip prices with the world. But if you want to be a host and open your island, think about why you’re doing so in the first place.
You’re looking to provide visitors with a good experience, not make them feel like they’re being forced to pay for a privilege. Plus, making demands or setting high entry fees just makes you look bad and puts a bad taste in everyone’s mouths.
Instead, what you want to do is mention to your visitors that tips are appreciated but not necessary. Nine times out of 10, your visitors are going to leave you tips just by virtue of you saying that.
If you’re offering high turnip prices, it’s very likely that your visitors will leave you a 99K Bells tip on their way out, or if you’re hosting yard sales or Recipe sharing sessions, they might give you some of their own Recipes or rare flowers in return.
Of course, if you’re a visitor checking out an island with no entry fees, please don’t take the host’s hospitality for granted. We’ve got a whole list of turnip etiquette rules for visitors as well.
And that’s pretty much it! Being a host to multiple players in Animal Crossing: New Horizons is certainly no easy feat, especially with how clunky the online features are, but it can be very rewarding. And if you’re a good host to a large number of players, it just encourages them to pay it forward and create a larger sense of goodwill in the community.
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