How to Restart Animal Crossing New Horizons Island

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There are many reasons why a player might want to restart their Animal Crossing: New Horizons island. Whether you’re unhappy with your current island layout, have grown bored after completing most tasks, or just want a fresh start, restarting gives you the chance to reimagine your island. However, it’s important to understand the steps, as well as the pros and cons before making this decision. Let’s see how to restart Animal Crossing: New Horizons island here

Pros and Cons of Restarting

Pros

Fresh Start: You get a completely new island, including a different layout, villagers, and fruit.
Reimagining Your Island: Restarting allows you to create new design ideas that you might not have considered before.
Chance for Better RNG: You might end up with villagers or island fruit you prefer over the ones you initially had.

Cons

Lose All Progress: Once you restart, everything from your old island is gone forever unless you’ve backed up your data. This includes buildings, museum donations, and items.
Time Investment: Rebuilding your island from scratch takes a significant amount of time.
No Way to Transfer Items: You cannot transfer items, bells, or villagers between different save files, so starting over means giving up everything.

How to Restart Animal Crossing New Horizons Island?

You Can Use Another Account

If you’re hesitant about losing all your progress but still want a new experience, using a second Nintendo Switch account is a great alternative. Each account on your Switch can have its own save file in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, meaning you can start a new island without erasing the old one.

How to Set Up Another Account

Navigate to System Settings on your Nintendo Switch.
Scroll down to Users and select Add User.
Create a new user profile with a different name and icon.
Once your new account is set up, launch Animal Crossing: New Horizons from the new profile.

Now you can experience a fresh island without deleting your previous save file.

Restarting Animal Crossing New Horizons on the First Day

If you’re still on the first day of your gameplay and realize you’re not satisfied with your island’s layout, fruit, or initial villagers, it’s possible to restart the game without any serious consequences.

Steps to Restart on Day One

Exit Animal Crossing and close the game.
Go to the Nintendo Switch home menu.
Restart the game.
You’ll be prompted to start over and choose a new island layout, fruit, and villagers.

Since you haven’t made any significant progress, restarting during this early phase is simple and doesn’t result in any major losses.

Delete Your Animal Crossing New Horizons Save Data

For players who want a completely new island and are willing to erase all progress, deleting the save data is the most effective method. Be absolutely sure you want to proceed, as this will permanently remove everything from your current island.

How to Delete Save Data

From the Nintendo Switch home menu, go to System Settings.
Scroll down to Data Management.
Select Delete Save Data.
Choose Animal Crossing: New Horizons from the list and confirm.
Once deleted, launch the game, and you’ll be prompted to create a new island.

This process wipes all progress, including your island layout, museum donations, items, and villagers, so be sure this is what you want before confirming.

Transfer Your Save Data to an SD Card

Unfortunately, Animal Crossing: New Horizons doesn’t support direct save data transfers to an SD card. However, Nintendo offers the Island Backup Service for situations where your system is damaged, lost, or stolen. This service allows players to recover their island but doesn’t support manual transfers for restarts or creating backups before resetting.

Steps for Using Island Backup Service

Make sure your Nintendo Switch Online subscription is active.
Start Animal Crossing and press the “minus” (-) button on the title screen.
Go to Island Backup settings and enable the service.

If your Switch system is ever damaged, you can restore your island by logging in to another console and using the backup.

How to Delete a Character in Animal Crossing: New Horizons

If you want to delete just one character (player) from your island without erasing the entire game, you can do so from the in-game settings. This is useful if a secondary character was created accidentally or if someone is no longer using their account.

Steps to Delete a Character

Start Animal Crossing: New Horizons and go to the title screen.
Press the “minus” (-) button to access Tom Nook’s settings.
Select Save Data Settings, then choose Delete Resident Registration.
Choose the resident you want to remove and confirm.

Deleting a character will remove them, their house, and all their belongings from the island, but it won’t affect the island itself or other players on the island.

Tips for a New Island Start

If you’ve decided to restart your island, here are some tips to make the process smoother:

Choose the Right Layout: Focus on the placement of rivers, cliffs, and the Resident Services building. These are permanent features, so pick a layout you enjoy.
Native Fruit: Consider which fruit you want. Each island has one native fruit, but it can be traded later on.
Villagers: The first villagers are random, but if you’re picky about your villagers, you can restart until you get a pair you like.

A fresh start is exciting, but making informed decisions from the beginning will help you get the most out of your new island experience.

Conclusion

Restarting your Animal Crossing: New Horizons island is a big decision that can bring a fresh wave of creativity and excitement. Whether you choose to fully restart, delete a character, or create a new user account for multiple islands, understanding the process will help you make the right choice for your gameplay style.

Also Read: What is Nookazon?

FAQs on How to Restart Animal Crossing New Horizons Island

Is it worth it to restart Animal Crossing: New Horizons?

Restarting can be worth it if you’re bored or dissatisfied with your island layout or want a fresh creative challenge. However, it means losing all your progress, so it’s ideal for players seeking a new experience.

Can you move to a new island in Animal Crossing: New Horizons?

No, you cannot move to a new island without restarting. If you want a different island, you’ll need to delete your current save or create a new account.

Should I flatten or restart my Animal Crossing island?

Flattening the island keeps your progress, items, and villagers but allows you to redesign from scratch. Restarting, on the other hand, offers a clean slate with all-new features but erases everything.

What happens if you delete the island representative?

The island representative is the main player responsible for decisions like building and infrastructure. Deleting them will erase the entire island unless a new player takes over as the representative.

Why can you only have one island per Switch?

Nintendo limits each Switch system to one island because the save data is tied to the console itself, not individual user accounts. This encourages shared experiences but restricts the number of islands per device.