How to time travel in Animal Crossing: New Horizons

One downside to Animal Crossing: New Horizons is that numerous activities consume time. Gamers don’t always have the time or patience to wait for resources or events in Animal Crossing. Thankfully, you can spend a bit of time traveling with a little work on your Nintendo Switch. It’s perfectly safe to do, but it’s not without consequences.

What’s the point of time travel in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, though? It’s a fantastic way to make Bells, gather resources, and much more. It takes minor work and doesn't get you banned. Moreover, it will help you progress in the game faster.

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Time traveling has its perks in Animal Crossing: New Horizons

Time travel in Animal Crossing: New Horizons is more than just making money. It’s also useful to push the story forward and helps you get to particular NPCs who show up on your island without waiting for days. The game measures time on the same clock as real life, so you’ll likely wait a long time to make progress.

Some people don’t have the time for that. Either that or perhaps they want to catch up to their friends, who have been playing for months. There’s nothing wrong with that. If you want to time travel in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, here’s what you need to know about the process.

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How can a player time travel in Animal Crossing: New Horizons

A player has to follow the steps mentioned below to time travel in the game:

• Save and quit Animal Crossing
• Go to your System Settings (gear icon) on your Nintendo Switch
• Scroll to the bottom, click on System
• Scroll to Date and Time, select this
• Turn off “Synchronize Clock Via Internet”
• Select the “Date and Time” option
• Pick whichever date you want time travel to, click OK
• Boot Animal Crossing backup

However, you don’t want to travel too far into the future in Animal Crossing: New Horizons. You should have a clear date in mind and head to it. If you travel too many weeks into the future, you’ll start getting weeds, and people could start leaving your island. You aren't bound in one direction, so going back in time is also an option.

However, if you’re going to participate in Animal Crossing: New Horizons events, you’ll need to resync your Nintendo Switch’s clock. That’s as simple as returning to your date and time settings and turning “Synchronize Clock Via Internet” back on.

There are potential consequences to time traveling in the game. One of the primary ways to make money is by utilizing the Stalk Market to sell Turnips. However, if you travel too far forward in the game, your crop could go bad. You could also start gathering cockroaches in your home, but you can just step on those.

Your island residents could feel neglected and decide to leave, and weeds could start growing. While not guaranteed, items that fall from trees or the sky could vanish if they land on weeds. It’s something worth noting. For that reason, you may not want to move too far forward in the future.

You can use time travel in the game to make lots of Bells, unlock events, and ensure the NPCs you’re looking for will show up much faster. While there are potential downsides, you can mitigate that by moving a few days forward instead of weeks.