Walkthroughs

How to invite any amiibo villager using your Android phone in Animal Crossing: New Horizons

How to invite any amiibo villager using your Android phone in Animal Crossing: New Horizons

No amiibo? No problem, this guide has everything you need!

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Animal Crossing: New Horizons is so popular that it caused the cost of Animal Crossing amiibo to spike through the roof uncontrollably - it's genuinely insane how popular Nintendo's social sim has quickly become, and we couldn't be happier. Except for the amiibo prices, that is.

The fact is, there are a bunch of amiibo that I would've certainly purchased before had I known that the prices would skyrocket in the way that they did, and I'm left with the dreaded FOMO and misery. Except we can solve that.

Through a new Android app called JoyCon Droid and some dumped NFC data, we can import amiibo villagers without actually having to own their amiibo. Cheeky? Absolutely. Can you blame me? I'm assuming not.

If you follow our instructions here, you should know everything you need in order to get any amiibo villager you wish in Animal Crossing: New Horizons… And of course, these instructions should work fine for pretty much any game which uses amiibo.

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1
How to download JoyCon Droid and connect to your Nintendo Switch

This is all made possible thanks to JoyCon Droid, the app which lets you use your Android device as a Nintendo Switch Pro Controller. It should be noted that several devices have issues with JoyCon Droid at the moment, such as Google Pixel, Huawei, and Xiaomi.

If you have an Android device other than those, such as a Samsung, then you're in luck, and this should work fine. Though the app is in Alpha as of the time of writing, the free version does show ads, and you can likely expect bugs.

  • You can find JoyCon Droid (Alpha) on the Google Play Store. No need to worry about dodgy .apk files!
  • Once downloaded and installed, go into your app permissions and ensure JoyCon Droid can access your storage, and that it has amiibo functionality enabled in the settings.
  • Choose the Pro Controller option.
  • On your Nintendo Switch, open the controller pairing screen.
  • Choose Change Order, and then select the black sync button on the app, between the shoulder buttons.
  • Make sure your phone has Bluetooth connected, and accept any notifications that appear.
  • Your phone should now be connected to your Switch. The app may bug at this point, if so, restart the app or your phone entirely and try again.

2
How to download amiibo NFC data

Now, let's be clear here: the legality of downloading amiibo data that you didn't purchase is fairly murky. It's objectively not as serious as, say, video game piracy, but it's certainly a grey area.

There are sites online which act as a bank you can use to find amiibo data, and you'll likely find what you need if you search for "*villager name* nfc." That will work better if the name of the villager isn't a common name, of course, and preferable to all of this is simply burning NFC data yourself, or loaning an amiibo from a friend.

Once you have acquired the files you need, you'll be looking for a .bin file. Put that somewhere on your Android device that you will be able to find easily.

3
How to invite amiibo campers

Once you've followed the above steps you should have the app, the amiibo data, and have your Nintendo Switch connected to your phone. Now you can go to the kiosk in Resident Services, as usual, and invite an amiibo camper.

You should be using your phone as a controller for this part. You can activate the kiosk, and then press the home button to configure your controller if need be.

  • Once connected choose to invite an amiibo camper, and tap through the menus.
  • Once you're prompted to present an amiibo, a file explorer should appear on your phone. Use this to find the .bin file which contains your desired amiibo data.
  • If the file explorer does not open on your Android device, you may need to restart the app or your phone. Again, the app is in alpha, so it's forgiveable.
  • If successful, your Nintendo Switch should read it as a legitimate amiibo card or figure, and import the character into your game!

4
How to invite amiibo campers to stay on your island

Right, now that you're down to this point, you should have an amiibo camper at your campsite right now. That's great! Though getting them to stay might not be so easy.

What you'll have to do is go and talk to them, and do anything they ask. They may ask for an item that you don't have - in most cases, they'll provide you wish a DIY recipe if this is the case. Another bonus from inviting them!

Craft whatever they desire and gift it to them. This'll convince them to stay, at least a little bit. You'll need to invite over amiibo campers and perform tasks for them for three days before they decide to stay. But once it's all done, they're all yours!

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Dave Aubrey
Dave Aubrey
Dave is the Guides Editor at Pocket Gamer. Specialises in Nintendo, complains about them for a living.