I'm sure each of us have our own way of making villagers into Esteemed Elders (EEs), and I'd like to share all of our ideas for those who are trying to find their own strategy and need a little help.

I have found a strategy that works almost all the time. Every now and then, a villager dies before completing my "EE training program", but it's pretty rare. Even after I have created all 50 official EEs, I continue the program for each and every villager throughout the game. But instead of getting a token, I have my own official EE clothing to celebrate each of their accomplishments.

Here's my strategy.

1. If at all possible, while the villager is still a child, I use them to do the healing for anyone who's sick. Whenever someone is sick, I pause the game and go through all my villagers (oldest to youngest), and the first villager I find with 0 Doctor skill is the one I use to heal the sick villager. Early in the game, it's easier to do this with children, but not later (for reasons I'll explain later).

2. Any child who shows even the slightest skill of any kind, I select that skill. So when they turn 14, if I'm away, they will go to work right away instead of wasting away doing nothing.

3. When a villager turns 14, I begin their EE Training Program. Since I'm doing selective breeding, I will frequently have 3 to 5 villagers turn 14 at the same time. So I train all of the villagers simultaneously to save time.

4. First, I change their names to include a "T" at the end to help me keep track of my Trainees.

5. Then I switch all Trainees to the Doctor skill and move them to the blue flower (#2). If I have a lot of Trainees, then I sometimes have to pause the game to find them all. Once they start studying the flower, they'll each either say "no" or just walk away. Those that say "no" didn't gain any skill points; those that simply walk away do. Whatever the case, I keep dragging them back onto the flower. I finally stop when a villager walks away as a "Doctor Trainee". At that point, I leave that villager alone and continue training the remaining Trainees. Once all of the Trainees have reached "Doctor Trainee" skill, I then move them to their next skill.

I continue this process with every skill EXCEPT Parenting (that can really wreak havoc on things so I only do selective breeding, but this is probably not for everyone).

The order of training is:

1. Doctor
2. Builder
3. Research
4. Farmer

6. Once they have reached at least a Trainee status with all 4 of those skills, I leave them on Farmer. This will be their first skill to Master.

The order in which I have them master the skills is:

1. Farmer
2. Research
3. Builder

I have them master in Farming first because they walk faster when they're young, and farming requires a lot of walking. If they walk slowly, this can greatly increase the amount of time it takes for them to master Farming. Plus, I find that the villagers are pretty dedicated to their skills when young so they usually master in Farming pretty fast without being too badly distracted.

I have them master in Research second because they frequently get injured while researching. I have not studied this enough to be sure, but I think they heal from their injuries better when they're still young, as opposed to being Elderly or near Elderly. I also find that they tend to like Researching so they don't wander off too much; although, they do wander. I generally don't get onto them for wandering off.

Then I have them master in Building last because the time it takes for them to do this is highly variable, it doesn't require a whole lot of walking, and they don't get injured very often. So they can use as much time as they need to keep building until they finally master it.

I find that the villagers do not like building! They wander endlessly. They wash clothes; they do other skills; the play in the pond, eat, walk on the beach, get coconuts... they try to do anything except build! However, they do build. If left alone, even with all their wandering off, they usually master this skill.

If a villager is lagging behind, I mark their name with an "R" for redirect. That way, if I find then doing something other than building, I know to redirect them back to building immediately.

One a villager is 59-60 years old, if they have not yet mastered building, I focus on them very strongly. With a lot of villagers in the game, this can be hard. So I change their clothes to a special set of clothes that I use to "mark" them.

For the men, I use the brightly colored outfit that reminds me of a Jester. That outfit is easy to see amongst a crowd, and the Jester connotation works for me to suggest that they're jokesters and not workers which makes them somewhat a village idiot.

For the women, I use the black and white outfit. Those my age will remember the 101 Dalmatians movie and that it prompted many families to run out and get dalmatian puppies. This became a problem because dalmatian dogs are not very easy to train so many families dumped the dogs. So I consider the women in the black and white outfit to be my "village dalmatians" which I see as equal to a village idiot. Plus, the black and white outfit is also easy to spot amongst a crowd.

By marking these villagers with their "idiot" clothes, I can easily keep an eye on them. If I see them wandering around, on the beach, being lonely, or whatever, I immediately move them back to their skill. I also check on them often, even if they are doing their skills to be sure they're do the RIGHT skill and to make sure they're actually fixing a hut and not just examining it.

Generally, by doing this, the villager will master the last skill before becoming elderly which is my goal. I've had a couple that kept working after becoming elderly, but that was because they didn't like running or were a parent that started working on some of the skills a bit late.

Once they master all their skills, I celebrate it by changing their clothes to the red outfits. The men's outfit has a lot of black bands on it so I modified the women's red dress to match. I bumped the color to a red that more closely matches the men's outfits; plus, I added all the black arm/leg bands and belt. I also added a black band at the neck which accentuates the top of the dress which I really like (one arm bare).

The EE clothes helps me to easily pass them by when checking up on everyone's skills. I don't need to be concerned as to whether they've finished a skill because their clothing clearly marks that they've completed the entire EE Training Program. I switch them to Researching until they hit 65 years old so they won't be researching once they become Elderly. The EEs are allowed to do anything they want. They can wash clothes, hang around the beach or whatever. I never redirect them.


One thing that really helps is having each villager trained in all 4 skills at the very beginning. So when I'm checking up on them and discover one has mastered a skill, I can just check off the next skill without having to stop to train them. They will migrate over to their newly checked skill even if you do nothing. However, when I have the time, they seem to benefit from a couple rounds of reinforced training (a couple of times being successful). Since they were trained earlier, they are much easier to be successful than if I were trying to train them at their older age.


When an EE becomes elderly, not only do I take them off Researching, but I put them on Doctor. Keep in mind that EVERY villager is a Doctor Trainee at the very least. By having ALL of my Elderly EE's as Doctors, there are tons of villagers everywhere to heal a sick villager very quickly. I find that some EE villagers master as Doctors completely by accident, giving them 4 mastered skills!

This is very long so I'm going to post a second message as to how I train parents, especially the women, so they can still become EEs after a lifetime of parenting.

YIKES! That really was long! Nothing like making something rather... um... complex?!

Okay, so does this training program work for women who are parents? Keep in mind that I do selective breeding. So none of my villagers (usually) ever breed on their own.

When the breeder woman turns 14, she goes through the normal EE Training Program, and then is left to Farm. Some will master farming before turning 18! But most don't. They just become close.

I watch these breeders very carefully. As soon as one turns 18, I breed them (but I do NOT switch their skill to parenting; I leave them as Farmers). Since I'm not watching my villagers all the time, many will finish nursing before I get back to them. Because I left their checked skill on farming, they start farming again, increasing that skill.

As soon as I realize they've finished nursing, I breed them again. I keep breeding them every VV2 "two years" until they are too old OR have mastered the Parenting skill (generally, they master it around age 50). I do not breed any other villagers! Just the selected few.

Another thing I do is when I am actually breeding a villager, I have the woman kiss the man. Each time they kiss, it is the kisser that increases in parenting, not the kissee (so to speak). So by having the woman do the kissing, this accomplishes two things. First, the man does not increase his parenting skill very much which helps to prevent him from breeding on his own when I'm not watching! Second, the women need all the help with the Parenting skill they can get. If kissing 10 times helps, even if it's a tiny bit, then that's better than nothing.

Interestingly, I have found another consequence of the selective breeding. It seems the more two parents breed, the more often they'll have twins and triplets. I suspect it has to do with the higher parenting skills.

I use the man villager that has the attributes I want that is also the most skilled. This way they can better pass their skills to their children.



Okay, so when the breeder woman turns 50, she usually has either mastered in Farming or is close. She has mastered in Parenting. So I will put them on Farming to finish that up, if needed. Then I'll put them on Research. I find that Researching is a faster skill to master than Building. Also, it seems the villagers will wander off less while Researching, as compared to, Building.

Since I have a 59 to 60 age limit before I mark them as village idiots (meant in a friendly way), the breeders have around 9-10 years to master their other skills. If they don't, then I mark them so I can help them stay focused on their skills better. But there's still no need to get too worried since most of my villagers die in their mid 70s. That means at 60, they still have 10 more years or more to work! However, I really try to get them mastered in their 3 skills before they turn 65 so they an retire and enjoy the good life.

So what about non-runners and villagers who refuse to do a skill due to a dislike, such as disliking fish or turnips?

Generally, I have found that these villagers will master the skill, even with their dislikes and running away. The key is to not force them into the ocean or crops (depending on their dislike). So let's say a villager dislikes fish, they will run away every time you put them in the ocean. So put them on the crops. They'll do their planting, think, and then run away. Don't mess with them. If you watch, they'll usually go back to some form of Farming — even fishing!

I had a set of twins that didn't like to fish. In this case, they were extremely stubborn. They absolutely refused to fish, and when they worked the crops, they ended up running away constantly when they would normally switch to fishing. So these two weren't progressing with farming at all!

So I switched them to Doctor. One twin mastered that overnight! The other twin took her sweet time at it. I didn't make a big fuss over it. Only one time, when the gong took away health, did I manipulate the game on her behalf. I paused it and moved all sick villagers to a spot so she and ONLY she could do the healing. Surprisingly, that really didn't increase her Doctor skill all that much. But it seemed to help her remain focused on healing more.

Keep in mind that every villager I have is at least a Doctor Trainee with all Elderly villagers having that skill checked. That means any doctor villager I have has A LOT of competition! It's not unusual to have 5 or more villagers running to heal one sick villager.

But the younger doctor has the advantage of being able to walk faster. So she can get to the sick villager faster than the slow elderly villagers if the sick villager is far away from an elderly one (did you catch all that? :D).

Okay, last tip. Sometimes I will have a lot of builders who simply refuse to stay on their task or only examine the huts rather than fixing them. When this happens, I do a concentrated group training.

I take every builder that's giving me problems to the hospital. No other villagers are allowed there. And then I make them fix and fix and fix AND fix until they've gone around 10 rounds or 5-10 minutes (depending on my own focus!). NO villager may leave until they leave to fix another hut. If they want to leave for any other reason, it's Hotel California for them. They keep fixing and fixing and fixing until they finally get the hint.

I have found this to help. I suspect it has something to do with their skill levels. Or maybe there's some kind of mathematical calculation based on their rate of success which means forcing multiple successes adds to that calculation. I really don't know.

I do know that a villager who has been forced to do a skill too long will be more and more stubborn about doing something other than that skill. It's like they HAVE to eat or take a break. So I let them. If you watch, they'll frequently come back to their skill after their break.

Okay, so that's the long — errr... VERY LONG — explanation of the strategy I use. Take what works for you and leave the rest, modifying it to whatever works for you. I'm sure there are many other methods of training villagers to reach the EE level.

I think if there is any key to this, it is to not get too fussy about keeping your villagers on task. Let them have breaks. Just watch their overall progress. And when you find a villager that's lagging behind, then find a way to recognize that villager from a group so you can redirect them more often (or do a concentrated training session as I described above). I have found that most villagers will master in their skills even with all their breaks.

Did anyone actually read all that? I hope someone finds something in all of this to be helpful.

Believe it or not, I read it all and I appreciate all the time that you took to write it down.

I've found that if you put a villager on building before research then they're normally more focused on building. BUT I also haven't gotten as far along this time as you have, so they're actually still building or cleaning up the ancient area. They also have a tendency to go elsewhere when they're researching if that's the last skill for them. I'm thinking it may be because they worked so hard earlier that they think it's time for more "vacations".

I've been so antsy about VV3 that I have tribes going in VV1 and VV2, and started FT and PT again!! What'll I do with all of them once VV3 comes out????

Usually, I pick a villager with good skill, then set him/her on that. Once I master them at that skill (hopes of building), they go on to farming/building. After that, they go on to researching/farming. Then, they get new clothes and go to doctor.

I love that idea! I could definitely use that for after I get to 50 official EEs.


I did. I found your strategy to be very interesting and entertaining.

My strategy to making EEs is to fall in love with a villager first. They have to be pretty/handsome and unique. In my current tribe, I’ve only had three EEs which those basic principles did not apply.

Once I find a pretty/handsome and unique villager (I do it spontaneously, it’s not something I force myself to do), I make a mental note of what skills I would prefer them to learn. Usually, I start with their given skills that they got from their parents. I usually try to do the slower skills first or second. From my experience, Building, Parenting, and Healing take a while to master, so I try to get those done for the first or second skill to master. The third skill tends to be something faster that I’m pretty sure they will master by the end of their life, which would be Farming and Research. Most of my EEs are elderly or close to it when they get their totems.

Sometimes I don’t care if a villager is pretty/handsome and unique. When I see that they like work or learning, I vaguely plant the idea of having them become EEs. But most of the EEs in my current village are part of my beauty and individuality requirements.

I also sometimes fall in love with a villager late in life, so I have to scramble to get them to master their skills before they die. I don’t always succeed, but I tend to remember some of them even without them being EEs. In fact, several of my memorable villagers were not EEs.

Thanks for those who actually made it through all of my original posts!

I find your strategies interesting and may try some of them. I think I'll see what happens if they master in Building before Research. Their focus may be due to the skill order or it may be due to older age. It'll be fun to test it out.

halldog, which outfit are you using for your EE villagers?

SP, thanks for posting that. Me, with my computer logical type of mind, never even thought of linking their skills to their looks (or other favorable attributes). It's interesting to see that people do that. I do it only while breeding.

Selective breeding and the challenge of making every villager an EE or equivalent is what keeps my tribes going after I've completed all the other stuff. I can't wait to see how much of any of this will carry over to VV3 once it's released. I love the idea of EE. I just wish all of the villagers who mastered in 3 skills could obtain the title, even if they don't get totems or gravestones.

For the males: All green
For the females: Orange and white

I read it. Very interesting. I wish I was clever enough to change the mod things like you do but I'm lucky to find the text file to read

I did the change clothes bit on my first tribe but grew lazy. I let them just do their own thing. Only when I see a 15 year old plus walking around bored do I direct them, other than that, they do what they want. Most are born with farming skill and they are farmers their entire lives.

I do check the elderly to doctor also so that they can just enjoy but sometimes I think I am shortening their lives that way since my villagers rarely get past 74 years old.