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Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream gives you four ways to add an island resident: answer the Get Help questions, build one From Scratch, copy a face from a Mii saved on your Nintendo Switch or Switch 2, or clone an existing islander. From there, you set appearance, voice, personality, identity, relationships, and event clothing. The island holds up to 70 Miis, and you can edit a resident later without wiping relationships or progress.
The game launched worldwide on Nintendo Switch on April 16, 2026, and also runs on Nintendo Switch 2. Both versions use a 6.3 GB installation and the same Mii-creation content. This guide explains every creation route, the expanded editor, face paint, gender and dating settings, imports, editing, deletion, and the limits that matter before you fill your island.
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Which Mii creation route should you choose?
Choose Get Help when you want a quick generated face, and choose From Scratch when likeness, unusual designs, or face paint matter. The console and island-copy options are shortcuts for faces you have already made.
| Route | What it does | Best for | What you still set in Living the Dream |
|---|---|---|---|
| Get Help | Generates a face after simple questions about hair, face, eyes, and mouth | Fast setup or players who find Mii editors intimidating | All remaining profile, identity, voice, personality, and clothing choices |
| From Scratch | Opens the full creator immediately | Accurate likenesses, original characters, anime-style designs, animals, aliens, and face paint | Everything, including every appearance slider |
| Create from Mii on console | Copies the face of a Mii stored in the Switch or Switch 2 System Settings | A face you already maintain in the console Mii list | Height, personality, identity, voice, relationships, and event outfit |
| Use an existing island Mii | Starts a new resident from an islander already in your save | Family resemblance, twins, or a faster second version of a character | Any details you want to alter before adding the resident |
How do I create a Mii in Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream?
Have an open resident slot and decide whether the new character is a child or adult, a real person, or an original design. A new island can show the two headline choices immediately. On an established island, open the island menu and choose Add a Mii; published guides place the shortcut on either X or + depending on the menu context and version layout.
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- Choose a creation mode. Select Get Help, From Scratch, Create from Mii on console, or the option to base the resident on an existing islander when it appears.
- Complete the face. In Get Help, answer the look questions. The generated face can be accepted with Looks good, sent back to the editor with Needs work, or regenerated with Start over. From Scratch opens the complete appearance editor.
- Set body proportions. Use the height and body sliders. The comparison view lets you check the new resident against islanders already registered. There is no reset control for these sliders, so adjust them deliberately.
- Enter the name and pronunciation. Living the Dream uses one name field rather than the 3DS game’s separate first-name, last-name, and nickname arrangement. If the voice reads a name incorrectly, open the pronunciation icon beside the name and spell the sound phonetically; a name such as Seán can be entered as “Shawn” for speech.
- Choose gender and dating preference. The gender choices are male, female, and non-binary. Dating preference can include male, female, and/or non-binary, including a deliberate choice of none. You can select one or several categories. If you skip this setting, Game8 reports that it defaults to the opposite of the selected gender, so review it before continuing.
- Set birthday and age. A Mii under 18 is treated as a child, while 18 and older is treated as an adult. You can also prevent that Mii from aging. Birthdays feed seasonal events and compatibility activities.
- Build the voice. Pick a preset or use custom controls. The custom voice offers speed, pitch, depth, rise and fall, and melody adjustments; Nintendo’s store description also calls out pitch, speed, and tone.
- Add family and relationship links. If other residents are present, assign real-world relatives and, where appropriate, spouses or another connection. Related Miis will not fall in love, which helps prevent accidental romance between family members.
- Set personality sliders. Rate Movement, Speech, Energy, Thinking, and Overall from one end of each scale to the other. The game assigns one of 16 personality types after confirmation. The type is revealed only after you finish, and Game8 says you cannot return to the slider screen from that result, so make the five choices carefully.
- Choose event clothing and review. Select the style for occasions such as weddings, check the overview, and choose Add Mii to place the resident on the island. New residents begin in personality-based starter clothes; later outfits come from the Where & Wear shop or gifts.
What happens when you choose Get Help?
Get Help asks plain-language appearance questions such as whether the hair should be long or short and what shape the face, eyes, and mouth should have. It is the quickest route to a usable resident, but it does not replace the full editor: choose Needs work whenever the generated result is close but not right.
When is From Scratch the better choice?
Use From Scratch for a recognizable person, a carefully designed original character, or any face that depends on two-tone hair, custom skin, unusual eye colours, or drawn markings. It exposes the controls that Get Help intentionally skips.
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What can the expanded appearance editor change?
Living the Dream keeps familiar Mii parts but adds fine controls for faces, hair, colours, and ears. Nintendo developer Daisuke Kageyama says eyelashes, eyelid creases, and mouths can be adjusted to different angles, while sub-colours make two-tone hair possible.
| Area | Options and controls | Qualification |
|---|---|---|
| Face and skin | Sixteen face shapes and fourteen standard skin tones are catalogued by the Living the Dream Mii Maker reference, plus a custom colour picker | The numbered catalogue is from a fan-maintained reference; Nintendo has not published a complete official part count |
| Hair | Front bangs and back hair are selected separately; highlights, unusual colours, sub-hair colour, and loose versions of tied styles are available | Caps and beanies copied from a system Mii become inventory hats rather than remaining hair options in the in-game maker |
| Eyes | New shapes, adjustable angle and position, removable or added eyelashes, movable catchlights, eye bags, eyeshadow, and unusual colours | Exact total number of eye parts has not been published by Nintendo |
| Nose | At least eight additional shapes, adjustable placement, and the ability to remove the nose | “At least” reflects the fan catalogue rather than a first-party total |
| Mouth | At least sixteen additional shapes, rotation, removal, and lipstick even on a lipless mouth | Exact total has not been officially enumerated |
| Glasses | New styles including monocles; frame and lens colours can be set separately, with thick or thin frames | Glasses remain an appearance layer and can be changed later |
| Ears | Oval, Round, Large, and Pointy shapes with size and position controls | Ears are a new series feature |
| Body | Height and weight sliders, with an on-screen comparison to existing residents | There is no one-button slider reset |
These tools are intended for more than realistic portraits. Director Ryutaro Takahashi says the team wanted players to make characters that do not exist in real life, and the custom skin and feature colours support animals, aliens, and other non-human concepts. To make an anime-inspired face, start with larger eyes, pair an unnatural hair colour with a sub-colour, and reserve face paint for markings that native parts cannot reproduce.
How do I use face paint?
Face paint is an optional drawing and stamping layer applied to the front of the head. It can add whiskers, scars, masks, symbols, freckles, or other markings that are impossible with standard facial parts.
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- Open the face-paint tool from the appearance editor after choosing the base face.
- Draw or stamp the mark and decide whether it sits above or below the facial features.
- Preview the head from several angles before accepting it. Face paint is a two-dimensional overlay, so a design that looks centered from the front can appear misplaced from the side.
- Use touch controls or sticks to draw. Joy-Con 2 mouse input is not supported for this feature.
Native makeup, freckles, wrinkles, eyeliner, and eye shines follow the 3D head more naturally. Community tutorials often recommend smoothing broad strokes and using a one-pixel unsmoothed eraser for cleanup, but those are technique tips rather than separate game settings. Developers demonstrated whiskers on a cat-like Mii, and Ohnishi says babies can inherit parent traits including cat-like face paint.
How do gender and dating preferences work?
You can select male, female, or non-binary as a Mii’s gender, then independently choose whether that resident is interested in male, female, and/or non-binary Miis—or none of them. Nintendo’s FAQ states that the game’s systems and story content do not change based on the gender selection.
Married couples may have babies regardless of gender. The dating setting controls who the resident can be interested in, while family links are a separate safeguard against relatives falling in love. Some secondary guides mention personal-pronoun controls, but Nintendo’s public FAQ does not document custom pronoun strings; treat that option as version- or source-dependent if it appears in your game.
How do I edit an existing Mii?
Open the Residents list from the menu, select the Mii, and choose the edit command, or talk to the resident and open the Mii menu (Game8 identifies Y for this route). The full creator reopens, allowing changes to the name, face, body, personality, voice, identity, and other profile details.
According to post-launch Game8 and TheGamer guides, editing preserves relationships, levels, and island progress. That is the practical way to correct a pronunciation, replace a face-paint mark, or change a personality setup without deleting the resident.
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Can I import Miis from Switch Mii Maker, Miitopia, QR codes, or amiibo?
You can copy a face from a Mii registered on your Switch or Switch 2, but there is no direct Miitopia import. Living the Dream also cannot send its island Mii data back to the console or into another game.
| Source | Supported path | Important limit |
|---|---|---|
| System Mii on Switch or Switch 2 | Open System Settings > Mii, create or edit the console Mii, then choose Create from Mii on console in Living the Dream | The game copies the face; set height, personality, identity, voice, and other island data in-game |
| amiibo | In System Mii Maker, hold an amiibo with a registered Mii to the NFC point on the right Joy-Con 2, then use the resulting system Mii in the game | The amiibo is an intermediate copy source, not an in-game importer |
| QR code on Switch 2 | Switch 2 System Mii Maker can scan a saved Mii QR image with a compatible USB camera, such as the Nintendo Switch 2 Camera; USB-C cameras connect to the console and standard USB cameras connect to the dock | This is a system-Mii feature, not a confirmed in-game QR scanner |
| Nearby console | System Mii Maker supports local-wireless send and receive; the game can also send a Mii and Palette House to a nearby friend’s system | Both systems need to be nearby and use the supported local-wireless flow |
| Miitopia | Not supported as a direct import source | Nintendo’s FAQ specifically says Miitopia and other software cannot be imported directly |
Do not buy or prepare a separate game expecting an Access Key transfer. Nintendo’s later FAQ supersedes community workarounds that describe Miitopia as an import pipeline.
How many Miis can I have, and what happens at the limit?
Nintendo’s UK support page sets the island maximum at 70 registered Miis. This is lower than the 100-resident limit in the 3DS game. A house can hold up to eight Miis, which helps organize a full island but does not increase the 70-resident cap.
If Add a Mii is greyed out, check the Residents list first. The usual causes are reaching 70 residents or being temporarily blocked by a story event. Each console user has one island save, and islands are not shared between user profiles on the same console.
How do I delete a Mii?
Open the resident’s edit screen, choose Delete, and confirm the warning. Game8 reports an in-game charge of at least $33, but the amount should be checked on the confirmation screen because it is an in-game fee rather than a published real-world price.
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Remove clothing, gifts, and other belongings first if you want to keep them. Deleting the resident removes that Mii’s belongings as well as the resident, and the action should be treated as permanent for the island save.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What is different on Nintendo Switch 2?
There is no separate Switch 2 edition. Mii creation and Studio Workshop support touch controls on both systems, while Switch 2 may load scenes faster and supports 1080p handheld output. Joy-Con 2 mouse control is not supported, so use touch or sticks for face-paint drawing.
Switch 2’s USB-camera QR scan belongs to System Mii Maker. The console’s camera accessory is sold separately, and the scan must happen before you choose Create from Mii on console in the game. Handheld Mode Boost is not relevant to this task because Switch 2 handheld output already targets 1080p.
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Can I practice before buying the full game?
The free eShop demo allows up to three Miis. Those residents carry into the full game, and completing the demo grants a Hamster Costume that is also obtainable in the full release. The demo is useful for testing the editor and deciding whether you need the full From Scratch workflow before populating an entire island.
How do I make cute, anime, or non-human Miis?
Start with the face silhouette and native parts, then use colour and face paint for details that need to sit on top of the head. Cute designs usually benefit from expressive eyes, eyelashes, softer mouth angles, and a smaller nose; anime designs can use large eyes, unusual hair with a contrasting sub-colour, and deliberately stylized face paint.
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For animals or aliens, combine custom skin colour with abnormal eye or hair colours, pointy or oversized ears, and drawn markings. Keep important markings on the front-facing area and check the side view because the 2D paint layer does not wrap around the head like native makeup or wrinkles.
How were these creation options selected?
The routes and settings above are based on Nintendo’s store and support descriptions, the post-launch Game8 and TheGamer walkthroughs, Nintendo’s developer interview, and clearly labelled secondary catalogues where Nintendo has not published a complete part list. Conflicting personality-name lists were not treated as definitive; the reliable point is the five-slider process and the 16 resulting types revealed after confirmation.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can a married same-gender couple have a baby?
Yes. Nintendo’s FAQ says married couples may have babies regardless of gender. Babies can inherit characteristics from both parents, including distinctive face-paint traits such as cat-like markings.
Can I move a Living the Dream Mii back into System Settings?
No. Nintendo says Mii data created in Living the Dream cannot be transferred to a Switch or Switch 2 console or to other software. The supported direction is from a console Mii into a new island resident.
Why does my face paint look misaligned when the Mii turns?
Face paint is a flat 2D overlay rather than a texture that wraps around the 3D head. Recenter important marks, preview both profiles, and use native makeup or facial parts when a detail must follow the head from every angle.
Are the personality names the same in every guide?
No. Secondary English-language lists disagree on the names used for the 16 types. The documented creation mechanic is five temperament sliders followed by a type reveal; rely on the labels shown in your own game rather than an external list.
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Can I share a whole island save with another user on my Switch?
No. Nintendo documents one island save per console user, and islands are not shared between profiles. You can send a Mii or Palette House to a nearby friend’s system through the game’s local-wireless feature, but that is not a complete island transfer.
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