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How to change the day and night cycle manually in Pokémon Sword and Shield

The masters of time and space.
This article is over 4 years old and may contain outdated information

Certain Pokémon have a habit of spawning or evolving during times on the day, which makes it a hassle if you want to complete the Pokédex as quickly as possible in Pokémon Sword and Shield.

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If you’re not amused by the idea of waiting hours to get your target Pokémon, you’ll be pleased to know that there’s a way to change the day and night cycle in-game.

A word of warning, though—the day and night cycle might be absent in some major routes or areas of the game while you’re going through the main story. We don’t know why, but Game Freak decided to lock day and night cycles in certain areas until the player progresses through the game.

You can, however, go to the Wild Area for normal day and night cycles to occur to help you when evolving or getting certain creatures.

As for how to change the cycle, all you need to do is open the Switch’s main menu, open Settings, scroll down to System, and then open the Date and Time option in the new sub-menu.

There, turn off the internet option and you can manually change the time on the system, which will also affect the game. Set it anywhere between 9am and 11am for anything that you need doing while sunny, and anywhere between 8pn and 11pm for anything that involves the night.


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Author
Image of Adam Newell
Adam Newell
Assigning Editor. In 2015, Adam graduated from the University of Aberystwyth with a bachelor's in Media and Communications. Working in the industry for over ten years. If it has anything to do with Nintendo and Pokémon chances are you will see me talking about it, covering, and likely not sleeping while playing it.