Pokemon Sword and Shield’s Wild Area allows players to catch a wide variety of Pokemon (provided they have enough gym badges to catch Pokemon of a particular level), but the Pokemon that appear in any particular part of the Wild Area are limited by the weather in that zone. When players first got their hands on the new games, many began wondering if there was a way to shift the weather to suit their catching needs. In this Pokemon Sword and Shield change the weather guide, we’ll cover how to change the Wild Area’s weather to a single weather type.
Pokemon Sword and Shield | How to change the weather
If you’re tired of running into so many Sneasels and Cubchoos or you’re trying to catch a Galarian Corsola — which only spawns in Pokemon Shield’s Giant’s Mirror area in overcast weather conditions — you’re likely looking for a quick way to change up the weather. While players quickly figured out that changing the date of your Nintendo Switch clock shifted the weather, YouTuber AustinJohnPlays recently discovered a way to set every single Wild Area zone to the same weather type. This makes it much easier to find certain Pokemon, since you no longer have to randomly input dates until the correct weather spawns in the area you want.
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AustinJohnPlays discovered that setting the Switch clock to the first date of any given month will coordinate all the weather types in the Wild Area. With some testing, he found the following date-weather combinations:
- Sun: 05.01.2020
- Harsh Sun: 07.01.2020
- Overcast: 03.01.2020
- Rain: 10.01.2020
- Thunderstorm: 11.01.2020
- Snow: 12.01.2020
In addition to these standard weather types, three weather types are only available after you’ve reached certain points in the story. The Sandstorm and Hail weather types unlock somewhere in the mid-game (possibly after the fourth or fifth gym for Sandstorm and the sixth or seventh for Hail), while Fog won’t be available until you’ve become champion and beaten the main story. Once you’ve unlocked these weather types, you can select them with the following dates:
- Sandstorm: 04.01.2020
- Hail/Blizzard: 2.01.2020
- Fog: 06.01.2020
In order to change your Switch’s clock, head to Settings and then scroll all the way down to System. Here, select “Date and Time” and set “Synchronize Clock via Internet” to “Off.” Now you can scroll down below “Time Zone” and set “Date and Time” to the desired weather’s date.
While changing the weather allows you to more easily find certain Pokemon there is reportedly one major downside to doing so. According to Reddit user Yourigath, changing the date resets Sword and Shield’s in-game daily event clock. This means that Max Raid Battles won’t reset for another 24 hours after you change the clock, which could be a huge bummer for collection-hungry trainers.
