Weather has been an aspect in Pokemon catching for a while. For Sword and Shield though, it’s become a truly game changing element. The Wild Area is the real cause of this, with its reliance on many factors to determine which Pokemon appear, where, and when. But if you don’t know the secrets to how weather works then you will simply be stuck with whatever is randomly available at the time you play. To help, here’s how to change weather in Pokemon Sword and Shield.
How to Change Weather
Weather in Sword and Shield is somewhat randomized. Whenever you enter the Wild Area the weather is set based on the date and time on your Nintendo Switch. So in the game itself there isn’t much you can do to alter things, at least early in the game when it will matter. So what options are available? You can change the weather, but it involves shutting down the game and altering some settings. Yep, you have to change the date and/or time on your Switch.
Make sure you save your game because you don’t want to lose a ton of progress when you’re just trying to change weather. Once you’re set just hit Home, then hit X while hovering on the Pokemon Sword and Shield icon. Choose Close to shut the game down. Now open the System Settings menu and go to System at the bottom. Here is a Date and Time option. Turn off sync time to the internet and you can set it to whatever you like. When you load the game back up and enter the Wild Area the weather should be different. You unfortunately can’t choose which weather to go for, but keep checking back in case there’s late game items that change that.
So that’s how to change weather in Pokemon Sword and Shield as of now.
