What Does Weather Do in Pokemon Sword & Shield?

Curious to know how the weather system works in Pokemon Sword & Shield? Here’s a quick primer.

Filling out your Pokedex in Pokemon Sword & Shield means hunting for certain pokemon during the right weather. Much like Animal Crossing, you can manipulate your console’s date & time controls to manipulate the weather. Just be careful with time traveling in Pokemon, since it will reset your berry timers to zero.

Weather directly influences what spawns in particular wild areas in Pokemon Sword & Shield. If it’s snowing, you’re more likely to ice pokemon. While fire types flourish in sunny weather. Weather can also boost damage for specific move types. Sunny weather increases the power of fire-move types, while decreasing the power of water-types.

Pokemon Sword & Shield Weather

There are nine kinds of weather you can encounter in Pokemon Sword & shield. These weather types impact the type of pokemon that will appear and will have an impact on any battles you participate in.

Clear | spawns Normal, Grass, Flying types with no battle effect
Cloudy | spawns Fighting, Poison, Dark types with no battle effect
Rain | spawns Water and Bug types – Rain battle effect
Thunderstorm | spawns Water, Electric, & Dragon types – Rain & Electric
Snow | spawns Ice types – Hail battle effect
Blizzard | spawns Ice & Steel types – Hail battle effect
Harsh Sunlight | spawns Fire & Ground types – Harsh Sunlight battle effect
Sandstorm | spawns Ground & Rock types – Sandstorm battle effect
Fog | spawns Psychic, Ghost & Fairy types – Misty Terrain battle effect

How to Change the Weather in Pokemon Sword & Shield

The weather in wild areas in Pokemon Sword & Shield changes every day at midnight. Whatever weather the zone has for that day will remain throughout the day. That means you can time travel to find the weather you want, instead of waiting for a specific time.

Open your ‘System Settings‘ on the Switch.
Scroll down to the ‘System‘ tab.
Select ‘Date and Time‘ and input the date you want.

The Pokemon YouTube community have discovered dates that make the Wild Area all one weather. You can thank YouTuber AustinJohnPlays for these dates. The hail and sandstorm weather types are locked behind gym badges. For foggy weather, you’ll also have to beat Leon in the Pokemon League.