Being a life sim, Pokémon Pokopia is built around a day and night cycle. Mornings, evenings, nights — you can do whatever you want, whenever you want. But sometimes you don't want to wait around for things to happen.
While you can't change the time in the game, there are ways around it, so we'll cover every aspect of the day and night cycle in Pokémon Pokopia in this guide, as well as how to change the time, and what it affects.
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So, can you change the time of day in Pokémon Pokopia?
In-game? No, there's no way to change the time of day. But because Pokémon Pokopia runs on the Switch 2's internal clock, you can change the time of day. Animal Crossing fans will be familiar with this process...
Save and quit the game, close it down, and then head to your Switch 2's System Settings. Scroll down to System and in that menu, head to Date and Time.
Uncheck 'Synchronize Clock', and then scroll down to the time and date and change them to your liking.
Exit, boot up the game, and voila!
Why would I want to change the date or time of day?
A few things in Pokémon Pokopia are tied to your Switch 2's internal clock or in-game time, and changing the date and time will help speed up the process.
Here's a list of things that are affected by your Switch 2's clock:
- Building the Pokémon Center and other large buildings — these take until the next in-game day (which starts at 5am local time, or Switch 2 clock time).
- Day/night cycle — a common feature in Pokémon is the day/night cycle, and in Pokopia, it's based on the time your Switch 2 is set to. There are four time periods — Morning, Daytime, Evening, Night — and some Pokémon are exclusive to certain times of day.
- Limited-Time Events — Right now, if you "time travel", you can access the Limited-Time Events early in-game.
Are there any consequences to changing the time in Pokémon Pokopia?
Nope! Not that we've noticed. Everything will continue as normal no matter how many times you change the time backwards and forwards.
It's not like Disney Dreamlight Valley or Animal Crossing, here, so rest easy.
Times of day in Pokémon Pokopia
If there's a particular Pokémon that's only available at night, or you just want to see what the game looks like in the evening, here are the times to keep in mind when tweaking the time.
- Morning - 6am - 9am
- Daytime - 9am - 5pm
- Evening - 5pm - 7pm
- Nighttime - 7pm to 6am
Make sure you check out our Pokédex & Habitat Dex guide if you want to know which Pokémon you can only catch at night.
Time-travelling isn't for everyone, but if you're someone who needs to see everything asap, this is the guide for you. For other guides on building, materials, progression, and more, check out our Pokémon Pokopia walkthrough hub.