How to choose and control the weather in Pokémon Sword and Shield’s Isle of Armor

When looking for a specific Pokémon in Pokémon Sword and Shield, you need to adhere to the weather conditions they spawn out and what area of the map. For example, you can only find Shinx on the Challenge Road, Potbottom Desert, Training Lowlands, and the Challenge Beach while its raining or thunderstorm. If you visit these locations during any other weather condition, it is hopeless to encounter one. Rather than wait, you can modify your Nintendo Switch’s time and date settings to change the weather immediately. While the method remains the same, it works a bit differently with the Isle of Armor. 

You follow the same steps for changing the weather from when you did it for the Sword and Shield Wild Area. You want to close down your Pokémon game on your Nintendo Switch, select your System Settings, go to the System tab, and select the Date and Time options. You will then input a new date to modify the weather from your current game. In the base Sword and Shield game, you needed to input the first of any month. For example, if you wanted snowy weather, you change it to Dec. 1, and snow would be all over Galar. However, with the Isle of Armor, you want to select the 15th of the month.

Here are all of the dates for the weather selections in the Isle of Armor:

• Normal: March/Sept/Nov 15
• Overcast: Feb 15
• Rainy: April/June 15
• Thunderstorm: July/Aug 15
• Fog: Jan/Oct 15
• Harsh Sunlight: May/Dec 15
• Sandstorm: Random
• Snowy: Not available
• Snowstorm: Not available

Because the Isle of Armor is primarily tropical, you won’t find snow there or any snowstorms. Sandstorms are also unpredictable, meaning you may have to rotate through the days of your Nintendo Switch console to locate one available for your game.