Pokemon Scarlet & Violet: Can you change time of day?

Pokemon Scarlet and Violet, like most mainline games in the franchise, has a day-night cycle that impacts many species’ availability. To help you complete your collection efficiently, here’s how day and night work in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet and whether you can change time manually.

Day and night have played a major role in Pokemon Scarlet & Violet. Certain evolutions like Umbreon, Midnight Rockruff, and Gliscor are only possible during the night, and a wide range of Ghost and Dark-type Pokemon only appear in the wild after the sun sets.

This explains the consistent emphasis on day and night mechanics in Pokemon titles, but many wonder if there’s a way to change the time of the day in Scarlet and Violet and collect the desired mons without restrictions.

So, here’s everything we know about the day and night cycle in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet, all species in the game that appear based on time, and whether you can change the time manually.

• Can you change the time of day in Pokemon Scarlet & Violet?
• How to make it night in Pokemon Scarlet & Violet
• All Pokemon that only appear during the day in Scarlet & Violet
• All Pokemon that only appear at night in Scarlet & Violet

Can you change the time of day in Pokemon Scarlet & Violet?

No, you can’t change the time of day in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet.

While there are beds where players can take a nap, sleeping only heals the Pokemon in a party. Pokemon Legends: Arceus lets players sleep to change the time of day as they please, but this is not a feature in Scarlet and Violet.

How to make it night in Pokemon Scarlet & Violet

Since you can’t change the time of day at will in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet, all that’s left to do is wait. One in-game day/night cycle lasts around 72 minutes, which means you’ll have to wait approximately 30 minutes for night-time to arrive. Alternatively, players can set their Nintendo Switch’s system clock approximately 30 minutes forward to speed things up.

These are the approximate durations of the four different phases of the day/night cycle in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet:

Time of Day	Duration	Map app icon
Dawn	3-6 minutes
Day	30-33 minutes
Dusk	3-6 minutes
Night	30-33 minutes

All day-exclusive Pokemon in Scarlet & Violet

These are all the Pokemon that only appear during dawn and morning in Scarlet and Violet:

• Lycanroc (Midday Form)
• Sunkern
• Sunflora
• Ralts
• Kirlia
• Gallade
• Gardevoir
• Starly
• Staravia
• Staraptor
• Espeon
• Yanma
• Ducklett
• Vullaby
• Cutiefly
• Ribombee

All night-exclusive Pokemon in Scarlet & Violet

These are all the Pokemon that only appear during dusk and night in Scarlet and Violet:

• Lycanroc (Dusk Form)
• Drifloon
• Drifblim
• Murkrow
• Honchkrow
• Gastly
• Haunter
• Misdreavus
• Mismagius
• Umbreon
• Venomoth
• Shuppet
• Banette
• Volbeat
• Illumise
• Litwick
• Lampent
• Grimmsnarl
• Hoothoot
• Noctowl
• Duskull
• Dusclops
• Trevenant
• Annihilape

Keep in mind that some of these Pokemon might appear during the day if they’re inside caves.

That’s all you need to know about the time day and night cycle and Pokemon in Scarlet and Violet. For more Pokemon content, you can check out our other Scarlet and Violet guides:

How to catch all Legendaries in Pokemon Scarlet & Violet | How to beat BB Elite Four in Pokemon Scarlet & Violet DLC | Pokemon Scarlet & Violet DLC: How to get Terapagos | Pokemon Scarlet & Violet: How to get Hydrapple | Pokemon Scarlet & Violet: How to get Duraludon & Archaludon | What is Stellar-type in Pokemon Scarlet & Violet DLC? 19th Tera Type explained | Pokemon Scarlet & Violet DLC: How to use Synchro Machine