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G	S	C
Friday
Day

D	P	Pt	HG	SS
Friday
Day

B	W	B2	W2
Friday
Day
Autumn

X	Y	OR	AS
Friday
Morning

S	US
Friday
Day

M	UM
Friday
Night

Sw	Sh
Friday
Day

Time is a mechanic in the Pokémon games. It was introduced in Generation II and has been a major component of almost all games released afterward. Time affects both the evolution of several Pokémon and whether certain Pokémon can be found in the wild. Some events may take place at a specific time of day, or on a particular day of the week. Pokémon Legends: Arceus uses its own time system and doesn't depend on the player's real time.

Berries are governed by the time function, maturing after a certain amount of time has passed. Much like weather, the games' time function has been revised and expanded in each subsequent generation after its introduction.

Generation II

Route 29 in the morning

In Generation II, the changing time of day was a highly touted feature for the games; several Pokémon were even designed with this in mind, such as Hoothoot and Noctowl, while others would only appear in certain areas at certain times of day.

At the beginning of all three games, the clock would be set upon starting a new game, even before the player is named. The default time is 10:00 a.m (10:00). The clock can be reset through a code in all three games, though it is more difficult to do so in Pokémon Crystal. The player's Mom will change the clock by an hour for daylight saving time.

Eevee was given two new evolutions to take advantage of the changing time: Espeon, which it would become if its friendship maxed out during the morning or day, and Umbreon, which it would become if its friendship maxed during the night.

Times of day

Morning	Day	Night
4:00 a.m. - 9:59 a.m. (04:00 - 09:59)	10:00 a.m. - 5:59 p.m. (10:00 - 17:59)	6:00 p.m. - 3:59 a.m. (18:00 - 03:59)

Morning

Morning, referred to as Morn in-game, is the time from 4:00 a.m. to 9:59 a.m. (04:00 - 09:59). Many Pokémon Trainers are still asleep and there are many Bug-type Pokémon in the wild. However, the wild Pokémon that appear in the Morning are mostly the same as Day, with only slight differences. During the Morning, the rising sun tints the entire landscape with a yellowish hue.

Daytime near the water.

Day

Day is the time from 10:00 a.m. to 5:59 p.m (10:00 - 17:59). The landscape is not tinted at all during this time, making it seem closer to the Generation I games (which do not have a time system). Day is the busiest time, as most people are up and about at this time and a wide variety of Pokémon appear.

Night

Night, referred to as Nite in-game, is the time from 6:00 p.m. to 3:59 a.m. (18:00 - 03:59). Wild Pokémon battles taking place at night use a slightly different music track. The world is colored a bluish-purple, and buildings have their lights on. If interacted with, the Pokémon Center Nurse will note that the player is still active despite the time, before healing the party.

Nighttime. Note the building lights illuminating brightly.

Days of the week

Main article: Days of the week

When the Pokégear is first received, the player's mother will ask them to set the day of the week as well. This affects several things, such as the National Park's Bug-Catching Contest and which of the Week Siblings appears, though not much else.

Resetting the clock

In the Western and Korean versions, a secret function for resetting the game's clock that requires a password may be accessed from the title screen. The password is generated from the player's name, Trainer ID number, and current amount of money (Blackshark's GSC Clock Password Generator). The game will then reboot and the main menu will return the "TIME NOT SET" error message. Proceeding will then load a screen in which the player can adjust the clock's data, including the weekday. Due to being based on the Japanese version, the password only takes into account the first five characters of the player's name.

While the function for manually resetting the clock is not available in the Japanese versions, the main menu error and the actual clock adjustment screen exist in all versions as they are used for when the clock data is invalid or corrupted.

Western Gold and Silver

Hold ↓, SELECT, and B.

Western Crystal and Korean Gold and Silver

Hold ↓, SELECT, and B
Release ↓ and B, while still holding SELECT
Hold ← and ↑, while still holding SELECT
Release SELECT

Generation III

Unlike Generation II, Generation III had no separate time periods, or even an ability to check the time in-game unless the player traveled back to Littleroot Town, where they had set an analog clock at the beginning of the game. The overworld lighting does not change during different times of the day. Also, unlike Generation II, the time-based events were very few and extremely far between, with the clock mostly running to keep track of the growth of planted Berries (although this was not completely foolproof). Additionally, there was no way to change the clock in this generation, not even for daylight saving time.

There were, however, some time-based functions in the games. For example, Shoal Cave's water level would change every six hours, at 3:00 and 9:00 a.m. and p.m. (03:00, 09:00, 15:00, 21:00). Just the same, Eevee would be able to evolve into Espeon if the in-game time was between 12:00 p.m. and 11:59 p.m. (12:00 - 23:59). Eevee would be able to evolve into Umbreon if the in-game time was between 12:00 a.m. and 11:59 a.m. (00:00 - 11:59).

**Time-based evolutions**
Day Evolution	Night Evolution
12:00 p.m. - 11:59 p.m. (12:00 - 23:59)	12:00 a.m. - 11:59 a.m. (00:00 - 11:59)

Although a small part of the game, some events occur on a daily basis. Some NPCs give the player one Berry every day. Lilycove Department Store gives out Pokémon Loto Tickets for the Pokémon Lottery Corner, with the winning number changing daily. An old man who lives in Pacifidlog Town looks out for Mirage Island, and will, every day, generate a random number between 0 and 65535 and if this number matches the personality value of any of the Pokémon in the party, Mirage Island will appear in the game.

In Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen, however, the time function is completely absent, allowing it to be more like the Generation I games. This also makes it impossible for Eevee to evolve into either Espeon or Umbreon in these games. In order to do so, the player would have to trade Eevee to Ruby, Sapphire or Emerald and have it evolve in one of those games. The same holds true for Pokémon Colosseum, where Espeon and Umbreon are obtainable as starter Pokémon. In XD, Eevee can only be evolved into Espeon or Umbreon by a method that is not time-dependent, the Sun and Moon Shards.

Generation IV

The overworld as it cycles through the day

In Generation IV, the time function returned fully with many features from Generation II, including changes in the overworld lighting and in the availability of wild Pokémon at different times of day. However, this time it uses the Nintendo DS's system clock. Many new Pokémon have evolutions influenced by the time of day; for example, Gligar will only evolve into Gliscor at night. The three time periods from Generation II return, with smoother transitions between them.

A calendar and day of the week system are also present. The game keeps track of the date of capture of every Pokémon. Some in-game events are influenced by the day of the week; for example, Drifloon only appear in the Valley Windworks on Fridays, and battles with Barry in the Battle Zone can only be initiated on weekends.

The Pokédex also has a new function that displays where Pokémon are found in each time period. When it is first opened, the Sinnoh Pokédex will also default to the current time of day.