Season (game mechanic)

If you were looking for the division of dubbed episodes, see season.

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December is winter
春 Spring	夏 Summer
秋 Autumn	冬 Winter
17 days until spring!

Seasons are a mechanic of the Pokémon games. The concept was introduced in Generation V with Pokémon Black and White.

Much as Generation II introduced time and days of the week to the Pokémon series, and Generation IV used the Nintendo DS's internal clock to keep track of the date of capture of a particular Pokémon, seasons are a new feature introduced in Generation V. Unlike in the real world, where each season lasts for approximately three sequential months, the seasons in Unova will change each month, going through the full cycle of spring, summer, autumn, and winter three times per year.

Spring

Spring occurs in January, May, and September.

Effects

• Morning begins one hour earlier, at 3:00 AM, while Day lasts an hour longer, until 8:59 PM.
• Deerling and Sawsbuck appear in their Spring Form.
• Snow is not present in any locations.
• Certain areas may have rain.
• Some wild Pokémon encounter rates change.
• The background music on most routes changes slightly.
• Casteliacones are sold.
• Cynthia is in Undella Town.
• Lass Maya (if the player is male) or Dancer Dirk (if the player is female) is at the ferris wheel in Nimbasa City.

Summer

Summer occurs in February, June, and October.

Effects

• Morning begins one hour earlier, at 3:00 AM, while Day lasts an hour longer, until 8:59 PM.
• Deerling and Sawsbuck appear in their Summer Form.
• Snow is not present in any locations.
• Some wild Pokémon encounter rates change.
• The background music on most routes changes slightly.
• Casteliacones are sold.
• Cynthia is in Undella Town.
• Hiker Andy (if the player is male) or Ace Trainer Austin (if the player is female) is at the ferris wheel in Nimbasa City.

Autumn

Autumn: as normal, the slope is too steep to climb.

Autumn occurs in March, July, and November.

Effects

• Deerling and Sawsbuck appear in their Autumn Form.
• Snow is not present in any locations.
• Some wild Pokémon encounter rates change.
• The background music on most routes changes slightly.
• Casteliacones are sold.
• Cynthia is not in Undella Town.
• Clerk ♀ Trisha (if the player is male) or Waitress Aurora (if the player is female) is at the ferris wheel in Nimbasa City.

Winter

Winter: due to snowfall the area uphill is now accessible.

Winter occurs in April, August, and December.

Effects

• Morning begins one hour later, at 7:00 AM, while Day lasts an hour shorter, until 6:59 PM.
• Deerling and Sawsbuck appear in their Winter Form.
• Snow is present in Twist Mountain, Icirrus City, Route 8, Moor of Icirrus, and Dragonspiral Tower; all puddles in these locations are frozen over, acting as ice tiles. Small patches of snow are also present in other locations, such as Driftveil City.
  • Due to snow piling up, certain areas in can be accessed that are normally inaccessible, while certain cave entrances in Twist Mountain are covered by it.
• Hail and rain are common in Driftveil City, Cold Storage, Route 5, and Mistralton City. Hail and blizzards are common in Icirrus City and Route 8.
• Some wild Pokémon encounter rates change.
• The background music on most routes changes slightly.
• Casteliacones are not sold.
• Cynthia is not in Undella Town.
• Preschooler Winter (if the player is male) or Rich Boy Martin (if the player is female) is at the ferris wheel in Nimbasa City.

Trivia

• As February is included among the months considered as summer, it is the shortest season on average. Where the other seasons each last a total of 92 days in a real-time year, summer lasts a total of 89 days or, in case of a leap year, 90 days.
  • Interestingly, this is true for the southern hemisphere summer, as the Earth is near perihelion. Summer lasts only approximately 89 days, while winter lasts closer to 94. The opposite is in effect for the northern hemisphere.
• When summer and winter start in the northern hemisphere of the real world, the same season is in effect in-game. This is not true for spring and autumn, whereas it is spring in-game when autumn starts in real life and vice versa.
  • The opposite is true for the southern hemisphere: real-world spring and autumn start in months with their respective in-game seasons, while summer and winter start in in-game winter and summer respectively.
• In some countries, most notably in North America and parts of Europe, seasons start at solstices and equinoxes, rather than starting at the first day of a month as is the case in countries like Australia. In such cases, all four seasons appear in-game in each real life season.
• Black and White, the first games to introduce this feature, were released during autumn in Japan, and the in-game season was spring. The international releases were released in what is generally considered to be spring in the northern hemisphere, and the in-game season was autumn.

This game-related article is part of Project Games, a Bulbapedia project that aims to write comprehensive articles on the Pokémon games.