Can I date spoof to access special Wild Area raids after the event period?
The Wild Area in Pokémon Sword and Shield has a feature called Wild Area News where on certain weekends special Pokémon can spawn as dynamax raids in the Wild Area.
Being late to the party, I missed almost all of these events when they were live but I would love to try and catch some of the featured Pokémon.
Many features of the game such as the weather in different parts of the Wild Area are based on the console's date and can be manipulated by changing the date. Is it possible to encounter these special dynamax raids by changing one's console's date and then going hunting in the Wild Area?
If so, are there any limitations, i.e. would I have to have downloaded the Wild Area News when it was new to access a specific weekend's raid library?
Side note: changing the date in the Switch's settings is possible and will result in different weather patterns across the Wild Area depending on the date you set it to. I have seen a friend of mine live stream where he chose certain weather patterns for certain parts of the Wild Area as part of his super-Nuzlocke and frequently jumped to the settings to re-set the date and force specific weather, so manipulating the date for in-game effects is possible.
Best Answer
I have done some playtesting recently.
I had downloaded Wild Area News at some point after the conclusion of the Alola starters event SPArcheon mentions (I didn't get around to downloading the news while the event itself was active). Even with setting the date to 1st October and waiting 24 hours, I was unable to join any Alolan starter dynamax raid be it my walking up to nests already lit up or by throwing Wishing Piece into the nest. Only Pokémon from the standard pools spawned.
Starting on the 29th October, a new Wild Area News (Hallowe'en) event began, which I downloaded.
After the event's official end date (31st October), I did not download any Wild Area News. During this period, I was still able to find event raids (5-star raids being Sableye, Dusknoir, Corviknight, Thievul, Zoroark and shiny Zoroark) despite it being officially over and me not touching my Switch's date/time settings. Zoroark appearing in Galar's Wild Area rather than on the Isle of Armour is a dead give-away as it wasn't part of the original Galardex.
Thus, my conclusion: when downloading Wild Area News, the game will actively remove any event that has passed, keeping only a current event active if one exists. However, if the latest event remains in cache and Wild Area News have not been downloaded since, the event raid pool will remain active even outside its designated date range.
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Can I turn off wild area events?
Unfortunately, you can't get rid of the events. All you can do is update the Wild Area news for new events.How do you refresh wild area dens?
To reset Max Raid Dens in Pokemon Sword & Shield, you should complete all the dens in the Wild Area. When you defeat the last Den in the Wild Area, more should pop up. So, in theory, you can farm Max Raid Dens in perpetuity, if that's what you're doing.How often does the wild area reset?
It seems that when you don't do any of your available raids or only some of them, they reset themselves. After a certain time (12 hours or less), the available raids disappear and change, to make way for other different Max Raid Battle.What time do wild area events end?
Max Raid Battle event featuring Shellder and Shiny Shellder in Pok\xe9mon Sword and Shield ends today, May 22, at 4:59 p.m. PT.Keep Any Wild Area Event After The Event Date In Pokémon Sword and Shield
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