How do encounters work with the time of day on Pokemon Go?

Question

What time do Pokemon Go encounters shift out for day and night, and how exactly does it work? Does it go by the sun's position in the sky, or just by a preset smartphone time that goes by the player's time zone? Do the Pokemon encounters slowly shift out, like, this Pokemon stops appearing at this time and is replaced with that Pokemon at that time, and a different set of alterations at further times in the evening? How the heck does it work, and what are the specifics? (No, I don't need a long list of what Pokemon appear at each hour, I JUST need a little more basic of an explanation than THAT, such as Pokemon categories, ie ghost Pokemon, bat Pokemon, power plant Pokemon, psychic types, etc.) Any definitive information? I don't even necessarily need a full list, just a few basic groups if the complete list is too long, and I need a time of day, exactly as the mechanics work for time of day, for each category you DO give me.

Comments

it goes by the "estimated sunrise/sunset" of your timezone, which can be found on your weather app using your location, and all the pokemon that are currently spawned get immediately replaced with the pokemon of the respective time of day. there's no fade in or fade out. for example, you'll just click the day pokemon as it shifts to night, it'll give an error message, and a night pokemon will immediately appear in it's spot.

since the sunset/sunrise time changes literally every day according to your location, there isn't a set time. my location's sunset today is 18:32, so at 18:33 tonight pogo will be in night-mode with night spawns.

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I still don't have much information about it. I still have to wonder whether certain Pokemon appear at different parts of twilight. Also, I still lack a list, however small, of categories of Pokemon for each of those times. (Don't need a full list of every Pokemon category if that would make too long of a list, though.) But I DO, however, need at least a few categories for each stage of twilight, if it applies, and if you don't know what I mean by categories, then please look at the details to the original question.

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you're definitely going to elaborate on what you mean regarding "categories" of pokemon available at night. you mean, what types are most common/weather boosted at night?

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-smoothie-, I meant "groups" such as "ghost", "bat", "psychic types," "power plant Pokemon", etc

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Those are some... very irregular categories. Where did you get these groupings from?

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Amethyst, I came up with them myself as a general description.

Answer 1

I'll try to answer your questions as clearly as I can:

• Encounters don't exactly shift in the way you described. However, there is research that suggests that the most common time for spawns is 10 AM to 8 PM local time. This has been termed the normal daily cycle, and is relevant for most types (14 types).

• There is sunrise and sunset in the game, and this is determined by the sunrise and sunset in your local time. This is independent of what time your smartphone is set to, as the game gathers data from the location/time zone you are in to determine this. Typically, sunrise and sunset within the game occur within a minute of actual sunrise and sunset times for your time zone and location.

• Yes, the Pokemon change. However, this is not dependent just on time. There are multiple factors involved in this, including spawn times, spawn migrations, weather, and finally, time. For your specific question, then yes, there is a way time impacts which Pokemon appear when.

• For example, Ghost and Dark type Pokemon are more likely to appear between 8PM and 2 AM (post midnight). Other types, aside from Dragon and Ice type Pokemon are more likely to appear before 8PM (as based on the normal daily cycle)

• Pokemon are much less likely to appear after 02:00 AM (local time)

• Pokemon are much more likely to appear from 00:00 to 01:00 AM (local time)

• Pokemon are divided into common, uncommon, rare, etc. which determines how likely they are to appear, and for how long. Usually, the more common they are, the longer they are on the map for you to catch.

• Keeping track of in-game events such as Community Days, Raid Hours, Special Research Hours, 5* Raid cycles, etc. will give you an idea of which Pokemon to expect more of, and when. Usually, these are in-game notifications but they're also mentioned in the official Pokemon Go Blog/ website, and they are based on your local time.

• One thing I want to add that is not a daily change, but rather, a fortnightly change that happens alternating Thursdays between 12 and 12:30 AM UTC. This is known as a mass migration, and this changes the roster of locally available Pokemon and their availability.

• For particular type of Pokemon (as they are easier to predict than abstract groupings) to appear, Weather is a strong indicator:

Sunny/Clear: Fire, Grass, Ground
Foggy: Dark, Ghost
Rainy: Bug, Water, Electric
Partly Cloudy: Rock, Normal
Cloudy: Poison, Fairy, Fighting
Windy: Dragon, Psychic
Snowy: Steel, Ice

Do note that this isn't all 100% confirmed by Niantic; Most of it is the community efforts of people at Silph Co, PokemonGoHub, and the like. They gather data and draw inferences, so there's a chance some of it isn't exactly true for your particular location. Hope this helps you somewhat, and do let me know if you have any follow-up questions. Have fun!