Originally introduced in Sun and Moon, Hyper Training returned in Sword and Shield to continue allowing a more accessible competitive experience. Functionally, this lets players boost a Pokémon’s IVs up to the maximum of 31 in each stat, if the Pokémon is at Level 100. The feature is unlocked at the Battle Tower after you take down the undefeated Champion. For more details on Hyper Training mechanics, check out this Bulbapedia page. 

For VGC purposes, how often is Hyper Training used? When might a player prefer to Hyper Train their Pokémon rather than breed something with the right IVs already set at Level 1? Generally, there are four scenarios where Hyper Training is utilized over breeding:

• Using a Legendary, sub-Legendary or Ultra Beast such as Kyogre, Landorus or Kartana

• Using a Pokémon distributed in a special event

• Boosting the stats of a shiny or marked Pokémon that might not have the proper IVs

• Bringing up a favorite Pokémon from an old game

The process of Hyper Training itself is fairly simple, but sometimes you don’t have your Pokémon ready at Level 100 right away. If you’ve battled in enough Raids you could potentially give your Pokémon enough EXP Candy to get to Level 100 immediately, but if you don’t have this in hand, things can get tricky. Luckily, there’s a nifty method using the Pokejobs feature that can take care of this. 

(If you already have your Level 100 Pokémon ready to be Hyper Trained, feel free to skip to the bottom to read the explanation.)

By taking advantage of an exploit in the Switch settings, you can quickly raise your Pokémon to Level 100 through a method known as date-skipping. Doing this fools your Switch into thinking a full day has passed, allowing you to reap the benefits of a 24-hour Pokejob in a manner of seconds. Here’s how it works. 

We’ll start with a shiny Litten that I bred while trying to prepare an Incineroar for an older team. By checking the IV Judge function in the Box (unlocked after winning your first six battles in the Battle Tower and beating Leon) we can see that it has the maximum 31 IV in most stats, but its HP and Special Attack need to be Hyper Trained. 

In order to Hyper Train this Litten, I’ll first need to fly to the Hammerlocke City Pokemon Center nearest the Wild Area and give it a Lucky Egg, giving it an even bigger experience boost than it’d normally receive in Pokejobs. Next, I proceed to the PC in the Pokémon Center, select the Pokejobs option, look for a job with a 10-star rating and choose “Whole Day.” 

These jobs give out the most experience and also allow up to 30 Pokémon to be sent at once. If you have several Legendaries that need to be leveled up to Level 100, you can train them all at the same time as well. 

Now that I’ve selected the job, I can send Litten off on its merry way for the next 24 hours… or so it thinks. Instead, I’ll be leaving the Pokémon Center and heading to the Wild Area, toward the Raid Den closest to the entrance. Then I’ll join the Raid, but press the Switch’s Home button once my device starts searching and go to the System Settings section from the main menu. 

It doesn’t matter if you’re connected to the Internet or not, but things will move quicker if you’re on Local Wireless. 

Once I’m in System Settings, I scroll all the way down to System and then select Date and Time. I select the option to advance the Switch’s date to exactly one day ahead, and head back into the game. The software will still be searching for Raid partners while you’re doing this, including when you relaunch your copy of Sword or Shield. 

After returning to the game, I exit the Raid screen, since I wasn’t looking for a partner anyways. When I’m able to move around in the Wild Area again, I’ll see two things: the weather will change and the Den will start to glow. That means the date-skipping worked! I can head back to the Pokémon Center and retrieve my Litten. 

As you can see, my Litten has gained all the experience of a 24-hour Pokejob in a very short timespan. To get your Pokémon to Level 100, keep repeating this step until you can’t level up any farther. In between the Pokejobs, I will also give my Litten two Rare Candies so it can evolve into Torracat and then Incineroar, as Pokémon cannot evolve in Pokejobs. 

Ok, I have my Level 100 Pokémon and I’ve beaten the Champion. I’m ready to Hyper Train my Incineroar. What comes next? You’ll need one of two items in order to complete your Hyper Training: Bottle Caps and Gold Bottle Caps. 

Bottle Caps raise one stat to the maximum 31 IV and can be acquired from the Digging Duo in the Wild Area, from certain Raid Battles, or purchased from the BP Shop at the Battle Tower. You can also create Bottle Caps at the Cram-o-Matic in the Isle of Armor. 

Gold Bottle Caps, meanwhile, raise all of a Pokémon’s IVs to 31. You can also find them from the Digging Duo but they’re much rarer. Both types of Bottle Caps can be further acquired as monthly rewards from the in-game Wi-Fi battling system under Victory Station, both in Single and Double Battles. 

Once you have your Bottle Caps, head to the Battle Tower and find this character on the right side of the building. This NPC will perform the Hyper Training on your Pokémon. For my Incineroar, I want to boost two stats. I can use either the Gold Bottle Cap to boost both at the same time, or I can use regular Bottle Caps to do them individually. 

Additionally, if I’m building an Incineroar that won’t be using any special attacking moves, such as Snarl or Burning Jealousy, I can save my Bottle Caps for another Pokémon and only boost its HP. 

And that’s it! I’ve successfully Hyper Trained my Incineroar and its IVs are ready to go. There are other steps I’ll need to take to fully prepare this Incineroar for tournament play, but for now I’m satisfied with my Hyper Training. You’ll notice that the text in the Judge function has changed to read “Hyper Trained!” in my Incineroar’s HP stat.

I touched on this a bit earlier, but if you have enough EXP Candies to level up your Pokémon to Level 100, our recommendation is to use this method rather than date-skipping. It’s much faster and a lot less tedious, but if you’re short on Candy there’s no harm in skipping dates.