This page explains how to catch and see Drifloon in Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl (BDSP).

Drifloon is a Ghost and Flying-type Pokémon that’s surprisingly annoying to find, especially if you’re impatient!

Drifloon Location¶

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Drifloon location.

Wild Drifloon can be only found at the Valley Windworks. Each Friday, a single Drifloon will appear on the overworld just below the entrance to the windworks building. Once it appears, interact with it to initiate a battle.

How to Time-Travel to Spawn Drifloon¶

Although it’s tempting to manually change your Nintendo Switch’s system clock to fast-forward to next Friday, the game has a built-in precaution to put you off.

So if you time-travel straight to next Friday, Drifloon won’t appear and you’ll lose access to other time-related events for a whole day. However, if you’re smart, you could simply time-travel to next Thursday instead and wait 24 hours, until it’s Friday in-game.

To change your system clock, go to “System Settings” from the Nintendo Switch’s home screen. Scroll down to “System”, then look for “Date and Time”. Set “Synchronize Clock Via Internet” to “Off”. Then go down and adjust the “Date and Time” to your liking.

Where to See Drifloon¶

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(1 of 2) Two of the trainers in the Hearthome Gym have a Drifloon.

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Two of the trainers in the Hearthome Gym have a Drifloon. (left), They’re also the only trainers with a Drifloon. (right)

If you don’t need to catch but merely see Drifloon, to unlock the National Pokédex for instance, then there’s a small ray of hope. However, this is method also time-limited. If you haven’t defeated Gym Leader Fantina yet, make sure to purposely fail the quiz at the Hearthome City Gym.

When you fail the quiz, you can fight the gym trainers–and two of the gym trainers will send out Drifloon. Otherwise, no other trainer in the whole game has a Drifloon. After Fantina has been defeated though, all the gym trainers will cease to fight you.