New Pokémon Snap - Shiver Snowfields Alternative Route: How to unlock the alternate route for the Snowfields Day and Night courses explained
A new route through the frozen wastes.
Unlocking the alternative route for the Shiver Snowfields courses in New Pokémon Snap will give you the opportunity to photograph a wider variety of Pokémon, including Dewgong and the legendary Suicune.
The actual process of unlocking this new route can, however, be rather complicated, as you'll have to visit both the Snowfields (Day) and Snowfields (Night) course.
Thankfully, once unlocked, this alternative route will be permanently available to you on specific Research Levels.
On this page:
Shiver Snowfields alternative route in New Pokémon Snap explained
A number of the courses in New Pokémon Snap have alternative routes on certain Research Levels which will allow you to snap pictures of new Pokémon. Some of these routes will be available automatically, while others require unlocking.
The alternative route for the Shiver Snowfields Day and Night courses is one of the more complex paths to find due to it's unlocking process being divided into two sets of steps.
To fully unlock the alternative route, you must access the first area during the Snowfields (Day) course and then complete your journey during Snowfields (Night). Don't try to do them out of order or you'll find yourself facing a snow wall!
Once you've properly unlocked the alternative route, however, it will always be available on Research Level 2 and 3 for Snowfields (Day) and Research Level 2 for Snowfields (Night).
Remember - you must unlock the full alternative route for the Shiver Snowfields if you wish to photograph Suicune.
How to unlock the Shiver Snowfields alternative route in New Pokémon Snap
The process for unlocking the Shiver Snowfields alternative route in New Pokémon Snap is divided into two sets of steps across the two Snowfields courses. These steps have to be completed in order or else you won't be able to use this new route.
Snowfields (Day) - Research Level 2
To begin with, you need to play through the Snowfields (Day) course on Research Level 2.
When the course begins, look to your left and wait for an Alolan Sandslash to appear on the hill and take it's picture once it appears.
Doing so will cause the Alolan Sandslash to bury itself into the snow and reappear later on top of another hill directly opposite the small igloo. This is also the one close to the Beartic at the beginning of this course.
This will, again, cause the Sandslash to vanish into the snow and it will now appear in front of the Neo-One before disappearing into the bank of snow.
Now you need to perform a scan and take the alternative route through the snowbank into a new area.
With this achieved and the new area permanently unlocked, you now need to visit the Snowfields (Night) course at Research Level 2 to finish unlocking the alternative course.
Snowfields (Night) - Research Level 2
Your first task in Snowfields (Night) is to reach the new area you unlocked during Snowfields (Day).
Once there, you'll see a Crabominable on your right-hand side - watch as it wanders to the left-hand side of the path and, when it starts hitting a tree, toss an Illumina Orb at it.
This causes some snow to fall down on the nearby Abomasnow, which will, in turn, make this Pokémon angry and result in a Froslass fly out in front of you.
Quickly take a photo of Froslass and it will change course to travel through the snowbank on your right-hand side.
Scan when prompted as you near this snowbank yourself and you'll be able to take the second alternative route for the Shiver Snowfields courses.
This new area allows you to photograph Dewgong, Avalugg, Aurorus and Suicune - all of which won't appear anywhere else in the Shiver Snowfields.
Once you've finished your current course run, the full alternative route for Shiver Snowfields will now be unlocked in Snowfields (Night) at Research Level 2 and Snowfields (Day) at Research 2 and 3.
If you'd like to learn more, visit our New Pokémon Snap walkthrough.