Just as I recovered from my months-long Pokopia fixation, the new Bubbly
Basin DLC is here to reel me straight back in
Date:
Sat, 15 Aug 2026 02:00:00 +0000
Description:
Pokopia released its hotly anticipated Bubbly Basin DLC alongside an array of free update features, and its exactly what many players have been dreaming of.
FULL STORY
Whether you havent played
Pokemon Pokopia since the town-builder launched earlier this year or youve
been waiting to dive in, you might want to mosey on down to your favorite
cozy gaming corner and download the free update. Especially when paired with the newly released Expansion Pass, the game (which I already gave five stars, our highest score, and called one of the best Nintendo Switch 2 games ) reaches new heights. Or rather, depths.
Bubbly Basin is the first of a three-part DLC package (with parts two and three releasing in late 2026 and sometime in 2027, respectively), bringing a new underwater town based on Cerulean City and a tonne of aquatic Pokemon to discover. Facilitating this expansion is a free update that gives Ditto a new ability Dive which select Pokemon like Smeargu and Tinkmaster can also learn to help you build and decorate underwater.
Thats not all that came with the free update; a raft of quality-of-life updates mean most criticisms I had of Pokopia after months of play are next
to non-existent. But first, lets
start with Bubbly Basin. Ive spent most of the last week exploring its
depths, and for several reasons, its my new favorite town in Pokopia .
Ive always had a soft spot for Cerulean City, the inspiration behind Bubbly Basin; Misty is one of my favorite characters from the franchise, and I favor water-type Pokemon. Now almost entirely submerged, its the perfect playground to explore with the new Dive ability and get creative with underground building.
Water levels are notoriously a pain across all areas of gaming, but building-based games in particular can suffer (Im looking at you, Minecraft). Thankfully, Game Freak and Koei Tecmo's Omega Force prove adept at
thinking ahead; there are few instances where removing or placing blocks
leads to any disruption to the water (glass panes and roof tiles can cause a very brief empty block), and the only time Ive been able to cause any
unseemly flowing water tiles is when messing with the surface layer; even
that has been mitigated impressively, though that's another component of the 2.0.0 free update. Navigation, as well touch on in the free updates section, is a doddle once you get to grips with the swimming controls, too.
Much like Rocky Ridges and Sparkling Skyland, theres a lot of verticality to the town too, with flooded subterranean tunnels, a few ruins above sea level and new murky depths that need to be lit so you can better take in your surroundings. Amongst the ruins, youll find treasure maps that help you
locate the six Pokballs necessary to build Starmies habitat, which gives a
bit more purpose to the dowsing tool and search abilities.
And we lived beneath the waves -- Theres plenty to work through in
terms of quests and activities, and its really well paced, with 50 new Pokemon and 36 habitats to restore. Ive especially loved working to connect and re-imagine the various hotspots in Bubbly Basin more than in any other town
so far; bridging the deep ravine, tunneling through hillsides and
transforming all of its many nooks and crannies into unique dwellings for local Pokemon has never felt more fun.
Its probably the best-looking town too; its vibrant and teeming with life,
and though clearing out the sand is a bit of a pain, its at least far less of an eyesore than the compressed junk, ash, and black sludge that plague the base game towns. The new flora follows suit; I cant wait to put some time
into adding coral and the new Seafloor Algae blocks to Bleak Beach and
Palette Town to spruce up the somewhat dismal coastlines there, too.
Two new building and furniture aesthetics are introduced in Bubble Basin,
both of which I love: a seashell- and coral-inspired set, but also Japanese temple-themed furniture and building blocks.
The latter might not feel particularly native to the Cerulean town we know, but one Reddit user speculates its a reference to Ryg-j, the mythical
undersea palace belonging to the dragon god of the sea in Japanese folklore. Its a nice touch and brings a great set of new blocks to design with.
The best things in life are free -- A huge part of what makes
Bubbly Basin so enjoyable is the free updates that came with the 2.0.0 patch, which added a range of quality-of-life features. Dive is fantastically implemented; swimming feels fluid and free, and its still super easy to build even without Magnet Rise. Its really important to pay attention during the tutorial, though; I missed two huge time-saving moves (underwater surf and spinning to sink), which wasted a lot of time.
Theres much more to it than Dive, though. Now, you can build a safe but also
a portal pod, a universal storage system which can be accessed in all locations. Ive taken to keeping one on me at all times as a kind of backpack-extender, and its making moving items between worlds a whole lot easier.
There are new recipes, new emotes, hair colors, and more paintable items too, but perhaps my favorite additions are the simplest. You can now bulk move items between the storage box and bag, but also delete items placed inside trash cans.
Some tweaks have been made to annoying in-game quirks, too; if you destroy a Pokemons habitat and rebuild it nearby, itll move back in of its own accord, you can open your bag and inhale items while using Rollout, and Leafage can now return farm soil to a normal soil block. This, plus a raft of bug fixes, makes the game more frictionless than ever before.
Such a hearty version 2.0 update so soon after the games release is a huge
win for Pokopia fans; hype for the game has just barely subsided, and with in-game events being a little middling at best thus far, I for one am hoping this is just the beginning of Game Freak and Omega Forces plans to keep the game feeling fresh and fun for players old and new. And if Bubbly Basin is anything to go by, the next town (which arrives as the final part of the Expansion Pass next year) could be a magnum opus for Pokopia .
Link to news story, including IMAGES:
https://www.techradar.com/gaming/nintendo-switch/just-as-i-recovered-from-my-m onths-long-pokopia-fixation-the-new-bubbly-basin-dlc-is-here-to-reel-me-straig ht-back-in
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* Origin: capitolcityonline.net * KY, USA (42:17/7)