Pokémon Pokopia's Bubbly Basin DLC brings underwater exploration and a free update for all players

Pokémon Pokopia's first Expansion Pass DLC, Bubbly Basin, is out now alongside a free update that rolls out to every player regardless of whether they bought the pass. The new content adds a fully underwater biome and a suite of quality-of-life improvements that the base game was missing.

The free update gives Ditto the ability to Surf to a new island in Bleak Beach and learn Dive, which unlocks underwater areas across the entire game. All players also get new emotes, additional hair colors, and several long-requested QoL fixes: bulk item moving, the option to turn off the confirmation prompt when canceling certain abilities, and a new Portal Pod that lets you access stored items from any location. Expansion Pass owners get Bubbly Basin itself — a new biome that is almost entirely submerged, built around Ditto's Dive move. Swimming works in any direction, making the deep underwater caves genuinely fun to navigate. The area features new caves to explore, Pokémon to befriend, construction projects, tasks, and an environment level to raise, all consistent with the structure of the base game's towns. New underwater power rods let you light up dark caves and uncover loot and diary entries tied to the iconic Kanto city the biome is based on. Game Informer's reviewer also noted that construction wait times appear shorter than in the base game — a criticism from the original review — with one project that felt like an overnight job finishing in about an hour.

Pokémon Pokopia launched earlier in 2026 and drew comparisons to Dragon Quest Builders and Animal Crossing for its blend of creature-collecting and town-building. The Expansion Pass is structured in three parts: Bubbly Basin is Part 1, Part 2 will introduce equippable accessories for Pokémon and additional gameplay mechanics, and Part 3 adds another new biome.

Game Informer called Pokopia their favorite game of 2026 so far, and the Bubbly Basin content pulled the reviewer back in after they had already finished the base game. With two more DLC parts still to come and a packed fall release schedule on the horizon, the Expansion Pass looks like it has plenty left to deliver.