Pokémon Pokopia's Bubbly Basin DLC needs to beat the underwater level curse

Game Freak and Koei Tecmo announced Bubbly Basin during the June 2026 Nintendo Direct — a new underwater biome coming to Pokémon Pokopia in August, alongside a new move called Dive that lets players breathe and explore beneath the surface.

The expansion is widely expected to draw from Cerulean City in Kanto, and Polygon argues it needs to be generous in scope: routes 24 and 25, Bill's house, Cerulean Cave, and a slice of route 5. That's plausible given that Pewter City, Saffron City, and Vermilion City are already in the game. Two design decisions will make or break it. First, Dive needs to work indefinitely — if players are constantly forced to surface for air in an almost entirely underwater biome, it'll be a frustrating mess. Glide already drains energy slowly, and that mechanic would be far more punishing underwater. Second, non-water-type Pokémon should be allowed to live in Bubbly Basin. Pokopia imposes almost no habitat restrictions elsewhere, so locking Charmander out of an underwater zone would feel arbitrary.

The bigger challenge is the genre's track record. Underwater levels are historically some of the worst in gaming — Ocarina of Time's Water Temple, Jolly Roger Bay in Super Mario 64, fighting Drowners in The Witcher 3 — movement slows down, vision gets murky, and time pressure kicks in. Very few games have made being underwater feel good.

Bubbly Basin is a risky opening DLC for that reason, but the appetite for new Pokopia content is real. Leaks have also surfaced hinting at more exciting additions beyond the underwater biome, suggesting this expansion could be just the start of a larger post-launch roadmap.