Bubbly Basin Overview: Everything Included in Wave 1 of Pokopia’s Expansion Pass

It hasn’t been all that long since Pokopia swam into our lives, bringing a new kind of life sim perfect for Pokémon and non-Pokémon fans alike. There are many reasons to love Pokopia, and now there’ll be even more as the first wave of the three-part Pokopia Expansion Pass, titled Bubbly Basin, is dropping its anchor into our lives. 

Wave One has a lot on offer, featuring a new, expansive underwater world for you to explore, decorate, and befriend new Pokémon in. Plus, the DLC is bringing a sea of new features, including a new growable, a new food to cook, and specialty blocks. If you want to know exactly what’s coming in this first wave of the Pokopia Expansion Pass, here’s an in-depth overview of everything we know about Bubbly Basin.

The DLC is More Than Just Underwater Exploration

You don’t have to dive deep into your wallet to unlock underwater exploration. A free update, dropping the same day as the Expansion Pass, will unlock the use of the move Dive, given to you by the mythical Pokémon Manaphy. You will be able to build and explore underwater areas in the base game. But that’s it.

The new world, new Pokémon, new furniture, and other underwater features are exclusive to the Expansion Pass. As a result, the base game underwater areas are pretty sparse and you'll have to use pre-existing furniture and plants to decorate.

How to Unlock the New World

You do not need to have completed Pokopia to reach the new Expansion Pass world. You just need to have raised Bleak Beach’s environment level to five (thus finishing the request ‘Raise the environment level’ given to you by Professor Tangrowth) and know the Ditto abilities Jump, Surf, and Dive. This means you’ll have to do the free quest with Manaphy before you can dive (literally) into the new world. 

Welcome to the Brand New World, Bubbly Basin

Bubbly Basin is the name of the first wave of the Expansion Pass and the new world, which is a vast underwater landscape for you to explore. You can access the new world through a gate found underwater (you’ll need Dive to reach it). Under the waves, you’ll find a submerged ghost town for you to rebuild, a new Pokémon Center for you to restore, and of course, plenty of new Pokémon friends. 

Though, as shown in the Pokopia Expansion Pass Extended Trailer, the Pokémon Center is not underwater but instead in an air pocket/cave-like area, meaning that there is at least one part of the new world not submerged. 

Bubbly Basin also features a deep, dark area void of light. To find your way around, you’ll have to use a new piece of flora, glowing coral, to light the way. 

New Under the Sea Pokémon 

“Gotta catch ‘em all” doesn’t stop at the shoreline! With a new world comes new Pokémon, and Bubbly Basin’s residents are, unsurprisingly, a collection of (mostly) water type ‘mons from various generations. The following Pokémon have been spotted across clips shared by Nintendo, though the list likely isn’t exhaustive. 

Popplio will be a guide through this new town. Mudkip appears to have the Water ability (like the base game’s Squirtle or Piplup), though the extended trailer does claim the Pokémon blow “air” on crops underwater rather than water. Which makes sense — you can’t water something already in water.

Meanwhile, Corsola has Grow (like Bulbasaur), Corphish has Build (like Timburr), and Chinchou can light things up, meaning either Generate (like Pawmi) or Illuminate (like Peakychu).

You Can Now Grow Watermelon

Bubbly Basin is full of water, and so is the new crop: watermelon. Watermelons grow by “watering” them with air, and the process can be sped up by the Grow Pokémon ability. 

While it is new, watermelon isn’t the only crop you can grow underwater. All regular plants should be available to grow underwater too (a feature that is not locked to the Pokopia Expansion Pass. Only watermelon is exclusive to Bubbly Basin).

Blenders and Smoothies

You finally have something to sip on alongside your soups, salads, steaks, and loaves of bread, because smoothies are coming with Bubbly Basin. Using the new blender item, you can blend up drinks to sip on. What Ditto ability smoothies boost, however, is still a mystery—as is how exactly to make them. Though it's pretty possible watermelon might be the key ingredient.

New Plants

Like with all the base game areas, unlocking Bubbly Basin brings a new line up of flora. You will be able to find a new variety of flower (which is confirmed to be a habitat), a couple varieties of glowing coral, and a tall kelp-esque plant.

There also appears to be a new variety of moss. Pink moss, pink mossy boulder, and pink mossy soil blocks can be seen in the overview trailer. And, while not a plant, a new natural feature can be found with underwater rock vents. 

New Build Kits and Decorations

With a new world comes a new building style, and Bubbly Basin’s houses appear to draw inspiration from East-Asian architecture. The homes come in at least two sizes: cottage (two Pokémon) and house (four Pokémon). 

There is also a Sharpedo-shaped submarine, which you can go inside of. But what exactly it is isn’t clear yet (though it definitely feels like something Jesse, James, and Meowth would pull up in). Plus, there’s a Dewgong and Seel-inspired clocktower.

[Gallery of house styles and sharpedo sub]

Part One of the Pokopia Expansion Pass also includes plenty of new decorations and items, including a new planter, a bubble blower, fencing style, and streetlight design. There appear to be two distinct styles of item sets. 

One matches Bubbly Basin’s house architecture, with chairs, a bed, a floating light, room dividers, a tea set, and more coming in a watermelon pink and sea green color palette. The other set is decorated with coral, pearls, and shells, featuring a vanity, wardrobe, bedside table, and bed in a palette of pink, yellow, blue, and purple. 

New Special Underwater Buoyant Block

While there are already a few new blocks to build your underwater paradise with, one special block is being introduced to help with underwater building. The buoyant block is a floating block that can be placed in mid-water (and can be painted). So while you can place your buildings on the ocean floor, you can also create a sea of floating buildings and platforms. 

New Clothing

Ditto keeps it stylish even under the sea. Two new outfits are officially coming with Bubbly Basin, as Ditto can be seen rocking clothing sets inspired by the protagonists of the Hoenn-based Ruby and Sapphire games, Brendan and May. 

Whether or not these are the only two outfits for this wave of the Expansion Pass isn’t clear. 

New Dream Island

A blog from Nintendo confirmed that a new Dream Island is coming with Bubbly Basin. 

It is possible (though unconfirmed) that the Starmie item shown in the extended trailer is a new plush that Drifloon will use to whisk you away to this new dream island.

New Lapras Ditto Action

Lapras is currently the bestower of the move Surf, where Ditto transforms into a Lapras and zooms across the waves. You can also ride waterfalls in Lapras form. But that form seems to be able to do more than that in Bubbly Basin. A shot from the extended trailer shows Ditto as Lapras destroying a six by two by three wall of buoyant blocks by summoning a whirlpool. 

While Nintendo provides no further information on this, it’s possible that the Lapras form could become similar to (spoilers! Skip to the next paragraph to avoid) Magnemite’s Magnet Rise, a post-game Ditto ability that allows you to destroy and place blocks while flying around. 

Purchase Bonuses

Would a DLC really be complete with purchase bonuses? This Expansion Pass comes with two. First, there’s a brand new Ditto patterned block and wallpaper set that you get whenever you purchase the DLC—it’s not time-sensitive. 

Second, there’s a bonus gift of 30 rare Pokémetal ingots that you can unlock via the “Get with Code/Password” option under the Mystery Gifts tab on the in-game PC. This gift is time-sensitive, available until August 31, 2027. Notably, the ingots are not new items and can be grabbed other ways in-game right now. So if you don’t pick up the DLC within the next year, it’s not too much of a loss. 

Ready to Take the Plunge? 

Bubbly Basin launches on August 5 alongside the free update. The full Pokopia Expansion Pass can be purchased for $34.99 USD. You’ll get Bubbly Basin on August 5 and the two other waves when they launch later on. If you don’t have Pokopia yet, you can also pick up the base game and Expansion Pass bundle for $104.99 (though, to be clear, buying the bundle is not a discount).