Pokopia Lets Everyone Build Underwater for Free Next Week

Most of today's Pokémon Pokopia coverage is focused on Bubbly Basin, the game's first paid expansion. Fair enough. But buried in the details of the $34.99 expansion pass is a piece of news that matters more to a bigger slice of the playerbase: on August 5, every single Pokopia owner gets the Dive ability and underwater building for free.

The version 2.0.0 update, detailed by The Pokémon Company, will have a passing Manaphy teach your Ditto avatar the move Dive. Once learned, you can summon a bubble of air around your head, swim alongside Water-type Pokémon, and start placing structures beneath the waves. No expansion pass required. No paywall. You just update the game and go.

I want to give Game Freak and Koei Tecmo credit here, because this split between free and paid content is handled well. The mechanical foundation of underwater gameplay, the Dive ability itself and the freedom to build below the surface, belongs to everyone. The paid expansion then layers a new region, new Pokémon, and exclusive items on top of that foundation. Compare this to how plenty of other live games would handle the same situation: lock the entire underwater mechanic behind the DLC and call it a day. Pokopia didn't do that, and it's a better game for it.

What Bubbly Basin Adds

For players who do own the expansion pass, Bubbly Basin opens up a full submerged town on the same date. The new region introduces buoyant blocks that float at different levels, letting you construct buildings that wouldn't be possible on land. Pokémon like Popplio, Mudkip, Totodile, Corsola, and Corphish show up here, each tied to new mechanics. Water-specialty Pokémon help grow underwater watermelons, while Generate-specialty Pokémon power bubble machines and streetlights. There's also a Sharpedo submarine that functions as a buildable room, riffing on the Secret Base concept from older Pokémon games. Deeper still, dark underwater caves lit only by neon coral promise something for players who want to push past the surface-level cozy stuff.

The expansion pass also covers two future drops. Part 2, due later in 2026, will add accessories so you can dress up your Pokémon in hats, ties, and other gear. Part 3, planned for 2027, adds another entire town. At $34.99 for all three parts, the pricing feels reasonable by modern DLC standards, especially when the core underwater mechanic ships free.

On top of all this, a limited-time event called Fetching Scales for Feebas runs from August 13 to August 28. Feebas will appear at any rebuilt Pokémon Center, and players can collect Prism Scales to exchange for swimming-themed furniture. Build the right habitats with those items and you can attract Milotic. The event doesn't take place in Bubbly Basin or Cloud Islands, so free-update players can participate fully. There's also a free downloadable digital planner for anyone who wants to organize their storage and track their progress.

Pokémon Pokopia, developed by Game Freak and Koei Tecmo, launched on Switch 2 as a cozy life simulation game. It's the kind of project that could easily lean on its brand recognition and charge for every new feature. By choosing to make underwater gameplay a universal update rather than gating it behind paid DLC, the studio signals the right priorities through a small decision. The version 2.0.0 update and Bubbly Basin both arrive on August 5.