Pokémon Pokopia beginner’s guide: Tips, tricks and first things to do

Don’t let the adorable look of Pokémon Pokopia fool you – it’s actually a really complex and engaging game.

After a short tutorial, you’ll find yourself in a huge world that can feel overwhelming. It’s exciting, but with so many options, it’s hard to know where to begin.

We’ve created a simple guide to help new players get started in Pokopia. It covers what to focus on first, plus some helpful tips to make decorating and enjoying your island easy and fun.

Let’s get into it!

First things to do in Pokémon Pokopia

You can do a lot when you first start, but we think these five things are the most helpful to focus on to get you going.

Collect Leppa Berries

After completing the tutorial where you first encounter Squirtle, Bulbasaur, and Charmander, it’s a good idea to gather some Leppa Berries.

Leppa Berries refill your PP, the energy needed to use moves in battle. You can revive some trees with Water Gun, then knock Leppa Berries loose by headbutting them – just press the A button!

Unlock Cut and Rock Smash

At the beginning of the game, it’s best to focus on the main story. You won’t have the necessary items to explore effectively until you’ve encountered both Scyther and Hitmonchan.

These two will teach you the moves Cut and Rock Smash respectively.

Cutting allows you to gather grass, vines, and dead wood. The dead wood can then be turned into Lumber, a valuable resource for crafting.

Rock Smash does exactly what it sounds like: it breaks rocks! This can open up new areas on the map by destroying walls, and it also lets you release hidden springs, which we’ll explain shortly.

Increase your storage and backpack space

Once you can use Scyther to get some Lumber, you can use the Crafting Table to build Storage Boxes.

It’s a good idea to make a few of these right away. That way, you can quickly store all your collected items before you start exploring, which will help you stay organized.

You’ll also want to get backpack upgrades from the PC Shop. Look for items labeled ‘Packing Tips’ – they have a backpack icon, and it’s best to buy them as soon as you can.

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Find Drifloon

After you unlock Rock Smash, head left from the Pokémon Center. You can break the rocks in that direction and find a Drifloon floating nearby.

They’ll need a home, and you can create one for them by lining up three campfires and having Charmander ignite them.

After you’ve settled in, you can show Drifloon a doll each day to travel to a Dream Island. This island is a great place to quickly collect lots of materials, much like Explorer’s Shores in Dragon Quest Builders.

Find Drilbur and unlock Rototiller

Finally, if you head to the rocks behind and slightly to the right of the Pokémon Center, you’ll find a small area where Drilbur appears.

If you help Drilbur decorate its house, it will teach you the move Rototiller. This is a helpful move with two key uses.

First, you can use it to till the ground to make space to plant crops like beans and wheat.

Plus, it lets you lift and reposition things like grass and flowers without needing to dig them up and replant them.

Pokémon Pokopia tips and tricks

In addition to these first five steps, here are some helpful tips and tricks to simplify things for you.

Inhaling items

Instead of pressing Y repeatedly to collect items, you can now hold down the Y key to grab everything nearby all at once.

This is particularly helpful when gathering resources, because they often drop in large groups.

Build some rivers

In some parts of the map, you’ll see what looks like a trench or empty pond dug into the ground.

Around these areas, you’ll see cracked blocks in the walls leaking water. If you break these blocks using Rock Smash, you’ll release a spring that will create a new river or pond.

This quickly revitalizes the plants, eliminating the need for manual watering, and also slightly boosts the moisture levels around them.

Climbing Vines

Dotted around the world, you’ll find Vines hanging from cave ceilings and down cliff walls.

You can gather materials from these objects by cutting them, but they also act as climbable surfaces, letting you reach places you couldn’t before.

Craft Wooden Steps and Bridge Planks

Before you start your adventure, it’s a good idea to make some Wooden Steps and Bridge Planks at your Crafting Table. Having these on hand will be really helpful!

As a fan, I’ve noticed the island is really deteriorating! You’ll constantly find bridges and staircases that are broken or have chunks missing, which means you can’t actually get across them. It’s a real obstacle!

Keeping a few Steps and Planks handy lets you quickly create paths and reach your destination without delay.

Don’t buy the Habitat Tips from the PC Shop (at least, not at first)

The PC Shop offers guides to help you create secret Habitats you might not know about.

It’s understandable to want to buy these immediately and start using them, but we recommend waiting until later.

At first, you won’t have trouble discovering new ideas for improving your base while you play. And before long, you’ll actually have more projects than you can immediately build!

It’s usually more effective to gradually build up your team, focusing on improving the Pokémon you already have and adding new ones slowly, rather than trying to catch everything at once.

Authors

Alex RaisbeckGaming writer

Alex Raisbeck writes about video games for TopMob, covering both major releases and smaller independent titles. He’s also contributed to well-known gaming publications like VideoGamer, GamesRadar+, PC Gamer, and PCGamesN.

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2026-03-05 03:35