Bubbly Basin DLC guide details unlock steps for Pokémon Pokopia
Developed over time first seen 3 months ago
Nintendo Life has published a guide detailing how to unlock Bubbly Basin, the first major downloadable content update for Pokémon Pokopia. The DLC, available to owners of the Pokémon Pokopia Expansion Pass, adds an explorable underwater town along with new Water-type Pokémon to befriend, but players must satisfy several conditions before they can enter it.
To access Bubbly Basin, players need the Expansion Pass, must learn the move Dive, and must complete Bleak Beach's "Raise the environment level!" request by reaching level 5. Dive is taught by the Pokémon Manaphy on a northern island, reachable after speaking to Professor Tangrowth outside the Bleak Beach Pokémon Centre; players then return to meet and befriend a new Pokémon, Popplio, before diving underwater to a gate to the west that leads into the new area. Dive was introduced via a free 2.0.0 update released on 5th August 2026, the same day Bubbly Basin itself launched, with Nintendo Life estimating the whole unlock process takes around five minutes.
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In short
- Bubbly Basin DLC for Pokémon Pokopia now unlockable via new guide
- Requires Expansion Pass, the move Dive, and environment level 5
- Both Dive and the DLC arrived together on 5th August 2026
How this story developed
- 3 months ago The guide was republished with its content otherwise unchanged from the previous version, simply dropping the five-minute completion estimate that had been included alongside the 2.0.0 update details.
- 3 months ago The guide was updated to add that players must first speak to Professor Tangrowth outside the Bleak Beach Pokémon Centre before reaching Manaphy, and it named the enabling patch as the free 2.0.0 update while noting Nintendo Life's estimate that the whole process takes roughly five minutes.
- 3 months ago Nintendo Life published a step-by-step guide showing owners of the Pokémon Pokopia Expansion Pass how to unlock the newly launched Bubbly Basin underwater town, outlining the level, move and quest requirements needed to reach the area's western gate.
Explained simply
Bubbly Basin is the first big paid expansion for Pokémon Pokopia, a Pokémon spin-off game. It's aimed at players who already own the game's Expansion Pass, and it adds a new underwater town to explore along with fresh Water-type Pokémon to find and befriend.
Getting into this new area isn't automatic: players first need to complete an earlier task in the game, then learn a special swimming move called Dive from a Pokémon named Manaphy, and befriend another Pokémon called Popplio, before they can actually reach the entrance to Bubbly Basin. Nintendo Life, a gaming news and guides site, has published step-by-step instructions to help players work through this process.
Both the Dive move and the Bubbly Basin content arrived together in a game update released on 5th August 2026, meaning this is a fresh addition that existing players are only just gaining access to.
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Originally published by Nintendo Life as “Guide: How To Start The Bubbly Basin DLC In Pokémon Pokopia”.