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 on 5th August 2026, the same day Bubbly Basin itself launched.