Pokémon Pokopia free 2.0 update fixes infuriating issue with new feature

It’s a bountiful day for players of Pokémon Pokopia as today, 4 August, marks the arrival of both phase one of the game’s paid DLC and its free 2.0 update.

The former, Bubbly Basin, can be obtained as part of Pokémon Pokopia’s paid expansion pass which is due to drop in three phases.

Bubbly Basin, a new underwater biome, lands today. The second phase is said to add “additional new features” with a release date listed of 31 March 2027 when pre-ordering.

Phase three will introduce another new town with a current planned launch date of 30 September 2027.

These dates are to be taken with a pinch of salt as phase two has been marketed as “late 2026” by Nintendo, so these are likely placeholders.

The expansion pass will set you back £29.99 / $34.99 but if you don’t want to splash the cash, you can enjoy Pokémon Pokopia’s free new 2.0 update.

It introduces a new item that’ll fix what is easily the game’s biggest (and perhaps only) issue, storage.

Pokémon Pokopia’s new shared storage chest will finally stop you losing your items

Pokémon Pokopia offers you tons of items, especially if you’re into landscaping and acquire huge swathes of blocks.

The problem is that your inventory only carries so much, so the player is forced to rely on storage chests.

That too is a problem though as storage chests also have limitations; you’ll need plenty of them and only the four placed directly connecting to a crafting bench will allow you to pull materials from them when crafting.

However, if you need a furniture or food item or such like, it’s so easy to forget what storage chest you put it in and in which town.

Losing items within your storage is a common problem that plagues most Pokémon Pokopia players, but you needn’t worry anymore as the 2.0 update is set to introduce a shared storage chest.

As reported by Famitsu, the chest has 140 slots which vastly outnumbers the current maximum chest size of 60 slots.

Most significantly though, this specific type of chest can have its contents accessed from all of the game’s various towns or biomes so opening it up in, say, the Withered Wasteland will show you the same items as you’ll find opening it up in Bleak Beach.

This is going to be perfect for storing your most important building items that you want to access across all parts of the game.

It was also detailed that the free update will include the new dive mechanic, allowing players to pick up underwater loot, ‘frameless glass’, and a new underwater electricity generator.

READ MORE: Pokémon Gen 10 leak confirms the franchise's biggest Pokédex total so far

Bubbly Basin introduces a ton of new ‘mon to the game’s Pokédex

As for what you can expect in paid expansion Bubbly Basin, Serebii.net notes that the area will introduce a new Pokédex with Wiglett, Mareanie, Golisopod, Stunfisk, and Sharpedo all expected to appear.

All current skills will work underwater with surf set to receive some kind of boost.

Nintendo

It’s interesting to note that this probably won’t be Pokémon Pokopia’s only expansion pass.

A prior leak confirmed five additional towns, none of which were featured in the game at launch. They are as follows:

• Viridian area with a “never ending burning forest of ash”.
• Cerulean area with “a flooded city that has hidden treasure”.
• Cinnibar area with a “forever sealed dead volcano island”.
• Lavender area with a “rotten tower that reaches heaven”.
• Caledeon area with “a giant crater that reaches unseeable depth”.

The Cerulean area is clearly Bubbly Basin with another one of these towns likely being the focus of the third phase of this current expansion.

That still leaves three towns left to add, however. There is the possibility that developers could drop a new town for free but that feels less likely.

For now though, we have both Bubbly Basin and the 2.0 update to enjoy - and I suppose it’s about time that I actually got back to tidying up my biomes after a few weeks of neglect.