Manaphy teaches your Ditto to dive, and that part is free
The extended Pokémon Pokopia trailer Nintendo put out this week runs a little over two minutes, and in that time it shows two things that do not cost the same. One is an entire town sunk at the bottom of the sea, coral roofs and all, with neighbours drifting in and out of the kelp. The other is your Ditto learning to dive in any pond on the map you already own. Only one of them is for sale.
Now the details, because that was the open question. Version 2.0.0 arrives on 5 August and it is free for anyone who owns the game, pass or no pass. Manaphy turns up and teaches your Ditto Dive, and from then on water stops being scenery: you go under and explore with no air gauge pushing you back to the surface. Screen Rant broke it down the same day, and one detail has been living in the pass's shadow — you will also be able to build underwater in the three neighbourhoods already sitting in your save.
What €34.99 buys you is the place you dive to.
What you are buying is a town somebody left underwater
Bubbly Basin is Part 1 of the pass and it opens on that same 5 August. The official pass page lists what is inside: six new Pokémon — Popplio, Mudkip, Corsola, Corphish, Chinchou and Totodile — floating blocks for building in open water, a Surf upgrade for getting around the surface faster, buildings that only exist submerged, furniture made from whatever is down there, watermelons you can grow and then turn into smoothies, and a Sharpedo submarine with one decoratable room inside. Yes, a submarine with a living room.
The best thing in the pass is also the smallest. Bubbly Basin includes a deep-sea area where you cannot see a thing, and the only way forward is to light your own path with bioluminescent coral you plant yourself. In a game with no battles, no gyms and no League, shipping a pitch-dark zone whose core mechanic is light interests me more than the six Pokémon put together.
The other two parts do not land until late this year and 2027
The full pass costs €34.99 and unlocks in pieces as they ship. Part 2 is pencilled in for late 2026 and so far it is described only as “new features”, with no new neighbourhood attached. Part 3 arrives in 2027 and that is the one carrying another district. Put on a calendar, anyone buying on 5 August expecting three new areas is looking at a year and a half before the second one shows up. Gematsu logged the split exactly as Nintendo gave it, and there is no more precision than that.
Pokopia can afford it, mind you. It sold 2.2 million copies in four days and Nintendo's stock climbed close to 20%. And Switch 2 is not exactly spoilt for dates: the last big one was The Duskbloods network test, and that was a beta.
There is a case for it: better one finished neighbourhood in eighteen months than three thin slices spread across the calendar. But the pass is charged in full today, and half of what it promises has no date more precise than a year.
The 30 free ingots expire, and the deadline is longer than it looks
The pass is already on sale, and buyers get an extra that has not been explained particularly well anywhere. It is the crafting instructions for “Ditto face” items — wallpaper and blocks — plus a code for 30 units of rare Pokémetal. The two dates worth writing down are not the same one: the pass has to be bought before 31 August 2027, and the code can be redeemed until 30 September 2027. A month of slack between the two.
Bubbly Basin opens on 5 August, and the free update lands the same day. Which means everyone is making that first descent to the seabed — some of you to look at the town from outside, the rest to redecorate it.
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