Dring also mentioned that this means that Nintendo consoles now account for more than half of all consoles sold in the region so far in 2026. “Nintendo Switch 2 UK sales jumped 154% in March month-on-month following the release of Pokémon Pokopia,” he wrote. “Nintendo accounts for over 50% of all consoles sold in the UK so far this year.” He did offer a caveat, however, that March was a five-week month, compared to February having only four weeks.

The success of Pokémon Pokopia in helping boost console sales should come as no surprise. Just last month, Nintendo confirmed that it had sold 2.2 million copies of the game in just four days after its March 5th release. Of the impressive sales milestone, around one million units were sold in Japan alone.

The release of Pokémon Pokopia even led to Nintendo’s share prices growing by ten percent. A report at the time even noted that physical copies of the game had become hard to find thanks to major US retailers running out of stock quite quickly.

Jeffries analyst Atul Goyal acknowledged that the game boosted Switch 2’s sales momentum, calling it a “viral hit” that helped to counteract “memory cost headwinds” that Nintendo’s investors had been worried about. According to Tokyo Securities analyst Hideki Yasuda, “The Pokémon game was a dark horse. It was totally off people’s radars, making its popularity a positive development.” Its popularity “from Japan to Canada” also proved its global appeal.

Pokémon Pokopia offers a major twist on the Pokémon formula. Rather than players taking on the role of a young trainer setting off in the world for an adventure, Pokopia instead puts players in the shoes of a Ditto that transforms to vaguely look like a young human. After this, players are then free to explore the world and collect resources, which in turn can be used to craft equipment and their home. Along the way, players will also get to meet various other Pokémon, each with their own unique abilities that can be used for various gameplay aspects, like resource collection.

Pokémon Pokopia is available exclusively on Nintendo Switch 2. Check out our review, where we gave it a score of 9 out of 10 thanks to its engaging premise, charm, personality, and addictive construction mechanics, among other things. For players who have already been playing Pokémon Pokopia, take a look at our guides for hunting legendary Pokémon, time traveling, raising the environment level, and unlocking Palette Town and GameShare.

For those among you who are still undecided on whether or not Pokémon Pokopia is for you, check out its gameplay trailer showing off cooking and co-op gameplay.

This Pokemon Pokopia guide is all about hunting for Legendary Pokemon using a tried and tested strategy.

How To Unlock Dream Islands

The first step in your quest to collect Legendary Pokemon is unlocking Dream Islands. These standalone worlds are a source for a lot of items, including Stardust, Star Pieces, materials, and resources of all kinds.

Wait till nightfall, and leave Withered Wasteland from the west. Once outside the boundary, bear right in search of a lone Drifloon. Interact with it to begin its quest.

Fulfill its habitat request, and speak to it again for part two of its request, involving Poke Dolls. If you have not stumbled upon one of these already, Drifloon will give you a hint about where to acquire a Poke Doll nearby. Wrap up the Drifloon’s quest to finally unlock Dream Islands.

Dream Island Mechanics

Drifloon can transport you to Dream Islands on demand, simply by setting down and inspecting any given Poke Doll to summon them first. Each unique Poke Doll will take you to a distinct Dream Island, but you can only visit one island each game day.

Once you arrive on the randomly generated island, it will remain static, no matter how many times you leave and return on the same day. Which means that you cannot strip the island clean of its resources and hope to respawn it all. While you remain on the island, the so-called ‘Time Travel’ or date skip method will not work to reset things either. You also cannot visit any other Dream Islands for the duration of that day.

Instead, you will have to either let time progress naturally, or perform the Time Travel method in order to manually move the date forward by one day, specifically while outside of a Dream Island.

When you are on the island and ready to leave, make use of the ‘Return Home’ function in order to be teleported back to Drifloon and avoid time wasted on traversal.

Stardust And Star Pieces

When interacting with Poke Dolls, note the materials listed as predominant on a given Dream Island. Aside from those, you should also farm the goopy-looking materials called Stardust, 99 of which can eventually be combined into a single Star Piece.

Gifting a Star Piece to a visiting Pokemon that you do not already own will beget you a gift in return. Opening that gift within an empty habitat will spawn that same species of Pokemon there, regardless of whether the habitat suits it.

Hunting Legendary Pokemon

Legendary Pokemon can be found within either of the two cave systems that tend to appear on Dream Islands. While not a guaranteed spawn every single time, you can easily reset each island with the method mentioned previously until you stumble upon a good one.

Even when you fail to acquire a Legendary Pokemon, the yellow Pokeballs that you come across will still have plenty of valuable items for use, including Pokemetal ingots and habitat information.

You will know that you have stumbled upon a Legendary Pokemon in the caves visually, when you notice an enclosure of sorts, with the Pokemon confined within. Break through and simply take them home.

That is everything there is to know about exploiting Dream Islands and hunting Legendary Pokemon in Pokemon Pokopia.

Developed by Koei Tecmo studio Omega Force, Pokopia is, in a nutshell, a blend of Animal Crossing, Dragon Quest Builders, and, of course, Pokemon. Viewed individually, none of its core disparate pillars are particularly unique at this point, but this game concocts them together in an almost perfect way, delivering an experience that is bursting to the seams with personality, and has the sort of deceptive mechanical depth that will keep you hooked for dozens – if not hundreds – of hours.

"There’s a vast variety of habitats that you can make in the game, and though they start out as simple patches of grass, they gradually grow in complexity."

In Pokemon Pokopia, you play as a Ditto that has taken on the (uncanny-but-almost-accurate) form of your former human trainer. You find yourself in what you quickly piece together is a desolate, abandoned version of the Kanto region- most of the landscapes are a wasteland, structures lie in ruin, and there are almost no Pokemon and no humans to be seen anywhere. With the help of a Tangrowth – a self-dubbed Pokemon Professor – you set out to rebuild the land block by block to bring life – both Pokemon and human – back to the region, and unravel the mystery of how exactly things came to be this way.

It serves as a great premise for Pokopia’s life sim and building loop. Central to the experience are, of course, the Pokemon, each of whom has unique personalities and useful, varied abilities, not to mention unique requirements. Different kinds of Pokemon are attracted back to live in the region if they find a habitat that they find suitable, which means a crucial aspect of Pokopia’s core loop is building habitats.

There’s a vast variety of habitats that you can make in the game, and though they start out as simple patches of grass, they gradually grow in complexity. Experimenting with different items and environmental features to create new habitats, or procuring specific things to build the habitat you need for that next Pokemon you want to add to your neighbourhood, truly never loses its charm- there’s that many possible combinations to play around with.

What also helps massively is the ridiculous amounts of charm and personality that the Pokemon – and the game in general – are overflowing with. Each Pokemon is their own person (or, well, Pokemon, but you know), and it’s delightful to watch each of them exhibit their diverse personalities and quirks in unique ways- Charmeleon is a hothead, while Hitmonchan generally just likes to train with a punching bag a lot. Squirtle is charmingly energetic, while Slowpoke, true to form, just likes to takes things slow.

"Pokopia not only cleverly uses Pokemon elements to bring personality into its world, it also weaves them into its gameplay in ingenious ways."

There’s a large cast of Pokemon represented in Pokopia, and you can tell that a lot of care and love for the franchise has been poured into each of the creatures. From the things they say and the idle interactions they have with each other to the way they animate and interact with the environment and much more, simply watching them exist in the world is one of the game’s highlights. I can’t tell you how much time I’ve spent just watching Hitmonchan and Hitmonlee train together, or taking pictures of different Pokemon just doing their thing and interacting with the environment, or even playing jump-rope with Bulbasaur.

It’s safe to say that fans in particular will absolutely love meeting and befriending new Pokemon. Beyond that, there’s plenty more in the game for longtime Pokemon fans to look out for as well. Exploration has many benefits (beyond items, crafting recipes, and, you know, just being fun), one of which is notes scattered throughout the maps, which often drop little pieces of lore. From backstory tidbits that make the story surprisingly interesting to little nuggets and easter eggs, there’s a lot to find. Series fans will also love the many secrets – including chance and optional encounters with a variety of Legendaries – to be found in all the maps, not to mention the many excellently composed, nostalgia-fueled remixes of instantly recognizable Pokemon tracks that Pokopia has up its sleeve.

Pokopia not only cleverly uses Pokemon elements to bring personality into its world, it also weaves them into its gameplay in ingenious ways. As a Ditto, you also have transformational abilities that allow you to learn different moves from the many Pokemon you befriend, each of which allows you to engage with the environment in different ways. Bulbasaur teaches you Leafage, with which you can grow patches of grass; Squirtle teaches you Water Gun, which lets you bring moisture back to dry and barren soil; Scyther teaches you Cut and Hitmonchan teaches you Rock Smash, which allow you to deal with obstacles or break up blocks; Magikarp, hilariously, teaches you Splash, which turns out to be surprisingly useful, because it lets you jump.

Meanwhile, Pokemon also have their own abilities that you cannot imitate, but they can use to assist you in various ways. Scyther can turn logs into lumber, Charmander can light things on fire, Slowpoke can make it rain, Vespiqueen offers items in exchange for honey- the list goes on. The Pokemon that you meet and befriend truly do end up feeling like valued neighbours and little virtual friends- which is exactly what you want from a Pokemon life sim.

"Together, Pokopia’s Animal Crossing-inspired life sim elements and Dragon Quest Builders-inspired elements come together in surprisingly cohesive fashion."

Of course, the different Pokemon and their unique requirements also shape gameplay in other ways. Once they’ve moved into habitats that they find appropriate, Pokemon will often come to you with requests for everything from food to different items – like lights or decorations or furniture – or even new homes. Seeing to the overall contentment of your Pokemon neighbours is an important part of Pokopia, because doing so raises your Environment Level, which in turn unlocks new items for purchase at the Pokemon Center. It’s a very well though-out loop, not just because of the satisfying progression, but also because of the impressive variety and surprising strategy it adds to the process of slowly building the land back to life, and seeing it flourish bit by bit.

Beyond the delightful life sim mechanics, Pokopia has a whole other construction aspect to it, where it borrows heavily from the likes of Minecraft and Dragon Quest Builders- which makes sense, given that developer Omega Force worked on Dragon Quest Builders 2. Everything is made of individual blocks – wood, sand, grass, soil, stone, and so on – and you can break up these blocks, suck them up with a Kirby-like (and very Ditto-appropriate) suction ability, and then use them to alter the environment however you see fit, and construct whatever you can conjure up.

Personally, I’ve always been incredibly quick to succumb to the addictive charms of exactly the sort of gameplay loop that Pokemon Pokopia offers up, and it’s no surprise to me that I’m completely eating it up here. The building mechanics are an absolute blast- their Minecraft-like simplicity and Dragon Quest Builders-inspired interface allows them to strike a perfect balance between complexity and accessibility. There’s also a solid range of variety on offer in the items, furniture, decorations, building options, and more. Everything generally works the way as intended, and elements and objects can interact with each other in fun and surprising ways, allowing for an impressive level of freedom, flexibility, and creativity.

Though the main campaign is structured a lot like the Dragon Quest Builders games, with players moving from one map to the next, eventually, Pokopia also lets players let loose in a massive map, which is where its freeform, sandbox construction mechanics really flourish. I imagine there will be many players – like myself – who will be spending inordinate amounts of time in this particular map.

Together, Pokopia’s Animal Crossing-inspired life sim elements and Dragon Quest Builders-inspired elements come together in surprisingly cohesive fashion. There are some minor foibles – like frustrating storage restrictions, and long wait times as you wait for construction on buildings to finish, especially in the early hours of the game – but by and large, Pokopia keeps finding ways to keep you engaged in its charmful mundanity. There’s no doubt in my mind that this is among the best Pokemon games I’ve played in recent memory- and maybe even ever.

This game was reviewed on Nintendo Switch 2.

This is a guide to effectively ‘time travel’ in Pokemon Pokopia and the benefits of doing so for the impatient player.

How To Time Travel In Pokemon Pokopia

Begin by saving your game to fix your progression thus far. Next, navigate to the Home screen and System Settings. The game can remain open in the background without any issues arising.

Scroll all the way down on the left to System, then access ‘Date and Time’ about half way down on the right.

First, toggle the switch for ‘Synchronize Clock Using the Internet’ to Off. This will permit you to manually adjust the ‘Current Date and Time’.

From this screen, you can change the date a whole day forward, or wind the clock ahead just a few minutes, depending on your needs.

Each new day in Pokemon Pokopia begins at 5AM rather than midnight, and if that is what you are looking to do specifically, you will need to set the time to that as well.

Back in the game, you will respawn at your house as the map reloads in the background.

Here are the various macro time slots in the game:

Morning: 6AM to 9AM

Day: 9AM to 5PM

Dusk: 5PM to 7PM

Night: 7PM to 6AM

Why Time Travel In Pokemon Pokopia

There are over a dozen Pokemon that spawn exclusively at Night. This time slot is considered to run from 7PM to 6AM. Being able to manually set the time to within that range will allow you to encounter them whenever you please. These nightly Pokemon include:

• Cacturne
• Clefable
• Clefairy
• Cleffa
• Crobat
• Duskull
• Golbat
• Honchkrow
• Hoothoot
• Misdreavus
• Murkrow
• Noctowl
• Oddish
• Umbreon
• Venomoth
• Venonat
• Zubat

As for construction, buildings can take anything between a few minutes to an entire day to complete based on material cost and size, the Pokemon Centers being a prime example of laborious construction.

Impatient players can just turn the clock forward an appropriate number of minutes or hours to quickly have a completed structure in place.

Once you are satisfied with the results of your time travel, be sure to save before you change the date and time back to what it really is, and you can be assured that your progress will not be lost.

That is everything about how and why you should manipulate the progression of time in Pokemon Pokopia.

This guide is all about the intricacies of raising the Environment Level in Pokemon Pokopia.

Acquire Pokemon

The most basic way to increase the Environment Level is by befriending every possible Pokemon in a given area. Build viable habitats for them to spawn in, and once they do, quickly provide them with a simple house, in order to spawn more Pokemon.

Pokemon Housing

Ideally, you will place Pokemon housing a little apart from one another, as tightly packed houses make traversal difficult. You will be doing a lot of customization to these houses over time as you attempt to meet the needs of their inhabitants.

Comfort Level

Once you have acquired Pokemon, your next move is to improve their Comfort Levels. Do this by enhancing their houses and habitats overall, using the data noted in the Pokedex. For maximum efficiency, group Pokemon of similar habitats and preferences close together, allowing them to share certain comforts.

Further insights into the Comfort Level of individual Pokemon can be gained by interacting with them directly, allowing you to tailor their needs and wants.

Pokemon Minigames

The various minigames that Pokemon offer to play contribute towards their Comfort Level, regardless of the player outcome, win or lose.

Request Completion

Pokemon will also have specific Requests for you to fulfill, and doing so successfully will unlock a variety of rewards that you can also put towards raising the Environment Level.

An Environment Level of 5 for each area is necessary for the endgame, however the maximum cap is level 10.

That is everything you can do to raise the Environment Level to its maximum level of 10 in Pokemon Pokopia.

This guide has all the details you need to successfully enable GameShare for Pokemon Pokopia with both the Switch 1 and the Switch 2.

How To Unlock Palette Town And GameShare For Pokemon Pokopia

GameShare is not unlocked by default in Pokemon Pokopia and requires a fair bit of gameplay to access. First, you need to achieve Environment Level 2 at minimum. Next, escape Withered Wasteland through the west, either by using Rock Smash, or scaling the hills surrounding it. Once outside the boundary, bear left towards what looks like a long bridge. You will need to build a short bridge of your own to cross the narrow channel keeping you from it.

Once across, you will eventually see a message stating that ‘It is recommended that you gain a lot more knowledge before visiting this town.’ Elect to ‘Go anyway’ and proceed to the next destination: Palette Town.

On the PC in this particular Pokemon Center, the Link Play option functions differently from other PCs, as it offers access to GameShare when you select ‘Invite Others to Visit’, in addition to the usual ‘Online connection’ and ‘Local connection’.

How To GameShare Pokemon Pokopia On Switch 1 & Switch 2

You, as the host console, need to select GameShare. Next, the guest console needs to select GameShare from their Home screen, and then ‘Join GameShare’ to begin scanning for local open sessions to access, without using the internet.

Once successfully connected, the host console user needs to hit ‘Start’ to actually begin the session.

Online GameShare requires GameChat, which is exclusive to Switch 2 users, and all guests will need to be friends with the host.

Pokemon Pokopia GameShare Limitations

The very first thing guests will NOT be able to do is personalize a Ditto. There is no possibility of accessing the story mode either.

Guests are also limited to Palette Town itself which is a sandbox zone without any story progression. During an active GameShare session, the host is also locked to Palette Town.

All guests only have access to the abilities that the host themself has unlocked. Although you will have unlocked GameShare early with this guide, ideally you will have progressed much farther into the story, in order to acquire more abilities for your guests to actively use. This also applies to inventory space which is unique to each guest.

The host must be active, as closing the session will remove all other players. Upon ending the session, all guest inventories get dumped into the Lost & Found box at the Pokemon Center. Guests cannot interact with the Lost & Found box. Neither host nor guests can play minigames with Pokemon.

All in all, GameShare for Pokemon Pokopia is essentially only a little better than a spectator mode.

That is everything there is to know about unlocking GameShare functionality for Pokemon Pokopia.

The announcement comes just days after we first started seeing an overwhelmingly positive critical response to the title, with its aggregated score on Metacritic sitting at 89 based on 68 critic reviews. Since its release, players have also seemingly loved the game, with 726 user reviews contributing to an average score of 8.5 out of 10.

A report from earlier this week also revealed that the success of Pokémon Pokopia has led to Nintendo’s share prices going up by around 10 percent. Along with this, the physical copies of title has also been quite difficult to find, with many US retailers running out of stock.

Jeffries analyst Atul Goyal called Pokémon Pokopia a “viral hit”, and noted that it helped in counteracting “memory cost headwinds” that had been worrying Nintendo’s shareholders. The game has also contributed to boosting Nintendo Switch 2’s hardware sales momentum.

Tokyo Securities analyst Hideko Yasuda called Pokémon Pokopia a “dark horse”, noting that it was “totally off people’s radar, making its popularity a positive development.” He went on to say that its popularity “from Japan to Canada” shows how much global appeal the game has.

Pokémon Pokopia was a surprising game ever since it was first unveiled, since it strays away from the classical style of games one would expect from the franchise and focuses more on gameplay in the vein of Animal Crossing. Players take on the role of a Ditto that has transformed to vaguely look like a young human. Right from the beginning, players will have to get their hands on a variety of resources, which can then be used to create tools and even a home.

Along the way, players will get to find and befriend other Pokémon, each of which is equipped with their own unique abilities. Bulbasaur, for example, can make more grass grow, which can be harvested for resources. If you would prefer to clear the land, however, you can make use of Charmander’s fire skills to clear the land.

Game director Takuto Edagawa had spoken about the game’s general runtime of between 20 and 40 hours for its main story. However, he also noted that there is plenty for players to do even after they roll credits.

“The whole concept is to create the world with Pokémon and live with the Pokémon. However, as an average, it’ll be about 20 to 40 hours, but it would really depend on how the players play the game…There’s more things to experience after the end roll,” he said.

“So it depends on what you mean by contents, but I believe that players are encouraged to and will be motivated to continue to play the game.”

For more on Pokémon Pokopia, take a look at its gameplay trailer from back in February.

According to Jeffries analyst Atul Goyal, the release of Pokémon Pokopia has offered a boost in the Switch 2’s momentum. He went as far as to call the title a “viral hit”, noting that it helped to counteract “memory cost headwinds” that Nintendo’s investors have been worried about. Tokyo Securities analyst Hideki Yasuda said “The Pokémon game was a dark horse. It was totally off people’s radars, making its popularity a positive development.” He noted that the popularity of the title in just about every market “from Japan to Canada” is an indication of its global appeal.

Pokémon Pokopia currently sits at an aggregated score of 89 on Metacritic, based on 68 critic reviews. User ratings have also remained positive, with 726 reviews contributing to an average score of 8.5 out of 10.

The title was released just last week, and features an entirely new style of Pokémon games that has more in common with fellow Nintendo-exclusive franchise Animal Crossing than it does with other games under the larger Pokémon umbrella. It puts players in the role of a Ditto that has transformed to vaguely look like a young human. Players are then tasked with exploring the world and collecting resources along the way, with which they can craft new equipment and even their own home.

Players can also run into other Pokémon, from which new abilities can be learned. These Pokémon, once befriended, can also join the player’s own home, providing more help in the collection of resources and other tasks that might require completion. Each Pokémon has a unique ability, like Bulbasaur’s penchant to create new patches of grass, or Charmander’s fires helping in clearing out zones.

Just last month, the title got a new trailer that gave us a glimpse at its co-op mode. It also introduced characters like Professor Tangrowth and Greedent, who can help in the growth of the player’s town.

Game director Takuto Edagawa had spoken about the length of the main story in Pokémon Pokopia, noting that there is plenty to do even after players finish the main quests.

“The whole concept is to create the world with Pokémon and live with the Pokémon. However, as an average, it’ll be about 20 to 40 hours, but it would really depend on how the players play the game…There’s more things to experience after the end roll,” he said.

“So it depends on what you mean by contents, but I believe that players are encouraged to and will be motivated to continue to play the game.”

Pokémon Pokopia is available exclusively on the Nintendo Switch 2. If you have a hankering for more Pokémon games, also take a look at the recent releases of Game Boy Advance titles Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen on the Nintendo Switch. The titles were remakes of the first Pokémon games, which were originally released on the Game Boy.

On Metacritic, it currently has a 89 Metascore based on 50 reviews, which currently makes it the highest rated Pokémon game on the site (just above Pokémon Y on the Nintendo 3DS). Some choice quotes include VGC, who called it an “excellent life simulation game that takes the best bits from the champions of the genre and evolves into something that Pokémon fans, and cozy game fans will love.”

Game Informer called it “a game of wonder, exploration, and revitalization, delivering a cosy, satisfying experience with no threat of danger.” Meanwhile, IGN said it’s “a real treat: an enjoyable building and town simulator that capitalizes on the charming personalities of its monsters in a way that appeals to both the creative and collector alike.”

Perhaps the highest praise comes from GameSpot, which said it’s a “combination of the design sensibilities of Animal Crossing and Dragon Quest Builders, but by melding those two structures and fusing them with Pokémon, it compensates for each one’s weaknesses.”

Some of the more positive points include solid writing, excellent world design with many secrets, and more. Among the few complaints are grinding in the late game, somewhat underwhelming rewards from exploring side areas, and whatnot. However, most reviews praised the game’s cozy feel and repurposing of classic Pokémon mechanics into an enjoyable gameplay loop.

Pokémon Pokopia launches on March 5th for Nintendo Switch 2. The story can take anywhere between 20 and 40 hours to complete, but Omega Force says that there’s plenty to explore in the post-game. If it turns out to be a huge success, you have to wonder if Nintendo will further expand on it, similar to the Animal Crossing franchise.

Things kick off with a Rotom zipping its way to a darkened room where it takes over a boombox and begins belting out some tunes to set the trailer’s tempo. Ditto certainly approves, and we meet Professor Tangrowth in a Wasteland that’s soon to become our very own town. Of course, every town needs some good food to make it an attractive destination for other wandering Pokémon, and Greedent (or Chef Dente as the townsfolk refer to him as) is up to the task.

Gameplay looks like you’re going to be exploring the Wasteland for tunes and recipes to bring back for your fellow Pokémon, while also indulging in games of hide-and-seek among other things in the game’s multiplayer mode. It supports up to three other players, which means hours of fun long after the main campaign has ended.

If you’re looking for a chill title to occupy your time with your Switch 2, this one might be right up your alley. See for yourself in the trailer below.