Pokémon Pokopia can be overwhelming sometimes. It’s one of the better examples of a life sim that streamlines its creative processes so anyone can pick it up and learn it quickly, but there are still a whole lot of minutiae, crafting recipes and materials, and upgrades to keep track of. To help you cut through the noise a bit as you’re starting out, here are a few upgrades you should try to prioritize as you rebuild the Pokémon world.
PP Up
You can buy a bottle of PP Up at the Pokémon Center’s PC several times over the course of the game as you find new areas and increase your environment level. These handy supplements will allow you to use your various attacks and abilities more often before you need to recharge by sleeping or eating food.
Packing Tips
Much like PP Up, you’ll be able to purchase upgrades called Packing Tips multiple times throughout Pokopia. This gives you extra storage space in your bag, meaning you won’t have to rely as much on storage chests lying around the environment to hold your stuff. Once I’d upgraded a few times, storage space was basically a non-issue for me, and I almost always had whatever I needed for a certain quest or task on-hand.
Handy Bag
Speaking of item storage, the Handy Bag is one of those “this is so helpful it should have just been a baseline mechanic” sort of deals. This functions not only as an additional few slots of storage space, but can also be mapped as a hot bar to appear on the screen at all times, allowing you to quickly shuffle through a selection of items. This is perfect for building, gardening, or otherwise micromanaging a space, as you won’t have to constantly be opening up your inventory and searching for the one seed or tile you’re looking for.