Pokemon Pokopia's First Big Event is Technically Available a Week Ahead of Schedule

Pokemon Pokopia‘s first limited-time event is now available nearly a week before it was scheduled to arrive, although players will have to do a little bit of tinkering with the game’s mechanics and complete one big in-game task before they can begin. The More Spores for Hoppip event was set to arrive mere days after Pokemon Pokopia‘s March 5 launch, on March 10, but some clever players have found a way to jump into it almost immediately.

Early in the month, before the game had even hit its official release date, Pokemon Pokopia‘s first limited-time event was revealed, giving players a chance to get some event-specific, picnic-themed furniture items. To get access to these furniture pieces, players will need to build up their relationship with Hoppip and its two evolutions, Skiploom and Jumpluff. Establishing and growing that friendship will grant players cotton spores, which can then be exchanged for these unique and decorative pieces.

Pokemon Pokopia is Currently the Highest-Rated Pokemon Game of All Time

Critic reviews for Pokemon Pokopia start rolling in, and there’s enough praise going around to make the game the best-rated title in the franchise.

Pokemon Pokopia Players Access the Hoppip Picnic Event Early, But There’s a Catch

The More Spores for Hoppip event is scheduled to start on March 10 and conclude on March 24, giving players two full weeks to complete the necessary tasks and gather all the spores they need. However, some players have discovered that they can manipulate the system settings on their Nintendo Switch 2 consoles to get a head start, tricking the game into thinking the event has already started by changing the date to any day during the event period. Once the date had been changed, these players found that Hoppip was waiting for them outside the Pokemon Center, and the event questline immediately became available.

Before players start messing around with the in-game clock, there’s another caveat to meeting Hoppip early. In order for the event to start, players will need to have first rebuilt the Pokemon Center in Pokemon Pokopia, or else Hoppip will have nowhere to spawn in the game’s world. Rebuilding the Pokemon Center is a multistep process, requiring players to purchase its rebuilding kit, gather the needed Lumber, Stones, Leaves, and Vine Ropes needed for its construction, and repeatedly find and recruit a large team of helpful Pokemon with the skills needed for the job. Even after completing all of those tasks, players will need to wait a full day for the Pokemon Center’s completion, but clock manipulation has also proven a useful tool in speeding up the last step of the process.

Players may also want to exercise caution before deciding to change the date on their Switch 2 devices, as similar games from the past have produced some odd results when doing the same thing. The clearest example of this is the practice of time traveling in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, another life sim to which Pokemon Pokopia has drawn a lot of early comparisons. Many Animal Crossing players have used these unofficial time travel methods to speed up construction projects, refresh shops, and make money faster. But the practice can also have unintended consequences, from as mild as rapid weed growth to more serious issues like villagers moving out, mailboxes overflowing, spoilage of high-profit turnips, and even the disruption of special, limited-time events.

Since Pokemon Pokopia is still in its first few days since release, it’s difficult to say if issues similar to the ones in Animal Crossing games could pop up from clock manipulation, especially as they relate to limited-time events. Some players report that they have moved the date both forward and backwards in Pokemon Pokopia without noticing any negative effects. Even if this information is accurate, players may want to avoid opening any other games while the clock is not synced to real time, since the clock and calendar are tied to the Switch 2 itself and not any individual pieces of software.