In Pokémon Pokopia, you'll meet a Drifloon who will offer to take you to Dream Islands pretty early on. Dream Islands are useful places you can visit every day filled with resources, comparable to the Nook Islands you'd visit in Animal Crossing: New Horizons. The islands you visit will be randomized, and you'll be able to visit a new island every day.
Below we explain how Drifloon's Dream Islands work in Pokémon Pokopia, and what you can expect from them.
Update (Aug. 6): We've added information about the Bubbly Basin DLC Dream Island.
How Dream Islands work in Pokopia
To get to a Dream Island, you'll first need a Pokémon doll, which can be found from shining spots on the ground and various locations in the overworld. Based on our testing, it does seem like you only get access to specific dolls after you visit specific areas. For example, we didn't find the Arcanine plush until after visiting Rocky Ridges.
Specifically, the Bubbly Basin DLC Starmie doll does require you to complete a request from Frillish to unlock it, though.
Place a Pokémon doll down and interact with it to spawn a Drifloon. They'll offer to take you to a Dream Island, which relates to the doll you're interacting with (more on that below). These islands provide you with lots of materials for crafting, so if you're looking for a particular item, like sea glass, you might just need to make your way to the island themed around Bleak Beach.
You can only visit one island per day, but you can revisit that same island until the day changes.
You can recruit Drifloon's evolution, Drifblim, to your island, but it doesn't have the Dream Island specialty, and cannot take you to any islands. Phooey.
List of possible Dream Islands in Pokopia
There are several different types of Dream Islands, with each having their own materials. To access the specific Dream Islands, you'll need to interact with specific dolls:
| Plush | Island type | Materials |
|---|---|---|
| Pikachu | Ocean Dream Island | Twine, sea glass, shells |
| Eevee | Wasteland Dream Island | Leppa berries, vine, mushrooms |
| Dragonite | Sky Dream Island | Wastepaper, Pokémetal, crystal fragments |
| Clefairy | Rock Peak Dream Island | Cave mushroom, copper ore, limestone |
| Arcanine | Volcanic Dream Island | Iron ore, gold ore, glowing stone |
| Starmie (DLC only) | Basin Dream Island | Sea grapes, small coral, grubby pearls |
Each island is based off of one of the various biomes and areas in the game, so if you're looking for a particular resource that can only be found in a specific biome, make sure to head to its respective Dream Island.
Note that both the Ditto and Substitute dolls are wildcards, and will take you to a random island, unlike the ones listed above, which take you to set locations.
How to find legendary and mythical Pokémon on Dream Islands
One of the big draws of Dream Islands are the legendary and mythical Pokémon that you can potentially find within:
-
**Raikou**is on**Ocean Dream Island (Pikachu)**, in a room surrounded by metal blocks. -
**Entei**is on**Volcanic Dream Island (Arcanine)**, in a room surrounded by lava rocks. -
**Suicune**is on**Wasteland Dream Island (Eevee)**, in a room made of ice. -
**Mewtwo**is on**Sky Dream Island (Dragonite)**, in a room that resembles more of a building. -
**Phione**is on**Basin Dream Island (Starmie)**, in some underwater ruins.
To find these Pokémon, you'll want to go to their respective island and search for any caves towards the center of the island. If the cave runs deep, that's a good sign. Keep your eye out for any of the brown, cracked rocks that are meant to be broken with Rock Smash, as this is usually hiding a deeper part of the cave.
You can also quickly check your Pokédex to see if these Pokémon are on the Dream Island by tweaking the Pokédex's filters. Set the registration status to "all" and the location to "in this area." If there's a Pokémon on the Dream Island, they'll show up as a question mark (or as themselves, if you found them as part of the story).
You can also find these Pokémon on the random islands that the Ditto or Substitute dolls take you to, if they're one of the ones listed above, but if you're hunting for something specific, you should use the specific dolls instead.
If you're lucky, you'll find the legendary Pokémon inside its own special structure.
Don't get too stressed if you're not finding thesePokémon. It took us quite a few trips before we ever saw our first legendary Pokémon, so it's just a matter of luck. If you want to speed up this process, you can always time travel.
It's likely that Raikou will only show up after you complete the Bleak Beach storyline and Mewtwo will only show up after finishing the important request in Sparkling Skylands.
What else to look for on Dream Islands in Pokopia
Dream Islands are also filled with loot to plunder, and you should come with empty pockets and take all that you can, since the island will vanish after a day. In addition to the materials listed above, you can find the following around the islands:
- Randomized structures that typically have items inside or on top of them. Feel free to decimate the structures and take back any furniture you find inside.
- Random items, presented as red Poké Balls.
- Habitat hints, presented as golden Poké Balls.
- Rarer items, like rare Pokémetal, presented as golden Poké Balls.
- Stardust, which can be crafted into star pieces to give Pokémon from multiplayer sessions.
- Human records that can only be found randomly in Dream Islands
- CDs, often found on CD shelves.
- Glowing spots in the ground with relics and fossils inside.
This being said, we recommend coming with an empty inventory, aside from the necessities (like food to restore stamina or power-up your abilities).
Being carried off by a Drifloon is a nightmare for a child, but it's apparently pretty good for a Ditto!
If you're starting out in Pokémon Pokopia, we have guides to help you spruce up your island. We have both a Pokédex and Habitat Dex to assist in figuring out what can spawn where, and what you need to build to summon your favorite creatures. If you're feeling overwhelmed, you can also check out our beginner's guide for some early tips and tricks to help smooth out your journey.
We also have walkthroughs for the important requests that progress the story: "Yawn up a Storm!," "Brighten Things Up!," "Time to Party!," and "Build the Huge Building!" If you're looking to play with friends, know that there are restrictions for the regular Pokopia multiplayer and for the GameShare version.