If you want to take to the water in Pokémon Pokopia, here’s how to learn Surf

Even though Pokémon Pokopia is a spin-off title in the franchise, it still very much has variations of core elements that you’ll know if you’ve played just one of the games.

While you won’t be running around in tall grass catching creatures to battle it out with others, there are HM spiritual successors in the game that allow for extra traversal.

Here, we’ll be taking a look at Surf, and how you can learn it, so you’re able to get your human Ditto on the water.

How to learn Surf in Pokémon Pokopia

Since Pokopia has different biomes, you’ll be needing a few different traversal abilities in order to explore and reach areas that you wouldn’t be able to otherwise.

Surf is a move that has been in Pokémon since the franchise started, and yes, it’s back in Pokopia, just not exactly in HM form.

Instead, you’ll be learning Surf from another Pokémon, which is a real fan favorite – Lapras.

To unlock Surf in Pokémon Pokopia, you’ll need to push the story far enough to reach Bleak Beach first.

Bleak Beach becomes accessible after you complete the first Important Request in the Withered Wasteland, which involves finishing the quest Yawning Up a Storm. Once that’s done, head to the right side of the Withered Wasteland, and you’ll be able to enter Bleak Beach.

From there, learning Surf is all about getting Lapras to show up. Lapras appears in the Tropical Seaside habitat, so you’ll need to create that environment.

The Tropical Seaside habitat requires 1 Large Palm Tree, 4 Hedges, and Ocean Water. You can find all of these ingredients around Bleak Beach, so gather them up, place them together, and the game should confirm you’ve built the habitat correctly.

After that, leave the area for a little while and come back. If everything’s set up properly, Lapras will be waiting for you to interact with it.

Finally, Lapras will ask you to wash away 80 squares of mud which is pretty simple, and then you’ll be granted Surf.

Contrary to some other abilities, you just hit the B button near water, and you should transform into Ditto Lapras to do a bit of swimming.