There are 200+ habitats you can build. Most are from the main game, some come with the Bubbly Basin DLC, and a few only appear during events. Every habitat has a recipe that needs items and materials.

The game points you at a habitat to build and lists exactly what it takes: this item, that item, these materials. Nothing turns up until all of it is actually in place. Finish the habitat and a Pokémon will come, though when it comes still follows its own hours. A Zubat shows up at night. Others might show up during the day, or only when it rains.

Living there is the separate question, and this is the one people get caught out by. Every Pokémon has conditions it prefers, and it will let you know when they are not met. That Zubat may have appeared on an open beach, but it will not be happy staying there. It wants the dark. So later you build it something better, a house or a habitat that suits it, and that is when climate and light start to matter.

What they want in a home

• HumidWater and Grass lean. The widest pool in the game.
• DryGround, Rock and Fire favourites.
• WarmSun seekers. Pairs badly with damp builds nearby.
• ColdIce and hardy types. Wants distance from warm zones.
• DarkCaves and covered builds. Keep lamps out of them.

The Habitat Dex is the full list in one place. Tap a habitat to see its information, add it to your build queue or mark it as built! Filter by climate, area or source, so you can work through the cold builds in one sitting instead of scrolling past them for an hour.

Every row shows the climate the habitat provides, which Pokémon thrive in it, and the items the recipe calls for. Tap through for the full list of items and materials.

The slow part of Pokopia is not building, it is the accounting. You want four habitats, each recipe wants six materials, some overlap, and you are standing in a field trying to remember whether you already have enough clay.

Queue the habitats you want in Build habitats. The app adds up every recipe at once and gives you one combined shopping list, overlaps already merged. Check materials off as you gather them. The list only ever counts habitats you have not built yet.

Each area carries an Environment Level from 1 to 10. It climbs when residents are happy, when you finish requests, and simply when you add buildings and kits, even ones nobody has moved into yet. Legendary and Mythical residents push it up faster.

Gold rungs are the gift milestones: a special item at 5, recipes at 10. Environment Level 1 to 10 per area.

It moves down too. Pull Pokémon out of an area and the score drops, which can drag the Environment Level with it and re lock shop items and challenges you had already earned.

Comfy Level, per Pokémon

Every resident has their own Comfy Level, and it starts at nothing until they have a habitat at all. It rises when you meet their requests for particular items or decorations, when you visit and give gifts, and when the habitat type matches what they actually like. Disliked items nearby drag it back down.

• Iffya habitat exists, little else
• Averagebasics met
• Nicerequests being answered
• Greatclimate matched, gifts flowing
• Awesomea built house, not just a habitat

A habitat gets a Pokémon to turn up. A built house raises Comfy Level faster than a habitat alone ever will. If you are moving an area from level 6 to level 10, houses are the lever. Which is where the arithmetic gets ugly, because a house is a group, and the group has to get along.

Putting a house together means weighing climate preferences plus likes and dislikes across everyone you are considering, then checking that against every Pokémon you have already caught. By hand, for a full island, that is an evening you are not getting back.

The Roommate Advisor scores the combinations and tells you who fits. Point it at a house with a free slot and it ranks your unassigned Pokémon for that slot. Point it at an empty house and it suggests a whole group. There is a filter for who is still unhoused, so the question of who is left stops being a memory exercise.