Ditto is, without a doubt, one of the most iconic Pokémon in the entire National Dex, and with good reason. Not only is its mushy little face just as cute as the dickens, but its signature transformation ability allows it to change into just about anything you can imagine, from other Pokémon to people. It was a pretty big stroke of genius to make a Ditto the protagonist of Pokémon Pokopia, as it is the definitive multipurpose Pokémon, perfect for bringing a world back to life.
Pokémon Pokopia Review
Pokémon Pokopia is an incredible experience that’s hard to put down.
As you progress Pokopia’s main story, Ditto meets all kinds of new Pokémon with unique abilities and, in turn, mimics said abilities with its Transform move. Ditto transforms itself partially or fully, allowing it to use its friends’ moves to till the soil, restore the land, travel around quickly, and clear out debris. Ditto is a veritable Swiss army knife of functions thanks to these transformations, though while all the transformations have their applications, some are admittedly a little more useful than others.
Spoilers for Pokémon Pokopia!
10 Rototiller
Gotta Aerate that Soil
Here’s a fun science fact: plant roots need air in order to grow and thrive. You can’t plant crops in any old patch of dirt, it needs to be properly tilled and aerated into loose, loamy soil to sustain life. There doesn’t seem to be much in the way of garden hoes lying around in Pokopia, but there are plenty of Ground types like Drilbur who can do the same work, and arguably do it better.
After meeting Drilbur, Ditto learns to perform Rototiller, transforming its hands into Drilbur’s mole-y mitts. Using Rototiller allows you to transform any dirt block into crop-ready soil, perfect for planting and raising veggies like beans and potatoes. Rototiller can also be used to pluck small plants up from the ground like tall grass and flowers, after which they can be replanted elsewhere or stashed in your inventory for later. It’s a handy skill if you’re trying to set up particular Pokémon habitats, but need to use specific plants in specific configurations.
9 Strength
Put Your Back into It
Given all the fantastical stuff Pokémon typically get up to, you wouldn’t think just moving a big rock out of the way would be a notable-enough technique to warrant naming, but that’s exactly what they did with Strength back in the day. Strength was necessary in the Generation 1 games for moving large boulders, though in Pokopia, it’s a much more flexible, utilitarian technique.
After meeting Machoke and doing a bit of bodybuilding, Ditto learns Strength, transforming its arms into beefy biceps (and getting Machoke’s power belt for an extra bit of style). With Strength, you can forcefully shove any large object along the ground, as well as rotate it. This is necessary for large objects you can’t pick up and place elsewhere, like boulders, though it’s also handy for redecorating, since you can just nudge a piece of furniture around really quick instead of having to pick it up and place it back down.
8 Leafage
Grass from the Depths
When Ditto first arrives in Withered Wasteland, the place is, well, a withered wasteland. Nothing but dry soil and dead plants. Frankly, it’s depressing. If we’re going to revitalize the world and bring back all the Pokémon, we’ve got to get some greenery going in here. This looks like a job for a Grass type, specifically one like everyone’s favorite Grass starter, Bulbasaur.
After a mildly-miscommunicated demonstration from Bulbasaur, Ditto transforms its arms into Bulbasaur’s vine whips to perform Leafage. Rather than an offensive technique as it’d usually be, Leafage allows Ditto to yank plant life up from the soil, creating a patch of tall grass on the spot. It’s a nice, easy way to make some starter habitats, though it only works on healthy and dry grass at first. If you scarf a salad, not only can you spawn grass in a cross-shaped pattern, you can also force plants up in non-grassy locales, like getting moss from stones or duckweed on water.
7 Cut
The Original HM
All the way back in Generation 1, the very first HM move your Pokémon could learn was Cut, used for cutting down the skinny trees that blocked your path along the routes. Naturally, the patron Pokémon of Cut is Scyther, and it’s from a Scyther and its sickle-like arms that Ditto learns to use Cut itself.
In Pokopia, Cut allows Ditto to mimic Scyther’s arms and deliver a powerful chop right in front of itself. This has the effect you’d expect: you can use it to quickly cut away grass and flowers you don’t want, cut trees and driftwood into logs and lumber, and slice up piles of fabric waste into usable bundles of twine. It’s a situational ability, but it’s very helpful for early-stage cleanup in some towns, not to mention harvesting resources. As an added bonus, after eating some bread, Cut is upgraded to release a short shockwave forward, which is strong enough to cut through metal grating.
6 Surf
Cue the Relaxing Music
Surf was the very first movement HM learned in the Generation 1 Pokémon games, allowing Water-type Pokémon to ferry you gracefully across ponds, lakes, and oceans, accompanied by its classic jaunty theme music. As Professor Tangrowth puts it himself, when you think of Pokémon using Surf, the first that springs to mind is Lapras, so it’s fitting that Lapras is Ditto’s teacher in the surfing ways.
Pokémon Pokopia: Dream Islands, Explained
These islands are dreamy.
After going for a swim with Lapras, Ditto can Transform fully into a Lapras itself, gaining the ability to safely travel across deep bodies of water without sinking. This transformation is invaluable in Bleak Beach, which has large bodies of water both bordering it and running through it, not to mention bridging the gap between town and the S.S. Anne, all of which allow you to get around much faster than normal. It’s not quite as useful in other areas, though it can pick up some extra utility if you learn Waterfall from Gyrados in Sparkling Skylands.
5 Water Gun
Don’t Think About Where the Water Comes From
Anyone who’s ever picked a Water-type starter in any Pokémon game (Squirtle Squad represent) is likely familiar with the baseline technique, Water Gun. It’s a workhorse offensive technique that nearly all Water types use before moving on to fancier tricks like Bubblebeam or Hydro Pump. Fittingly for such a classic move, it’s the first Transformation Ditto learns in Pokopia.
In order to aid the dried-out Squirtle, Ditto transforms Squirtle’s shell and tail onto its back, inexplicably granting it the ability to spit clean water in a cross pattern in front of itself. Water Gun is used extensively whenever you first enter a new area, as you need to rehydrate all the dried-out soil to make the place more livable and pleasant for your incoming neighbors. Water Gun is also necessary for keeping plants and crops healthy if they’re not next to a source of water themselves, as well as working in conjunction with a Pokémon with the Water specialty to clean up gross mud. If the cross-shaped pattern feels insufficient, just chug a bowl of soup for a wider water blast.
4 Rock Smash
Jotaro Kujo Would be Proud
It’s more or less a rule of any village-raising, crafting game that you’re going to need to smash up a lot of rocks and dirt at some point, ever since the first Minecraft player broke a dirt block. Unlike Steve, though, Ditto doesn’t need a pickaxe to break up rocks. All it needs are its two bare hands. Or, well, its two hands transformed into boxing gloves after tutelage from Hitmonchan.
Hitmonchan’s Rock Smash is without a doubt the most vital workhorse transformation in the entire game, allowing Ditto to rapidly pummel its way through just about any solid matter with its flailing fists. As long as you’ve got PP to spare, you can just keep on rumbling in a straight line through rock, soil, wood, and building walls, collecting the dropped blocks as you go. It’s with Rock Smash that you’ll do the lion’s share of your underground exploration and ore harvesting, though you’ll need to power up with a hamburger steak before you can break metallic blocks.
3 Rollout
Two Moves in One
Ditto, bless its squishy little heart, is not very fast on its feet. I guess technically they’re not even its feet, they’re facsimiles of its Trainer’s feet, so maybe that’s why it can’t run very quickly. Bipedal locomotion isn’t the only form of movement out there, though; just ask Graveler and its tendency to tumble about like a rolling stone.
With some tutelage from Machoke’s Graveler buddy, Ditto learns the classic Rock-type move Rollout, transforming fully into a Graveler itself and rolling around on the ground at high speed. From the moment you learn Rollout, you’ll be walking and running far less, because rolling is exponentially faster, especially if you hold B to switch to high-speed mode. You can even jump while rolling, so nothing can stop you. That’s already pretty great, but just as an extra cherry on top, you can also hold the right trigger to activate Rock Smash while rolling, automatically destroying any rocks or objects you run into. If you’ve got a wall of ore and stone to harvest, Rollout will clear it out in mere seconds.
2 Glide
Not Quite Fly, but Close Enough
In just about every early-generation Pokémon game, Fly is the most useful HM, allowing you to freely return to any town or locale you’ve previously visited with the help of a Flying-type Pokémon. The king of the skies is none other than Dragonite and its powerful wings, though unfortunately, Ditto’s transformations aren’t quite proficient enough to replicate that majestic wingspan. Luckily, it can manage something close enough.
After watching Dragonite’s example, Ditto learns how to Glide, which is less like flying and more like falling with style. Whenever you’re in the air, you can quickly transform into a bulb-headed Dragonite and begin gliding through the air, gently sloping downward as you go. While it’s not true flight, Glide is still one of the most useful traversal transformations, especially because your altitude decays surprisingly slowly. As long as you jump off a high cliff or something first, you can easily glide all the way from one side of the Sparkling Skylands to the other and still have altitude to spare.
1 Magnet Rise
Design in Three Dimensions
While Ditto’s many transformations are of varying degrees of usefulness, it can be a little cumbersome switching between all of them if you’re trying to make your towns really elaborate and fancy. That concern won’t endure forever, though, as when you finish Pokopia’s main questlines, you’ll be rewarded with one final transformation that will make the redecorating process far simpler.
After conversing with the sleepy Magnemite underneath the Team Rocket, er, rocket, Ditto will learn the ways of Magnet Rise, your reward for officially entering the post-game. With Magnet Rise, Ditto can freely float in three dimensions, ascending and descending at will, as well as access the inventory to spit out blocks in varying quantities and configurations, and discharge electricity to break blocks and automatically pick them up. You can also speed up in the air, same as Glide, perfect for making quick hops around town and between the islands of Palette Town. Basically, Magnet Rise is your creative mode tool, allowing you to freely arrange and rearrange blocks without having to physically platform around. Why can Ditto use this and not Fly? Because it’s levitating, not flying. It’s different.
Pokémon Pokopia Beats Animal Crossing: New Horizons In One Important Way
I thought I had a good idea about what kind of cozy routine I was signing up for, but Pokopia had other plans that were much more interesting.
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Author: 360 Technology Group
