Getting started
The loop the whole game runs on, and the order to learn it in.
The core loop
Gather materials → craft or build → restore a habitat → a Pokémon moves in → befriend it → learn its move or borrow its specialty → use that to restore a harder habitat. Everything in Pokopia is a variation on that loop.
There is no combat anywhere in the game. Moves cost PP, PP regenerates over time, and you can restore it for free once per day at any Pokémon Center you have rebuilt.
The first four moves that matter
Water Gun (Squirtle), Leafage (Bulbasaur), Cut (Scyther) and Rock Smash (Hitmonchan) cover irrigation, planting, clearing and quarrying. Get all four before you worry about anything else — nothing can be restored until dry ground has been watered.
After that, Rollout (Graveler, Rocky Ridges) is the single biggest quality-of-life jump: it clears terrain many times faster than Rock Smash and shares its PP meter.
What to do every day
Collect the daily PC stamp, check the shop's daily specials, sweep the sparkling ripples in water for random recipes, use each Grow Pokémon once on your crops, and hand any Lost Relics to Professor Tangrowth. Ripples and glowing blocks reset daily and are the cheapest source of new recipes and CDs.