Pokémon Pokopia is an environmentalist game at its heart, so raising the Environment Level of each town is crucial to unlocking absolutely everything the game has to offer.
You'll likely be doing this as part of the main story anyway, but there are additional bonuses and goodies to find if you put the time and effort into raising each town's level. And what is a town if it doesn't look nice?
In this guide, we've got everything you need to know about Environment Levels in Pokémon Pokopia, including tips on how to raise the level, why you should work on them, and whether they can go down.
Subscribe to Nintendo Life on YouTube843k
What are Environment Levels?
Environment Levels basically tell you how much you've improved the ecosystem of any of the towns in-game. Every town has its own Environment Level, and it's your job to raise them and improve each location as best as you can.
There are five towns in total, four story-focused ones — Withered Wasteland, Bleak Beach, Rocky Ridges, and Sparkling Skylands — and one free-play "sandbox" style town, Palette Town.
To reach the end credits of the game, you will need to raise the Environment Level of the four main towns to Level 5. This is because the items you need for certain Team Initiation Challenges are locked behind those levels.
How do you find out what your Environment Level is?
Easy! Just head to a Pokémon Center PC and you'll see the Environment Level listed at the top of the screen.
You can press the - button and you'll also see all of your Pokémon's Comfort Levels.
How to raise the Environment Level
You'll naturally raise the Environment Level as you progress through each town's story, but you'll probably only hit Level 3 or Level 4 by doing that.
So, if you want to max out each town, you'll need to put in the work, and here are a few things you can do to make it easier.
Complete Challenges
Are you keeping an eye on your Challenges via the Pokémon Center PC? You should be! Because these give great suggestions on keeping the towns clean and the residents happy.
Not only do they give you Life Coins, but they also are just worth doing for the materials you'll pick up by completing them. This can include gathering logs, stone, twine, and all sorts of other items you'll need to craft.
Build more habitats
So this is usually part of the Challenges list, but it's worth repeating time and time again — build habitats. These will not only help towards placing furniture down, but they'll also draw more Pokémon to the town.
The latter is another easy way to raise your Environment Level — the more Pokémon you have, the happier and healthier the place looks!
Create buildings
Tangential with habitats are buildings — either by restoring the broken buildings in each town yourself, or using the various templates and blueprints you unlock throughout the game, you can create larger homes for your resident Pokémon. Or yourself!
And, honestly, the town looks a lot busier with lots of buildings. Oh, and this includes the Pokémon Centers, too.
Increase Pokémon Comfort Levels
The last one is really part of the above two points, but you don't have to build buildings and move Pokémon into nice habitats to make them happy all the time.
Really, you just need to give them what they like, and what they ask for, as well as talk to them whenever they approach you. For some tips on raising Pokémon Comfort Levels, check out our Comfort Level guide for everything you can do to make your Pokémon friends happy.
What does raising the Environment Level do?
Raising the Environment Level is more than just a "goal", you'll actually unlock some new stuff with every new level up.
For example, you can't even buy the Pokémon Center Rebuild Kit until you reach Level 2 or 3 in most towns, so you'll want to raise the level for that alone. But you'll also get different recipes, materials, and furniture to buy depending on how high your Environment Level is.
Better buildings, specific structures like cafes and gardens, and new decor items. If you want your towns to look the best they can, then you'll want to raise your level.
Can your Environment Level go down?
Yes, they can! Sometimes it's inevitable. If you have Pokémon outside who don't like the water, and it starts raining, that can sometimes decrease your Environment Level.
Other examples are when moving Pokémon to a new habitat — perhaps their old one was more to their liking, and there isn't anything they like in their new house? That can affect their mood, and their Comfort and, in turn, the Environment Level will decrease.
What's the max Environment Level?
The maximum Environment Level is Level 10 — and you'll know you've hit it because you'll see a little "Max" next to your grade.
At Level 10, you'll have unlocked everything from the Pokémon Center PC shop, and you'll even be able to buy kits to change the look of the other Pokémon Centers to match your favourite design.
Making everything pretty has benefits beyond just looking nicer! If you want more tips, help with the story, or general building and material guides, you'll find all that and more over in our Pokémon Pokopia walkthrough hub.