Pokopia Team Initiation Challenge: All 9 Steps and Badges

There is a machine bolted to a sand-buried tower on the Withered Wasteland beach, and it wants nine separate deliveries from you, spread across four regions and the better part of the story. It pays in fake Gym Badges. It is also the request standing between you and the credits.

Our areas and map guide mentions the building and deliberately stops there. This post is the itemised version: what each step asks for, where every one of those items comes from, and the combined bill, so you can stockpile once instead of walking back to the beach nine times. It does not spoil what the tower turns out to be or what happens when you finish.

What the challenge is, and why it is the credits gate

The request is called "Do the... Team Initiation Challenge?" and Professor Tangrowth gives it to you early, in the Withered Wasteland. VGC places the start right after you find Onix during the Yawn Up a Storm arc, when Tangrowth leads you down to the beach. Bulbapedia describes the structure as a rusted, sand-covered lighthouse on a platform in the south of the wasteland, reached by smashing through a wall of cracked sandstone, with a machine on the front that plays voice recordings from a Team R grunt. Talk to the box on the front and the first task appears.

You cannot finish it early, though, and the item list is why. Step 4 wants Concrete and step 5 wants Tinkagears, and both are Sparkling Skylands unlocks. Step 7 wants three items that the walkthroughs agree are handed to you for reaching Environment Level 5 in Bleak Beach, Rocky Ridges and the Sparkling Skylands. Game8 and Nintendo Life both treat the challenge as the final important request before the credits, and Nintendo Life's ending checklist puts it last, after the four area stories and Level 5 in each area. Treat it as a checklist you tick off across the whole game, not a quest you sit down and clear.

All nine steps at a glance

Serebii, Game8 and the objective list on Bulbapedia's Pokopia request page all break the challenge into nine steps. The objective names below are the in-game ones as Bulbapedia records them.

Steps 1 to 3 are doable in your first few regions. Step 4 onward assumes you have reached the Skylands. That is the whole pacing of the request in one column.

Eight replica badges, in Kanto order

Bulbapedia's badge article files the eight as replicas of the Kanto Gym Badges, each with a slightly mangled name, and classes them as Key Items. They also arrive in the standard Kanto sequence: Brock's Boulder Badge first, Giovanni's Earth Badge last.

There is a detail in the item descriptions worth pulling out. Serebii's key item table gives each Pokopia badge the same line of flavour text with one word changed: the colour it sparkles. Line those colours up against the Japanese names of the original badges, which Bulbapedia lists, and they match one for one, with Crimson rendered as red.

Two more touches. The last badge is the one Giovanni hands out in the originals, and Bulbapedia's own Giovanni entry opens by calling him the head of Team Rocket, which is a neat fit for a challenge run by a Team R machine. And it is the one badge of the eight that keeps its real name: Bulbapedia and Nintendo Life both write it with Earth in quotation marks, while the other seven get the "-ish", "-like" and "-y" treatment.

Steps 1-3: the early deliveries

These three can be cleared with nothing more than the Withered Wasteland, Bleak Beach and Rocky Ridges open. Nintendo Life notes step 3 only needs Bleak Beach access.

Step 1, Leppa Berries. VGC and Game8 both say to headbutt the Withered Wasteland's trees, and Game8 adds that a dry tree needs watering first. If you would rather farm them in bulk, Serebii's Dream Island table lists Leppa Berries as a focus of the Eevee Doll island.

Step 2, vegetables. The three crops each come from a different region, and Nintendo Life, VGC and Game8 agree on the map: Beans in the Withered Wasteland, Tomatoes in Bleak Beach, Wheat in Rocky Ridges. Game8 points out that replanting them needs Rototiller for the soil and a Grow Pokemon to speed things up. Plant more than ten of each while you are at it: Rocky Ridges' Time to Party request, per Serebii, ends by asking for 15 Wheat and 15 Beans for the feast, so the same fields feed both requests.

Step 3, Lumber, Fluff and Paper. Each of these runs through a specialty, covered in our specialties and building kits guide:

Fluff means waiting on a Litter Pokemon to shed it, and VGC's advice is to hang around Mareep's habitat until it drops. You do not have to: Serebii's item table lists Fluff in the PC Shop once Rocky Ridges reaches Environment Level 3. Buy extra, because step 6 wants another eight.

Step 4: bricks, gold and 50 concrete

This is where the challenge stops being a side errand. Nintendo Life says outright that you need the Sparkling Skylands for it.

Nintendo Life adds that the gold-flecked blocks in the volcano want a Hamburger Steak-powered Rock Smash; our cooking guide has the recipes. Serebii's item table lists the Smelting Furnace as a placed original in Rocky Ridges and the Concrete Mixer as one in the Sparkling Skylands, and both are also craftable.

The planning point is Concrete. Serebii's walkthrough of the Skylands story request, Rebuild the Huge Building, asks for 25 Concrete for the second floor, 25 for the third and 40 for the fourth: 90 in total. Add this step's 50 and you are looking at 140 Concrete between the two requests. The fourth floor also wants 10 Brick, 10 Paper and 20 Lumber, all things this challenge asks for too. If you are running the Skylands tower and this at the same time, keep one Crush Pokemon at the mixer and batch the lot.

Step 5: getting 50 units of power to the tower

Three items, and the electricity works differently from the other two: it is a live connection to the tower, not an item in your bag. Nintendo Life's instruction is to run the power to the red light on the left side of the machine, with Utility Poles or Wireless Power Transmitters.

The generator numbers come from Serebii's electricity table, which our electricity guide breaks down in full: a Windmill kit makes 10 units at standard height and 20 at high altitude, a Waterwheel kit makes 20, and a Furnace kit makes 30 but has to be kept fed. All three kits are sold in the PC Shop on Serebii's item table, and Nintendo Life says the same of the Waterwheel and Furnace.

That last row is the trap. Game8's walkthrough says to build at least two generators because one makes 30, and Serebii's own challenge note names the Furnace at 30 and the Windmill at 10. Put one of each at ground level and you land on 40. The second generator has to be worth 20 or more. Nintendo Life also says to fill the furnace up completely before you connect it, and Game8's electricity page says a Waterwheel needs running water under it, which our water guide covers.

The other two items:

• 10 Crystal Fragments. Nintendo Life, VGC and Game8 all point at the Rocky Ridges mines, where VGC describes rooms full of large blue crystals, and Nintendo Life says those crystals also need the Hamburger Steak version of Rock Smash. Serebii's Dream Island table lists Crystal Fragment as a focus of the Dragonite Doll island, the same island our resource guide sends you to for Wastepaper.
• 5 Tinkagears. Give Iron Ingots to Tinkmaster in the Sparkling Skylands and it makes them. Game8's Tinkagear page says one Iron Ingot yields three Tinkagears, so two ingots cover all five; none of the other sources we checked gives a rate. Game8 says Iron Ore comes from breaking Rusty Blocks or having a Recycle Pokemon process nonburnable garbage, and it smelts the same way gold does.

Steps 6 and 7: furniture, then three Level 5 checks

Step 6 is four each of three pieces of furniture. Recipes and recipe locations are from Serebii's crafting table, and Nintendo Life's recipe list matches all three.

Crafting all twelve from scratch costs 8 Iron Ingots, 8 Fluff, 8 Lumber, 4 Iron Ore, 4 Vine Rope, 4 Sea Glass Fragments and 8 Pokemetal, which is the same total VGC prints. You may not need to craft all of them: Nintendo Life and VGC both say you can find Office Desks in the Sparkling Skylands and Resort Lights in Bleak Beach, so pick up what is already placed before you craft.

Step 7 is the real gate. It wants one Washing Machine, one Refrigerator and one Game Boy System, and each is tied to an area hitting Environment Level 5:

Nintendo Life, VGC and Game8 all say reaching Level 5 hands you the item itself, and VGC says to collect it from Professor Tangrowth. Serebii lists each recipe in that area's PC Shop at Level 5, and its item table shows no pre-placed copies of any of the three. So this step is three Environment Level checks wearing a furniture costume. If one area is lagging, our habitat and comfort guide covers what actually moves the number.

Steps 8 and 9: a photo and two party poppers

Step 8 wants a photo, and it does not care which. Serebii says any photo will do and Game8 says any photo saved in your album, while Nintendo Life says you can take a fresh one on the spot, with Tangrowth if you like. You do not need to have been using the camera all game. VGC does strongly recommend picking a shot you actually like, such as you with a favourite Pokemon, rather than whatever is first in the album. Take that advice.

Step 9 wants two Party Poppers. The recipe is 1 Paper and 1 Vine Rope on Serebii's crafting table, Game8 and Nintendo Life alike, and Serebii lists that recipe in the Withered Wasteland PC Shop at Environment Level 5. VGC says you probably still have some in your inventory from earlier in the game, so check your bag before you craft.

Game8 lists a Memories Photo Frame as the reward for this last step; Serebii's table leaves that cell blank and neither Nintendo Life nor VGC names one. After that, per Game8 and Nintendo Life, the credits are close. We will leave the rest for you to see.

The full material bill

Here is everything across the nine steps in one place, assuming you craft all twelve step 6 pieces and receive the step 7 appliances as Level 5 rewards.

Every Office Desk and Resort Light you pick up instead of crafting takes 2 Pokemetal or an Iron Ore, Vine Rope and Sea Glass Fragments off that list. And if you are building the Skylands tower in parallel, remember the extra 90 Concrete, 10 Brick, 10 Paper and 20 Lumber it wants.

Where the sources disagree

We checked this request against Serebii, Game8, Nintendo Life, VGC and Bulbapedia. They mostly agree, but not everywhere, and a few of the disagreements will cost you a trip.

• Five or ten Leppa Berries. Serebii, Game8 and VGC say 5. Nintendo Life says 10. Bring ten and it does not matter.
• Eight steps or nine. Nintendo Life and VGC describe eight stages, folding the photo and the Party Poppers into one, and Bulbapedia's badge article also counts eight. Serebii, Game8 and Bulbapedia's own request table list nine, with "Take a photo!" and "Gather party poppers!" as separate objectives. It is eight badges either way.
• How much furniture. Game8's step 6 prose says you only need one of each, but its own objective table, Serebii, Nintendo Life and VGC all say four of each. Bring four.
• Two generators. Game8's advice to build two generators after a 30-unit one only works if the second is a Waterwheel, a high-altitude Windmill or another Furnace. See the table in step 5.
• The last reward. Only Game8 names the Memories Photo Frame. Treat it as one source's report until you see it yourself.
• Party Popper source. Serebii's crafting table puts the recipe in the Withered Wasteland PC Shop at Level 5, while Serebii's item table lists reaching a joint Environment Level of 20 as a source, and VGC says the recipe comes from the Withered Wasteland Pokemon Center. Serebii, Game8 and Nintendo Life all print the same 1 Paper and 1 Vine Rope cost.
• Crystal Fragments. The walkthroughs send you to the Rocky Ridges mines. Serebii's Dream Island table adds the Dragonite Doll island, while Serebii's own item entry lists the Eevee and Clefairy Doll islands instead. The mines are the route all three walkthroughs agree on.

Quick Action Checklist

• Start it when Tangrowth offers it during Yawn Up a Storm, but plan to finish it near the end of the story.
• Plant spare Beans and Wheat: step 2 wants 10 of each, and Rocky Ridges' Time to Party wants 15 of each.
• Buy Fluff from the PC Shop once Rocky Ridges hits Environment Level 3. You need 13 across steps 3 and 6.
• Batch Concrete: 50 here plus 90 for the Skylands tower, from Limestone in a mixer with a Crush Pokemon.
• Wire 50 units to the red light on the tower: Furnace plus Waterwheel, Furnace plus high-altitude Windmill, or five standard Windmills. A Furnace plus a standard Windmill is only 40.
• Eat a Hamburger Steak before mining gold and crystals in Rocky Ridges.
• Loot Office Desks and Resort Lights before you craft them. Four of each, plus four Industrial Beds.
• Push Bleak Beach, Rocky Ridges and the Skylands to Environment Level 5 for the Washing Machine, Refrigerator and Game Boy.
• Pick a photo you like for step 8, and check your bag for Party Poppers before crafting two.