Overview
Pokemon Traces are rainbow-aura sparkles that appear on the ground throughout all five regions of Pokemon Pokopia. Inspecting a trace reveals a hint about a Pokemon's preferred habitat and automatically adds that habitat recipe to your Habitat Dex. Traces are the primary way the game teaches you new habitats, although not every recipe has a trace in the world.
Traces are easy to spot: they give off a slowly cycling rainbow glow that shifts between pink, purple, blue, green, yellow, and orange. They are visible from a distance and can appear on grass, dirt, stone, rooftops, sand, and even underwater shallows.
How to Find Traces
Walk through a region with a freshly raised Environment Level. New traces appear as the ecosystem improves.
Stay alert for the rainbow shimmer on the ground. It rotates slowly, so it is unmistakable once you see one.
Press A to inspect the trace. Ditto examines the ground and the game displays a short note describing the Pokemon and its required habitat components.
The corresponding habitat recipe is added to the Habitat Dex automatically, even if you have not yet collected all the required items.
Traces disappear after being inspected. They do not respawn in the same spot, so each one is a unique one-time discovery. The total number of traces in the world roughly corresponds to the number of habitats in the game, although some habitats are discovered through other methods (conversations, PC Shop recipe purchases, trial and error).
Where Traces Spawn
Region | Typical Trace Locations |
|---|---|
On dry earth patches, near withered trees, and on the outskirts of Professor Tangrowth's starting area | |
On the sand, near driftwood, along the coastline, and near the abandoned Pokemon Center | |
On lava-adjacent rocks, inside caves, and along the climbing paths up the volcanic mountain | |
On floating islands, rooftops, and near the central Pokemon Center cluster | |
Scattered through the rebuilt central area once the town unlocks |
Cloud Islands, the multiplayer creative areas, do not have Pokemon Traces because they use a separate Pokemon-spawn system and do not contribute to the main Habitat Dex.
Alternative Habitat Discovery Methods
Pokemon Traces are the main discovery method, but three other paths exist:
Method | Details |
|---|---|
Pokemon Conversations | Some befriended Pokemon mention their preferred habitats when you talk to them. The recipe is added to the Habitat Dex automatically. |
PC Shop Recipe Purchases | Certain habitats can be bought as recipes from the PC Shop once you reach specific Environment Levels. |
Trial and Error | A small number of habitats are not hinted anywhere. Placing items in unusual combinations near specific terrain features can trigger a sparkle and unlock the habitat entry. |
Habitat Confirmation Sparkle
Once you have all the required items placed for a known habitat recipe, a confirmation sparkle appears at the site. This is a separate visual from a Pokemon Trace: the confirmation sparkle is brighter and white-gold, and it only appears when the habitat is correctly built. Pokemon begin to arrive shortly after.
If no sparkle appears, check the recipe in the Habitat Dex for any missing item types or quantities. Some habitats require specific water types or terrain features in addition to the listed items.
Tips
Always raise a region's Environment Level as early as possible. New traces appear as the area improves.
Traces are easy to miss on crowded screens. Use the far camera setting to spot rainbow shimmers more reliably.
Pokemon with the Search specialty do not help find Pokemon Traces. Search works on buried items only.
If you have completed all visible traces in a region and still have empty Habitat Dex slots, revisit the region after story milestones. New traces unlock as the story progresses.
Sunday has a small bonus to sparkling ripple spawn rates. See Day and Night Cycle for details.