How to play PokéBonk from your first visit

1. Enter as a guest and choose your partner

Open Play PokéBonk and use the guest entry. A fresh profile reaches the partner selection screen with twelve choices: Bulbasaur, Charmander, Squirtle, Caterpie, Pidgey, Pikachu, Sandshrew, Clefairy, Meowth, Psyduck, Abra and Machop. Select a partner, read its information and confirm. You then return to the main menu with that partner selected.

All twelve starting partners are already available in your League. Your first selection does not lock you into that character or require you to capture the other starting choices. For a closer look at three familiar options, the Starters guide compares the opening moves and native passives of Bulbasaur, Charmander and Squirtle. The other League entries retain their own unlock conditions.

On this site, progression belongs to the local browser profile. Keep using the same browser and site address when you return. A guest profile is enough to begin; you do not need to complete an online account flow to reach the game.

2. Use Play, then select a League member

From the main menu, Play starts the Classic route. Survival is a separate menu choice. Both lead to character selection, where League means your collection of playable partners. It is not an additional battle mode or a team you must create before entering the forest.

Select an available League member and inspect its moves and passive. You can continue with your first partner or change to any of the other eleven starting choices. Locked characters show requirements, so treat their tiles as information rather than promises that you can select them yet. Confirm the partner to move on to region selection.

You can return to the menu before starting. This is a good point to look at Settings or the Controls guide if you want to learn the inputs first. You can also inspect the Lab, but you do not need to buy an upgrade to begin your first attempt.

3. Choose the region, mode and difficulty

The next panel combines region selection with the run settings. Four maps are available at Normal difficulty from the start: forest, desert, graveyard and volcano. Choose one, check whether the mode is Classic or Survival, and read the difficulty selection before starting. Viridian Forest is a useful first stop if you want to learn the flow before comparing the other settings.

Classic takes you through guardian zones and then a final sanctuary encounter. Survival is a different run format; selecting a League member did not choose the format for you. Check this screen even when you entered from the main menu button you intended to use.

Glacier and coast are the two later maps. Each opens when you survive ten minutes in the preceding map or clear that map on Normal. Opening a map does not count as a victory or open every harder difficulty. Review any selected starting consumables, if you have them, and then press the start button. You do not need consumables for a first run.

4. Move, collect experience and read your first upgrade

Once the area loads, begin moving and give nearby enemies space. Your equipped moves attack automatically. Your job is to steer, avoid being surrounded, collect useful pickups and use the active controls when the situation calls for them. The Controls guide covers the desktop inputs and their touch equivalents.

Collect experience to gain levels. A level-up presents a choice of upgrades, so read the cards before picking. Offers can add a move, improve a move, add a vitamin or improve an existing vitamin. The first useful question is simple: what is making the current fight difficult? More damage can open a route through enemies; health or protection can help when your mistakes are costing too much.

Do not assume every level will offer the exact build you planned. Refresh, Skip and Banish are limited tools with different effects. If you are unsure, the Upgrades guide explains how they work and why the available slots matter. A coherent set of useful choices is a better first-run goal than waiting for a perfect combination.

5. Follow the area route and finish the attempt

Explore while watching for interaction prompts. Move close enough to the object you want to use, then use the interaction control. Ordinary movement through the area and interaction are separate actions; standing near an object does not mean you have activated it.

In Classic, you advance through zones guarded by guardians, then reach the final sanctuary encounter. Defeating the area encounter opens the portal onward. Follow the available route and use the final exit when you complete the run. A successful fight and leaving through the exit are separate steps, so look for the portal instead of stopping as soon as a major enemy falls.

A first attempt may end before the final area. Read the result screen, return to the menu and inspect what changed in your profile. You can use earned Stardust for permanent Lab upgrades and try again. Getting familiar with experience collection, a guardian encounter or one useful upgrade combination is meaningful progress even without a clear.

6. Keep your progress for the next visit

Local progression includes your League, Lab purchases and recorded results. Use the local-save tools to export a backup before clearing browser data or moving to another device. Import that file on the destination browser when you want to carry your profile across. A bookmark alone does not transfer the save.

For a break during an attempt, open the pause menu. Reloading the page is not an exact battlefield-resume feature: the game ends that attempt using its latest successfully saved progress and returns to the menu. If you want to inspect your build without leaving the fight, pause instead.

Do I need to choose a whole team?

No. You choose one playable League member for the run. The League screen is your character collection.

Can I change to another starting partner immediately?

Yes. All twelve starting partners are available in the League. The other characters still have requirements shown on their locked tiles, followed by capture when eligible.

What should I do after my first defeat?

Review the result, consider a useful Lab purchase and start another attempt with one clear goal, such as collecting experience more safely.