Technologies

This New Free Mobile Pokemon Puzzle Game Lets You Weave Digital Plushes

Here’s how to get started in Pokemon Friends.

The Pokemon Company unveiled a host of Pokemon content at its Pokemon Presents event on Tuesday. We saw a new trailer for Pokemon Legends: Z-A, a release date for the second season of the Netflix series Pokemon Concierge and a free, new mobile game you can play now, called Pokemon Friends.

The latest Pokemon mobile game is a puzzle game where you untangle threads of yarn in order to weave Pokemon plushes for your in-game collection. You can play it now on iOS and Android devices for free, or you can buy it for $10 on the Nintendo eShop.

Here’s what you should know to get started with Pokemon Friends.

Puzzles, yarn and Pokemon

To earn yarn, you have to solve puzzles in the game. To get to these puzzles, tap the Psyduck tile with the word Untangle near the bottom of the screen in the main room of the game — poor Psyduck is always tied up in knots. Some of the puzzles include connecting a string of lightbulbs using only one line and rotating a box in order to free Pokemon, like Slowpoke, from the box.

After solving the series of puzzles, you are rewarded with a certain number of inches of yarn. Your reward depends on how quickly you solve the puzzles, so if you want the most yarn to make more Pokemon plushes, you have to be faster than an Electrode.

Once you have your yarn, you’ll stamp your calendar, which shows all the days you’ve solved puzzles for. You can use your calendar to keep track of what days you’ve solved puzzles, and you can use it to go back to older puzzles and try to beat your high score.

When you have your yarn, tap the Plush-O-Matic — the machine that looks like a giant Pokeball — and you’ll be able to make plushes with your yarn. Then tap Make and you can choose which yarn to create a Pokemon plush with. Certain yarns are used to make a handful of Pokemon, but it only took one bundle of yarn to make my first few Pokemon.

However, I can’t see a way to make one particular Pokemon. For example, when you select Fiery Yarn, you can tap Plush Rates in the bottom right corner of your screen to see what Pokemon that yarn can create. I found that my Fiery Yarn could create a Charmander, Charizard, Scorbunny or Fuecoco plush, but I had a 25% chance to make any of those Pokemon — I got a Scorbunny!

After tapping the Plush-O-Matic, you can also tap Catalog to see details of which plushes you’ve created, like their size, how many of them you own and what yarn it takes to create them.

Decorate with your new Pokemon friend

After you’ve woven your Pokemon plush, it’s time to decorate. From the main room of the game, tap the tile in the bottom left corner of your screen that has a Scorbunny on it — it was like that before I got my own Scorbunny. This will take you to your own room, which you can decorate with your plushes.

Once in the room, tap the tile with the Pawmi and Buneary in the left corner of your screen to pull up all the plushes. Tap the plush you want to decorate with and then you can drag and place it anywhere in the room.

You can also tap the green chair under the Pawmi and Buneary tile to add or change furniture in the room. Beneath that tile is an hourglass icon. Tap and hold the hourglass to rewind your room, kind of like an Undo button.

And in the bottom left corner of your screen is a toy chest with Sprigatito, Fuecoco and Quaxly Pokemon. This is the Tidy Up button. Tap this and then tap Pokemon plushes or furniture around the room to remove them from the room. And if you accidentally remove something, no worries, tap and hold the hourglass to undo the change.

After decorating, tap the green door in the top right corner of your screen to go back to the main room.

The mobile version is free but…

The mobile version of Pokemon Friends is free up to a point. I could only solve the second series of puzzles the first time I played the game, but that might be different for you.

After you solve your daily puzzles, Pokemon Friends says you can buy DLC to keep playing. To do so, tap Shop in the top left corner of your screen and you can buy different bundles.

The Basic Pack ($10) lets you play puzzles as often as you like. Other packs include new puzzles, wallpapers for your plush room and more, and those packs start at $15.

It’s unclear if you can solve a limited number of puzzles every day without issue, or if you’ll have to buy the Basic Pack at some point to continue playing.

The Pokemon Company did not immediately respond to my request for comment.

For more on the July Pokemon Presents, here’s all the free stuff you can get from the event.

Technologies

Tubi App Goes Live in ChatGPT to Give You TV and Movie Recommendations

Like the ultra-customized feel of a Tubi rec? The streamer aims to make it even more personalized.

Tubi, the free streaming platform known for its vast library of cult classics and indie movies, has added an app to ChatGPT. You can now use the chatbot to find content recommendations for TV shows and movies on Tubi, the streamer announced on Tuesday.

You may already have your own search strategy when using Tubi, but the addition of the native app within ChatGPT allows you to strike up a conversation and ask for uber-specific, personalized title suggestions. If you see a film or show that captures your interest, you have the option to click «Watch on Tubi» to stream it on a mobile device or the web. In the mood for scary movies about yetis? Use @Tubi for your prompt in the chatbot and request something like, «horror movies with aggressive yetis» and expect to see a selection of titles that fit your wish list.

«Streaming should feel effortless, and as chatbots and AI agents are becoming a common way people navigate the internet, Tubi is expanding its discovery experience to meet viewers in the moment they’re expressing intent in their own words,» Mike Bidgoli, Tubi’s chief of product and technology, said in a statement.

ChatGPT opened its app store this past December. It currently includes apps for Apple Music, Zillow, Spotify and Canva, offering the ability to connect your accounts to search, design or ask for recommendations. Back in 2023, Tubi created its own AI-powered tool called Rabbit AI for mobile users to help audiences find content to watch. The company later shuttered the feature, which used Open AI’s Chat GPT-4. With today’s launch, it’s the first video streaming service to add an app within ChatGPT.

(Disclosure: Ziff Davis, CNET’s parent company, in April filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.)

Technologies

PlayStation Plus Subscribers Can Play Tomb Raider and More All April Long

Subscribers can also explore a Soulslike game that just got a big update.

PlayStation Plus, which is Sony’s version of Xbox Game Pass, offers a large, constantly expanding library of games. Subscribers can choose from the Essential, Extra and Premium tiers, each with unique perks and benefits. Starting at $10 a month, the plans give subscribers access to games and rewards, and each month, all subscribers can play a handful of new games at no additional charge. And some people on Reddit are pretty excited for a few of the games Sony is offering subscribers throughout April.

One user wrote how they are «buzzing» for the remastered Tom Raider games, while another user is willing to replay the Soulslike game Lords of the Fallen. «April fools’ joke? Because they’re actually good,» a third user wrote.

If you’re a PlayStation Plus subscriber, you can play these games now until May 4.

Lords of the Fallen

If you played Elden Ring and thought, «I wish this game had even more grimdark elements to it, like Bloodborne,» Lords of the Fallen might be for you. Choose one of nine classes to play as while you traverse the lands of the living and the dead in order to overthrow the demon god Adyr. You’ll fight all manner of monstrosities along the way, like a colossal humanoid with an arm protruding from its mouth or a giant carrion crow that wears a human skull.

HexWorks, the gaming studio behind Lords of the Fallen, also released a patch for the game on April 3. The patch is intended to make co-op sessions feel more rewarding for hosts and guests, so you and your friends should have even more fun in this game.

Tomb Raider 1-3 Remastered

Experience these classic Tomb Raider games from the 90s all over again — or for the first time — with the remastered trilogy. You’ll explore jungles, solve puzzles in the desert and tackle mercenaries and monsters along the way. While you can enjoy the boosted graphics of the remastered edition, you can also enable low-poly mode to experience these games as you would have almost 30 years ago.

Sword Art Online Fractured Daydream

A system called Galaxia has been added to Alfheim Online, allowing players to relive the past. But the system has spun out of control, displacing players throughout time. To set things right, you’ll have to work with friends and foes alike in this co-op raid battle game. But if you want to go solo, you can play story mode as characters from across space and time confront the anomaly in the VR world.

For more on PlayStation Plus, here’s what to know about the service. You can also check out other games on PlayStation Plus and games on Xbox Game Pass.

Technologies

Get Organized for Just $28 With This 6-in-1 Baseus Charging Station Deal

Ditch the cluttered cables and upgrade to this sleek USB power strip while it’s on sale for a record-low price.

For just $28, this six-in-one Baseus charging station can help you keep your desk organized. That’s 20% off and the all-time lowest price we’ve seen for this 120-watt USB power strip. We don’t expect this limited-time deal to last for long, however, so you’ll want to get your order in sooner rather than later.

You can use this charging station for just about all of your devices, including phones, tablets, headphones and laptops. It’s equipped with four USB-C ports and two USB-A ports, so you can charge up to six devices at once. It also boasts a 65-watt single-port output, enough to fully recharge a MacBook Air in less than 2 hours. And at just 323 grams, it’s light enough to take on the go, making it a great buy for frequent travelers.

Why this deal matters

This sleek Baseus charging station can connect to up to six devices at once, and is still small enough that you can take it on the go. Plus, this is the all-time lowest price we’ve seen, making it a pretty great value.