One of the earliest and most involved story quests in Pokémon Pokopia tasks you with making it rain in the Withered Wasteland, and the plan involves convincing a very sleepy Slowpoke to yawn hard enough to do the job. The catch is that Slowpoke needs the surrounding environment to be humid enough before it can manage a full 100-point yawn. There are several ways to raise the humidity, and this guide walks you through all of them in order.
Yawn Up a Storm: Quest Overview
| Detail | Information |
| Quest Name | Yawn Up a Storm |
| Location | Withered Wasteland |
| Goal | Raise humidity to trigger Slowpoke’s 100-point yawn |
| Why It Matters | Required to free Onix and rebuild the Pokémon Center |
| Key Pokémon Involved | Slowpoke, Squirtle, Bulbasaur, Tangrowth, Onix, Kyogre |
Why Do You Need to Raise the Humidity?
After rescuing Slowpoke and guiding it back to the Pokémon Center ruins, Professor Tangrowth reveals that a Slowpoke’s yawn can make it rain, which is the key to softening the hard rocks trapping Onix in the cave nearby. However, Slowpoke can only manage a full 100-point yawn when the surrounding environment is humid enough. Until you hit that threshold, the rain will not come and Onix stays stuck.
You can check your progress at any time by talking to Slowpoke and asking it to give you a yawn. It will tell you the current score, and the closer you are to 100, the better. There is no single method that gets you there alone, so you will need to work through several humidity-raising steps in combination.
How to Check Your Humidity Progress
Talk to Slowpoke at the Pokémon Center ruins and select the option to ask it to yawn. Slowpoke will attempt a yawn and give you a number out of 100. Keep returning to Slowpoke between humidity tasks to track how close you are to triggering the rain.
All Ways to Raise Humidity in Withered Wasteland
1. Water Dry Ground, Plants and Trees
The most immediate thing you can do is use your Water Gun move on dry brown grass tiles, cracked dirt, trees, and plants throughout the Withered Wasteland. Every tile you hydrate contributes to the overall humidity level. You do not need to water every single tile in the area, however you should water enough to see Professor Tangrowth or Slowpoke get a speech bubble indicating progress before moving on to other methods.
2. Unblock the Springs Around the Wasteland
Scattered across the Withered Wasteland are cracked rock tiles that have water visibly dripping from them. These are blocked springs, and you can open them up by using your Rock Smash move on the dripping blocks. There are three springs to restore in total:
| Spring Location | Effect |
| North of Pokémon Center | Feeds into a river leading to the Horsea Fountain |
| East (near Drilbur’s area) | Adds water to the small farmland garden bed |
| Starting Area (near first Squirtle location) | Restores water flow to the original waterway |
Once you break the relevant blocks, make sure you also smash any additional earth or debris that is blocking the water’s path so that it can flow freely all the way to its destination.
3. Plant a Field of Flowers with Bulbasaur
Talk to Bulbasaur and it will tell you about a habitat called the Field of Flowers, which is one of the most effective humidity boosters available early on. The Field of Flowers requires 8 Wildflower Seeds planted in a row. You can buy Wildflower Seeds from the PC Shop. If you have Bulbasaur following you when you plant them, it will use its Grow ability to make the flowers bloom immediately rather than waiting for them to grow naturally.
4. Place a Horsea Fountain in a Water Pool
You can purchase a Horsea Fountain from the PC Shop for 50 Life Coins. Once you have one, place it inside one of the ponds or pools that your restored springs are now feeding water into. The splashing water from the fountain actively increases the humidity of the surrounding area. A second Horsea Fountain can also be placed in the pool near Drilbur’s area to the east for an additional boost.
5. Create a Hydrated Tall Grass Habitat for Squirtle
Talk to Squirtle and it will ask you to make a Hydrated Tall Grass habitat. This requires placing four tall grass tiles next to ocean or pool water tiles. You can create this habitat near the waterfall in the main area of the Withered Wasteland, where there are already several patches of tall grass that just need one more tile added using your Leafage move to complete the habitat. After you finish, talk to Squirtle again and offer to let it move into the new habitat. Squirtle will be much happier there, and the habitat itself contributes directly to the humidity level.
6. Water Trees Throughout the Area
After completing the Field of Flowers step, Bulbasaur will have a follow-up request asking you to water the trees around the Withered Wasteland. Use Water Gun on as many trees as possible. In addition to boosting the humidity, watered trees also grow Leppa Berries that you can harvest by using Headbutt on them, which you will need for the next step.
7. Set Up the Rain Dance Site with Squirtle
Once the humidity is close but not quite at 100, Squirtle will give you one final request: setting up a Rain Dance Site. This is the last push needed to get Slowpoke’s yawn over the line. To build the Rain Dance Site, you will need the following items:
| Item | How to Get It |
| 2 Castform Weather Charms | Both available for free in Professor Tangrowth’s cave where you first met him. Alternatively, one can be purchased from the PC Shop for 100 Life Coins if you have already used or missed the free ones |
| 1 Wooden Plate | Craft at a Workbench using 1 Lumber. To get Lumber, chop down trees using any Pokémon with the Chop or Wood Hammer specialty, such as Scyther |
| 1 Leppa Berry | Harvest from any berry tree in the Withered Wasteland using Headbutt |
To set up the Rain Dance Site, the Castform Weather Charms must be placed on a wall. The wooden plate goes on the ground touching the charms, and then you place the Leppa Berry on the plate using the Place option from your inventory. Once the site is built, bring Squirtle over to it. Squirtle will eat the berry, dance, and sing, completing the habitat and pushing the humidity to its final threshold.
Tips for Completing Yawn Up a Storm Efficiently
Before diving into each humidity method one at a time, it is worth knowing that all of the methods above are combinable and can be completed in any order that suits your current progress. You do not need to fully finish one task before starting another, so feel free to tackle whichever steps are convenient as you explore the Withered Wasteland.
In practice, most players find that completing the spring restoration, the Field of Flowers, the Horsea Fountain placement, and the tree watering steps gets the humidity to somewhere between 70 and 90 points before Squirtle triggers the Rain Dance Site request. If your score is sitting in that range and no new speech bubbles are appearing, make sure you have gone back and talked to each Pokémon after completing their individual requests, as the game requires you to officially turn in each task by speaking to them again before the next step unlocks.
Also worth noting: if you need Lumber at any point for Bridge Planks, the Wooden Plate, or any other crafting recipe, you can obtain it by chopping down trees using any Pokémon with the Chop or Wood Hammer specialty. Scyther is the most accessible early option for this, and it is worth keeping a supply of Lumber in your inventory as you work through this quest.
What Happens After the 100-Point Yawn
After setting up the Rain Dance Site and returning to Slowpoke, ask it to give you a final yawn. This time, Slowpoke delivers a full 100-point yawn and rain begins to fall across the Withered Wasteland. However, it stops almost immediately as the sudden success makes Slowpoke feel too happy to stay tired.
Just as the group starts to come up with a new plan, a loud cry erupts from the ocean. Everyone rushes to the shore to find Kyogre waiting by the broken dock. Cross the bridge by crafting Bridge Planks at a Workbench (each plank costs 1 Lumber and you receive 5 planks per craft) and placing them across the gaps. You need at least 4 planks to cross, though you can use up to 19 to fill all the gaps completely.
Talk to Kyogre and explain what has been happening. Impressed by your efforts, Kyogre agrees to become your friend, raising your Trainer Rank to Great in the process. It then calls down the rain and returns to the ocean floor to sleep.
With the rain now falling, head back to Onix in the cave. The hard rocks blocking its path have softened, so you can now break through them with Rock Smash to free Onix at last. Tell Professor Tangrowth the good news to complete the Yawn Up a Storm quest.
What Comes Next
With Onix finally free, you can now move forward with rebuilding the Pokémon Center in the Withered Wasteland. From there, the story opens up and you can choose to head east toward Bleak Beach or west toward Rocky Ridges as your next destination.
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