If you have been digging up glowing golden spots across Pokémon Pokopia and stumbled across a small bag marked with three question marks, chances are you have found a Mysterious Slate. These cryptic collectibles cannot be appraised or donated to the Museum, which makes them easy to overlook. However, they are part of one of the game’s most rewarding hidden puzzles, and completing it unlocks a Mythical Pokémon.
What Are Mysterious Slates?
Mysterious Slates are unique collectible items hidden across Pokémon Pokopia. There are 27 in total, and each one corresponds to a form of the Pokémon Unown, covering every letter of the English alphabet plus a shared slot for Unown’s exclamation mark and question mark forms.
Each slate shows a different Unown symbol on its back, and together they form a mural hidden deep inside the Withered Wastelands. The completed wall visually forms a large Unown-shaped image of Mew, which subtly hints at the reward through the arrangement of symbols. Completing the mural unlocks a Mythical reward.
Spoiler warning: This guide reveals the reward for completing the Mysterious Slate puzzle. If you prefer to discover it yourself, stop reading after the location (Where to Find Mysterious Slates) section.
Where to Find Mysterious Slates
Mysterious Slates drop randomly from glowing golden spots found throughout Pokémon Pokopia. You break these spots using Rock Smash, and they can appear in the following areas:
- Withered Wastelands
- Bleak Beach
- Rocky Ridges
- Sparkling Skylands
- Palette Town (or whatever you named your starting town)
- Eevee Doll Dream Island (Wasteland type)
- Other Dream Islands beyond the Eevee Doll island (worth exploring if you are close to completing your collection)
Golden spots also drop CDs, Lost Relics, Fossils, and Dolls alongside Mysterious Slates, so any given dig is not guaranteed to produce a slate. However, you will never receive a duplicate slate until you have found all 27, which means every new slate you collect is always one you actually need.
Importantly, golden spots refresh daily, so returning to your favourite farming areas every day gives you a consistent supply of new digging opportunities without needing to search entirely new locations each session.
Note: Mysterious Slates cannot be 3D printed. There is no shortcut to duplicating them outside of completing the full set, after which golden spots will begin dropping duplicates naturally.
Tips for Finding Mysterious Slates Faster
Search at night whenever possible. The golden glow of buried spots is significantly easier to spot in darker conditions, which reduces the time you spend scanning each area.
Use the Dowsing Machine paired with a Search Specialty Pokémon. Once you ask a Search Pokémon to join you for a treasure hunt, it will sprint toward the nearest golden spot each time you activate the Dowsing Machine. It may point you to spots on levels above or below your current position, so listen carefully to what it says before moving. This combination is the most reliable method for consistent slate hunting.
Pokémon with the Search Specialty that can assist your hunt include Pidgey, Pidgeotto, Paras, Parasect, Venonat, Venomoth, Vespiquen, Drilbur, Excadrill, Zubat, and others you will encounter throughout the game. Sableye, available during the limited Sableye event, also carries the Search Specialty and works particularly well for this hunt given its event availability window.
Feed Mosslax to improve your drop quality. Sweet foods such as Pecha Berries specifically boost your chances of finding artifacts from golden spots. Some players also recommend bitter foods (such as seaweed-based items) for increasing rare item drop chances more broadly. Both approaches can help depending on what you are prioritising at a given time.
Stay consistent with daily farming. Since golden spots refresh every day, a short daily hunting session across the Withered Wastelands and Bleak Beach adds up quickly over time and is less exhausting than long single-session grinds.
Keep Your Slates Organised
Before going any further, store all your Mysterious Slates together in the same Storage Box. It is very easy to misplace one in a different box and forget where you put it. Tracking down a missing slate across every box you have used is a frustrating process, so keeping them together from the start saves a significant amount of time later.
Where to Find the Mysterious Mural
The mural that accepts all 27 Mysterious Slates is hidden in a secret chamber in the Withered Wastelands. Here is how to reach it:
- Step 1: Start at the Pokémon Center in the Withered Wastelands.
- Step 2: Follow the broken brick path to the right of the Pokémon Center, heading north toward the back wall near the Horsea Fountain.
- Step 3: You will reach a cracked rock wall. Use Rock Smash to break through it and enter the expanded area beyond.
- Step 4: Once through, turn immediately to your left. You will see another section of cracked rock on the wall of the tunnel.
- Step 5: Break that second cracked wall using Rock Smash to reveal a set of stairs leading downward.
- Step 6: Follow the stairs into a hidden stone chamber. Inside, you will find the Mysterious Mural, a wall displaying 27 Unown symbol slots waiting to be filled.
As an alternative, you can also access this chamber through an underground maze via a western door blocked by a metal grate. However, that route requires a powered-up Cut ability, which you unlock after progressing to the cooking system in Rocky Ridges. The route described above is faster for most players.
How to Solve the Mysterious Slate Puzzle
Once you are inside the mural chamber, here is how to place your Mysterious Slates correctly:
- Step 1: Take a Mysterious Slate from your inventory and place it on the ground.
- Step 2: Look at the back of the slate. Each one has an Unown symbol carved into it. You can view the back by having Ditto hold the block and rotating the camera, or by pressing ZL and then left or right on the D-pad to rotate it directly.
- Step 3: Match the Unown symbol on the back of the slate to the corresponding slot on the mural wall.
- Step 4: Place the slate into the correct slot. When you do this correctly, the slate will produce green sparkles and a shining sound, confirming the placement.
- Step 5: Repeat for all 27 Mysterious Slates.
If you want to speed up placement, hold the X button in your inventory to automatically sort all your Mysterious Slates into the correct order. This shortcut works even if you have already placed some slates on the mural, making it useful at any point during the process.
The entire Mysterious Slate process, from finding the slates to completing the mural, requires no combat at any stage. It is entirely exploration-based.
What Do You Get for Completing the Mysterious Slate Puzzle?
Once all 27 Mysterious Slates are placed correctly and the mural is complete, a pink portal opens in front of the wall. Interact with the portal to befriend Mew, the Mythical Psychic-type Pokémon, who will begin roaming your island freely.
The completed mural itself forms a large Unown-shaped image of Mew, which serves as a neat visual confirmation that the puzzle is finished.
Mew starts without a home, so make sure to assign it a house or habitat after it arrives. Legendary and Mythical Pokémon boost your Environment Level at a greater rate than regular Pokémon. For reference, placing Mew in a furnished home can push your Environment Level gauge from around 60 percent at Level 9 all the way to 100 percent, triggering a level up to Environment Level 10. That is a significant jump and makes Mew one of the most valuable residents you can add to your town.
After completing the puzzle, you will start finding duplicate Mysterious Slates from golden spots. These duplicates serve no puzzle function, however many players use them as decorative items around their island, with some building dedicated tribute displays as a showcase.
Key Takeaways
- There are 27 Mysterious Slates in total, each corresponding to a form of Unown.
- Slates drop from glowing golden spots broken with Rock Smash across all main biomes and Dream Islands. Golden spots refresh daily, so consistent farming pays off.
- You will never receive a duplicate until all 27 are found, so every dig that produces a slate is always progress.
- Mysterious Slates cannot be 3D printed. The only way to obtain them is through golden spot digging or post-completion drops.
- The fastest farming method is Dowsing Machine plus a Search Specialty Pokémon (Pidgey, Paras, Zubat, Drilbur, Sableye, and others). Search at night for better visibility.
- Feed Mosslax sweet foods (like Pecha Berries) to boost artifact drop chances. Bitter foods can improve general rare item rates more broadly.
- Store all slates in one Storage Box to avoid losing track of them.
- The mural is inside a hidden chamber in the Withered Wastelands, accessed by breaking two cracked walls north of the Pokémon Center near the Horsea Fountain.
- Use ZL plus D-pad to rotate slates and match Unown symbols to the correct mural slots. Hold X in inventory to auto-sort all slates.
- Correct placement triggers green sparkles and a shining sound. No combat is required at any point.
- Completing the mural opens a pink portal that leads to befriending Mew. House Mew to trigger a major Environment Level boost, potentially jumping from 60 percent straight to Level 10.
Quick Reference
| Detail | Information |
| Total Slates to Find | 27 |
| Where They Drop | Glowing golden spots across all biomes |
| Break Method | Rock Smash |
| Best Search Tool | Dowsing Machine + Search Specialty Pokémon |
| Best Time to Search | Night (spots glow more visibly) |
| Golden Spots Refresh | Daily |
| Mural Location | Hidden chamber in Withered Wastelands |
| How to Access Mural | Break cracked wall north of Pokémon Center, then second wall to the left |
| Placement Confirmation | Green sparkles and shining sound |
| Auto-Sort Shortcut | Hold X button in inventory |
| Puzzle Reward | Mew (Mythical Pokémon) |
| Post-Puzzle Drops | Duplicate slates for decoration |
| No Combat Required | Entire process is exploration-based |
| Environment Level Boost | Significant boost when Mew is housed |
| Can Slates Be 3D Printed? | No |
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